Grace in the mini-skirt outfit my mom bought her for Christmas.
Grace and I play peek-a-boo
Grace got a Princess top from the Bush's for Valentines Day.
And Tyler got COOKIES!

Snowday #1 Was due to the windchill being so far below zero.

Making Valentines!

I made him a "robot helmet" out of his valentine bag.
Snow Day #2 was actually because we were supposed to get a lot of snow. We did!

We tried to sled but the snow was too deep and soft.

Tyler bundled up and ready to play!
Tyler and Mommy (Go Purdue! They won that day!)

Tyler shoveling snow with his sand toys

Grace in a snowsuit with no mittens or boots. :(
Tyler and Grace
Helping daddy clear off the car
Grace and Daddy
We sat her in the stroller in the garage since she couldn't actually be in the snow.

Making a snowman in the freezing rain after we did some quick sledding.
Grape eyes and a carrot nose...

2-13 Gary had snowday #3 and Heather babysat... with help! Yay! We had the snowday I suppose because we got more snow on top of the rain that froze on top of the first 6 inches we got the day before....

Tyler and Matthew making Valenintes

Wishing all our friends and family a very

Happy Valentines Day!

jen's having her baby soon! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so weird. I hear about other people getting pregnant or having babies or being close to having babies and I jump around all excited and giddy like a kid. It's rediculous actually. I'm so freaking excited about this kid being born you'd think it was my own kid coming. I'm also super excited b/c there is a small chance that I might get to FINALLY meet Zia this month! She was born in November! I've not seen Hannah since October and it's a wonder i've survived. I hate when I don't get to see or talk to a friend in a long time. Makes me crazy. Er... more crazy. I"m so so so excited for Jen! Did I mention that? She's being induced- for good reason- but I know it's not her first choice. I'm praying praying praying she has an experience very very similar to mine. She's delivering where I had Grace so I'm also praying she has nurse Joy who I had and LOVED. A part of me can't help but wonder if she would annoy Jen though. Jens' much more independant and grown up than I am. I need people surrounding me codoling me until my body takes over= then I'm like "get the hell into position and shut up". :) Ahhh... brings back memories. Grace is almost 9 months old. 9 months!!! Ill soon be unable to guage Grace's age by Jenn's pregnancy... .i wonder if she'll be able to write weekly blogs still and I can just say Grace is X weeks plus 9 months. haha! So Gary left this afternoon for Columbus. He's so excited. YOu know you've married a dork when he's excited to go to a technology conference. His self-perscribed ADD will kick in around 10:30 tomorrow though and he'll be sleeping with his eyes open... or emailing me whne he should be taking notes. I think at least this year there are no blizzards in teh forecast so it should not take him 6 hours to get home like last year. I hate when he's gone, I hate being alone at night and i hate feeling like such a baby for being so miserable. At least i won't have to watch the Super Bowl tonight! Speaking of Gary and sports (makes him less of a dork)... he's on an indoor soccer team for over 30 year olds- men and women. he has his games Sat. night and since he was going to be gone and the game was at 8pm, relativly early compared to 10pm we decided to all go. Turns out Gary scored a goal!!! His team won 4-0. I, of course, was busy with the kids (you dont think Tyler sits in the bleachers and actually watches quietly do you?) and Melissa was there so I got to listen to stories about someone else's kids for a change (she nanny's- don't worry, they aren't hers.). It turned out to be a fun night...other than the fact that I completley missed the goal.

