Friday, August 29, 2008

Laboring over Skyler's closet...

Shhhh it's quiet here in the office this afternoon. I'm thinking a lot of people forgot to come back from lunch. It's the last weekend to get away before the kids go back to school around here. Me, I'm not one for trying to travel when everyone else is. I'll stick to my own neighborhood.

I'm planning on digging through Skyler's drawers and closet to weed out any and every article of clothing that 1. doesn't fit and b. would be an embarrassment. She has a habit of digging out the most ridiculous items that you thought were tucked away in a bucket at the top of her closet. This might have been okay for daycare but Kindergarten is the big leagues baby. You're probably wondering why I would let her wear something that I don't like anyway. Well, she's a girl, she's a beast in the morning when she doesn't want to get up and she's a complete freaking nightmare when she gets her heart set on some weird item of clothing. There are tears and the throwing around of bodies (hers) and throwing up of hands (mind) and no one leaves the house with the prospect of having a good day. SO, I'm going to try to eliminate all that and put together a week's worth of outfits that we can both agree on. This is tricky too. I've got to put together an outfit in my mind, and then pretend that I don't like that particular combination. At this point she starts to think that it must be absolutely wonderful if I don't like it. I also have to continue to dislike a combination until she's had it on for a few minutes. Apparently the ruse goes so far as planning it out and disecting it on my blog. Zack's not that difficult, I toss some shorts and a t-shirt in his direction and he's good to go. He's even outgrown his obnoxious sock weirdness.

I don't have much more than that set in concrete. I'd like to get the kids to the pool once more before it closes. I'd like to take a nap or two because I like them. Zack and I are getting haircuts. That's about it.

What are you doing this weekend?

Thursday, August 28, 2008

What would you have done...

I finally found a regular hair stylist that I like...LOVE. I called Monday to make appointments for me and the kids. I was informed by the manager that Rachael had left and she could recommend someone else that Rachael liked. Okay, not loving this but I set the kids up with appointments at the same time yesterday and me for Saturday.

We arrived and shortly Skyler was called back by Laura who I recognized and was comfortable with. They went off to wash her hair. Zack was called back by Dale. Zack and I explained to Dale that we wanted a two inch wide Mohawk that went down the back of his head. He seemed to understand this and judging from Dale's blond shoulder length ringlets {insert judgey eye roll here} I thought he might know his way around some hair. OH BOY was I mistaken. You could tell when he pulled out the clippers that he was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable with them. Perhaps if Zack had shoulder length ringlets it would have been a match made in heaven {insert another judgey eye roll here}. It took THREE people helping him and Zack finally saying he was DONE for me to call it quits. Deciding that if in the same amount of time it took Laura to wash, cut, and dry Skyler's mid-back length hair Dale hadn't completed the desired Mohawk that we've successfully had done at Supercuts many times before then we were out of there. Poor kid ended up with some weird conglomeration of a Mohawk and a high-n-tight. I was not happy but didn't want Zack to be uncomfortable so I chose not to have a confrontation right there.

We got home and the kids went inside while I called the salon from the car. I explained that I knew that everyone had to start somewhere but that I was not comfortable with their new people practicing on my children. I could and have done a better job in my kitchen. Furthermore, if I couldn't trust them to recommend and/or employ reputable stylists, I for damn sure wasn't getting my hair cut there on Saturday. AND had the situation been reversed and Dale had attempted to butcher Skyler's hair I would have murdered him. At least a boy's hair can just be shaved off and start over if need be. They were all apologies and assurances that my new stylist was excellent and they would fix Zack's hair right away.

I'm going to bring him with me on Saturday. I'm giving them one chance and then I'm on the hunt for a new stylist again.

SO - what do you know about new stylists? Shouldn't they know their way around a head of hair before they start attacking small children with sharp instruments? Would you have pitched a fit right there if your child was oblivious? I just didn't want Zack to think I thought his head was hideous. It doesn't look THAT bad - more like Mom tried to cut his hair in the kitchen and it didn't go really well. I can't let him start the school year that way. Would you go back and give the salon another chance?

Feeling chunky...

