Gramp-hog (Groundhog) Fun

Alec came home from pre-school with a craft he did for Groundhog Day. He kept calling it Gramphog instead of Groundhog. I wanted to get him on video saying it, but what I actually got on video was probably even funnier. Zachary got involved and made it into a PRODUCTION. I should have recorded the boys giggling hysterically after watching themselves on this video.

Boys. Everything turns into kicking, yelling, faking animal bites, and laughing.

Fundamentally Fun

What's everyone doing these days for entertainment? Any new toys or activities that your family is really enjoying?

I have the wintertime blahs and I need something FUN to do. We're actually planning a family weekend trip for the Saturday after Valentine's Day. We're going to Astoria, Oregon. Wow, I know, you've never heard of it! Me either, frankly. But Mike spent time there last year on one of his tours and he said it was very pretty. It's on the coast and has a nice beach, but it also has a pretty river, the Columbia, that passes through. Anyway, our budget is small and Astoria fits the financial restrictions. We're going to stay in a hotel, go swimming (inside of course), walk on the beach, see a couple of museums, eat out, and ride on the town's trolley. It sounds like just the thing we need to perk us up and help me survive the winter here.

We're also starting Zachary in karate and we have a couple of birthday parties to plan. Alec will be four on April 1 and Zach will be 8 on April 10.

What's in your immediate or not-too-distant future?

Facebook Tag: 25 Random Things

I got a couple of tags recently from my cousin Steph and my friend Elizabeth on Facebook: 25 random things.

So here goes:

1) On the day I was to be brought home from the hospital, my brother was allowed to choose which new family member should be picked up first -- baby sis or the new puppy. I didn't come home first.
2) My 7 year old, Zachary, was supposed to be Madalyn Nicole. Everything was pink. Then he arrived and my nurse said, "Ummmm sweetie, this is NOT a Madalyn!"
3) My 3 year old, Alec, was a scheduled C-section delivery. I was so incredibly miserable at the end of that pregancy that I BEGGED my doctor to deliver him on a Friday instead of the next Monday. He laughingly agreed and said I was dooming my child to a lifetime of b-day jokes. Why? The date I chose was April Fool's Day. Yep, my clown child.
4) I love chocolate milk shakes with french fries.
5) I love footie pajamas. I think they are adorable on my children.
6) I always said I would marry a musician. I did.
7) I fell in love with Camp Blue Haven as a teenager. I fell in love at Camp Blue Haven as a 21 year old.
8) My hair is naturally curly.
9) I'm only 5'2" but I wear a size 9 in shoes. Isn't that weird?
10) My secret desire is to move to the Lake District in England and open my own bookshop.
11) My secret desire (#10) is no longer a secret.
12) I've written my first novel, Cloud Shadow, and am hoping to have it fully edited by this summer so that I can start sending it to book agents.
13) I love my job. Seriously. It is awesome.
14) I think my husband is totally cute.
15) I wish I could lose about 30 pounds. Today.
16) I like my eye color. It's a pretty blue.
17) I like cats. We have two kitties: Molly Rainbow and Oliver Whiskers.
18) I can't drive a stick shift. A couple of different boys from Wynnewood High tried to teach me but it just never sunk in.
19) I'd like to have another child simply because I have so many cute baby names in my head.
20) I'm an overachiever.
21) I'm also lazy at times. Is this an oxymoronic idea: lazy overachiever?
22) I want to take a photography class.
23) I was the editor of my college newspaper.
24) I kissed five frogs before I found my prince.
25) I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Which of my 25 things did you know or not know?

Fondue

One of my students just posted on her blog about a fondue party. It sounded so very yummy. We don't own a fondue pot, but I'm considering buying one. Do you have one? Do you ever use it? How easy are they to use and do you have any good recipies?

Yum, I love to dip pound cake into the fudgy chocolate fondue dip. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

From the mouth of my boy

Okay, my last post was somewhat depressing. But as the winds blow, so too all things change... blah blah and all that.

