2 pink lines

I haven't been in the mood lately to blog, but I thought I'd post some entries I wrote a while ago and was saving...


This post was originally written on Aug 3, 2009

It's been 2 weeks and a day since I first saw those 2 pink lines. I had my own suspicions when I was on my trip to NY, but I wanted to wait till I got back home so I could take the test when Casey was home. We're not too sure of our due date, but I'm thinking around the 3rd week of March.

So far the morning sickness hasn't been too bad, but I'm sure that will change soon. On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is perfectly fine and 10 is on my knees bowing to the porcelin goddess, I've been about a 2 for most of the time. With my other pregnancies, I usually maintained a 5 or 6 pretty much all day long for the first trimester, so I'm expecting my queasiness to get worse.

The main symptom I'm experiencing is extreme fatigue. If I could just lay in bed all day long... but I have 2 little imps to kick my butt in gear first thing every morning, so that's just a pipe dream. Every morning I try to rest on the couch, but it's hard to do with elbows and feet and knees jamming into me. Apparently a body on the couch makes an irresistable climbing and jumping spot. I usually try to take a break in the afternoon too, somedays with more success than others. Helping out at VBS last week didn't help me conserve any energy either, but I made it through the week.

We've told our parents, but not the boys yet. I'm looking forward to telling all our friends, but I want to get through my first round of OB appointments before we share the news.

And life gets even crazier!

Here's a conversation we had with the boys last week. It's about 1 1/2 minutes, but it's totally worth watching. Coulson has some funny lines.

(Amy, in light of our conversation last night, you'll get a kick out of this ;-)

First day of kindergarten!

Yep, today was Coulson's first day of kindergarten. Since my boys don't sleep in, we didn't have any early morning-drag-a-sleepy-kid-out-bed-grumpiness that most of my friends were dreading. His natural wake-up time will be perfect to catch the bus on time. We tried to make this morning special for him. I got up and made his favorite breakfast - Swedish pancakes. (My childhood friends probably remember these from our sleepovers, it's my mom's specialty. For those who don't know, they're kinda like crepes.) Making breakfast is always special because we usually eat Cheerios for breakfast 30 days a month. And of course Casey took the obligatory pictures. Look at those gleaming white shoes! What kind of a mother buys gleaming white shoes for her 5 year old?? Silly lady.

Posing with his new lightsaber. Have I ever mentioned that he likes Star Wars?
Anyway, then we were off to meet the bus. My plan was to wait for the bus so we could say Hi to the bus driver, but then I was going to drive him to school myself for the first day. So we waited where the other kids in the neighborhood usually wait, but Coulson goes to a different school than the other kids, so his stop is at a different time. And apparently at a different place. The info on our sheet just named an intersection as the bus stop, but an intersection has 4 corners, and we didn't know from which direction the bus would be coming. We chose wrong. The bus stopped on the complete opposite corner from us, waited for 3 seconds, and then drove off, even though we were walking towards it at the time. So the bus system is not very forgiving, not even on the first day.

So I drove him to school and took him to his classroom. The teacher told the kids to come in and sit on the carpet and look through some books that she had available and Coulson followed directions very well. He was so busy looking through his book when I hugged him good-bye, that I don't know if he realized I was saying good-bye. Afterwards I started thinking that I should have been more clear that I was leaving so he wouldn't look up a few minutes later and wonder where I was. But I reminded myself that he's not two years old and looking up to find his Mommy gone isn't going to ruin his whole day.

Charlie and I made chocolate chip cookies for Coulson to have when he gets home from school, yummy. Soon, Charlie and I will head outside to wait for him at the bus stop. The correct bus stop this time. For K and 1st grade, there must be a parent or adult to meet them at the bus stop or else they won't drop off the kid, so I'm planning to be there early, in case the bus driver is impatient again.