Okay, that's it. I bought a scale and stepped on it. Holy Shit! I knew things were bad, the fact that I have about 3 pairs of pants that fit me should have clued me in. I had no idea that things were THIS bad. I have hit my highest (non-pregnancy) weight. I have been at this number only one other time and I look back at those pictures and am horrified. THUS I should be horrified now. Before I say my number, which doesn't bother me to share, please know that I understand that everyone's bodies are different and we all have a threshold for what will get us in action. This is mine. Yours might be different and I understand that. We're talking about me here, me me me. SO - the magic number that gets my ass in gear is 164 lbs. I promise not to make my blog about dieting because I suck at it anyway. I'm going to get on the exercise bandwagon though and humor me if I mention my progress every once in awhile. In fact, feel free to call me on it in the comments. Apparently I need encouragement!

***** end of weight rant

I did something last weekend that really excited me. I went to a seminar on parenting children identified as gifted learners. I was so moved by the speaker Dr. Sylvia Rimm that I haven't really been able to put my thoughts into words. I still can't. I immediately went to the library and checked out one of her books so that I could further absorb her ideas. She's spent years advising the Today Show and travels the country speaking when she isn't practicing in her own clinic in Wisconsin. She really inspired me to get involved in the Gifted Program this year and to learn all I can to help my children learn to their capacity while not pushing them too far. I won't drone on and on about it, but thought I'd mention the seminar since it sparked something inside me. For some reason, I'm unable to speak adequately about things that are truly inspirational to me.

That's what's on my mind today - don't you feel better now that you know?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Can you think of a worse punishment?

It's the last week of summer. Do you know what that means? Two kids who have completely met their limit of getting along. For the first time in their little lives, they were in the same camp group all summer. This week has been the WORST (yes I know it's only Wednesday morning so we're talking Monday and Tuesday here). EVERY day (okay BOTH days) we get a report that they're not getting along at school. He feels the need to pick on her and take whatever she's playing with. She screeches until the teacher gets involved. Instructions to "stay away from each other" go unheeded.

Last night after being grounded from all technology and STILL bickering over SHRINKY DINKS of all things, Matt decides he's had it. I was doing yoga in the living room, trying to "OM" them right out of my brain. I hear Matt take charge so I continue on with my downward facing dog.

Matt instructed each of them to get a piece of paper and a pencil. Next he instructs them to each write three reasons why they love each other. Can you imagine the looks of horror on their faces? Skyler whines that she can't write so Matt instructs her to think of three things and he'll help her write them. They each suffer through this with lots of sighs and eye rolls. Some ideas are rejected by Dad but eventually they get through it. You can FEEL the relief from the next room, but Daddy isn't done with the punishment yet. He instructs them to stand facing each other and to READ the reasons why they love the other out loud. SERIOUS HORROR from Zack. A shouted "But I can't READ" from Skyler. At this point, I had to get up and take a look. They were facing each other in the middle of the kitchen and Zack looked like he would much prefer it if we just pulled out each of his toenails. Z mumbles through the first one "I love my sister because she shares her Leapster with me", it takes three tries before Daddy is convinced that he could hear him loudly and clearly. Skyler seems to be enjoying this part, probably because her brother is SO miserable. They get through professing their love for each other and so Matt instructs them to hug each other and say "I love you". Skyler had a look of pure joy on her face, she really does love him. Zack looked like he had just caught a serious case of the cooties and was going to have to go through decontamination.

Matt told them he wasn't convinced that they'd truly learned anything (maybe Skyler had) and that they were all going to repeat the exercise the next night so in the meantime they could each take a piece of tape and affix their lists to their bedroom wall where they could read it clearly before they went to bed and when they got up!

He he he BEST PUNISHMENT EVER!

Namaste!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

My latest wacky idea...

Those of you who know me, know that I am NOT a runner. I am not a jogger, I'm not really even qualified to walk at a fast pace. I'm out of shape, I'm an enormous klutz, and breathing gasp-free isn't one of my strongest abilities. STILL, I let one of my imaginary online friends talk a group of us into doing Cool Running's Couch to 5K program. If you can't tell from the title, the idea is to get you from sitting on the couch to running 5k in about 10 weeks. They say 9, I say 10 because the first week is mental. First you go through your list of excuses:

1. I don't have time
2. I'll never get out of the house by myself
3. We're too busy
4. It's hot at night/dark in the morning
5. Wah Wah Wah

At some point it dawned on me that I could clear off that giant black contraption that we've been using all summer to hang swim towels on, what others might call a treadmill, and use that. Surely I could put in the 20-30 minutes required 3 times per week right? See how the first week is mental? You've got to get yourself there.