A few minutes ago I was in the kitchen putting together the ingredients for tonight's meatloaf. Alec was comfortably situated on his "throne" in the bathroom with a couple of books nearby to keep him out of trouble while doing the deed.

He suddenly screamed excitedly,"MOMMY! Mommy mommy mommy, come 'ere. Come 'ere!!"

I rinsed the onions off of my hands and went to check on him. He was looking down at his boy-parts with a huge grin on his face. "Look, look, look," he chanted in wonder. "My penis is GROWING! It's HUGE!" He smiled up at me and then nodded his head confidently. "I'm getting to be a very big boy."

What, I ask you, can you really say to that?

Forgetful

This morning I couldn't find my car keys. They weren't in their usual places: purse, key hook, or kitchen counter. They weren't in the basket full of junk on top of the computer desk. They weren't anywhere. Starting to feel a bit desperate, I turned a circle in the kitchen with my eyes searching everywhere and found them on top of the printer. I had no memory of leaving them there. In moments like that I always have this feeling of sheer panic. Panic. The shortness of breath, lightheadedness is because I'm so afraid that I'll inherit this disease of forgetfulness that took my Grandpa Hollie's memory and is now taking my mom's. I realize that everyone has moments of forgetfulness, that everyone loses their keys, that everyone missplaces their wallet or purse from time to time. But when it happens to me I can't stop the shiver of doom that trills down my spine.

In my family we have a history of breast cancer (my mom's sister), type II diabetes (my dad, and his two sisters), heart disease (dad's brothers). None of those diseases worry me the way that dementia does. Alzheimers. Shiver. It scares me to death. I don't want to lose my memories. I don't want to lose the part of me that makes me. . . well, me.

When I was home for Christmas I noticed a couple of new developments in my mom's condition. They are things that are so unexpected and so heartbreaking. She is losing the ability to use a spoon and fork. About half of the time she starts out eating with her silverware and after a few unsuccessful attempts at figuring out how to hold the fork, she abandons it and just uses her fingers. Like a small child, she'll be covered in her meal by the time her plate is clean. Fingers, hands, shirt. It is so very sad.

She can no longer read and often picks up the wrong bottle when washing her hair. While I was home, I found her washing her hair with dish soap on one day and with my dad's shaving gel on another day.

She didn't call me by my name the entire time I was home. Not once. She didn't call my boys, her only grandchildren, by their names either. But she still loved having them there. She followed them around and laughed at their antics.

And at times she would have heartbreaking moments of lucidity. In those brief moments, she is my mom again. But those moments are much too short and much too few.

Fiction or Non-Fiction?

What's everybody reading right now? I've always got a couple of books stashed in the house. I read in the way that some people sneak a cigarette or a piece of chocolate. Sometimes I just crave it. Of course, I often crave a piece of chocolate WHILE I'm reading. And that's. . . okay. Right?

So give me new ideas. I'm in the middle of a tragically beautiful and disturbing book called Sarah's Key, which is breaking my heart and also giving me all kinds of ideas for my English 101 class next quarter. I'm also re-reading a favorite Nora Roberts novel because sometimes I just want to read something entertaining and something I don't have to think too much about.

Give me some new ideas! What are you reading right now?

Fantasy

My children are still in their pajamas at 10:26 on Saturday morning. I just can't seem to bring myself to make them stop playing and get dressed. They are living in FANTASY LAND right now. Zach is set up on the big couch with a line of about 25 Star Wars guys as they fight the neverending battle between good and evil. Alec is settled on the floor with a Fisher Price Treehouse and a confusing mixture of Star Wars guys, knights, and Robin Hood toys. He seems to understand the fantasy though. Both boys are completely involved, talking to their toys, talking to themselves.

It makes me happy on several levels. The first is simple: They aren't fighting. The second is also simple: I'm not being bothered while on the computer. The third is not so simple: They are happy and healthy and playing in the way that happy, healthy children play. I guess that is also fairly simple. Simple isn't bad.