P.S. UPDATE - Coulson had a good day at school. I started to get worried since his bus was pretty late, and I had arrived at the bus stop early to make sure I didn't miss it, so I was waiting for a while. I think he may still be overwhelmed by everything new, but overall he had a positive experience. He even made a friend and actually remembered his name. Most of the time when he makes a new friend, he doesn't know his name.

And my life gets a little crazier...

First of all, I love being a stay-at-home-mom. Although when I'm honest, I'll admit that there are days when I have seriously considered getting a job. A couple months ago I filled in at the church office for one day when our church secretary was on vacation and it was very nice -- Adult conversation. Respect. No screaming or fighting. No whining. The list goes on and on. And when I got home, I actually enjoyed being with the boys again. You know, absence makes the heart grow fonder. At one point several months ago, I even found myself scanning the help wanted ads in the newspaper. But when it comes down to the logistics of having someone else take care of my kids and having to follow someone else's work schedule and be on time, it's just too much of a hassle. And when it comes to the actual job of parenting, there are so many opportunities throughout the day to impose my own values on their impressionable minds (ha!ha! as if it were that easy!) Anway, I don't think I would trust someone else to enforce my personal values as well as I (try to) do. I know that there are a lot of good working mothers out there that have figured out a way to raise their kids with their own family values. But I don't know how to do that, I'm too saturated in the stay-at-home-mom approach. All I can do is wait until they start school...

In the meantime, being with the kids all day makes me feel like my brain is turning into mashed potatoes. I feel like being home is just where my life is right now and I accept that, but I still have great dreams of what I want to be when I grow up. I feel like I'm in a "holding pattern" as far as pursuing my passion. God has given me a passion for peacemaking and helping others and there are small ways I can do this now through my relationships and volunteer work. And now I have started preparing myself for my future work. The University of North Carolina-Greensboro offers a Master's Degree in Conflict Resolution. But even better than a local university offering the program I want - offering the program entirely online! I've waffled back and forth for years about which program to pursue for my Master's. I started with conflict resolution 4 years ago (after I saw Hotel Rwanda, the movie that changed my life), dabbled in international affairs and non-profit management, seriously courted the idea of law school (but I refer back to being saturated with the stay-at-home-mom statement) and came back full circle with even more enthusiasm for Conflict Resolution.

So I signed up to take a graduate level class in the Conflict Resolution program. I'm not officially admitted to the program yet (I keep procrastinating on that pesky GRE test), but I am taking the course for credit, so my grade counts. It's just one class and I will probably just take one class a semester for a while. Since I'll be crawling through this program at a snail's pace, I figured I should get started. My class starts tomorrow, the same day as Coulson's first day of school. It's online, but done through a live lecture that we log onto through the computer. I've already seen the syllabus and I have 2 short papers, 1 long paper, a group presentation and several journal reviews due. This will be fun - I haven't written a paper in 10 years!

The Boy Goes Camping

Guest Blogger today: Coulson, age 5 1/2 years

Once upon a time there was a boy. He was camping with his daddy. They went to a mountain called Hanging Rock where there was a campsite. They slept in a tent that is green with black words on it. He was going fishing and swimming and going to see waterfalls. But they only did fishing and swimming because the boy would not wear his sneakers and was too tired to walk.

Instead he made a bow and arrow out of a stick. Then he woke up. It was a BEAUTIFUL morning so they went fishing. Then they went swimming. Then they ate dinner and roasted marshmellows. Then they stayed up late and played games and went to sleep.

Father and Son Camping

Casey and Coulson are doing some father-son bonding this weekend. (Which means that Charlie and I are doing some mother-son bonding - sharing Reeses Peanut Butter cups and going to Chuck E. Cheese!)