The time has come my best friend said to talk of many things i choose smokers, lights, babies and kings. Ok, not kings but it rymed. It was mentioned to me that i need to blog more for some quality reading... yea right. You know how when you get to that point where so much is happening that your mind feels about to explode? Is that just a January thing? I swear it's always like this... then come March we are all whining about how cold and bored we are. Here's the tip of the iceburg... So the past few weeks have been the best and the worst for my dear friend Lori. She removed from her life, shall we say, dead weight. I couldn't be more thrilled. Adios and don't come back. Of course when removing a fixture of our lives there is always a process. Some would say this process isn't all that important when said fixture was a complete waste of humanity to begin with... however I think that the process is important and should be tailored to the situation and the individual. I'm doing what I can to help, which as usual is pretty much nothing but it's made life a little more fun for me! Haha! Last weekend she came up to stay with us which meant we took her out to dinner- it was nice to have someone new around, changes the conversation a little you know? Of course Lori's afraid of nothing so she brought up the dredded preschool issue... i must report we are not closer to any decision on the matter but it was nice to get her insight. Gary and the kids left and we forged on to the Mall. That's right folks! No kids! No diaper bag, no cheerios, no strollers, no "if you don't walk right I'm going to spank your butt". I remember on the way to eat (i rode with her) thinking how nice it was to talk to someone who's voice isn't so high pitched only cats can hear it and how weird it was to just listen and nod and not have to repeat each sentance back to assure I was listening. :) You mothers won't be surprised to learn I kind of missed it. What is it about kids? We ache for a moments peace and quiet and we get it and all we can think about is the kids! Will I grow out of that? So we went to Anne Taylor which I love. I tried on jeans and was thrilled to be down a size however they didn't have my size in petites so i passed. Lori got some really cute jeans and a beautiful dress. They have the nicest clothes and when stuff is on sale it's such a great deal! It was fun to just walk around and look- i made some special purchases in the Disney store- they had stuff an extra 50% off so I had to get these adorable bowls for the kids- tigger for Tyler and princess for Grace. Then I just picked some up for Jenn's kids. Jason can get over it. Besides, I see him like thrice a year. Is it realy worth his time to beat me up over a couple plates? I think not! See, he hates when existing kids get gifts at any time a new or expected baby gets gifts. I see his point but EXTRA 50% off! I even left the tags on in case they wanted to take them back. They don't. Her kids love them just as I knew they would. I also got Grace a Christmas dress iwth Mickey and Minnie on it for next year. It was 5$. She doesn't evne have to wear it for Christmas though it is red and black plaid. It said 1-2 years and it's sleeveless so as is if it fits in the summer, with a top if it fits in the winter. Couldn't pass it up. Saturday brought Lori observing a typical Saturday at our house. Awake for 6 hours, got nothing done before we left for the baby shower. It was great of Lori to come along and I knew Jen would be understanding. Again with the no kids! There were 10 of us there, most of us with no kids! It was like a glitch in the matrix... Jen, of course, got some great great stuff. I was especially impressed with the gallons of Garlic-Garlic her friend Amy got her. I think next time i'm over there i'll request we do veggies and dip. We headed out to my mom's that night which was fun. No matter how little I pack we manage to fill up the car. Thankfully Tyler was pretty quiet the whole trip so Gary and I got to converse like normal people a bit. Sunday we went to see my brother's new apartment. HIS. CLOSET. IS. HUGE. I think it's actually larger than his kitchen. I could stand in the middle stretching out my hands and not touch any walls. In fact Gary probably couldn't and his wing span is a good 2 feet more than mine. Joshua's TV is about a quarter the size of a real live theatre screen so i thought it'd be funny to watch Little People Big World on it. It was. I really do love that show but we didn't have to watch so much of it. Joshua was trying to be all polite and let us pick, mom slept on the couch, and Gary acts like he's not a remote hog when we are out in public. When we came home it was overdue baths time which was fun. I've given up on the baby tub so Grace sits on a washcloth in the water to keep from sliding and it's SO much easier to wash her... i wish I'd have tried it before Christmas rather than waiting till after. She's been doing it a month now and that little girl is just like me. She's a water baby. I love baths and swimming and the ocean... Grace just LOVES baths. She splashes and makes all these crazy noises. She makes noises in her mouth with her lips, tonge and in her throat that I can't even figure out how to copy and she's even louder in the bathroom. It's adorable. Plus you can see all her baby fat which I love. She's so short. I realized today when I was dressing her that she's in 12 month onsies and the 9 month pants are a bit long. I think she might just have short legs so far but she may be doomed to a life like mine- never having pants you don't walk on... This week was pretty typical- keep the kids alive all day and night and start over in the morning. I"m re-reading the second half of th Harry Potter series b/c I read the last book so fast last year I forget most of it and i'm reading the books leading up to refresh my memory. It's funny what you'll make time for when you want to. haha! Tuesday we went to visit Mary which turned out to be a blast. i wasn't sure she really wanted us over but we stayed till almost 9! Then we came home and fought about the stupid DVR which stopped recording biggest loser as soon as Gary touched the remote. I wanted to just listen to what was on but he wanted to scream and swear at it. I'm like SHUT UP I"M WATCHING TIHS! Thta's really my only show I care about. So we watched the second half first and the first half second. Yesterday i babysat. Tyler woke up