Yes, I'm Still Alive

I see that I haven't blogged since January 1. Good grief. It's been a busy six weeks and our computer is in the coldest room of our house, so I haven't been motivated to blog. Once I get the kid in bed and the house picked up, I crash. Our internet has been down for a week too, and the call queue for Qwest has been really long, so right now I am using someone on my street's wireless connection. Shame on them for not having a firewall.

What's new? Hmmm... Ryan and I had a play date with Rachel and the boys in January and that was fun, but Ryan did not want to share his GeoTrax trains so he was being naughty, and he still talks about Anthony whacking Chase with a plastic golf club. Diane and I are taking yoga on Monday nights, which I am really starting to love. We are looking for a smaller class though, there are so many people in my class that the teacher can't see if we are doing it right or not, and one week a Diane killed a cockroach before class started. Our teacher by the way, is Johnny Gosch's mom Noreen. Interesting.

I've been doing pretty well on my resolutions except I haven't ellipticalled in two weeks because Ryan is not falling asleep at night until like 10:30. He insists he is too big and his crib is too small. I am 2nd on my Lighten Up Iowa team for activity, but near the bottom of the heap for weight loss, although I can wear a smaller size. Odd.

I have also been home 3 times since I blogged. Once to see Grandpa for the last time, which I am glad I got to do, once for the funeral (he died 45 minutes after we got back to Des Moines), and once for my Aunt Merry's birthday party, where Ryan ran around like a crazy man for 2 hours and also stomped on his cousin's head. AAAAAH!

Other than that, I have been working like crazy at work, coloring with Ryan, and playing GeoTrax with Ryan. Those are his two favorite activities and his third is yammering all the time! Yesterday I took a few hours off and did a lot of shopping, and today I managed to clean the bathroom, finish Ryan's new curtains, and get rid of a lot of clothes in the attic. I am giving 6 Rubbermaids of clothes to Goodwill. I have had most of them since college and the first few years at DNR. I have been saving them for when I am that small again, but they are so out of style there's no point now!

The only other excitment around here is that Ryan has seen my grandpa at our house 3 times since he died. I totally believe him. At first it creeped me out, but now I just find it comforting. Grandpa even managed to find a lost toy for us, and put it in the middle of the room for us to find. I will have to tell you the whole story later. It's 5:45 pm now, and Ryan has been asleep for 3 hours. If I don't get him up now, he'll never sleep tonight.

Welcome 2008!

Ah, it's that sweet time on my day off when both my boys are down for their naps.... I passed the time catching up on my Vanity Fair reading and now I am putting my boxes of decorations (took them down last Saturday) in the attic, which requires some rearranging. Ryan and I passed a quiet New Year's Eve playing choo-choos and coloring. I was conked out by 10 pm, which was much better than last year when I got robbed!!

Here are my resolutions for 2008 - perhaps if I blog them, I will stick to them!

1. Be Frugal/Save Money - ah, those weekly trips to the Target dollar spot and to use my Michael's coupon add up. So do those trips through the drive-thru at lunch because I am too busy running errands to eat - see #4. Lots of things in our house are wearing out at the same time and we want to go on vacaction for our 10th anniversary in October, so we must be frugal and save. Todd is going to work on eating out less, which means I will have to cook more :(
2. Actually use my ellipitical machine - even if it is for only 10 minutes a day.
3. Stay hydrated. My worst habit. I usually don't even drink 8 oz of water a day.
4. Take time for me - take my lunch and actually read at lunchtime instead of running errands. Get a sitter some times. Diane and I are going to take a yoga class!
5. Reduce my pop consumption - this will help with #1.
6. Call and see my friends more often. I have the same friends (except Diane) that I have had since 1993. Why don't I spend more time with them? Too lazy to make an effort I guess, but not in 2008!

It's Christmas Time!

It is officially Christmas. We had Todd's parents up today for Christmas, and it was great fun. We had chili and potato soup, chili dogs, deviled eggs, and Christmas candy. Sandy also baked and decorated Ryan a snowman cake, and he made us put a candle in it so he could blow it out. I would post a pic, but my camera has died, so I am using disposable. Wish me luck.