I remember playing with my Barbies in a similar way. Pretending to be Barbie, pretending to be Skipper, Barbie's kid sister. Pretending Barbie was my sister. Just pretending.

What about you? Do you remember playing so intently as a child? Putting yourself into the moment of fantasy? What was it for you? What was your favorite thing to play?

Frosty

The following post is an example of descriptive writing for my English 101 students. Of course, my other readers may enjoy a glimpse of Alec playing in last week's snowfall.

_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

The snow is blindingly bright as the sun bounces off its surface. It is a soft snow, perfect for rolling and packing into balls. His pant legs are damp from slipping and sliding in the wet fluff. His fingers, covered in brightly colored cotton, are beginning to get damp and cold as well. His other gloves recovering in front of the fireplace, drying. This is round two. The snow smells crisp and clean. The boy smells of Cheerios and hot chocolate. Around his mouth is a rim of that warm-up treat, given after his morning adventures in the snow. Now, as the afternoon sun melts the snow away, he licks his chapped lips and tastes the chocolate as well as the Chapstick that his mom applied while he tried to dance away. Cherry. Waxy, cherry, and chocolate.

He hears cars driving slowly on the street in front of his house, tires crunching over the melting ice. He hears birds singing at the sun. He hears his mom giggling as he comes at her with another snowball in his chubby little hand. This is frosty bliss for the three-year-old boy in the red fleece jacket.

By dose iz topped up

Well. . . Zach is feeling better. His fever broke early this morning. Now he's just incredibly snotty and has a cough. I'm keeping him home again today. It's definitely going to be a couch and movie kind of day.

Zach's fever broke about the same time as my fever arrived. Definitely not on my list of to-dos for the day. Wednesdays are supposed to be my lesson planning/grading days. Not terribly optimistic about that.

Things I need to complain about, just because I'm feeling cranky:

Why is it that when I'm sick. . .
the fridge is suddenly bare?
the tissue boxes are suddenly empty?
the kitchen is suddenly a total mess?
the laundry is suddenly struggling to overcome the limits of its baskets?
the orange juice has gone bad?
there are no more grown-up cold meds in the house?

Why. . . why . . . why?!

Okay, thanks for letting me rant and stomp my foot on the blog floor. :-)

Fever

Why do children run such high fevers?! Zach went to bed last night with the sniffles and woke this morning with those tell-tale spots of red on his pale cheeks and the glassy eyes that just scream "FEVER!" He was a good sport and went to class with me this morning. He sat quietly for almost two hours before whispering, "Mommy, I feel bad. Can we go home now?" His temp was 103 when we got home. Other than the fever and some snot, he has no other complaints. But he's cranky (understandably) and tired (he refuses to nap) and that makes me cranky and tired too.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Finding time

Do you ever feel like you are so tied to your schedule that any disruption is almost impossible to overcome? I'm a scheduler, a planner. I like my plans. I like my routines. We live by them and sometimes I feel like we don't really live because of them.

I'm trying to be better with this. Since my children were born we have had a nightly routine. Dinner, playtime/homework, bath, books, prayers, bed. That is the routine. We eat at about 5:30, bath at 6:45, three books and prayers at 7:15 and then usually Alec is down for the count by 7:30. Zach reads quietly to himself until 8 or 8:15 and then he's asleep as well. This is our routine and it works for us. It works really well and I love that. But there are moments when I find myself avoiding activities at night because they would disrupt the routine. Yesterday I found myself NEEDING time with Mike. It was Sunday afternoon and we were supposed to spend the evening with friends from church. That was the plan, the routine, the order of the day. But I felt like Mike and I needed something different. I called our friends, Laura and Gene, and asked if we could change the plan. . . at the last minute (gasp, take a breath).

Laura and Gene were gracious and happy to watch our boys and, therefore, Mike and I had a spur of the moment dinner for two at a nice place downtown that had been on our to-do list for about a year or so. It was lovely and the boys had a ball.

