Thursday, December 31, 2009

Mom, you may want to be sitting down when you read this post

My mother might actually pass out from the excitement of this post and the accompanying pictures.

I wish I had taken "before" pictures of the closet but basically all you have to do is picture three racks of clothing (one on each wall....one long, and two short) all crammed with so many clothes that you couldn't put anything else on the racks. Then picture stuff from the floor all the way up to the bottom of the clothes and from the shelf over the clothes all the way up to the ceiling. Picture boxes falling everywhere. Purses crammed under foot stools (yes, for some reason we had a foot stool in the closet) and boxes and unused wooden shelving sticking out in such a way you could barely close the door to get to the clothing bar behind the closet door. In short, picture a really full, really messy and there you have it.


We're not 100% done with the closet yet. Lincoln has two shelves he can use if he wants and there are two shelves that we'll probably moving the bedding to when we clean out the linen closet in the bathroom. Also, the empty top shelf above the drawers is where the Tivo and cable box go as they're fed through the wall to the TV on the other side. Finally, we actually have one empty drawer that I'm not sure what we'll use it for but I'm sure we'll find a use.

Okay Mom.....time to be proud of us!

The stuff from the closet. This is just the stuff from under and over the clothes racks.

Getting the supplies ready:

The old single rack across the closet:

The clothes from the closet:

Installing the new shelves. This process might have broken a lesser marriage. Note to self, don't start these projects late at night after a long day.

The new TWO-tier racks and four shelves. On the right there are four shelves. Two are currently empty (Lincoln's), along with my two, which contain my pajamas, sweatpants, and tank tops. Mom will recognize all those things as the items that lived on top of the dryer because we had no where else to put them. Under the shelves is the mini-fridge. We put that in when we moved into the house thinking we'd stock it with beer and wine for the Master Suite. Instead it ended up being a bottled water and formula fridge. We're finally starting to use it for it's original purpose.

Behind the closet door. There is a shoe rack on the back of the door and behind the door are these drawers containing belts, ties, and shawls, swimsuits and pool towels, and purses/backpacks. Underneath is another shoe rack. Yes, I have both lion slippers and rabbit slippers. I also have sock monkey slippers but those live under my desk in the office.

More behind the door stuff. The shoe rack hangs on the back of the closet door. Above the closet door is Lincoln's hat rack. Above the drawers you can see the additional empty shelves for the bed linens and the top shelf (and wires) for the Tivo/Cable box.

And that's it. Next up is the bathroom linen closet and under the sink cabinets.

Take a deep breath Mom. It's going to be okay. We promise to keep it this way until at least your next visit.

Leopold's first bath


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The perfect combination

In the process of cleaning out our bedroom closet I found my diaries ranging from 6th grade through about sophomore year of college. I was never a terribly faithful writer so at times I wrote in it every day and other times there would be weeks and months between entries. 99% of the time it was one boy or another that drove me to write in my diary. If you were to just read through the diaries - and not notice the big gaps in the timeline - you'd think I was a complete flake. Talk about fickle! One entry would be all about my "undying love" for one boy and then the next one would be about how much I hate that boy but love someone else. It was hilarious reading through the diaries last night.

It also amazed me, as I skimmed back over them today, that all the things I loved and hated about the boys that I dated are pretty much what make Lincoln who he is today. He has all the things that I liked from my various crushes and boyfriends and none of the things that I hated. Lincoln is truly the perfect combination and an absolute perfect fit for me. It's amazing how all those trials and tribulations - which at the time seemed like the world was ending - were really just getting me ready for meeting Lincoln.

As the Rascal Flatts song states: "God bless the broken road that led me straight to you."

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Lincoln and I may be bunking with the kids tonight

The good news: I got the closet emptied out.

The bad news: The bedroom is a mess.

Angel vs. Demon

In general, Hannah is very well-behaved.

In general, Jake can be quite the little troublemaker.

This usually means that if the two of them get into a fight 90% of the time it is because Jake has done something to Hannah. Is she always innocent? Certainly not. But she does get away with a lot more because overall she's a pretty good kid.

I think she's starting to take serious advantage of it though. "Mr. Claus" had the brilliant idea of giving Jake the new Mario game for the Wii this Christmas. If you're not familiar with the game it allows up to 4 players to play at the same time on the same screen. That means you have to work together to get through the level. You have to adjust your speed, protect your fellow players, and work together to accomplish certain goals. In other words, not an ideal game to have siblings play together. There is a lot more fighting in the house these days.

The conversation below is just a brief recap of what I've been listening to for the last half hour and how I came to the realization that Hannah has a little bit of the devil in her too.