We all made out like bandits. Especially me, who got a handmade green toile quilt!!!, Todd who got a handmade racing quilt! and Ryan who got a GeoTrax remote control train set!!! Of course, the gifts we had ordered for Mike and Sandy hadn't come in the mail yet....Ryan spent about 2.5 hours driving the train around and around. I can't believe a 2-yr old can run a remote control like that...but hey, he's pretty advanced :) Apparently, GeoTrax has a bunch of other train sets you can add to the tracks, and the funny thing is that my Mom already has one at her house. We didn't know it was a GeoTrax. Maybe she will let us bring it back.

Tomorrow we are off for the farm at 11:15. I am guessing we will leave more like noon. Usually I am ready early, and then I pace around while Todd runs late. It's tradition. We are taking 2 cars and leaving the jeep in Newton so I can drop Todd off at work on the way home Wednesday. This means we don't have to rush home on the 25th! Hooray. We have to stop in Indee along the way and visit the 3 Arnold siblings - Aunt Donna (87) at Assisted Living, Uncle Melvin (91) at the hospital, and Grandpa (92) at the home. I have goodies for all of them. It is depressing that Grandpa will be at the home for Christmas Eve and Day. I hate to say this, but I hope he sleeps through most of it so he's not lonely.

Ryan is pretty much cured, although he got too excited today and started hacking away, so I had to nebulize him. I Knew he was better this morning when he threw a cup of apple juice across the living room and I had to time-out him. Naughty means healthy. I was worried because yesterday was not good. He caughed so long and hard that he threw up in the nebulizer and down both of my legs. Disgusting.

I am attaching the pics of our trip to see Santa. Ryan wouldn't go near him, except Santa was giving away Little Debbies! Then Ryan rode the train, which for $1 is a pretty good deal. It goes around 5 times. Ryan rode in a car by himself, and all the other kids rode together in the engine. I was worried he would cry or escape, but he loved it. That's him, who you can barely see, in the yellow car.

Sick Baby

Bronchitis. Croup. Ear Infection. Simultaneously. Tired Baby. Tired Mommy.

Creepy Candidates

Okay, this caucus thing is getting out of hand. Today someone from Hillary's office stopped by my house in person and asked me if I needed a babysitter for caucus night. Actually, I do, but why would I let a complete stranger do it??

I am home with Ryan today. He has bronchiolitis - which I think is a kids version of bronchitis. He has a horrible cough. I call the Dr. at 8:05 and got an 8:30 appointment!! You can't beat that. I am wrapping my gifts while he naps. The phone has rung 4 times since he went down. AAAGH! Today was our holiday party at work, but oh well. Todd is at our IRS audit, so he couldn't stay home.

I know I am way behind on my blog. I spent all last week prepping for the Climate Change Council (see yesterday's DM Register front page - I organized the meeting) then was gone Sun - Mon for the meeting. I have 2 gifts + my bingo prizes left to buy and some cooking & grocery shopping to do Sat, but otherwise I am done. Ryan has made this a good Christmas season for me.

First Time Sledding

Last weekend I took Ryan home to see his Great-Grandpa just in case something were to happen before Christmas. It was a good visit. Ryan was good medecine for his sick Great-Grandpa. While we were there Aunt Heather brought over a sled and took Ryan for his first sledding adventure in the front yard. We did it in front of the picture window so everyone could watch. Ryan loved it and just asked today "Grandpa's? Zoom Again?"

Devastating News

This weekend started out exceptionally bad. Friday night my mom called to tell me that the doctors had finally figured out why my Grandpa Arnold is so tired all the time - he has a large tumor on his pancreas and nodules all over his lungs. They couldn't say for sure - but reading the handwriting on the wall - it is pancreatic cancer that has spread. They are going to the oncologist on Wednesday, but I'm guessing since Grandpa is 92.75 years old, he won't want to treat it. It is shocking - he is still sharp as a tack, lives on his own, mows his own lawn, etc. Needless to say, this is not good for anyone, and brings up a lot of horrible memories of my Grandma's long excrutiating battle with cancer 20 years ago.