You start off doing 60 second jog/90 second walk intervals and eventually work up to the 5k at the end of the time. I'm on the first segment. You can tell I'm on the first segment because my entire left leg has agonizing muscle pain. You can tell I've got a serious layer of adipose tissue because in order to ease the muscle pain Matt had to beat my hamstring like he was tenderizing meat versus massage it with his thumbs. He had to get so far down there he was massaging my quad at the same time. I'm thinking now that I NEED to be doing this.

SO - hopefully you'll hear more about this from me. Hopefully we won't get to December where you'll ask "Hey how did that 5k thing go?" and I reply "What 5k thing? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Care to place bets?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

My husband isn't the only one to point out that I'm old...

My darling husband enjoys the fact that I am three years older than he is. Because of my frequent aches and pains and general grumpiness he loves to tell me that I have O.L.D. Check out this list and tell me if you don't feel old just reading it. I totally stole this from Big Stacie:

Each fall the Beloit College releases its Mindset list of the "cultural touchstones" that formed the views of teens entering college this year.

"Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world. It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation."

* GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available
* Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles
* Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle
* Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option
* Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court
* They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola
* There has always been Pearl Jam
* The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno & started at 11:35 EST
* Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day
* Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone
* Caller ID has always been available on phones
* They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing"
* 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

We're Heeere....

Why is it that my kids make a total and complete ENTRY where ever we go?

This morning was like any other although I was actually running a bit early which is unusual. We went into daycare to drop off and I stopped in the hall to talk to one of the teachers whose daughter is in Sky's class. As I'm talking, Skyler pokes her head out of the bathroom and she's CRYING, red faced, holding a paper towel to her eye. I run over and after using my super sonic dolphin hearing to decipher the screeches determined that she had an eyelash in her eye. The only way I could really get it out was to sit on the floor in the hall and hold her across my lap and force her eye open. She's carrying on like the drama queen that she is and flailing and I'm trying to hold her arms down while forcing her eyelid open. Once I get in there I get the eyelash right out. In the meantime every teacher in the school has come out to the hall to see who is being kidnapped. As I sit her up and give her a kiss on the head, her hair gets caught in my nose ring and pulls it out. I don't realize this until the nose ring which is TINY has disappeared. So Skyler, Zack, and I are crawling around on the floor looking for this microscopic fleck of sparkle and I'm no longer running ahead of schedule. I was about to give up when we found it. I popped it back in and now that I'm thinking about it with all the germs in a daycare I'm sure to develop a staph infection any day now. Lovely!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Take me out to the ball game...

I so shouldn't be on the computer doing this right now. Goodness knows I've got plenty of other things to do but... It's Monday and what would you all do if you didn't know what we did all weekend? I wouldn't want to leave you all hanging waiting for the next installment of "Bore My Readers To Tears".

Friday a co-worker, who I don't even know, handed me two tickets to the Toby Keith concert that he couldn't use. Uh, thanks, new work best friend, who looks a lot like Wilson from Tool Time, because all he did was lean over my cube. I couldn't pick the guy out of a line up.



So we've got free Toby Keith tickets, my cousin and her family are going and our friends Jon and Audra are going. We're all set to leave the house and BAM it starts POURING. We all have lawn seats. We decided to wait it out. There were several bands that were supposed to go on before Toby Keith so we figured that he wouldn't be on until 9:00 or so. We live a couple of miles from the venue, and lets face it, this isn't exactly Boston or New York city. Getting there late isn't an issue. We could waltz right in. At about 8:30 my cousin Jackie called to say that they were soaking wet and freezing and that she was taking the kids home. If SHE had free tickets SHE wouldn't be there. SO, we chose to stay home. The End.

Saturday, Skyler's little friend Danielle hostessed a tea party at a local diner. Apparently she won it in a raffle contest. All the little girls dressed up like princesses and at finger sandwiches and had apple juice in tea cups. It was adorable.

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Zack came along and was on his best behavior. I think he might have hit is head on the way there. Best behavior and tea party don't generally go together in the same sentence for Zack.

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Saturday evening was my company's summer picnic. This year we had it at the local baseball field. We had a whole picnic area right near third base. It was the awesome! Amy met us there with Nate. Once they got to eat Zack and Skyler were well behaved. Matt and I even started speaking to each other again after that. There's nothing like having to get somewhere on time and having two kids bickering that makes for delightful conversation betwee two married people. Zack pestered one of the ball players until he tossed him a ball. "36, toss me a ball. 36 over here. 36 ball". I swear the guy tossed him the ball just to shut him up. Matt got another player to throw one over for Sky so the kids left happy!