So they are tent camping in the woods. Both of them have been preparing and looking forward to this for weeks. Setting up a time for Casey to go camping can be tricky with his schedule. Usually when he has 2 days off in a row, he'll work until midnight or later the night before his break, and then have to work first thing in the morning when he gets back, which makes for a very cramped "weekend." So when he can fit a camping trip in his schedule, that's a big deal. That's why I was bummed when I looked at the forecast for campsite for the next 3 days - chance of rain : 80% today, 50% tomorrow and 30% Sunday. Casey is determined to make the best of it, but Coulson's attitude can make it or break it. I'm hoping they'll have a good time no matter what.

I don't think that Casey has good cell phone coverage, not because he hasn't called me yet, but because he hasn't posted any facebook updates.

Anyway, just because it fits so well, here's a link to the latest post on Stuff White People Like
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/08/14/128-camping/

More of Charlie's birthday

I tried to post this earlier, but was having problems with the computer. Looks like it's working now!

Geocoin travels to Germany

It's been a while since I've blogged about geocaching, and I'm hoping to do some more in the fall when the weather gets cooler. But today I found out that our geocoin has travelled to Germany. A geocoing is a special coin made for geocaching with a unique code on it. The owner of the coin logs the coin and its code at Geocaching.com and then places it in a cache. When someone finds the cache, they can take the coin with them and place it in another cache. And the next person takes it to another cache and so on. Each person who moves the coin logs an entry at Geocaching.com so we can follow its trip. We placed our coin in a cache in Charlotte last year. It travelled around Charlotte for a while, then made it to the mountains, then Illinois. Someone in Illinois found it and logged that they were going to take it to Germany. We hadn't heard from it for a while, but I just got news today that someone found it in a cache in Germany! The log entry is in German and Casey doesn't remember any of his German from college, so we don't really know what it says. I guess I need to use BabelFish to translate it. Anyway, woo-hoo to our geocoin!

A refresher for those who don't remember my earlier caching posts:
A treaure hunt
The curse of the pirates' treasure

Charlie's Party!

Charlie turned 3 years old this week! We celebrated with a fabulous "Backyard Birthday Splash!" party. We had a sprinkler, Slip-n-slide, inflatable pool, some bubble toys, a small fishing "pond," and lots of friends to help celebrate. The backyard splash was a great way to have a mostly outside birthday party in August. I think everyone had a really good time. Of course we had the famous Costco cake (I've blogged before about my sordid love affair with this cake, and since Charlie is too young to preemptively voice his opinion, I was able to get the white cake with white icing) which garnered lots of compliments. Unfortunately, I only got to eat one piece of the cake, but that's a story for another day...

Instead of gifts, I asked everyone to bring school supplies to donate to the local Children's Home and I was blown away by our friends' generosity! I expected the kids to bring a couple notebooks and a maybe a pack of pencils, but everyone brought a bag full of goodies! The list-maker in me just had to catalog everything, so I included it at the end of this blog. The boys helped me count everything. Charlie has trouble counting past two (he always wants to count 1, 2, 5 and he sometimes insists that he just turned 5, not 3...) so Coulson did most of the heavy math. I love being able to donate stuff instead of getting a bunch of toys that we don't need, but Coulson is starting to get wise on my plan and he says that he wants his friends to bring gifts for his next birthday.

School Supplies to Donate (All this from only 10 families!):

• 14 boxes of crayons
• 9 bottles of Elmer's glue
• 26 glue sticks
• 14 folders
• 3 packages of pens
• 6 packages of pencils
• 5 packages of mechanical pencils
• 1 set of watercolor paint
• 3 pencil pouches
• 4 erasers
• 2 packages of highlighters
• 5 packages of markers
• 1 scotch tape
• 1 pencil sharpener
• 1 hand sanitizer
• 1 tub of sanitizing wipes
• 3 scissors
• 1 package of dry erase markers
• 14 composition notebooks
• 11 spiral notebooks
• 8 packs of loose leaf paper
• 2 packs of graph paper
• 2 book bags
• 8 packages of colored pencils
• 1 pack of batteries
  