with a froggy throat and some congestion in his chest which only flared up when he ran which is like all day when Matthew is here. I let them go pretty much because the more he runs in the house with Matthew, the less he runs in the house with me. I get dizzy running that circle! Samantha is either sick or teething or both but she was miserable. Grace just sat on the floor all day and played with herself b/c I was tending to Samantha quite a bit and trying to keep the boys entertained/away from the babies. My dad was over in the evening and we attempted to hit the new Quaker Steak and Lube... however it was 6:30 by the time we got there and all of Stark County was there. We'll try again when it's been open a little longer... I told dad we need to come early on a Tuesday- all you can eat wings- we make money back on that with Gary... Today was a pretty typical day. I'm so emotional that this roller coaster lori's on has been affecting me too. Today I was just ill for her because i just hate to see someone go through pain you know? I just hate it. I also know that the tone of emails can be decieving and i was desperate to know how she REALLY was. Thankfully tonight was our get together night so I got to go out AGAIN with no kids! whoo hooo!! Kudo's to Gary for watching them all these times so I can do these things. We met over in Salem and got to do a bit of chatting, eating and shopping. All great things in life. I figure in a few months she'll have a man and we can take the men with us to be the DD's and we can really have good time!! Long Island Iced Tea for her, Margaritaville for me! I always think it would be fun to go out to dinner and have a drink and then go dancing... you know I missed that whole scene in life but bars and clubs seem so trashy to me for the most part... Lori, should we do it before we turn 30?!?! Anyways on the way home I had to stop to pee, of course, so i hit wally-world which was fun b/c I was BY MYSELF but turned into a giant fiasco. I have a real love-hate relationship with walmart. I've discussed that here before... you know, the fun of being able to buy spinach, supper glue, clothes, makeup, light bulbs and paint in the same store is just facinating to me and so it's fun to jsut go walk around... plus about 90% of gary and I's dates in our 10 years of love have included walking around walmart or k.mart in the early days. I picked up a few items and headed to check out. My theory on the 10 items or less by the cigarette aisle being the fastest has completely been blown out of the water. We are talking Atomic Bomb here. I admit it, i have issues with smokers. It's nothing personal I just can't stand it. It's gross. It stinks and you make me wait around in the damn line. This guy is up there, gets off his little go-cart-mobile and limps over to where is son has the cart in line and proceeds to ask for a certain ciggy. Fine. Either the lady had never seen a cigarette before in her life or this guy had no idea what he wanted b/c it took FOREVER. he ended up with 2 cartons of Marlboro reds and about 10 individual packs of greens. Don't ask my why. What the hell do I know? He's got his vetran hat on all stooped over mumbling something to the lady and taking his sweet time... then they proceed to unload the cart of 12 tshirts that I counted (there were more) 2 gallons of milk, a pair of shoes and a few small things I coudln't quite make out --aforementioned son (# 5 of 6 kids mind you) was embarassed enough to attempt to hid the cart from the crabby lady behind me who said ever so quietly that it "F-ing sure doesn't look like no G-D 10 items" to her. I'm sure the guy with the adorable toddler girl (in her pink jammies on his shoulders aww!) in the lane next to us really appreaciate it. So 15 minutes later (no he did not know how to use his bank card and yes he checked the recipt and put it in his wallet folded neatly, in his inside coat pocket BEFORE he put the bags into his cart and shuffled away) it was my turn. Now I'm a sucker for great little gifts right? So valentines day is coming up so the world is full of random odds and ends colored pink, red and purple. I love those colors! SO I found a couple pink spatula's and thought that might be a cute gift to brighten the kitchen of some friends. Of course they were not marked with a price and I could nto find the price on teh shelf anywhere and the "FIND THE PRICE HERE" scannres wouldn't read it so I asked the cashier to tell me the price before I purchased. (Very audible sigh escapes lips of woman behind me.) She scans them- Freaking 4.97$! Who pays $5 for a freaking spatual at WALMART?!?!? I mean if this was Williams Sonoma I'd have bought them bu thtis was WALMART! I had watched the flat screen TV for that whole 15 minutes tell me about the millions of dollars walmart has saved Ohioans in 2008 (averages aobut 300$ a second best i could tell). You know how walmart saved me money? I did NOT buy those spatulas! Sorry. I said thank you but i don't want them and the cashier agreed with me that it was pretty expensive and she usually paid about a dollar for hers. I said "yea, i figured if they were a buck or two they'd be fun for me and my friends but not for 5. I can't pay that much- that's why I'm here." The lady behind me MIGHT have actually cracked a smile....err... grin. The guy with her (these ppl were in there 50's I'd guess) smiled kindly to me. I wonder if he was bright enough to be embarassed that the lady had ealier yelled/cussed in my ear about the ppl in front of me which I have no control over thank-you-very-much. Ok, that covers smokers, babies and the last week-in-the-life updates... lights... aahhh.. (Don't read this part grandma!!) So driving today I must have gone under at least 100 lights. At least 20 of them yellow and one red by the time i was under it. Sometimes idiots tail you so badly you just can't stop you know? Plus the momentary panic goes away when you see 2 idiots followed you making you less of an idiot. Anyways Gary told me ages ago that if you go under a yellow light and hit the ceiling as you go under you get 5 years great sex. 10 years for a red. I don't hit the ceiling but I'd say we're set for life. God bless the lights every 50 yards in Alliance (I'm mentally passing on the blessing to a friend- you know who you are). I will say though if you hit one red you hit at least 6 as was my fate earlier tonight.... PS edited to add that Gary is incredibly cool.

