Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thanksgiving
Like most families we couldn't wait for Thanksgiving break. Our break began with two sick and grumpy kids. With the onset of cold weather I had been constantly warning the kids that if they didn't stay bundled up and then got sick, that they would be in big trouble. Well even if your kids do listen, sometimes you still can't prevent those unwanted icky viruses from showing up.
Sick kid #1
Luke has been suffering with his flu symptoms for about a week now. These symptoms include cough, runny nose, sore throat, fatigue, and some gross goopy stuff coming from eyes. Now although neither Shane nor my self have been sick, we too have suffered. Parents of crabby and sick toddlers definitely suffer. Am I right?
Sick kid #2
Meg picked up Lukes virus on Thanksgiving day. She awoke to a very sore throat, the rest of the symptoms showed up later in the day. For some, feeling completely run down and sick may prevent you from eating, but as most of you know Meg has a special relationship with food, to miss out on a Thanksgiving feast would be an abomination. How could one possibly let a little thing like a flu virus come between them and feasting. She's a trooper.
Healthy kid #1
Jakes Thanksgiving break consisted of snacking, t.v, video games, snacking, t.v, video games, watching football with Dad and winning his very first game of settlers. And one very important task of babysitting while Shane and I went shopping on black friday. This may sound like an easy task since everyone should have been asleep while we were gone, but Luke could not let that happen. As I'm standing in a very long and hostile line at Target I can barely make out the ring of my cell phone. I thought "who could possibly be calling me at 4:30am", my phone says "home", a very tired Jake is on the line and is asking what to do b/c cause little Lukey will not go back to sleep. (Luke was apparently startled when he came into our room to use the bathroom and found a sleeping Jake). So I did what every good mother would do, I told Jake to turn on cartoons, problem solved. Thank you NickJr.
Healthy parent #1
He was very excited for Thanksgiving break. This break meant no classes, no whiny students, lots of football, sleeping in and of course good food. Well his weekend included some of these elements but also a few others. For instance conducting a funeral for a woman whom He didn't even know was definitely not on his list. Waking up at 2:45 am to go and wait with a crazed mob at Walmart for the electronics dept. to open would normally never ever be on his list. Carrying a kicking,screaming, sick kid out of DQ, well that's always on the list. Sleeping in is always on the list but never checked off. With all the mayhem he managed to get a little football in. I tried to cuddle up to him between cooking dishes but his love for watching his disintegrating Cowboys prevented me from capturing his full attention. T.V., my friend and enemy.
Healthy parent #2
Besides taking care of sick kids, I found time to cook our Thanksgiving dinner. I prefer turkey but apparently my whole family likes ham, so ham it was. It was one of those yummy foil wrapped hams from Sams Club. I made the mistake of making my pie crusts and pies the day of, so dinner was a little later than planned, but still scrumptious.
Unlike my husband, the black friday sales were definitely on my list. Spending and then saving as I'm spending are two of my very favorite things. I chattered on to him that morning as we drove 40 minutes to the designated Target and Wal-mart. I gave detailed instructions to him, his mission, Wal-mart and he was going in alone. He didn't respond as I explained his mission, just stared blankly at the road. I think he may have been tuning me out b/c instead of getting the train set for Luke, he bought several bags of chocolate.
Besides my shopping on friday morning the only other time I left the house was to the gym. A 9 mile run is just what my body needed after gorging myself on food and many treats.
I had to stay home on Sunday with our sick kids, so I spent the time listening to Christmas music and putting up our decorations. Fun, Fun, Fun.
Despite some hiccups in our weekend plans we still had a great time being together. The only thing our holiday lacked was family and good friends. We missed you all. Happy Holidays
p.s. Luke is perking up a little, can you tell?
Sick kid #1
Luke has been suffering with his flu symptoms for about a week now. These symptoms include cough, runny nose, sore throat, fatigue, and some gross goopy stuff coming from eyes. Now although neither Shane nor my self have been sick, we too have suffered. Parents of crabby and sick toddlers definitely suffer. Am I right?
