07 Dec 2007 more snow! My dad came over last night and brought two things we badly needed! A real sled and snowpants for Tyler! We bundled him all up again (much easier with snowpants!!!) and he and my dad went out. I had planned on doing my hair and makeup to get ready to go out to dinner, change Grace and just relax while they were out but the second they went out the door I just felt like I had to go out and at least take pictures. I doned my coat, boots and gloves and grabbed the camera. You should have seen Tyler on this sled. My dad got one of those round disk things and put string on it so we could pull him around. My dad pulled him to the hills out behind our house and I missed the first one or two downhill trips but by the time I got out there Tyler was going down by himself, and carrying the sled back up the hill himself! It was hysterical. He was panting and saying "this is fun!" going down and "this is hard!" going back up. There were other neighborhood kids out with thier mom (the kids who scream profanity day and night and were yelling something at me and Tyler yesterday out thier front door) and Tyler copied everything they did. He went down on his back, on his butt, on his tummy and head first! It was so much fun! I went a few times with him and of course I fell and got my jeans all soaked. It was worth getting to dinner late! This morning I thingk we have 3 more inches and it's been snowing constantly since 7 when I first looked out the window. I knew we'd have a lot when I heard the plow at 6 am! Usually they don't get around to us till closer to 9. By then everyone in the neighborhood is long gone! Except me! I'm off to finish presents for tonight and get them all wrapped! We're going to PA to see Lori! It should be 3 hours round trip but if this snow keeps up it'll be a long night!!!

05 Dec 2007 T I R E D Whew! SNow is hard work! We all know I"m not an outdoorsy person. My mom probably had to pick me up and take me outside as a kid. I was the kid who considered a good day of playing outside to be sitting on the porch or by a tree on a blanket reading a book... or three. I don't like bikes or games or running or balls. I do like to swim outside and eat outside but that's it. Seriously. So this morning when I woke up to see the 5 inches of snow outside I decided it was my obligation to my son to allow him to experience playing out in the snow. I put on him socks, boots, 3 pairs of pants, a jumper, 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, insulated vest, winter coat, two hats, scarf and mittens. He seriously looked like Randy on A Christmas Story. It was hysterical. Tyler is a tip-toe walker so getting his feet flat into those boots was a CHORE! I bundled myself up too and out we went. It was not good packing snow, I tried. With the option of snowmen out I was kind of at a loss of what to do. YOu can only kick a ball around so long before it kind of shrivles up. (this was new to me!) We ran around some, he rolled around a lot and then we took some toys to the garage. I've been asking Gary to clear out the backyard for months and of course it has not been done so now i'm going to have to do it. I took the sandbox and toys, the basket of toys, the wheelbarrows and toy mower and the grill. I also took the stupid umbrella from the patio table b/c it blows in the wind making noise and irritates me. So Gary won. Bah humbug. Anyways, while in the garage I was looking for a garbage can lid so I could pull Tyler around and we only have one which is what Gary stores chemicles on. So I found a Gala Apple box, probably from Aldi and figured that would do. Eventually it'll jsut fall apart right? Then we can use that as our excuse to go in. So bungee cord and box became super sled and Tyler LVOED it! He has no idea what a sled is anyways so he didn't care. I ran through the snow pulling that kid for a half hour and i hurt head to toe. I"m also starving. He loved it! He kept falling out on purpose and he had to roll onto his tummy to even get up. It was great. I got some video but as I was running while taking it i dout it's very good. I"ll try to post pix in the near future though. So I did it. I won over my fear of the great outdoors. Everything's drip drying in the garage and now it's time to get Grace up from her nap, feed them both lunch (and me maybe?) and then put Tyler down for his nap and do the dishes, play with Grace, do some laundry, clean up the downstairs and plan dinner.... yea... that's not all going to happen! Sorry Gary! I"ll win this round!