Playmates

Occasionally in the past couple weeks, my boys have been displaying behavior that is quite frankly strange in our household.
If you've ever spent much time with my oldest child, you know that he is relationally very intense. Meaning that he doesn't play well by himself; he needs companionship pretty much all the time. When he was a toddler, I noticed that often his playmates would get overstimulated and naturally need some down time to play by themselves. But no, Coulson never need that quiet down time, he always wanted interaction with other people. Early childhood development experts talk about "parallel play" where young toddlers play next to each other, but not "with" each other. Coulson skipped this phase of development and went right to playing "with" the other kids (kids his own age didn't always appreciate his intervention, but he played well with older friends).
Anyway, all that to say that I don't get much time to myself while Coulson is awake. I purposefully put the playroom right next to the kitchen because I knew that he would never use a playroom upstairs. But even being in the room right next to me is too far away, as he spends most of his time in kitchen begging me to play with him. Anytime I can get him to play by himself with his toys in the playroom for more than 5 minutes, I consider it a victory. I've always been jealous of other moms whose children actually play with their toys without needing to threaten punishment.
Well, now Charlie is getting older and becoming a better playmate for Coulson. When they first started playing together, Coulson would tell Charlie what to do and most of the time he would do it, but fights were frequent because Charlie wouldn't understand or he'd simply rather "parallel play." Then as Charlie got older, he got more opinionated and thus more arguments would ensue. So I've been happy that they're playing together, but not too happy about the referee role. (And teaching kids to get along and work out their own problems requires a lot of patience; they don't learn those things quickly.)
Okay, anyway, lately, they have had moments where both of them actually work together and get along, often for up to 30 minutes at a time. And they're playing together upstairs in their bedroom! Today I was able to completely clean up from breakfast and prep dinner (it was a slow cooker meal, so was making dinner in the morning) and take a shower in complete peace. This is unheard of in our household. And they did it again before dinner tonight and didn't even notice when Casey came home from work (also unheard of...)
So what are they doing upstairs in their room? When I went to make my bed this afternoon (doesn't everyone make their bed in the afternoon?) I noticed that all my pillows were gone. The sleeping pillows, the decorative shams and the throw pillows, all gone. This has also been happening lately. They take all my pillows, all their pillows, all their blankets, even the comforters on their beds and pile them into a mountain on Coulson's bed. Then they take turns standing on the nightstand and jumping into the mountain of bedding. (I'm a responsible mom and I tell them to not get hurt.) When they get tired they turn the mountain into a fort and settle in and Coulson will "read" books to Charlie. Or last night they went into the closet and pulled down all their clothes (I don't think they'll do that again.)
So for my peace and quiet, their room looks like a tornado hit it several times, but the rest of the house is starting to look a little bit better. Everything's a trade-off and I'll take my peace for now because who knows how long it will last.

Floppy Bunny

Here's a bunny that I finally finished for Anne's baby. I started making it back in September, thinking I should be able to send it to her before the baby arrived in December since it's a small bunny and theoretically should take me a week's worth of evenings to compete - LOL! I finished it in early June and was able to give it to her precious baby when they visited my home while vacationing in NC.

This floppy bunny is crocheted in the amigurumi style from Floppy Friends pattern I bought from etsy.com. Mine still isn't as cute as the original, but I think I'm getting better from my previous amigurumi attempts.

I have another friend with a baby due in November and baby showers for her at the end of Aug and beginning of Oct. I'd love to have something crocheted to bring to one of the showers, but at my current rate, I don't know if it's going to happen. A crocheted gift would be especially meaningful since this friend taught me to crochet and I got her started in knitting. Now she mostly knits and I mostly crochet, go figure.

Ketchup

Here's a list of the things that Charlie eats with ketchup:

ketchup alone (with a fork or spoon)
french fries
hot dogs
hamburgers
chicken nuggets
baked chicken
grilled chicken
fish
corn
rice
broccoli
carrots
sweet potatoes
mashed potatoes

and yesterday he topped them all with this one:
pancakes

Road Trip

Long post, but scroll down for pictures if you don't want to read it all...