Sick kid #2
Meg picked up Lukes virus on Thanksgiving day. She awoke to a very sore throat, the rest of the symptoms showed up later in the day. For some, feeling completely run down and sick may prevent you from eating, but as most of you know Meg has a special relationship with food, to miss out on a Thanksgiving feast would be an abomination. How could one possibly let a little thing like a flu virus come between them and feasting. She's a trooper.
Healthy kid #1
Jakes Thanksgiving break consisted of snacking, t.v, video games, snacking, t.v, video games, watching football with Dad and winning his very first game of settlers. And one very important task of babysitting while Shane and I went shopping on black friday. This may sound like an easy task since everyone should have been asleep while we were gone, but Luke could not let that happen. As I'm standing in a very long and hostile line at Target I can barely make out the ring of my cell phone. I thought "who could possibly be calling me at 4:30am", my phone says "home", a very tired Jake is on the line and is asking what to do b/c cause little Lukey will not go back to sleep. (Luke was apparently startled when he came into our room to use the bathroom and found a sleeping Jake). So I did what every good mother would do, I told Jake to turn on cartoons, problem solved. Thank you NickJr.
Healthy parent #1
He was very excited for Thanksgiving break. This break meant no classes, no whiny students, lots of football, sleeping in and of course good food. Well his weekend included some of these elements but also a few others. For instance conducting a funeral for a woman whom He didn't even know was definitely not on his list. Waking up at 2:45 am to go and wait with a crazed mob at Walmart for the electronics dept. to open would normally never ever be on his list. Carrying a kicking,screaming, sick kid out of DQ, well that's always on the list. Sleeping in is always on the list but never checked off. With all the mayhem he managed to get a little football in. I tried to cuddle up to him between cooking dishes but his love for watching his disintegrating Cowboys prevented me from capturing his full attention. T.V., my friend and enemy.
Healthy parent #2
Besides taking care of sick kids, I found time to cook our Thanksgiving dinner. I prefer turkey but apparently my whole family likes ham, so ham it was. It was one of those yummy foil wrapped hams from Sams Club. I made the mistake of making my pie crusts and pies the day of, so dinner was a little later than planned, but still scrumptious.
Unlike my husband, the black friday sales were definitely on my list. Spending and then saving as I'm spending are two of my very favorite things. I chattered on to him that morning as we drove 40 minutes to the designated Target and Wal-mart. I gave detailed instructions to him, his mission, Wal-mart and he was going in alone. He didn't respond as I explained his mission, just stared blankly at the road. I think he may have been tuning me out b/c instead of getting the train set for Luke, he bought several bags of chocolate.
Besides my shopping on friday morning the only other time I left the house was to the gym. A 9 mile run is just what my body needed after gorging myself on food and many treats.
I had to stay home on Sunday with our sick kids, so I spent the time listening to Christmas music and putting up our decorations. Fun, Fun, Fun.
Despite some hiccups in our weekend plans we still had a great time being together. The only thing our holiday lacked was family and good friends. We missed you all. Happy Holidays
p.s. Luke is perking up a little, can you tell?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Pale Green Pants
One of my favorite things to do as a mom is read to my kids. With each one I have read to them from birth. Shane use to tease me when I read to Jake as a tiny infant. He didn't think it could possibly make a difference when Jake could barely open his eyes. Once Jake (at a very early age) proved that he loved books, Shane did not tease again. I wanted one of their earliest memories to be of books. Both Jake and Meg love books. They don't just love books, they adore books, they can't get enough of them. To be honest their reading comprehension is much better than mine. They are always quoting random facts and when I ask where they learned it from, 90% of the time it has come from their reading. They are amazing and I hope that Luke will follow in their footsteps. I think he just might.
After lunch each day Luke and I sit in our reading chair. It is a very comfy chair and pleasing to the eye.(At least mine anyway) Luke grabs a blanket and a pile of books and we read until nap time. It's probably his favorite part of the day, aside from hockey, wrestling and snacking. His favorite book for several months now has been a book about a mischievous little puppy named BISCUIT. A darling book for a 2 year old boy. His new favorite book caught me by surprise. You wouldn't think it would be a favorite but it has now become Luke's. Some of you might remember this story from Dr. Seuss. it's called "What was I Scared of?" It's an odd tale of a pair of pale green pants with no one inside them. I thought a very odd thing to write about but Luke loves it. I'm not sure he quite understands it but he loves the fact that these pants, with no one inside them is chasing the Dr. Seuss character.
