The next best gift, the Planet Heroes rocket ship.

The Happiest Kid You Have Ever Seen

Ryan managed to find his big Christmas gift before it was wrapped. He was hysterical, so we let him have it early. I was disappointed, but he was estatic!

Chirstmas morning we got home from Oskaloosa at 12:00 am. Ryan was up at 4 am. Todd managed to keep him in his room until 6:30, and then he and I watched cartoons until about 8:15, when he suddenly looked over and noticed Santa had been there! He was wound up all day and finally collapsed on my lap at 7:45 pm.

Don't Be Jealous Girls!

I can't believe I actually won something!

Blogger won't let me post the picture of my winnings.

I WON!!!

Last time I was at Archiver's I filled out an entry slip for their sweepstakes. I didn't win the $250, but I did win a Doodlebug 8 x 8 album and 12x12 paper pack. All the paper is black, which is interesting. Some of it is glittery and some is flocked. This was a happy moment in kind of a crappy week. I have strep throat again for the 2nd time in 30 days and Todd was out of town. Luckily Ryan was very understanding and entertained himself. The other good news is Todd's mom made it through her surgery well and should be home tomorrow.

Sigh...

So I've got this superbad chest cold and have been awake since 4:30 am. Today at 12:45 I went to bed to take a nap while Todd watched Ryan. 20 minutes later Ryan wakes me up - Todd is sound asleep on the couch.

At 3:00 we put Ryan down for his nap and I run to Dahl's for cough medecine. I arrive home 25 minutes later and Todd is sound asleep on the couch, and Ryan is amok in the kitchen. I wake Todd up and tell him I'm home. He says ok - Ryan's taking a nap. I say - oh no he isn't!

I need to cut him some slack though, his gout foot is killing him with throbbing pain. We are going to the rheumatologist tomorrow. I really don't understand how it can be eating the bone away in his foot and they aren't doing anything.

Foiled Again

I have been dreaming of having a day where it was just me in the house, and I could catch up on whatever I wanted. Yesterday was that day, and it sucked. I have a super nastly cold (thanks Ryan), and only managed to go to my hair appointment and Target before collapsing on the couch. I don't think I am going to get my Karen Foster advent calendar made before Christmas. My house is trashed too because I did a 3.5 hour conference call on Friday and Ryan made some horrible messes while I was on the phone. He was home because daycare was closed, and he doesn't like it when I don't pay attention to him!

One good thing - I almost ready the whole Twilight book yesterday. Edward does sound dreamy.

Misc.

Winter scene from our backyard and some of Ryan's fall crafts from preschool. I love the turkey and pumpkin, they are just lunch bags full of paper.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. My parents came down, and I cooked the entire meal except dessert and my mom's dressing. I am wondering how come the mothers of the world have not revolted and just started going out for lunch. It is a lot of work for it all to be over in 20 minutes. Plus by the time I got sat down, I wasn't hungry any more!

Friday my parents and I took Ryan to the Festival of Trees and Lights downtown. It was really cool. They had a lot of pretty trees to look at, and Ryan only touched 3 ornaments. They also had the train from the mall there, so he rode that twice, and we attempted to make a Gingerbread House but he ate the door. He didn't want to get his face painted. I think the highlight of the day was Grandma G bought him 3 cookies, and he got to ride in their car (formerly my Grandpa's). Every 5 minutes he would say that he liked their car! That would have made my grandpa happy. Later that night we went to Jolly Holiday Lights. Ryan conked out at the end and slept until 5:40 am the next day.

Chip off the Old Block

Ryan is just like his dad....

Last Saturday I spotted one of the neighbor's cats in the backyard. Ryan ran over to the patio door (in his pullup and it was freezing), yanked open the door and yelled "CAT! YOU GET OUT OF MY BACKYARD!" The cat took off and Ryan was all proud of himself. A few weeks ago he informed our neighbor that her cat keeps pooping in his yard, and he doesn't like it.

Is it just me?

Is it just me, or does the world seem to be going to hell-in-a-handbasket in all sectors all at the same time? The economy is depressing, all this climate change stuff is terrifying me, and now I am reading all these articles about the increasing number of starving children in the world.