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Sunday we watched the Olympics for too many hours. We even watched fencing and I have a question. Does the light on the helmet go off when the body is touched, or does the light go off when a judge hits a buzzer or something? We couldn't figure it out. THEN we had dinner with our favorite other family. Nate could watch my kids act like fools for hours. He stares at them like they're little monkeys for his entertainment, which is exactly how they behave. We had fun and Amy even baked a cake, just for us, cuz she could, and I like cake.

Aren't you glad you didn't miss out on this?

Friday, August 15, 2008

Ransom...

You know who I've been thinking a lot about lately? My cousin/godchild Ransom. She's my mother's youngest sister's daughter. She's 15 now, 19 years younger than I am. She's had a tumultuous life this one. She scared the breath out of us when she was not quite two by suddenly being diagnosed with neuroblastoma. I remember the words "12% chance of living". I flew right there to see her in the hospital and she was just this sweet tiny little thing hooked up to all manners of tubes and machines. Eventually she kicked cancer's ass and look at her now:

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Isn't she beautiful? She's got a feisty attitude to go with that hair too!!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Crafty ideas...

Last night I had to go through September's issue of Family Fun magazine to see if I could remember what it was that sparked my craftiness.

It was these little lunch money tins made from old altoid containers.

SURE, your child could use a little wallet but A. that doesn't = cool craft project with your kid and 2. doesn't reuse items you probably have around the house. I thought it was adorable.

AND I found another cute snack idea if you've got a bunch of kids in and out of the house like we do lately, mini caramel apples:







I think the apples would be really cute for a school party snack too. I'm thinking I might give it a whirl sometime, maybe...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Family Fun Magazine!

Family Fun is a great magazine for parents with kids who are toddlers on up. There are fantastic craft ideas, product reviews, recipes for kids etc and so forth.

RewardsGold is offering a free subscription. Click the link.

Don't pass it up. You'll love this magazine! I don't get anything for recommending it, I just think everyone with kids should get this mag. FoR INSTANCE, I was reading the most recent copy yesterday and there was something that made me go "that's an AWESOME idea". I can't remember what that might be right now, I'll have to go back through and hope that the same idea jumps out at me but...

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sliced bread....

I have a bit of an addiction to television. I hate that reality crap but give me a sitcom or a dramedy and I'm in hog heaven. There's a few reasons why I watch tv alone (ie no one likes to watch tv with me). I'm incredibly impatient. I hate embarrassing moments. I like to watch multiple episodes back to back. If the sound is funny I watch with the closed captions on so I can read it as well as listen. All of this leads up to me telling you about the greatest invention since the epidural, TIVO. I know you've all heard about it. All the cable providers now have their own version of a dvr. If you don't have one, drag your sorry ass out of the dark ages and sign yourself up people. I never ever watch commercials, I can fast forward through embarrassing moments, and I tend to let multiple episodes stack up so I can watch them all at once. Not only that but Tivo records things it THINKS you might like to watch. You can create a search for anything with Gwynneth Paltrow in it and whenever something is on that Gwynnie is in, it records it. Seriously, greatest thing ever.

What is the point of my random ramble about my love for Tivo? Well someone just mentioned that Fall Shows will be starting soon and it got me wondering what was going to be one when. I took a look at the fall line up and I might have a bit of a problem in terms of clogging up the Tivo on Mondays. The networks are screwing with me.

At risk of embarrassing myself by listing the number of shows I watch, here's my list. Keep in mind that I might go a month without watching some of these and then have a marathon on a Saturday evening. Remember it takes about 2/3 the time to watch a show without commercials. * indicates a new show that I might or might not add to the roster.

Monday
8:00 - Big Bang Theory
8:00 -Chuck
8:00 - Gossip Girl
9:00 - Two and a Half Men - might drop this one
9:30 - Samantha Who?
9:30 - Worst Week *

See the problem at 8:00? I can't tape all of those. I'm going to have to deploy some strategy. I'll have to watch Big Bang Theory downstairs with Matt and then start Chuck at 8:30 which will let me skip the commercials and leave Gossip Girl for a marathon weekend viewing. This was almost a problem last year but Gossip Girl wasn't on at 8:00 which frankly annoys me. That's too early for that show. There's a lot of teen drinking and sex. They need to push it back an hour or so which would screw up my schedule even more, no they need to move it to, uh Thursday, yeah I have some space on Thursday.

