Bucket List Review

So how did we do this summer?



Ride a train  To Columbia to spend a long weekend with Grandpa and Annie
Six Flags
Raging Rivers   While we didn't make it there, we did Holiday World.  Close enough!
St. Jacob Park  Colby and I on the way home from speech one day.
Pool
Play with friends
Arch
Science Center     Twice!  Once with G'pa and Annie, once with Austin.
Botanical Gardens
Confluence Point
Tractor-hunting     Don't we always tractor hunt?  We are surrounded by cornfields!
New Salem Log Cabins
Korte Rec Center
Picnic
Camping with G'ma and G'pa B
Dairy Queen   And the new Dairy King 2 blocks away!
PB & Jam
Drive-in movie - ?Shrek?     Shrek and Toy Story 3.  Evan had a great time. Colby was too tired!
Collinsville Water Park
Grant's Farm

And Evan did 2 weeks of classes at SWIC - science experiments and computer game programming.  And Evan and Colby did 2 arts and crafts days at KC.  And they each had 2 days at the zoo, so 4 times there.  And Evan's overnight at Camp Joy, in a tent, in the storm, then in the truck.  And Boy Scout camp at Silver Lake.  And a few days with my mom and sister.  And a half-hearted attempt at swim lessons - Colby had an ear infection by day 3 and Evan missed the 2nd half with a SWIC class.   And we only missed 1 speech morning.  And I still worked 20 hrs/ week except for the vacation week at Holiday World and the week Tom went to DC for Juniper Router school.  And I am so glad school has started, so I can catch up on housework and sleep!

Bucket List Summer 2010

Ride a train
Six Flags
Raging Rivers
St. Jacob Park
Pool
Play with friends
Arch
Science Center
Botanical Gardens
Confluence Point
Tractor-hunting
New Salem Log Cabins
Korte Rec Center
Picnic
Camping with G'ma and G'pa B
Dairy Queen
PB & Jam
Drive-in movie - ?Shrek?
Collinsville Water Park
Grant's Farm

What are your plans for the summer?

The Birthday Party

It's spring break here in the cornfield. We gave Evan a choice for his bday party. We could do the 2 hour, $200, 20 friend party somewhere, or we could do the 2 day, $200 fill the truck & car party. He opted for the latter. Tom took the day off on Monday and we took 6 kids to the zoo. 4.5 miles and 6 hours later, they still had energy. They played in the yard till dark. It was so stinkin' nice, I fed them outside cause they wouldn't come in and fix pizza or eat. I had to drag them in for cake and ice cream so Tom could go to bed. Redbox was kind enough to have "Where The Wild Things Are" in stock. Most of the boys had not seen it. At 1130, the ones still awake finally stumbled to bed. I had to wake up 4/6 at 915 the next morning. All in all, a great day.

Evan and I got a Sony walkman mp3 player to share. I am smarter than it, sometimes. I have figured out how to rip cd's, but our newer ones are "Enhanced" with anti-piracy crap, so I haven't figured out how to get around those to rip them. I bought Taylor Swift once, I am not buying and downloading her a second time!

We shipped Mom to Ft. Worth for a long weekend, and the kids had a good time at the airport picking her up and seeing some of the stuff we have talked about. Evan and Colby flew when they were 5 and 18 months, but neither one remembers. Dang it!
Can we fly somewhere?
Yep, got $1000?
I got $10.
Nope, that won't get any of us a ticket.

Typing of flying, my husband thinks he is going to Hawaii soon for work. I hope he goes and has a great time in amongst those 14 hour work days. Maybe he'll scout stuff for a vacation for us. I am not at a point where I could leave the kids, school, work, speech, baseball, scouts, preschool, and pre-k to my parents or in-laws for a week.

It's an exciting life, my friends!

A Laugh For My Husband

No, it's not a Love Note on Valentine's Day. It's a laugh note. It's just a silly story. We are two different people, who happened to choose to be together. Ya don't just fall into or out of love. It doesn't happen by accident. It is a choice, and a labor, this love thing.

We have First Communion coming up in May. Tom is starting to realize that I have a long list of things to get done before we have a houseful of family over. I want to show off what he has done, the hard work he has put into making our house a home. I am cleaning out closets and going through stuff so our world doesn't seem so cluttered to me. My boys don't see it often, but extra, unused, leftover stuff makes me crazy and claustrophobic. I was working on stuff for the accountant for taxes a few weeks ago (yes, i am OCD, and he had the tax info about Feb. 3). I found pics of donations I had made last year. One of which is navy curtains from the last version of the boys room (after the baby decor, before the large jungle/ volcano wallpaper and mural). I want new stuff for the bathroom and our bedroom. I found a navy quilt that Tom and I can both agree on. I really wish I wasn't such a tosser/ pitcher/ donater. I would really like those navy curtains about now. The ones I gave to goodwill a year ago, that I have bought once in my life, and now will buy twice. Dang it!