I guess tonight when Ryan wants me to lie in bed with him and sing 'On top of Spaghetti' until he falls asleep I will cherish it and not be annoyed that he isn't sleeping.

By the way, in Ryan's version, the spaghetti is topped with butterscotch, not cheese. He thinks it is hilarious - his own little ode to pudding.

He also now tells jokes that make absolutely no sense but he thinks they are hilarious. His favorite is "What starts with banana? A bononna!" (say it with hand gestures)

Fun with Birds - Great for Kids

The Great Backyard Bird Count - I found this in a DNR newsletter I got. For 4 days in Febuary people all over America can count the number of birds in their backyards and send the count to a website. This is used to do a complete inventory of what kinds of birds are in America at one time. I think they give a way prizes on the website. This would be really fun for kids I think.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Posting

I was actually going to put some new stuff on my blog today, but I have to go into work :(
Actually, it might be nice going in to work. It will be quiet and I won't have to play Superfriends in the Bat Cave! I need to get a 2 yr old for Ryan to play with.

Halloween never ends at our house. Ryan and I spent the afternoon outside. Despite being Wonder Woman to his Bat Man, I got my tulips and daffodils planted.

Yesterday I went to a 15-hour crop with Heather, Jen, Roni, Steph, Jan, and Sue. It was awesome. We were all in good moods and none of us was bitching about anything. We all got a lot done too. My neck and back have been killing me, but after the most painful 10-minute massage I have ever had in my life I was a new woman.

Ryan and me on Beggar's Night before he told us he didn't want to Trick-or-Treat. He has been wearing 4 different costumes for 6 weeks, and on the big night he just wanted "his milk, his blanket, and watch Scooby Doo". We made it to about 10 houses.

Ryan and Todd at house #3. Ryan also didn't understand that you don't eat each piece of candy as it is handed to you.

Night Eyes and Ryan's 3rd Birthday

Working our Butts Off

I took Friday off so we could repaint our living room. It is now Ecru and Leap Frog Green instead of that nasty "sage" green I put up last year. We also ripped out the carpet and discovered we have awesome hardwood floors underneath! I spent all day yesterday on my hands and knees repainting the woodwork, pulling staples, and taking out the tack strips. Thankfully, Mike and Sandy were happy to watch Ryan this weekend at their house.

The third shot is of Ryan's playhouse. Todd has been working on it for at least 3 weeks. It is totally awesome. He just has to finish the roof. He is going to put on a mailbox and put in furniture. I get to landscape it.

The fourth shot is of our new patio door in the dining room. It has more than paid for itself. Now Ryan can just step outside to play and I can watch him from inside. If I need something from the garden, I can just step outside and get it. It's awesome. I also painted my dining room red, but I will have to save that for another post.

I need to catch you all up on everything that has happened in the past month, including our "vacation" in Omaha, but I need to go paint the hallway before Ryan gets back.

Why Women Should Vote

I got this as a forward...but it is very thought-provoking.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking for the vote. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of 'obstructing sidewalk traffic.' They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air.

They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Vir ginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

see - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because- -why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining? Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.All these years later, voter registration is still my passion.But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with her self. 'One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said. 'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use, my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.' Please, if you are so inclined, pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether you vote democratic, republican or independent party - remember to vote. History is being made.

ABC's - Too Cute!

Todd has been working with Ryan on his ABC's. I think he's got it!

The Sweetest Thing

Ryan has a very big vocabulary. Last night we ate at the new Mexican restaurant by Dahl's. Ryan says, that's a picture of a pyramid! By gosh, he was right, they had pictures of the Mexican pyramids. When we were paying, the waitress asked if he was 4 since he talked so well. I said no, he's 2 1/2. She said, "well I hope you have more babies because he is beautiful and smart!"

That was one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.

One more thing that just popped into my head - I am shocked. First that Bernie Mac died, and second that John Edwards turned out to be just another sleazewad politican that can't keep it in his pants. The chick he cheated with was homely too. I bet if his wife wasn't dying she'd ditch him.

Obsessed with Dressing Up

Ryan is obsessed with dressing up, wearing boots, and wearing socks on his hands. Here are some of his recent outfits.

1 - Mr. Hip Hop

2 - Super Hero

3 - In Chase's Spider Man Outfit