Tuesday
8:00 - 90210 *
8:00 - House (at 8pm seriously?)
9:00 - The Mentalist or Privileged (both new, only one can stay) *
9:00 - Fringe (said to be the next Lost, catch this one)*

Wednesday
8:00 - Old Christine
8:00 - Knight Rider (I figure Zack will like this one) *
8:30 - Gary Unmarried *
9:00 - Private Practice
9:00 - 'Til Death
9:30 - Do Not Disturb *
10:00 - Lipstick Jungle

Thursday
8:30 - Kath & Kim *
9:00 - The Office

Friday
9:00 - The Ex-List *

Sunday
9:00 - Desperate Housewives

9 of the 21 shows listed are new and most probably won't make it. So maybe it isn't too bad.

Mom, if you're reading this and thinking that SURELY I have something else to do with my time, SHHHH, pretend they're all shows about quilting.

Peanut Butter Pie Yumminess!

I can't think of anything worth writing about today so since Amy emailed me for my recipe for Peanut Butter Pie I thought I'd share it with you. The recipe is delicious, easy to make, and results in two pies. You can make one to keep at home and one to bring with you wherever you're going. I can't remember where I found this recipe so I can't give it credit to anyone, it certainly isn't mine which you know by the fact that I said it was delicious. It was in a cooking managazine (the one that Matt's mom sends me I think) a few years ago and I've made it for Christmas/Thanksgiving get togethers ever since. It works out especially well if my office and Matt's office have a holiday potluck on the same day.

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:
1 package of cream cheese
2/3 cup of peanut butter
1 Tbsp milk
2 cups confectionary sugar
1 carton (12oz) cool whip thawed
2 graham cracker crust shells

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, and milk until smooth. Gradually beat in confectionary sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon into crusts. Cover and refrigerate for four hours.

Sprinkle top with chopped peanuts, peanut butter chips, or chopped reeses cups. YUMMERS!

Monday, August 11, 2008

In a nutshell...

Friday night Mike & Amy & Nate came over to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. WOW - did you see it? That was some pretty amazing stuff. If you haven't seen it yet I'm sure you can find it on youtube, or here. This is NBC's link to Olympic video highlights. On top of watching the ceremonies Nate entertained us with his rolling trick. The more Skyler squeeled at him for rolling over, the more he rolled. They both fell asleep on the floor before the end of the ceremonies. I think Mikey fell asleep too - we're a bunch of wild and crazy folks I tell ya!

Saturday evening we got to visit with old friends. At the end of the week, one of Matt's friends from childhood emailed me to say that they'd be in town for the weekend. Melissa's husband Wes's brother lives near us. We decided on a BBQ and pool time to catch up. We hadn't seen their son Garrett yet and he's 1 1/2.

Pics:

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Zack giving Skyler a water piggy back. He usually tries to drown her. They were being surprisingly nice to each other!

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Cutie Garrett and his Mommy Melissa

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SO, remember THIS POST I did in April about the tornado that whipped through Virginia? Well our hosts for this BBQ, Matt and Leslie and their daughter Bayley, lost their home in the tornado. The whole thing. Gone. Imagine coming home and the second floor of your house is across the street where your neighbor's house USED to be. They found items streets over. Their dog was found down the street. They lost everything but a few random items. I was in total awe of their story. I don't remember much being on the news right after the immediate danger of the tornadoes had passed and they only live twenty minutes away. We drove by their lot (they start building next month), which has all been cleared now. You can see the path of where the tornado went by the glaringly absent homes on empty lots. They are doing very well and luckily had excellent insurance. We were so happy that they weren't home at the time.

Sunday was a quiet day. Zack played games with his buddy Kyle as soon as it was cool to go knocking on his door. They were back and forth all day. Matt watched as much of the Olympics as was humanly possibly with three channels showing events. Skyler went to a church carnival with our neighbors and I actually had to wait up for her. She had a BLAST and I thought she was going to wake the neighbors when she was excitedly telling me all about it in the driveway at 10:00. That one's going to be a social butterfly. Zack was sound asleep by then. Grumpy needs his rest!