Casey thought I was crazy, but I actually wanted to take the boys on a road trip by myself. I wanted to visit my brother in New York, but I also wanted to take the time to visit some friends from college, and trying to arrange for a trip that length with Casey's work schedule wasn't possible, so I decided to go alone. The logistics and details kept changing - I had planned to leave on Monday or Tuesday, but on Friday I worked out a plan with my dad to leave on Saturday, the very next day, very short notice for me. When we went to Florida last October, I meticulously planned for the road trip portion of the trip everyday for over a week prior to the trip. But I must have absorbed all that preparation, because I basically "winged it" for this trip and we did fine. My dad joined us for the first half of the trip.
Along the way, we met up with Anne, one of my college roomies (and the friend who first coaxed me into blogging). She had just visited us a couple days before and the boys were already great fans of her adorable baby, so they were super excited to have dinner with her. Then we travelled on to Harrisburg PA and stayed at a hotel that night.
The next morning, we drove around and I showed Coulson the hospital where he was born and the apartment we lived in. (A few weeks ago I had pointed out the hospital where Charlie was born and Coulson was curious about the hospital where he was born, so I was hoping to sneak in a trip to Hershey on this trip.) He was impressed with the hospital, but visibly disappointed with the apartment building. Then we went to our old church and saw some old friends. Casey and I helped this church get started about 9 years ago, so it will always be special to us. Then I took the boys to my favorite free tourist attraction in Hershey - Chocolate World! We enjoyed the short ride about how chocolate is made, especially the free Hershey Kisses at the end. After that we met up with one of our friends from medical school for lunch. Unfortunately his wife (who was with me at the hospital when Coulson was born) and daughter were out of town that weekend, so I didn't get to see them. Then we were off to my brother's home in NY.
We had a great time with my brother and his 2 kids. We stayed for 4 days (well, we took a one day break to visit NYC). We enjoyed his small town life, walking to the park and the country store for some ice cream, eating yummy healthy foods (well, I don't think the boys ate much of that strange healthy food, but they did load up on Cheerios in between meals, oh, they did chow down on some fresh local black raspberries and blueberries), playing with chickens at a friend's barn (my niece is a bit of a chicken whisperer), swimming in a cold stream and playing soccer with the cousins. It was great to be with my niece and nephew again and give them some auntly hugs and kisses.
My dad and I and the boys took the train into NYC one day because I thought Coulson would like to see the Statue of Liberty. It was a great day. We found a parking spot at the train station and made it on the train, awkwardly but successfully navigated the subway system with a double stroller, got the in short line at the ferry for Liberty Island because I bought tickets online the night before, Charlie took his nap in his stroller while we toured the Ellis Island museum and we made it to my friend's apartment in Greenwich Village exactly at 4pm, which was my uneducated estimate of when we might get there. Charlie even got to chat with Spiderman at Battery Park (where the ferry for Liberty Island docks).
I had a great time with my friend and her 2 kids. I knew her when I was in high school and she was in graduate school. She graduated from my alma mater and was probably the biggest influence on my decision to go there myself. I hadn't heard from her in years, but "found" her on Facebook, so it's been fun to re-connect with her. Coulson and her 4-year-old son had a fabulous time inventing new Super Heroes together.
My dad left our journey to visit his brothers on the other side of NY and I started my journey back down South. On the way, I stopped in the northwestern suburbs of Philly to visit another old college roommate and her family. Actually, her husband was Casey's college roommate (for 3 years! I guess they got along well) and the reason I met Casey in the first place. I was in a class with his roommate and he introduced me to Casey (twice, because I apparently didn't remember him from the first introduction). Anyway, we spent a day with them and their 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter, playing at the park, eating ice cream and swimming. It was a relaxing day and I had a wonderful time staying connected with good friends.
On the way home, we took our time, stopping at Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, playing at the rest stops and taking a short detour to visit Casey at work. Coulson was missing his daddy so much, it was pathetic in a sweet, loving sort of way. So we stopped in to see Casey and even got to watch the helicopter land to transfer a patient to another hospital.
Then we went home. Finally.