An excerpt:
I said, "I do not fear those pants with nobody inside them." I said, and said, and said those words. I said them, But I lied them.
I'm almost sad to think of Luke learning to read, then our reading time in our very comfy chair will be over. For now I'll take every chance I get to read to my little Lukey. He won't be little much longer.
After lunch each day Luke and I sit in our reading chair. It is a very comfy chair and pleasing to the eye.(At least mine anyway) Luke grabs a blanket and a pile of books and we read until nap time. It's probably his favorite part of the day, aside from hockey, wrestling and snacking. His favorite book for several months now has been a book about a mischievous little puppy named BISCUIT. A darling book for a 2 year old boy. His new favorite book caught me by surprise. You wouldn't think it would be a favorite but it has now become Luke's. Some of you might remember this story from Dr. Seuss. it's called "What was I Scared of?" It's an odd tale of a pair of pale green pants with no one inside them. I thought a very odd thing to write about but Luke loves it. I'm not sure he quite understands it but he loves the fact that these pants, with no one inside them is chasing the Dr. Seuss character.
An excerpt:
I said, "I do not fear those pants with nobody inside them." I said, and said, and said those words. I said them, But I lied them.
I'm almost sad to think of Luke learning to read, then our reading time in our very comfy chair will be over. For now I'll take every chance I get to read to my little Lukey. He won't be little much longer.
Monday, November 08, 2010
Invention Convention
The fifth graders at Wayne Middle School were recently given an interesting project, they were to invent something. Their directions were to think of an idea, create a poster about it and then make a proto-type if possible. At first I thought it would be easy. Meg and I are smart, of course we could think of something creative. After racking our brains for about an hour we came up with a super idea that is sure to bring our whole family financial security for life.
The PROBLEM....
Impossible to get all the peanut butter out of the jar.
SOLUTION.....
A jar with no bottom, but two tops. Once you've gotten all of the peanut butter out of one side, you can flip it over unscrew the other lid and get the rest of the contents out. (I thought we should put a zipper down the side, but I guess Megs idea was better. She's very difficult to work with) So the TWO TOPPER was born.
Here's Meg at the convention. Each fifth grader had to sit at their station and present their ideas to all the parents. Meg was super excited about this, as you can see.
After the convention all the parents were treated to a musical performance by the fifth grade band. Meg plays the flute and is awesome.
If you are at all interested in purchasing the TWO TOPPER you will be happy to know that all proceeds go to a very good cause. US!
The PROBLEM....
Impossible to get all the peanut butter out of the jar.
SOLUTION.....
A jar with no bottom, but two tops. Once you've gotten all of the peanut butter out of one side, you can flip it over unscrew the other lid and get the rest of the contents out. (I thought we should put a zipper down the side, but I guess Megs idea was better. She's very difficult to work with) So the TWO TOPPER was born.
Here's Meg at the convention. Each fifth grader had to sit at their station and present their ideas to all the parents. Meg was super excited about this, as you can see.
After the convention all the parents were treated to a musical performance by the fifth grade band. Meg plays the flute and is awesome.
If you are at all interested in purchasing the TWO TOPPER you will be happy to know that all proceeds go to a very good cause. US!
Monday, November 01, 2010
Halloween in Nebraska
We had to make the traditional carmel apples. They were oh so delicious. Shane was not at home but we saved him one. He didn't eat it right when he got home that night, so the next morning it was fair game. It was a super healthy breakfast for me.
We all had so much fun carving pumpkins this year. Luke helped out by removing one pumpkin seed at a time from Jakes pumpkin and then with each extraction, "ewwww, gross."
And no, we didn't go super high-tech and get a book with pumpkin carving pages. This was all free hand.