04 Dec 2007 more run-around

03 Dec 2007 Jack and Paul Oliver WHOEVER YOU ARE PAY YOUR DEBTS SO THAT YOUR CREDITORS STOP CALLING MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. I'm slightly peeved. I hate these recordings. You push any of the choice buttons and all you get is the same message and you can't talk to a real person. The old recording didn't even give a freaking phone number. This newer one i'm not even listening too. Seriously! Let me talk to a real person. I don't care if they are in another country and can barely speak English just let me make these people STOP CALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's my own fault for thinking it's a family member or my husband and running from the dishes or the laundry in the basement or the giving of a bottle to answer the phone... geesh... In other news Grace has slept all night two nights in a row now! She's eaten/gone to bed around 9 pm and gotten up between 7 and 8. I think the trick is the shorter naps which makes me so sad. She sleeps about the same as Tyler does. I swear at this age he slept like 18 hours a day. Makes me wonder why i could never get anything done in those days...Ok, it was more like 15. 10-12 at night and two 2-hour naps. She'll be my kid who gives up naps completely at age 18 months and I'll be locking her in her room for "quiet" time. *sigh* Or maybe she just recently went through a growth spurt (common at 6 months right!?!?!?!?!?!?!?) and that's why she was taking 3-6 short naps and needing to eat every 5 hours..... ;) I'm counting today as Grace's first snow b/c it's been on the ground that I've seen it more than 6 hours. I don't count snow as snow if it melts by 8:30 am and that last snow Canton got we didn't get hardly a dusting! Plus I can't go back to November and take a picture for the scrapbook. Tyler's good. Happy as can be. DRIVING ME CRAZY. I swear he was SO bad this weekend I was in tears several times. I mean when you get to the point where you wonder how many spankings a day is too many it might be time to re-evaluate what's going on here! My problem is that I take everything personally which is just stupid. He pooped in his underpants durring nap 3 times in the past 5 days so as you can imagine that puts me in a bit of a "mood". Yesterday I got the bright idea of sticking him in the corner b/c the little swats were just making him scream hysterically for 10 minutes and then resume running, throwing, hitting and plain ticking us off. He HATED having to stand in the corner. Today he's been pretty good... so far. By Sunday Gary and I are both exhausted and I think the craziness of running around Saturday and the short/late nap just set him off. We're not all that patient by Sunday afternoon. I also need to reintroduce vegtables to his diet. The Ped. asked me at his checkup if he's a picky eater or if he eats a balanced diet for me. I said he ate a balanced diet but of course he'll eat more of some things than others. (He'll eat more fries than green beans but then so will I.) She said that was fine and apparently genius Tyler decided that being picky sounded like a great idea so he's not eaten well since. Is there some kind of chemical reaction when they change ages? When he turned 2 it was all crazy like this too!! Is it the never-ending birthday celebrations with every member of the family on top of Thanksgivng travels and the anticipation of Christmas that's just too much for little ones? YES!! I thought teaching them was bad but this whole parenting of preschoolers thing is just way over my head sometimes!!!! We also had our first service in the new building for Grace Community Church so I think the excitemet of that had him in a tizzy. Pray for us tomorrow... we're headed to a free clinic by the health department for Grace's immunization shots. Pray she doesn't contract some crazy disease or something.

29 Nov 2007 The Golden Compass Spread the word about this movie ... The Golden Compass It is coming out on December 7th It is marketed for children and in the end they kill God and everyone can do as they please. It stars Nicole Kidman, which will help to make it seem mainline and OK. However, it is written by Phillip Pullman, a proud atheist who hates Chritianity and wants to 'kill God' in the minds of children. The movie is a 'dumbed-down' version of the first book in a trilogy which themes get progressively darker and darker. Please pass this on so that unsuspecting parents won't be lured into it. We all know that Satan's best works are ones that seem nice and harmless on the top. This seems to fall into that category. Most of all, read for yourself what Snopes has to say about it. http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp If you are as alarmed by what you read on snopes as I was, please forward this email. Be sure to read the SNOPES article!!

28 Nov 2007 oh the joy of forwards A young lady came home from a date looking rather sad. She told her mother, "Arthur proposed to me an hour ago." "Then why are you so sad?" her mother asked. "Because he also told me he was an atheist. Mom, he doesn't even believe there's a hell." Her mother replied, "Marry him anyway. Between the two of us, we'll show him how wrong he is." ********************************************************* MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Amen to This! *Twas the month before Christmas* *When all through our land,* *Not a Christian was praying* *Nor taking a stand.* *See the PC Police had taken away,* *The reason for Christmas - no one could say.* *The children were told by their schools not to sing,* *About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.* *It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say* * December 25th is just a "Holiday ".* *Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit* *Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!* *CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod* *Something was changing, something quite odd! * *Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa* *In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.* *As Targets were hanging their trees upside down* * At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.* *At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears* *You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.* *Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-is-ty* *Are words that were used to intimidate me.* *Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen* *On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !* *At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter* *To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.* *And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith* ; * Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace* *The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded* *The reason for the season, stopped before it started.* *So as you celebrate "Winter Break" under your "Dream Tree"* *Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.* *Choose your words carefully, choose what you say* *Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, Not Happy Holiday!*