That was our weekend in a nutshell. Can you stand the excitement?

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Car Woes... :-(

AGAIN I need to blog about how thankful I am for the kindness of friends. The day we left for vacation Matt stopped to pick something up before we left and his car did the putter putter die thing. His friend Jon otherwise known as Dr. Jon left WORK to come and help out. He gave Matt a jump and then followed him home where he had to help push the car into the driveway. As we were due to leave for ten days in a few hours, we decided to pretend it didn't happen and deal with it when we got back. Mature I know, but well, what can you do?

Over the week, Matt talked to my brother Tim, his brother Ben, my dad, Mike, Tom, and the chick at the Saturn dealership, and all seemed to agree that it sounded like the alternator. The chick at the dealership said it would be like $500something for a new alternator plus labor. That information SUCKED.

When we got home Matt and his buddies kept talking about it. Kevin checked it out and said his neighbor would fix it for $150 plus parts ($200ish) and then we happened to mention the ordeal in front of Tom's visiting BIL. Who is a mechanic. For Mack. HELLO NEW BEST FRIEND!

NBF (Stevie) offered to replace the alternator, front brakes, oil, and air filter, for a case of beer. WELL my friend, belly up to the Bar de Molnar and you can have whatever beer you want. They went and got all the parts from Autozone or some other man store for $300 and NBF, Tom (who did this on his BIRTHDAY) and Matt fixed the Saturn up all perty like! I can't tell you how excited I was to see three sweaty men in my driveway when I got home from work yesterday.

SO thank you to:

NBF (Stevie) for the expertise and physical labor
Tom for working hard on his birthday
Kevin for checking things out and trying to find someone to help
Dr. Jon for leaving work to jump the car
Tim & Dad & Ben for advice
Mike for checking on the car while we were away

You are all true friends and saved us a substantial amount of money!!! MWAH!

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

How to age your daycare provider five years in five minutes...

I interrupt this regularly scheduled vacation update for the story of how Zack scared the BeJesus out of his teachers yesterday.

I walked into their school and Ms. Diane was walking down the hall with a panicked look on her face. She saw that it was me and said "MRS. MOLNAR I was just coming down to call you. Zack fell asleep and we couldn't wake him up." I said "Okay, he's been sick and sleeping more than usual." She said "NO, I mean we CAN'T wake him up. I took his pulse and checked that he was breathing but we can't wake him up." This is when I realized that she was in a panic, really scared. So we went up to take a look at him and he was just rising. The three teachers in his room were all sort of scared looking. Apparently, he'd fallen asleep at the snack table and they couldn't shake him awake. One teacher was afraid he'd fall over so she picked him up (the kid weighs 70lbs and I can't lift him) and moved him to a small couch. Ms. Diane took his pulse and checked him for breathing and was afraid he had some weird allergic reaction. He seemed groggy but otherwise fine. I asked him how he felt and he said fine.

I hovered over him all evening repeatedly asking how he was - fine. I called there mid-morning today to check on him and Ms. Diane repeated that he had scared her to death. He isn't really SICK, he's just been coughing at night and more lethargic than usual. I didn't know what else to tell her. I felt worse for her than for Zack!

Rye Beach/Vacation Day 4

We woke up and hung out with the Fam. My Mom called with the great idea to head out to Rye Beach and bring a picnic lunch. Technically I guess it's called Wallis Sands State Park or something like that, but I remember going there as a kid and loving climbing on the rocks. We got there at about 11am which was perfect because low tide was about two hours away.

This is what we did the majority of the day:
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The kids had a BLAST hunting for crabs. Nadia brought a big bucket and we filled it with crabbies and urchins and sea glass.
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Skyler, Zack, and I all fell and ended up with lovely bleeding scrapes. Skyler and I are still healing a week later, Zack is a boy and doesn't take any notice of these things.

Bryce had fun despite not being overly impressed at first. There was sand which he hates to walk on and the water was freezing. He ended up having a great time.
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Totally didn't care that there was as much sand as peanutbutter in his sandwich.
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Noah had a sand mustache.

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Picnic

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Bryce thought Cha Cha Lisa was cool because she had fruit. He ate a TON.

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Sand castles

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He doesn't even have a cape!

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I'm either trying not to fall off the rock we were standing on or I just got splashed with the arctic cold water. I'm not sure, but what's with that face?