I did not sleep well at all Friday night. Saturday Rachel and I were to take the boys to a Cookie Walk, but we decided to cancel. Ryan seemed to sense that we were trapped inside and was HYPER and NAUGHTY all day. It didn't help that I was on the phone a lot - my mom, my aunt, my sister, etc. At one point I was looking in the closet for something and noticed it was really quiet. I went out into the kitchen, and he was standing on the window ledge above the kitchen counter cleaning the window with a sponge. I screamed so loud that I startled him and he fell out of the window. I managed to catch him. Another time, I went to the bathroom and when I came back he was playing in his crib. He had scaled the side of it and dove in.

He was a lot tamer today and somehow this weekend I managed to get the tree up and 75% of my cards done. I only put 50% of our decorations out since he keeps moving them around. I estimate that Todd and I have about 175 ornaments plus the regular glass balls, and most of them are glass. Atleast I will have less to put away at the end of the month. He calls it "his tree" and the tiny ceramic one on the piano is "mommy's tree".

Well, time to sign off and go to bed. I have an IRS audit of Stein's to look forward to this week!
Yee-haw!

Some Cheery Pictures

Here are some cheery pictures from Thanksgiving Day. We stayed home for Thanksgiving because of Todd's schedule. We had planned to have Diane and Brian over for dinner, but Brian had emergency surgery the day before and had 2.5 feet of his intestine removed - so it was just us most of the day. It was pretty laid back. Todd slept until about 3 pm, so Ryan and I played both inside and outside most of the day. He is obsessed with Santa, particularly our inflatible Santa. Every morning we deflate it and he jumps around singing "Santa Nap! Santa Nap!". Then we drive to school and he tells every single kid "Santa Nap! Santa Nap!". Every night the only way I can get him to leave daycare is to say "It's time to wake up Santa!" . Then we go home and I plug Santa in, he inflates, and Ryan runs around saying "I see Santa! "I see Santa!" Thn I have to drag him inside kicking and screaming :)
Ryan was quite perplexed by the snow. He kept touching it with his mittens and saying "Wet! Wet!" Please note, we are not Raiders fans, but a free coat is a free coat.

About 1 pm I started cooking our turkey. I didn't have to put the sides in the oven until about 5 pm. Diane came over about 6 pm, and we ate. I went to move the turkey with the tongs from the roasting pan to cutting board, and the turkey fell apart and bounced on the counter. Stuffing squirted everywhere! It was messy, but dang that turkey was moist!

Christmas Kickoff

Friday night Rachel and I took the boys to Jordan Creek for the lighting of the Christmas tree. Luckily, it was a warm night. We got there 30 minutes early and parked. We had to walk quite a ways, but we were able to stake out a bench very close to the tree between On the Border and Joe's Crab Shack. Rachel fed the boys snacks (this bad mom forgot hers) and then Ryan and I walked almost the full lenght of the lake to find the free cookie booth. After the boys had their cookies, they ran around like crazy men in the grass next to Joe's with the other kids. I'm sure there were probably 1000's of people there, but it wasn't too crowded at our end since most of the people were at the opposite end by the bleachers. Finally, after the 30-minute Blenders concert, the started the countdown and lit the tree. It was very exciting. Then the fireworks started. They were awesome. They were almost more impressive than the 4th of July, and they lasted a really long time. At first, Ryan shook his head and said No! No!, and then he laid his head on my shoulder. But I noticed after a few minutes that he was watching them and smiling. They were really beautiful over the lake. We were right under them, which was a little scary. We decided the mall would be too crowded after them, so we went to McDonalds so the kids could play. They had so much fun going down the big pink slide. They played for about an hour. Ryan was all hot and sweaty. Then Rachel dropped us off, and I got Ryan ready for bed and he was out like a light. What a fun outing!

I've Been Tagged

Jen tagged me. Of course she tagged everyone I know, so I have no one to tag! Here's the deal:

THE RULES:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Here are my 7 facts:

1. I have an unusually high pain threshold. I was off pain killers 3 days after my c-section. The nurses couldn't believe my chart.