Tyler playing playdough
Tyler and Marta painting (Marta is a friend who came to visit last week)
A picture of Gary and I Jackie sent from 2003 maybe? WHY does my hair look dyed I wonder?
Beautiful Armandina

Handsome Tyler

The kids with my dad- Papa Tim
Eating puffs and cheerios now! She's growing up! ~*SOB*~ :o(
We're doing well. For those we've not heard from in awhile, we miss you!

Long overdue ... I"m back to the world of blogging. I was incredibly upset over everything that happened with Tyler going to see the surgeon and then busy over Christmas that I just got away from it- got more into keeping current with emailing... Tyler is well. The surgeon did recommend surgery by the time Tyler is 6, prefferably now or we can try casts but he's not confident it will work. Gary's mom also works for an orthopedic surgeon so she talked to him and said that in Tyler's case he belives surgery should be a last option. He also said (and belive me- Gary's mother in law found research to back it up) that often kids who have the surgery still walk on thier toes. Since Tyler does not have pain and physically CAN walk flat footed when he wants to, we are working with him to stand and walk on his flat feet and also on some stretching. We hope to take Tyler in the next couple months to see this doctor, continue to work with him including stretching and look into physical therapy. I'd like to then take him back in about a year and see if he thinks there is any reason to pursue the surgery. If there is, the man we saw in Akron is the best in the area and we'll do it. I just hate for surgery to be a first option when we've been told for 3 years not to worry about it. Something just can't go from "no big deal" to "let's put your kid under and cut the back of his leg open". Grace is officially "mobile". She's scooting all over the place on her bottom and also rolls around to get where she wants. We call the scooting "stealth" because neither of us have actually seen her do it She just tends to end up several feet away from where we left her in seconds to minutes. She tried to grab Tyler's pizza off his breakfast tray (we had pizza and Little Einstiens picnic) today. She's very interested in what we are eating too. Everyone always said she'd be the quiet one because Tyler will talk for her but she's showing us that this is highly unlikely. They both talk pretty nonstop. Since Grace suddenly is fine with being on her tummy she's gotten closer to crawling in the past two weeks. I really thought she'd never do it but suddenly she's not very interested in sitting and playing. She's getting down on her tummy from sitting, reaching stuff, rolling to stuff or scooting. She still occasionally gets so excited she falls backwards but not too often. I'm just amazed and how quickly things can change. She can stand holding only one hand and loves to bounce when she's like that... once she figures out how to pick up her feet we are in some serious trouble! She'll be our kid who's into everything and since she's observing all her brother's attempts to avoid athority I expect her to also have a bit of an attitude... on top of just being a woman! I"m babysitting one day a week now. The boy i watched last year and his sister. matthew is 3and Samantha is 10 months. She army crawls which I'm sure is where Grace has gotten the idea to chase after Tyler's cars and trains and try to get into our desk. They are both good kids and so far I've gotten all of them to nap at the same time for at least an hour and a half. This gives me time to get dishes done and colapse on the couch for a few minutes. So far no attempt on cleaning or anything else has been made on those days. Playing with them is really fun but so far I keep them pretty seperated since the boys don't like having to be careful and the girls want to eat all the boys toys! Tyler is still doing really well with the underpants. I keep him in diapers when he sleeps because he's just not showing any signs of being ready to be dry through the night. He's dry about half the time for naps. I swear the kid pees as many times a day as me but sleeps as hard as his dad so I expect bed-wetting to be an issue so i'm not giong to worry about it until he's older. Now that he's been in underpants for several months i finally, today, put him in the preschool class at church. he was th eonly one in there. Oh well. I actually felt bad afterwards b/c his teacher could have enjoyed the service with her boyfriend had Tyler not been in there, but it was time and Tyler did well. He did a craft, had a snac, played, did a bible story and even learned a verse. He was very excited that he got to take some snack up to the older kids and share. :) I was very relieved to be able to put him there and feel like he got something out of it. he's going to learn to follow directions from another adult, and hopefully learn more about Jesus and the Bible not to mention how to sit still at a table. I hope to also find out from this if he's going to