After about four hours of fun in the sun, and with the crab population seriosly depleted, we let them all go and then packed up for home. We drove Shelle and the boys home, picked up Ben and (shhhh) got some more beach pizza before driving home to my parents' house where my Mom made a delicious dinner of ribs. The pizza was just an appetizer!

We were sunkissed, tired, and had had such a great time with the two families. By the time dinner was done, we were all ready for snoozeville!

Beach Pizza - how could I forget?

I forgot to mention in my post about Sunday that we took a ride through Hampton and introduced Ben and Shelle to Beach Pizza from Christy's. YUM! It's a late night drinking tradition in the area. They're open until some ungodly hour, maybe they never close, so we always used to go there for pizza in the middle of the night. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's a square of very crispy pizza with delicious sauce and little cheese - you can have them add a slice of provolone if you want. We weren't up late drinking - but we had to have it anyway. We were a bit nervous that our west coast family would think we were nuts but they ended up loving it too. SO if you're in Hampton or Salisbury, check out Christy's pizza! You'll CRAVE it forever after!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Bryce's Birthday/Vacation Day 3

Sunday we planned to spend the day with Matt's brother's family. They invited us over for a cookout and to celebrate Bryce's second birthday. We can't believe that that little cutie is already two. He's so flippin' cute! I'm not sure what happened, I remember taking pics, but I can't find any of them. I either mis-placed a disk or was taking them with someone else's camera. Anyway, Ben & Shelle showed us around their new house and had the kiddie pool all set up in the back. They ran crazy for awhile and then hit the garage. There were bikes, and powered cars, and scooters, and some sort of gas powered motor bike/death trap that Matt and Ben rode on. There was a special dance you had to do to get it started and there were no brakes save the soles of your shoes. Zack's eyeballs were wide with the desire to ride like the big boys but there was no freakin way I was letting him near that thing. Then it poured buckets and buckets of rain. We had fun sitting in the garage talking and watching Ben BBQ dinner. We sang to Bryce and devoured the delicious and professional looking cupcake/cake that Shelle made. We played Wii Fit which was FUN, Zack mastered a lot of the skills pretty quickly. Then um, we had a sleepover. The kids were actually pretty zonked so everyone went to bed pretty easily.

The End of Sunday.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Family Reunion/Wedding Reception/Vacation Day 2

The main reason for us choosing this week for our vacation was a party on Saturday in honor of my cousin Nick and the delightful Erin getting married and Nick and his sister Amie completing graduate school.
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The Happy Couple

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Amie

Relatives came from all over the Eastern Sea Board. Rarely are we all "home" at the same time. I took over 400 pictures that day so I'm going to have to give you the highlights. Get comfy!

One of the funniest parts of the day was the fact that my little cousin Kathryn was OH SO EXCITED to see our other cousin Montana who she was sort of somewhat convinced was somehow as special as if not the real deal Hannah Montana.
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She and all the other little girls followed Montana around all day. Montana usually had one on piggy back. She said she was achy the next morning. I'm not surprised.
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We got the opportunity to get my mother's siblings together for a picture.
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Left to right (also youngest to oldest) Lisa, Phil, Shelly, Ted, Connie, Mike.

Next was their children or "Sharples 3rd Generation".
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Left to right (also youngest to oldest) Ransom, Montana, Amie, Nick, Tim, Me, Jill, Jackie, and Melissa. Missing was Tyler who goes between Montana and Amie and our three oldest cousins who we have rarely seen, Kelly, Sean, and Patrick.

Next was OUR children or "Sharples 4th Generation".
Photobucket That row (in no particular order) was Nadia, Skyler, Zack, Parker, Alison, Brooke & Kathryn.

For some reason it didn't occur to get the 2nd generation in there too. Oh well, that's what photoshop is for right? I'll add that to my to do list.

Now I'll just post a bunch of pictures:

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Cutie Patootie Alison

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Buddies, Uncle Mike & Matt

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The gals attempting to teach Matt how to do Uncle Mike's famous hand gesture/"JE-SUS CA-RIST" move.

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Huge fields for the kids to run in and play volleyball.
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Nick wrestling the kids - Zack almost paralized him with a knee to the back (SORRY Nick!)

Photobucket Food

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Drinks

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Jungle Gym

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Couldn't resist a pic of Sky in front of the cool old barn!

There was something for everyone and we all had a blast! WHEW!
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