2. The most disgusting taste in the world to me is almond flavoring. It triggers my gag reflex. I despise Dutch letters.

3. I am afraid of being buried alive or being put in prison for a crime I didn't commit.

4. I am traumatized by baking pie. We had to bake one and enter the 4-H pie baking contest each year. They auctioned them off, and after 8 years of seeing other peoples' pies sell for $200 (their parents were showoffs) and mine sell for $20, I can not bear to bake a pie. Except for pumpkin at Thanksgiving. Pumpkin was not allowed in the contest - so no trauma.

5. I have mud-wrestled a pig at the Buchanan County Fair.

6. My favorite food in the world is appetizers - any kind - but best are olives and foods containing mayo or cream cheese.

7. Sometimes I drink soy sauce straight from the bottle.

8. A bonus fact - I have asymmetrical optic nerves. They don't match. Apparently this is usually a sign of gluacoma, but in my case, it just means I'm a freak.

Stressed

As you can tell from my recent posts - I am stressed at work. So I have transferred my stress to obsessing about cleaning my house and baking birthday cakes. I scrubbed all the baseboards and walls in the dining room before Ryan's birthday and washed the curtains. I told my mom that I scrubbed the baseboards, and she said "And did all your guests comment on how clean your baseboards were?". Crap. She's right. I need to get some rest and focus on what really matters. My Aunt Kathy (ok, she's Todd's aunt, but she's my aunt now!) also sent me this:

Written on my chalk board in the kitchen I have " Elephants can't jump" & that is to remind me that no matter how magnifigant they are, with great stregnth, grace, power, balance, memory, emotion, etc -- they can't do it all -- which is why they can't jump. And we can't do it all either, even though we try very hard -- we are only human.

So - all you supermoms out there - remember that elephants can't jump and no one cares if your baseboards are dirty. Now go kiss your babies.

Crazy Week Ahead

I usually lead a pretty boring life, but this week is going to be nuts. Of course, this only happens 3 times a year - right before I go to an all day crop. Combined with my usual solo Mom gig (except for Monday) - I usually end up being totally exhausted by the time I get there. I will have to try to go to bed early all week. HA! HA! Like that's going to happen.

Monday - pretty calm - Todd's night off.
Tuesday - Halloween Party at Franklin library and trick-or-treating.
Wednesday - Halloween Party at work (I'm in charge of it), frantically clean and buy refreshments for P Chef party.
Thursday - All day meeting with Industry at work that I am in charge of. This requires panty hose. Pampered Chef party at 6:30 pm.
Friday - maybe babysit for 18 month old down the street. Maybe her mom forgot that I offered? Pack for crop
Saturday - crop 9 am - Midnight ( H and I are planning to quit after supper so I my in-laws can go home)
Sunday - babyshower 3 hours away at 1 pm (I might have to go up and back in one day! - 6 hrs in car -joy)
Monday - back to work

Ryan's 2nd Birthday

Ryan's 2nd 2nd birthday was great fun. Cake #2 turned out awesome - it is all homemade - the train is made out of chocolate. He loooooved it. The party was at 3 pm, but he was keyed up all day. The last guests left at 6:30, and he conked out about 15 minutes later.

Today I took him to get his 2 year pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. I was impressed that I got my pictures in 20 minutes, but I spent about 4 x what I usually spend at JcPenney's. This is the first time that Ryan has not cooperated. It was horrible - he cried, clung, ran away. They did manage to get some good ones though. The head-and-shoulder ones are his best ever. While we waited for them to print, we hit Archivers. It is sooo overwhelming. I spent this afternoon cleaning my craft area and ironing his Halloween costume and my kitchen curtains. I washed them so no one at my P Chef part would see the dust. Tomorrow is Ryan's Harvest party at school, and I am going to send him in a bear costume we got from Riley. I don't want his pirate one to get ruined!

Grandma and Grandpa Stein got Ryan an electric car for his birthday. He drove it around for about 15 minutes before the steering column broke :( I can't believe how fast he got the hang of it.

You can take the boy out of danger, but you can't take the danger out of the boy.

I believe this picture says it all.

And yes, I was a bad mother and took a picture before I made him get down!