Weekend Getaways

On Sunday I got back from my 4th annual girls' weekend with my best friends from high school. This year I went to visit them in Decatur, GA (right outside Atlanta). As usual, I will let Christi tell the story because she can do it so much better and with much better detail - I wouldn't be able to tell you what I ate at each meal, much less what Christi and Kate ate, but in case you are wondering, it's all in her blog post. I love that we are still in touch after all these years and we can get together once a year and enjoy each other again. It's always fun and relaxing to be together and I'm looking forward to our "knitcation" next year.

Right now I'm at the Biltmore House in Asheville celebrating my 9th anniversary with Casey! We are enjoying all the luxury and the peaceful mountain views. It's the middle of the week, but we are only here for 2 days, so it kinda feels like a weekend getaway. Today we toured the mansion and the winery and tomorrow we are going to ride our bikes around the property - they have a lot of nice bike trails. We'll probably also see the mansion again and walk around the gardens before indulging in a fancy dinner.

I love these weekend getaways. These 2 getaways back-to-back are probably a little rough on the boys, but I'm grateful that there are so many other people in their lives that can love on them while I'm gone - my husband, my parents, in-laws and dear friends have all helped to give me these two much needed breaks. I'm actually looking forward to next week - no VBS, no half-day camp at the Y - just me and the boys enjoying the summer!

Guess it turned out okay after all...

Well, we're back home again and we actually ended up having a great time despite Coulson's injury. His cut shouldn't get soaked in water, but little splashes here and there were okay. Since he wasn't much of an underwater swimmer (note the usage of the past tense! I'll try to update his swimming skills in my next post. Also, note to Nanna and G'pa bud - you should bring your bathing suits this weekend) keeping his head mostly dry didn't stifle his swimming habits. We continued to have a great time at the ocean and in the pool.

We got body boards so we could "catch some waves" and both boys (but Coulson especially) enjoyed going out with us deeper in the ocean to "jump the waves." Charlie loved playing in the sand, especially if we would dig out a big hole that would fill up with a little water and he loved jumping in the hole, or simply sitting in the hole. When we would leave the beach and wash off his feet, he would cry and whine over the tiniest bit of sand still remaining in his shoes, but on the beach he would literally roll around in the sand and shovel it on top of his head. So I didn't offer much compassion for the few grains left in his shoes.

Another interesting aspect of this vacation - I actually enjoyed the ocean. My prior position was that I liked the smell and sound of the ocean, but not the water or sand. My ideal beach vacation is the pool at the hotel right next to the beach. But as a testament of my love for Casey, I have tolerated these sandy beach vacations, even as my kids threw sand on me and in my hair and in my soda can and in my book and then climbed into my bare lap for hugs and cuddles. Let's just say I love my husband a lot. So anyway, if you've ever gone to the beach with me, it will shock you to learn that I actually got in the water, waded past the waves, used the body board, played in the water with the boys - it was great! The water was not cold at all, and that made all the difference. I still didn't like the sand, that hasn't changed.

We also enjoyed mini-golf and ice cream. My brother and his family also happened to be vacationing at the beach, so we met up with them one night for a good all-American all-you-can-eat-fried-seafood buffet and then some 3-D Dinosaur Imax shows. There were some thunderstorms, but only in the evenings. A very nice family vacation!

And the vacation takes a turn (well, a spin) for the worse...