Jake: Hannah popped my bubble and killed me! She did it on purpose!

Hannah: No I didn't. It was an accident.

(a little while later)

Jake: Hannah!

Hannah (innocently): What?

Jake: Mom! Hannah just threw me into a puffer fish and killed me again.

Hannah (even more innocently, if possible): I didn't mean to. It just happened.

Okay, I can see her accidentally popping his bubble - which sometimes is hard to control -but who accidentally throws someone into a puffer fish? She's definitely out to get him, the little troublemaker.

Payback is a bitch

Jake repeats himself.

Over and over and over again.

And if you don't acknowledge what he has said - or asked - he will continue to repeat himself until you cave in and acknowledge him. Oftentimes what he has said doesn't really need to be acknowledged since it doesn't require a reply but he still wants one. Hannah used to do the same thing.

This morning Jake kept saying the same thing over and over and over to Hannah and she was trying her best to ignore him.

Me: Hannah! Answer him already.

(Hannah answers him)

Me: Hannah, I would just like to state for the record that when he does that and it annoys you so much, that you used to do that to Mommy and Daddy all the time.

(Hannah just stares at me.)

Me: Sucks, doesn't it?

Vacation style

Shower and wash hair: check

Blow-dry and style hair: check

Carefully applied make-up: check

Put on clothes other than yoga pants and a big warm sweatshirt: negative.

Hey, you can't win them all, right? Last year during my 2 weeks of holiday break I think I put on "real clothes" twice. The only time this holiday break that I've hit all four of the check points above was for Nate's memorial service. Even on Christmas day I didn't hit them all. More often than not my hair ends up in a wet ponytail and I go without make-up because not only is it a hassle to put on, it's a hassle to get back off again at the end of the day.

My holiday break hasn't been quite as productive as last year when we re-arranged all the rooms of the house, bought and installed new furniture and TVs, and painted the bathroom but I'm finally starting to begin on my projects for this year's holiday break. My two big goals are to clean out and organize our bedroom closet and the linen closet and cabinets in our bathroom. They're all disasters and badly need to be organized. I started on our closet this morning and it's funny to be digging out stuff from when I was pregnant with Jake. Like I said, it's badly in need of an organizing.

Today is also the day that I have to take Leopold to the vet so we've got to venture out into the real world today. Wish me luck.

Monday, December 28, 2009

2009 comes to an end

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Sunday, December 27, 2009

From baby to boy

I am utterly in love with my son these days. I've loved him since his birth, obviously, but something about him these days is just so incredibly endearing. It's like a switch was flipped on his 5th birthday and he went from being a baby to a little boy. His mannerisms are different. His communication skills are different. His attitude is different. He's just different. And so freaking adorable.

I remember going through this with Hannah to a degree but when she turned 5 we had a 2 year old at home that was distracting us with his craziness. It may have been a more subtle change or it may just not have been noticed as much by two distracted parents.

Hannah has also grown up a lot lately. She's incredibly responsible and helpful around the house. She's sweet and kind and caring and is so good with Jake and Leopold. She is definitely turning into a little lady and it saddens me that before long she'll be a teenager that doesn't want to hang out with her Mom anymore.

My little babies are growing up.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Magic (Alert: This is NOT a child friendly post)

I still believe in Santa Claus.

That's the lesson that I learned this year at Christmas. I know he's not real. I know that every year I select the special "Santa" paper that only Santa gifts are wrapped in and that I use different penmanship to sign the name tags on those packages (Something my mother never did. Sorry Mom but that eventually became a dead giveaway.) I know that I stuff the kids' stockings and put the presents under the tree. I also know I'm the one that writes the letter back to Hannah when she leaves out a note for Santa with her cookies and carrots.

But there is still a bit of that holiday magic in me. I don't know which Christmas it was specifically that put me in such awe of the magic - I think it may have been the year I got my giant yellow bean bag - but I know that every Christmas it seemed like our tree "exploded" with gifts when Santa came. We'd go to bed with a few presents under the tree and wake up to have so many of them under there that they spilled out from under the tree and into the rest of the living room. Every year it is my goal to make the tree "explode" as much as possible for when the kids come down in the morning. It just seems so incredibly magical.

But here is why I've come to the conclusion that I still believe Santa is real.

I track Santa each Christmas Eve on http://www.noradsanta.org/. I say I do it for the kids but really I'm the one that gets it started and I'm the one that keeps checking it. They'll run back and forth to check his status but I'm all over that thing like it's going to reveal the secrets of the world to me. This year, at 11:45 p.m., I saw Santa arrive in Boston. And even though the presents were already under the tree, and the stockings were already over-flowing with gifts, I still looked outside waiting to see the silhouette of a sleigh being led by Rudolph. I still tilted my head to the side and listened for sleigh bells.