And my husband? He would have saved them, because he will use/ need/ want them someday again in his life. Dang it! I love him, even when he's right.

A Mother's Prayer

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the gift of my wildly spirited second child. I know there was a point when I doubted you and your plan for my family, and I see now you were just waiting for the right sperm to meet with the right egg and swim into my heart.

Thank you for his fierce independence, going to the convenience store by himself before he was 2.

Thank you for his efforts in cleaning up his own messes, even if he won't touch the toys in the playroom. Thank you for his friend S, as a wonderful co-conspirator in crime. Thank you for his potty-training, that we left diapers long ago, but somehow still poop on the bathroom floor at least weekly, and S who tried to keep him out of trouble tonight by helping to clean the poop. But most of all, God, thank you for a toilet to poop in, a floor to poop on, bleach and running water to clean it all up with, and a washer to put the rugs in.

Thank you for friends who take my big kid to hockey, probably against his will for the next 5 practices and 12 games (but who's counting?).

Thank you for a big and a little boy who are afraid of the dark, and spill the events of the day the moment I turn off the bedroom light, as we sit and talk in the dark, keeping all of us up too late.

Thank you, God, for the gifts in my life. Someday when they're all grown up, I'm gonna miss this.

God, be with the kids and moms and dads in Haiti. May they find silly, frustrating, simple problems like mine again. May they find a new sense of normal, of trust, of calm, with you in the center of it.

Amen.

The Pic that Didn't Make It

Waiting for the Birth of the King

I had the perfect idea for a Christmas pic. Colby looked so stinkin cute as a farmer for the church Christmas program in his John Deere boots and bib overalls. Evan was a wiseman, so just had a robe to wear. Unfortunately, he was coughing and didn't feel great. I got one shot and they were done for. With my phone camera, it didn't turn out very well, but maybe next year...

Facebook vs. Blog

Tom has pointed out that since I started Facebooking, I quit blogging. Alas, he's right. Here's a small effort to correct that.

We had a great Christmas, several times over. To start the holidays, Colby got ear tubes for the third time on Christmas Eve. I'd blame the timing on the Jewish ENT, but I chose the date. The other option was the day of their Christmas program at school, and I wanted them both to sing in it. They are just far enough apart that it won't happen often that they are in the same program. The pics are before, all playful with his new Project Linus blanket, and after, in his "Weave me awone!" crabbiness. Everything was too loud.

He is still coughing, with a runny nose and congested. I was hoping the tubes would help that, but I'm not sure they did. Dang it! Colby still remembers the "stinky place" or "blowing up the balloon." "I was scared of the balloon, Mommy. It was yucky." The anesthesiologist talked about him blowing up a balloon, meaning the anesthesia machine, and he remembers the stinky smell. Colby didn't like the gift of the balloon from the machine that the anesthesiologist gave him.

We came home and opened packages with my sister, BIL, nieces and nephew, and my mom too. The grandkids always have a good time together. We went to Methodist church and Colby finally crashed for a nap after the early morning and excitement of the day. After a movie at home, C had no problems going back to sleep. Evan, on the other hand... I was watching Santa on NORAD, and told him he was in Kentucky and he had better get to bed. What a mistake on my part! He couldn't sleep because he was afraid Santa would know he was awake and skip our house. The more he tried to sleep, the more anxious he became. I finally gave up at midnight and left Tom with instructions and told E to crawl into our bed. Then sleep came for all of us. :) Christmas Day was spent together in the morning, and with Tom's family for the afternoon. My brother got the unexpected gift of 2 weeks vacation, so he and his family came home to my dad's. It's been 3 years since we saw him, and 2 years since we saw his girls, and I don't know when I saw his stepson last. Three days of family time just goofing off, talking, taking pics, enjoying the kids, a little shopping. Dang it, to be interrupted by work. The togetherness had to end sometime. I'd upload pics, but my kids broke my camera. Shoot!

It's now a week after New Year's, and the kids have been home 2 days in a row for snow (4 inches) and cold temps - highs in the single digits with serious wind. Yuck. It's back to the daily grind - a few days a week at the hospital for me, Tom's usual work schedule, Scouts, preschool, and church.