So far for the first 2 days, the weather has been pretty nice, actually, mostly perfect. Casey is attending a conference for the first few days that we are here and yesterday he was busy with workshops and tests to keep his board certification current. But the boys and I had a great time on the beach and at the waterpark that is part of the hotel complex where we are staying. Coulson used to have an aversion to water, especially water in the face, so our experience at the beach has been somewhat ambivalent. He likes the idea of the beach and he gets excited and knows it's supposed to be a fun thing, but in reality, he never really liked the unpredictibility of the ocean and he quickly got bored with playing in the sand unless he had a friend to play with him. But he's been making great progress in the water in the past few months and enjoys getting his face wet (when wearing goggles).

So now, at the beach yesterday, he was like an entirely different kid - he ran into the ocean and jumped with the waves, wading in waist deep by himself. He got completely knocked over by waves 3 times. 3 times! That means he went back into the ocean again after he got knocked over - the old Coulson would have given up after the first wipe out and not gotten back into the water. And at the waterpark, he got completely wet and we played with the spashing water., but I still couldn't get him to go down the water slide. (By the way, Charlie is also fully enjoying himself and doing well in the water.)

And of course, as the kids are having a blast in the water and Casey finally gets finished with his work stuff for the day and is putting on his swim trunks - it thunders. So Casey didn't get to enjoy all the fun. But this morning he skipped his meetings and did get to enjoy the boys on the beach and Coulson even asked if we could get a boogie board.

But tragedy befell our family vacation when we went inside for lunch. A tragedy that will change the course of our vacation and put a damper on all the great progress Coulson has made in the water. In the living room area of our hotel condo, there is a chair that spins. Right next to a coffee table. Need I say more.

If you're going to get a gash in your head while on vacation, at least do it when there are 50 emergency physicians at a conference on the first floor of your hotel. For some cuts, instead of stitches, doctors can use a special glue called DermaBond to close the wound. It's pretty handy stuff and ER docs who have been lucky enough to get their hands on a spare vial like to keep them in their first aid kits. Casey has already had occasion to use some twice - once for my niece's forehead and once for Coulson's chin. But of course we didn't bring any. So Casey went downstairs to the conference and they made an announcement during lunch asking if anyone had some DermaBond. Success! So Casey patched him up.

But here's the fatal flaw - He's not supposed to get it wet for a week! And we can't put sunscreen on it! Hmm, no water and no sun. And when we vacation at the beach, that's what we do - maybe a game or two of mini-golf, but other than that, we don't spend a lot of time at the touristy attractions or shopping, so we are re-strategizing our vacation plans. Casey is thinking that maybe after 3 days he could get it wet...(Just don't tell anyone that we aren't following doctor's orders....)

Vacation! Time for Fun in the Sun!!!!...???

Here's the weather forcast for Myrtle Beach for the next week:

Thursday:

High - 87, Low 76

Friday:

High - 88, Low - 75

Saturday:

High - 87, Low - 74

Sunday:

High - 84, Low - 74

Monday:

High - 85, Low - 72

Tuesday:

High - 84, Low - 71

Wednesday:

High - 83, Low 71

Thursday:

High -85, Low - 73

Guess who's vacation ends on Thursday morning! :-)

Overheard

Coulson is playing legos in the other room and he keeps repeating the phrase, "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd." (I don't know where he picked that up, I'll have to ask Casey.) But the funny part is when he tries to say the phrase correctly: "Park the car in Hahvahd yard."

And oh yeah, I just finished my second triathlon this morning. I'll try to blog about it later, but in case I never get around to it, I thought I'd go ahead and mention it now. I haven't seen the official results yet, but I'm pretty sure I did better than last fall.

Air Guitar Hero

We got Guitar Hero last week and it looks like we have some future rock stars. I can totally see them trashing hotel rooms and smashing guitars on stage.

Haircuts

So I finally gave in and let the boys get haircuts for the summer.

Backyard Buddies

Okay, so it's not the most exciting video, but I love to hear the boys laugh, which you just can't capture with a regular picture. This was a toad named Hoppy that Casey found on Friday night and captured so the boys could enjoy him the next day. After we played with the poor toad for a few minutes, we let him hop away.