benefit from going to "real" preschool or if he'll be fine with me homeschooling him. Gary's district (where Tyler will likely go) now has all day every day Kindergarten which I don't preferr- I like having a choice of a few days a week or every day... ugh. I have some pretty strong opionons about education and what i feel is best for my son so we'll see what the Lord brings. I have thought about homeschooing as much as through third grade but I really do want Tyler in school starting in First grade...now maybe Kindergarten... that's a ways off though. :) Either way I'm glad for him to be learning something in church other than bad habits of other kids :) LOL! Gary and I FINALLY got our will done. The main thing we wanted was to be sure the kids were taken care of and to adress a power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney. I"m so relieved to have it done and official. We've been going to do it since before Tyler was born... talk about procrastination! I'm ashamed to say we had nothing before this. It was easy, took only a few emails and an hour of signing (and visiting since we know the attorney we used) and a relativly small fee for the peace of mind. I"m relieved too that one of my bestest friends is single, happy and SAFE. Hours and hours and days and years of prayer have been answered- in God's perfect timing! Gary's still doing indoor soccer and we got to go to his game last night. I like the 6:00 games much better than the 10:00 games. Keep in mind this is PM! I like to be able to take the kids especially when, like last night, Tyler is well behaved and cheers. Between yelling for "daddy" "Spencer's Daddy" and "Pastor Dan" he provided a good bit of entertainment! Also Sue (Dan's wife) was there and she loves to hold Grace (I mean who doesn't?) so it was easy to feed her and watch Tyler at the same time. You'd think more was going on, and it is, but I think I've bored you to your limit so I will resume dancing and singing praise songs with Tyler! Have a blessed week! 06 Jan 2008 Grace update Grace is growing like a little weed. She's into and almost out of 6-9 month clothes already. I find I change her sizes a bit late b/c I'm so shocked when things still "fit" i don't realize that they fit BETTER in the next size up! In December she really found her voice even more than before. She mostly made just noises but she also finally got hugging, kissing, raspberries and discovered her tounge. She also discovered her fingers more and more. She plays a lot and sits up without help very very well. She only falls occasionally now and always when either rocking too hard back to front or when reaching for a toy. She just kind of leans forward until she's on her belly and then kicks her legs out and rolls over. She learned last week how to nod her head up and down which is hysterical b/c it makes it look like she's saying "yes" to everything- especially with her cute little closed-mouth grin she's started. Today was the big day though- she said her first word. After months of prodding she finally said Da-da and it's just amazing! She said it at the mall tonight (you know she's my child!!) How funny though that I"m sad b/c it's our last first word in our house. :( I'll get over it- don't worry. DOnt' worry, Tyler is doing well too- growing and learning and changing and challenging me every step of the way. 20 Dec 2007 Thursday oiy. Today Tyler has an appointment at Akron Children's to see an orthopedic doctor/surgeon. His toe walking, though adorable, could be a problem and we're getting it checked out. Results of this visit could range from "he's fine" to needed therapy, braces, casts or surgery. Please just pray for him and us. I'm very nervous (surprise surprise!) but don't want to make him nervous. I may never finish my last blog so in a nutshell we've all had the flu this week and it's horrible. Tyler's had the worst diapers known to man- in fact he had to be bathed in the middle of the night last night b/c it had gotten all down his legs and dried in the night. Why do they not wake us up to tell us? I mean he's THREE! You'd think that would bother him. ugh. Grace has thankfully stopped vomiting/ spitting up but still is waking in a 2 month old routine and eating little, Gary claims to be back to normal but I predict he'll have it again Christmas morning b/c he's running himself ragged. I can't seem to beat it b/c I'm running myself ragged too-not to mention my weak stomach and taking care of two kids secreting various bodily fluids at all hours of the day. Thank the LORD we have a working washer and dryer! We hope to leave tomorrow after Gary's work to go visit with my family through Christmas eve night, return for church and have Christmas morning us, and then afternoon and 26th with Gary's family. Pray for us as we travel and if I don't get back on here- Merry Christmas! We love you and are praying for you all. God Bless and thanks for your prayers!! UPDATE: Tyler needs casts, 2 sets 3 weeks each, and/or surgery.