I still believe in Santa Claus.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas Eve books

Every year Auntie Rachie and Uncle Kevin give the kids book for Christmas. We usually let them open them on Christmas Eve so that the kids can read them in bed that night. Rachel really scored this year, particularly with Hannah. She immediately took one of them and snuck off to the kitchen table to read for awhile before we sent them up to bed.

Hannah really is a little me sometimes. I do the exact same thing.

Living the life


Check out Leopold's lovely little one-bedroom apartment in the middle of our breakfast nook/living room. He has quite taken over but we don't mind a bit. Hopefully he'll be potty trained soon and we can move him somewhere a little less in the way.

He has his bedroom which he loves. For a dog that is bred to be a lap dog and a snuggler he prefers to sleep in his cozy little bed. Unfortunately he crashes hard in the evening and then has a tendency to wake up around 1 a.m. and want to play. It's like having a newborn baby again. Last night we came down to check on him when he cried out and decided to try and fool him by turning the TV on in the kids' playroom so that he'd think we were down here and go back to sleep. It worked until about 4 a.m. when he woke up again but he wasn't up for long that time either.

In his main cage area he has his "kitchen" where the water and food bowls are and then his "bathroom" where the puppy pad is. We're working on the potty training but until then it's nice for him to have that place to go if we're not around to take him outside like when we were in Boston with the kids earlier today. You're supposed to move the puppy pad closer and closer to the door until they finally start going to the door to be let out to go potty.

Sometimes he has a "living room" in the main cage area where we put all of his toys but he tends to take all of his toys and move them into his bedroom leaving the living room empty. He's quite the little hoarder of toys. Maybe it comes from living with his siblings and having to share.

He has a pretty posh life if I do say so myself.

You'd think he was in the womb still

Check out this picture of Leopold sleeping. I imagine this is how he was packed in with his siblings.

Christmas Eve pajamas

The kids each got to open a present tonight from Mommy and Daddy that contained new pajamas and a new pair of slippers. Now they're all ready for Santa to come.

I thought this would always be on my list of "Things I'd Never Do"

I never thought I would have a dog that wears clothes but lo and behold, here is Leopold in his winter jacket. The poor little peanut is so cold when we take him outside anyway but due to the stress of moving (I'm assuming) he's losing a lot of hair right now so the poor thing is freezing whenever we take him outside. Grandma Gail decided to buy him not one, but TWO winter coats for Christmas including this lovely little hooded number. I have to admit, he's pretty darn cute in it.

What a smart kid

Last week Hannah had one of her hardest spelling lists so far this year and I'll be honest, I didn't help her with it once. Lincoln may or may not have gone over it with her earlier in the week but with all that was going on Wednesday with Nate, and then of course his death on Thursday, no one helped Hannah with her homework last week. She brought home her spelling test early this week and she had received a perfect score plus the three bonus words that they don't get to know in advance.

These were her words:

rubble
fennel
appendix
parallel
approximate
scatter
copper
dollar
brother
cellar
zipper
commercial
happening
better
tunnel

Bonus words:

effort
effective
pepperoni

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Prince Leopold of Snowlandia

Officially introducing Prince Leopold of Snowlandia....a.k.a. Leo.




Sunday, December 20, 2009

Fun in the snow

Maybe Jake would stop getting snow in his gloves if he stopped taking them off!







A good ol' Nor'easter

We've got about a foot and a half of snow outside of our house right now. This morning while it was still snowing I took a couple pictures outside our side door. I'm guessing right about now Lincoln was really wishing our garage was already built.

Grandma Dena Clean

Tuesday night after the memorial service we're having a reception back here at our house for family and friends. That means we need to get the house "company" clean since a lot of these people have never been to our house before. We also don't know how many people will come so we need to make sure we have lots of room for everyone.

The kids were helping us clean and I set them loose with the instructions to clean up to "Grandma Dena standards". That's a pretty tall order.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

We're going to have to teach the puppy to read

Today we were at the pet store getting some basics for the new puppy and talking about options for how we can gate off areas of the house that will be "safe" areas for the puppy. We can gate off some of the doors with baby gates but the wide opening, with the folding doors, between the grown-up living room and the kids' playroom is going to be a problem because the kids never manage to keep the door closed. The kids' playroom is going to be the worst situation if the puppy gets loose because of all the small toys in there.