The best part of Halloween is always the kids dressed in their costumes. Luke wanted nothing more than to be Buzz lightyear (it had nothing to do with the fact that we already had the costume from when Jake was a toddler). At first Luke thought you were supposed to say Trucks or Trains and then after some lessons from Jake and Meg he learned the proper phrasing. Meg wanted to be a devil but the costume I bought her at Walmart was not satisfactory, so she ended up being a pirate. Jake went super easy, a ghost. Most of the night while trick or treating he just had the sheet propped up on his head like a scarf. Now after all the hard work Shane and I have put into this fall season each of the kids have to pay up. Half their candy will suffice.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
The Little Bighorn
The drive from Alberta to Nebraska took us past another national monument site. If you take Interstate 90 southeast of Billings Montana, you'll drive right past the historic location of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In the 1870s, the US cavalry had declared war on several rogue Indian tribes who refused to abandon their culture and settle on the reservations. Foremost among them were Sioux tribes led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
In 1876, General Armstrong Custer led the US Seventh Cavalry along the Little Bighorn river in the hopes of ambushing the Sioux. He expected to find only a few hundred Sioux, and instead found an encampment of close to ten thousand. What followed was one of the most one-sided clashes in the history of the Indians wars. Armstrong and all his men perished in a battled celebrated among Native Americans to this day.
The visitor's center has displays on frontier life in the 1870s, weapons and dress of the Sioux Indians, and this display on the life of George Armstrong Custer.
Vistors to the Little Bighorn can take a walking or driving tour of the battlefield. This spot informs visitors about the skirmish between cavalry and Sioux on Calhoun's hill.
As you walk through the battlefield, there are small headstones that commemorate the place where cavalry were killed by Sioux warriors.
Uh...
In 1876, General Armstrong Custer led the US Seventh Cavalry along the Little Bighorn river in the hopes of ambushing the Sioux. He expected to find only a few hundred Sioux, and instead found an encampment of close to ten thousand. What followed was one of the most one-sided clashes in the history of the Indians wars. Armstrong and all his men perished in a battled celebrated among Native Americans to this day.
The visitor's center has displays on frontier life in the 1870s, weapons and dress of the Sioux Indians, and this display on the life of George Armstrong Custer. 
Vistors to the Little Bighorn can take a walking or driving tour of the battlefield. This spot informs visitors about the skirmish between cavalry and Sioux on Calhoun's hill. 
As you walk through the battlefield, there are small headstones that commemorate the place where cavalry were killed by Sioux warriors.
Uh...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Devils Tower
On the drive from Alberta to Nebraska we made a little detour to the northeast corner of Wyoming, where we stopped at Devils Tower national monument.
"Hey, Devil's Tower is no reason to take out my paci, okay?"
It looks just like all those models I built with my mashed potatoes.
Devil's Tower is a hotspot for rockclimbers. You can see the guide in the higher ledge, and then two people down below him.
There is a hiking path that goes all the way around the monument, but woe to anyone who gets closer than that.
Sturgis, SD hosts a motorcycle festival in the second week of August every year, and so there are thousands of bikers in the region. But they're not mean bikers. They're more like senior project managers who ride Harleys on the weekend.
"Hey, Devil's Tower is no reason to take out my paci, okay?"
It looks just like all those models I built with my mashed potatoes.
Devil's Tower is a hotspot for rockclimbers. You can see the guide in the higher ledge, and then two people down below him.
There is a hiking path that goes all the way around the monument, but woe to anyone who gets closer than that.
Sturgis, SD hosts a motorcycle festival in the second week of August every year, and so there are thousands of bikers in the region. But they're not mean bikers. They're more like senior project managers who ride Harleys on the weekend.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Alberta: Hiking Chief Mountain
The goal.
The Rock Scramble. 
McSweeney bogarts the beef jerky.
The agony of the screet.
Approaching the summit.The Glory.
The long walk home.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Alberta: Red Rock Canyon
This year the parking lot is under construction, so we had to drop off the family a few hundred yards away and they hiked in. Then Spencer and I had to drive a mile down the road to park the car in a clearing, and walk back.
Hiking up the canyon towards the slide.
Jake and Nolan trying to climb just high enough to injure themselves when they fall.
Meg contemplates whether to go down the slide while Patrice stands in the glacial water and awaits the onset of hypothermia.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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