I"m an idiot Current mood: pissed off So Friday we went to PA and had a wonderful visit with Lori. We went ahead and walked around the mall b/c that's fun and Tyler wasn't doing so hot all cooped up in the office areas. So we hit a few stores and I asked if we could hit Penny's b/c my mom had just told me they had infant Christmas dresses on sale for $14.99. So we went and it was the first store to have more than one choice for 6-9 month clothes that I've been to. We found the perfect dress, and decided to look for Tyler an outfit. We were choosing between two and picked a suit- pants, long sleeved button down shirt, vest and tie. All for $14.99. His has at least 5 times the fabric but at those prices I don't care- clothes are priced the way they are and who am I to question it? So we checked the size chart and figured 4T best for Tyler. He's a 5T hight and at the bottom of 4T weight. He's doomed to his father's world- pants too short and to big in the waist. So we left them in the bags all weekend- busy with other things I guess. Tonight I took them out to prewash Grace's and to iron and hang Tyler's. I pulled them out, hung them on Grace's dresser knobs and turned to vacuum her room when I decided to look at them again. They were so cute all hanging next to each other... i got all nostalgic and then it hit me. Something's not right. TYLERS OUTFIT HAS NO PANTS. That's right folks. We bought the outfit and neglected to make sure it had pants. I swear it did at one point but now I remmeber I had been holding the 3T for a while when comparing and when I switched to the 4T- I don't recall looking at it that closely. Gary inspected them but he said (when questioned by me tonight) that since we were hurrying and trying to visit he doesn't recall if he actually checked or not. I made him check the car- nothing. So, somewhere in Penny's at the Beaver Valley Mall lies a lonely pair of navy, pinstripe blue size 4T pants. Grrrr.... What do I do?!?! It's not like I can just walk into Penny's and explain this and they are just going to give me a pair of pants right?!? I'm devistated. Stupidest thing in the world to be upset over but I'm devistated! I said to Gary "What are we going to do?" and he goes "I don't know, I guess we didn't get as good of a deal as we thought." Thank you captain obvious.

For all you people who don't have time to read but like the pictures here you are! December so far-

Introducing Carrots!
Future Photographer?

Holding and grabbing toys more and more!
Playing in bed! She pulls the pooh and piglet behind her down on her head sometimes.
Flexible like mommy!
"Singing in the rain"
Our Christmas present from the Bush's. It's a little early! From this...

...to this!
Playing with puzzles. She likes this one b/c she can grab (and eat) the pieces.
Grace's first snow.
A few days later we got lots more and I took Tyler out. We had no snowpants and the zipper of his coat is broken so we had many many layers on!
"I can't put my arms down!"

I pulled him around the yard in a cardboard box- what a workout! (not pictured)
Papa came the next day with a sled and snowpants and we went down the hill several times!

Head first and backwards!


On his tummy too!

We went to visit Lori at the Beaver Valley Mall. Tyler was obsessed with the train! Thanks for the ride Lori!
She got the kids gifts including this bowling set
Lori and I
Grace with the princess in Lori's office.


Merry Christmas!!

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!*