Our evening routine was destroyed. We did quick showers instead of bubble baths for the boys and we only read one book instead of three. Alec didn't get to sleep until after 8 and it was closer to 9 for Zach. But you know what? They survived. Alec is a bit cranky today but it's not the end of the world.

I think I need to make a better effort to find time. To live in the moment and not in the routine. It's hard for me, but that makes it even more precious when I actually step away from the clock and look for the moment.

Fusion: a popular music that is a blend of two methods

The soundtrack of my life is a fusion of many musical stylings. There is the strumming of Mike's guitar along with the giggles of my children (in delicate harmony with their bickering), and now we have the melodious sounds of Zachary on the piano. He's doing great with his lessons and it makes me happy to hear him play. Music is definitely woven into the fabric of this family.

Favoring Father

When we were in San Saba at Mike's parents' home, Alec saw this photo of his daddy on the wall. He said, "Why is that picture of me on that wall?" I looked and did a little double take. It was amazing how much Alec looks like Mike did at this age! I've always

thought he favored the Stark side, but now I'm not so sure. I think I'm seeing his Stark orneriness and just applying it to his looks! What do you think?

Farm: Christmas in pics #3

It's not a trip home without some time out at the farm. The boys always LOVE their time exploring the pasture and doing boy stuff with Poppa Jim: driving tractors, feeding cows, peeing in the barn. I always love my photos from the farm. There's something about the lighting that looks so crisp.

Climbing on the gates is a must-do. Seeing baby cows is also a highlight.

This is Alec with Otis, Dad's barn cat. Otis is a girl-cat named after the drunk on the old Andy Griffith show. She's a really sweet cat. The boys love her.

Look out! Alec is at the wheel.

Nothing like making shadow puppets on the hay bales. That is just good, clean fun.

Are you tired of my pictures yet? Hope not! I've got more coming soon.

Family fun: Christmas in pictures #2

I've got about 250 photos from our Christmas travels. Yeah, I tend to get carried away. I remember when I convinced Mike that we would actually save money by purchasing a digital camera. "Honey," I said, "Just think how much money we'll save by not printing out all of those photos that aren't so great." Of course, when I used film in my camera, I only took two or three rolls of film on a trip. So. . . maybe 64 photos. Tops. Now I take about 250 and while I don't print them all, I usually find about 100 of them that are worth printing!


Anyway, I digress.


Today I want to show photos of my boys with their uncles and aunt. The first three pics are from my side of the family. Uncle Bo is my brother and Aunt Kristy is his wife. The last three pics are from Mike's side. Uncle Bud is Mike's brother..

Foam sword fun: Christmas in pictures #1

The boys got foam swords from Poppa Jim for Christmas. These $2 toys were probably the big hit of the season. They could whack each other all day long and never get hurt. They were also versatile toys that happily adjusted to whatever the imagination demanded: pirates, soldiers, knights, or even Star Wars guys. It was all good.

My favorite moment regarding the foamy swords was when Alec yelled, "I'm god! I'm god, Zach!" It took me a moment but after observing Alec's posture I realized he meant to say, "En gard" (my French is rusty so I'm unsure of the spelling). They had watched a Tom and Jerry episode earlier that day in which the mouse and cat fought with swords and said "en gard" many times. Alec was imitating. I had to try to explain why yelling "I'm god" was wrong on a couple of different levels.

Anyway, enjoy the pics.

Frugal

In August we turned off our Directv service and went without the tube for a few months. It saved us $50+ a month and helped us put some money aside for Christmas expenses. However, with the new move to digital tv next month (and my own love of college football bowl games and college basketball) we turned the satellite service back on yesterday. While I'm pleased to have my football and basketball again, I just hate spending so much on television each month! We honestly don't watch the tube much at all during the week.

Anyway, I need some frugal ideas on how to save that $50 in other ways. Anyone got a great tip for me?