Jake: I know Mommy! We can put a sign at the door to the kids' playroom that says "No puppies allowed!" and then the puppy won't go in there.

Me: But honey, the puppy can't read.

Jake (crestfallen): Oh...

It's going to be a long 12+ years

Me: Have fun at school. Be smart. Learn something.

Jake: I never learn anything at school.

Me: You don't learn anything?

Jake: Nothing fun.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Nate

Yesterday morning Lincoln's brother Nathan passed away. Nate was 41 years old and had been dealing with some health issues but this was still fairly unexpected. He was alone when he died and since it was an "unattended" death they are performing an autopsy. Hopefully we will know more in a few days.

Please keep Lincoln and his family in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Prince without a Name

So it looks like we're definitely going to be getting Prince, the cavalier king charles spaniel, that we've been thinking of adopting. He should be arriving on Monday afternoon on the 5:15 p.m. flight.

Ultimately we'll have to wait until we meet him until we can come up with a new name for him but this morning Jake had a little meltdown about our proposed name of Sebastian. He really, really, REALLY wants to name the new dog Rover and the rest of us really, really, REALLY don't. So we'll have to give it some thought - and meet him in person - before we name him but here are a few that are being tossed around: Sebastian, Seamus, Toby, Oscar, Gustav, Leopold, Magnus, Olaf, and Titus.

Thoughts?

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I've created a monster...a little me

A few weeks ago I let the kids each take a bath in my bathroom. What this means is they got the deeper tub, the TV, the heated towel bar, and the fire place in the bedroom to sit in front of when they get out. Since then I don't think either of them have taken a bath in the kids' bathroom. Jake, who you used to have to tie down to take a bath, now wants to take a bath every night.

Tonight was my last day at the office until January 4th. I got home late because I was finishing some stuff up at the office and when I walked in the door no one was around. They were all upstairs because Jake was taking a bath. His nightly ritual is now to take a bath, get out, put on his new robe that Grandma Dena gave him for his birthday, and sit in front of the fireplace. Starting next week it looks like he'll be able to do that with Sebastian curled up at his side. We haven't finalized everything yet but it looks like we're going to adopt him next week. He's been staying with a lovely family in Kansas and will have to fly here from Kansas City on Monday. I'm sure I'll have lots of video and photos to post when that happens.

And now I am officially on break for the next two and a half weeks. I can't wait. I have a bunch to do and I'm excited to get started.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Prince Sebastian

As I've stated before, Jake is after us to get a puppy. Originally we told him that when he was 10 years old - which would give us five years - we'd discuss it. Since then we've met a wonderful little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Rupert. Rupert is one of the dogs that my sister-in-law watches occasionally and he is an absolute doll.

We first met Rupert back in October and then again over Thanksgiving weekend. Diane, my sister-in-law with the same name as me, said that Cavaliers would be an excellent breed choice for us. They're small but not yippy, they're playful but not high maintenance, they're good with kids, they don't require multiple walks a day, and they're content to be by themselves but also love being with people.

I started doing a little research and found an eleven week old puppy named Prince. We could get him as early as this coming Monday. We're not crazy about the name Prince so we figured we'd name him Prince Something and slowly migrate him away from the name Prince. Tonight we did a hypothetical exercise with the kids about what we'd name a dog if we ever got one and the name we came up with was Sebastian. So, if we do get the dog, his name will be Prince Sebastian.

What do you think?

Monday, December 14, 2009

Something fishy

I am not a fan of our new school principal. To those of you that know me I have not made it a secret that I think she is doing a poor job and should be run out of town on a rail. Preferably covered in tar and feathers. Someday I'll get into the details of my issues with her but right now it's not worth the carpal tunnel that would be incurred by typing that much information. Let's just say that in my opinion she is evil and leave it at that.

My issue tonight is actually with the new Technology teacher. Here's the thing. She wasn't the new technology teacher until about 2 weeks ago. Before that she was the new part-time Dean of Students. She replaced the previous Dean of Students who was absolutely wonderful and should have been the new principal. No one told the parents that there was a new Dean of Students. It was never announced like the hiring of the new principal. I thought it was strange that she didn't show up to the first PTO meeting of the year which would have been a great time to introduce herself. It was like she was the Dean of Students that wasn't, if you know what I mean.

About two weeks ago the school district had to make some serious budget cuts. Apparently our part-time Dean of Students was also the part-time Technology teacher at the other elementary school. All of a sudden our current Tech teacher was out and the mysterious Dean of Students was in as a part-time Tech teacher at both schools and now there is no Dean of Students. I honestly don't care that she's no longer the Dean of Students because it wasn't like she was doing anything anyway as far as I can tell. The old Dean of Students used to be in charge of Character Education but that was gotten rid of this year in favor of expanding Tech to all grade levels so, really, what the hell was she doing?