Scenes from Birthday Party #1

Coloring with Uncle Kurt - Ryan adores him and asked where he was every time Kurt left the room.
Sticking his fingers in the cool aquarium cake Mommy made him (Grandma baked it, Mommy decorated it.)
Learning how to say I'm Two! from Aunt Heather.

Herding Cows with Grandpa in the truck. All of this happened up at the farm last weekend. I took Ryan up for the weekend, and we did all this fun stuff plus we went to the park and went out for Mexican. It was a lot of fun, and Ryan was very behaved. I think everyone got a kick out of how much he talks now. The cake turned out too - which I was very happy about.

Ads

In case you haven't noticed, I have let Blogger put ads on my blog. Supposedly you can earn a lot of money this way, but since there are only 7 people that read my blog on a regular basis (H, Mom, Kathy, the 3 Beymer ladies, and Rachel) I doubt I am earning much dough. However, I am getting a kick out of the ads. If I complain about my weight, the ads all switch to weight loss products. If I mention Ryan, they all switch to baby ads. Today they were all ads for Halloween costumes. It almost makes me want to post something really raunchy to see what they advertise for that!

Hi Aunt Kathy!

This post is for Aunt Kathy. She collects elephants and loves elephants so I have to post a pic of Ryan on the elephant for her. She also is an avid blog reader! She also has left me several nice messages that I have been too lazy to return (or too busy with Ryan?) and sent us a nice anniversary card. I'm sorry for being such a slacker niece!

Look What Was in My Can of Peanuts!

Look what crawled out of my can of peanuts! A curious little boy!

Tonight was Ryan's lucky night. Mommy was so tired that he got to watch 3 episodes of Curious George. Ryan is so warm and delicious, and I am so chilly that I almost hated to put him in bed.

Somehow I have managed to read the newest Stephanie Plum novel Lean Mean Thirteen and finish all of Ryan's costume except the sash in the past 24 hours. Plus we had a big public meeting today at work that I had to bake cookies for. I was bummed about the meeting - because of it I couldn't take time off to see the fire truck. Teri Ann got the Johnston Fire Dept to send over 3 firemen and a big fire truck to day care this morning. All of the kids got to climb up in the truck. I guess Ryan climbed up, got scared, and started crying. I am thinking this is what will happen at the farm this weekend. He will probably love watching the combine, but not want to get up in it. I am pretty impressed with Teri Ann though. The kids have been studying community helpers for the past two weeks, and last week she had someone from the Coast Guard come over in uniform and give a presentation. Ryan got a certificate saying he had completed Preschool Water Safety Training. I though that was pretty funny considering he still chugs bathwater on a regular basis.

I have to go to the shrink in the morning for my checkup. It is pretty lame. They ask you a series of really basic questions like are you sleeping? eating? feeling sad? looking forward to things? ok? - here's your prescription - see you in 4 months. I don't know how they can tell anything by your answers. It takes less than 10 minutes.

Uh-Oh

I just finished sewing the crotch in Ryan's pirate pants --- and one of the legs is inside out!!!
Crap. Off to find my seam ripper.

Average Saturday

Not much new to report. It's just an average Saturday for me. This morning Ryan and I vacuumed and then hit Target and the grocery store, and we've spent the rest of the day alternately playing and sitting in time-out. AAAH! He's lucky he's cute. You can't even tell I vacuumed this morning! Now when you say, "Ryan do you need a time out?" in your gruffest voice, he says "Yeah." and walks over to the wall. Once today he was so out of control, I asked him if he needed to go to bed. He said yes, so he sat in there for a while.

I make him sound worse than he is. He is good 90% of the time. He is hilarious. He repeats everything you say now but sometimes get things mixed up. He still thinks any kind of fruit is an apple, and tomatoes too.

I did start working on his pirate outfit during nap time. I have most of the pieces cut out. I still have to cut out the sleeves and then sew everything together. Maybe I will take Ryan out for supper tonite - I'm really hungry for salad or Chinese..... I did discover that I cant eat rice-a-roni. We had it for lunch, and my blood sugar was higher afterward than it has been in 4 years!