But I digress....

This woman is supposed to be teaching our children and when she sent home her first communication to the parents this evening, in the form of a Technology Newsletter, there were seven typos in the first article alone. Three of them were in the first paragraph. Seriously??? This woman is in charge of teaching our children? I sent her a very snotty email questioning why we should entrust our children to her when I can't even figure out how she got her degree in the first place. I probably shouldn't have sent it - and even Lincoln was surprised I sent such a snotty email - but there is seriously something fishy going on over at the school lately. Why would you hire a Dean of Students that didn't do squat only to move her into a teaching position - thereby replacing a very qualified teacher - when she can barely write her own name? I'm surprised she didn't misspell that.

What the heck is going on over at that school and how do we fix it?

Sunday, December 13, 2009

A very lapsed Catholic

Me (singing): Hark the herald angels sing, something something to the new born king....

Lincoln: Glory to....

Me: I am so bad.

One of these things doesn't belong

Ever since we had kids we've had matching Christmas stockings for all of us. They're all snowmen....get it?....and Lincoln and I have green scarves while Hannah has red (close to pink) and Jake has blue. A happy family of snowmen.

Until this year. And yet I couldn't be happier for Hannah. She made a stocking in sewing class that she absolutely loves and couldn't wait to hang up. I'm so proud of her and it will be a fantastic keepsake for her to carry through life. However, the symmetry just isn't there anymore. Oh well.

A perfect husband-to-be

Jake is turning into a little Lincoln. Tonight while I was upstairs he kept bringing me little pieces of chocolate. What woman doesn't like a man that brings her chocolate? His wife is going to be one lucky woman.....that is, if she ever passes the gauntlet of horror she'll have to go through (i.e. her potential mother-in-law) in order to marry him.

I guess I have to share

My favorite Christmas treats are peanut clusters made by my father. I love the little things and the only time I have them is when he makes them at Christmas. When he and Mom were here last week he made them for me while I was at work. Unfortunately my son has apparently inherited my love for peanut clusters and now I have to share. Bummer.

Cheater!

Me: That's it! I'm taking that DS and hiding it somewhere. You're playing it too much and you're becoming anti-social.

Jake: Can I follow you?

Me: No, you cheater.

Jake: But I won't tell anyone where you hide it.

Out latest piece of artwork

This weekend I got to pick up the custom framing I had done at A.C. Moore with the kids' pictures that we took a few weeks ago. I think it looks gorgeous and it looks great in our living room.

Believe it or not we're still here

I would like to say that it has been quiet on the blog because I'm planning some sort of big surprise that I can't talk about but that's not true. It has been quiet because I've been so dang busy lately. Whenever I'm home and sit down at my desk I have so many other things to do that I can't justify sitting down to write on the blog. Add that to the fact that I haven't had much to say other than how busy I've been and you've got yourself a pretty boring and not very updated blog.
But all that is about to change. I have a bunch of things to catch up everyone up on and luckily I found my card reader for my camera so I can put up a bunch of pictures.

Jake's birthday party with his friends was last Sunday. He wanted to do it at the local soccer "bubble" and there were 8 kids there including Hannah and Jake. The kids got to play soccer for 45 minutes and then play in the "Fun Zone" for 45 minutes before having cake and ice cream and opening presents. On Tuesday night, his actual birthday, we had Lincoln's family over for dinner and of course my parents were also still in town. Jake scored some great loot. His godparents, Rachel and Kevin, got him a dinosaur DVD. This is no kids DVD either. It's a very realistic depiction of dinosaurs with some blood and guts and gore. Rachel was a little afraid it would be too much for Jake since he's afraid of everything but he LOVES it. He and Hannah have watched it over and over again which usually involves him squealing in delight and Hannah covering her eyes. My sister Debbie got him a great toy ship that she sent him from Seattle. He loves it and we enjoy stepping on all the little pieces that come with it. Oh wait... The first part of that sentence is true but definitely not the second part. Of course the important part is that he loves it....and understands that any pieces left on the floor in the "grown-up room" go into the trash at sunset. He's pretty good about getting them back into the kids' playroom.
While Mom and Dad were visiting we also had our first big snow of the year. We probably got around 4-6 inches. Hannah wanted to go out and play in the snow right away so of course we sent her out with the snow scraper and put her to work. I looked out the window to check on her and discovered her on top of her daddy's pick-up truck. Probably not her smartest idea but she got back down safely and we sent Grandpa out to help her.