And the week before that, Casey found a turtle under the deck. I'm used to seeing box turtles around, but this was a slider turtle. After the boys played with him, Casey tried to hide him under the pine needles, but he found his way out and then Chester discovered him. At first Chester was stunned with curiosity, but I figured that the curiosity would wear off and his natural instincts would kick in, so I transplanted the turtle to our neighbors yard, safely out of range of Chester's electrical fence.

(Yes, I let Coulson dress himself.)

(Yes, the boys desperately need haircuts.)

Shedding

It's that time of year again - Chester is shedding his winter undercoat. We had always dismissed the option of getting him shaved because of our vanity (we think he's a gorgeous dog with his beautiful coat), but a couple years ago the oppressive southern heat started convicting us that we needed to get over our own selfishness and be better dog owners. So I did some research and was greatly relieved to discover that shaving golden retrievers wasn't recommended. Instead they recommended a special brush called an undercoat rake. We got one and it was incredible! His undercoat just started flying off in amazing amounts. This is our third summer shedding season using the rake, and I still never cease to be amazed by the amount of fur we gather. We are very tempted to save all the fur to either stuff pillows and toys or to spin into yarn and knit cozy Chester sweater so we can cuddle with him for years after he's gone. But it just seems gross, so we end up throwing it away.

Last Monday night I brushed Chester while he was sitting in the living room. He doesn't like to be brushed, so I have to catch him wherever he's laying down, get him in a good embrace and start brushing. In just 10 minutes (my embrace can't hold him much longer than that), I accumulated an impressive pile of fur. I didn't take a picture then,

But this is what I got in 10 minutes on Tuesday night in the kitchen:

And this is what I got in 10 minutes on Wednesday night in the front hall:

And this is what I got in 10 minutes on Friday morning by the back door:

And this is what I got in 10 minutes on Saturday afternoon in the garage:

And this is all from his back and sides. He's very protective of his belly, so it's harder to brush through his thick belly fur. But Casey's home tonight, so maybe we'll double-team him...

the cake, revisited

So last night I watched Pineapple Express and realized that there is a cake in the movie that looks just like the cake I made for Easter. It was a cake made by a pot dealer to celebrate his cat's birthday, but his cat died three months ago. So knowing that I can barely make the same cake as that guy? Yeah, that didn't make me feel any better about my cake.

random thoughts

Tomorrow is the last day of preschool and as I think about the summer break, I'm waffling between excitement and complete terror. One the one hand, I'm trying not to schedule a bunch of stuff so that we can just relax and go to playgrounds and parks and the pool whenever we want and not go crazy having to run all over the place. One the other hand, I'm afraid the days will get excruciatingly long and we'll get bored and boys will just fight all summer long and I'll desperately be craving some quiet "me" time.

The six hours a week of "me" time that I get during preschool are quickly eaten up with running errands, exercising, volunteering once a week and the small bit of house cleaning I can fit into the remaining time. I've found that the best time for me to get some housework done is during the weekly rotating playdate with Coulson and two of his friends while Charlie is napping. Since Charlie is napping, I'm stuck in the house and since Coulson has friends to play with, it frees me up to get some work done. (Coulson is a highly social child and does NOT play by himself, so if he's home, it's very hard for me to get anything done. Well, I guess I could resort to the TV per my husband's example and suggestion...My personal theory is that all those researchers who say children shouldn't get more than 2 hours of screen time, well, they are all working parents, and they don't really know how long the day lasts; but I also don't think a lot of TV is good for the kids, so I try to restrict it as much as my sanity will allow)

This afternoon one of Coulson's friends came over for a few hours, so I started a project that I've been wanting to do for a couple months now, but it turned to a necessity after my trip to the grocery store this morning: cleaning out the pantry. It was so disorganized, I couldn't even unpack my grocery bags. So I took everything out of the pantry and spread it out on the table (and benches and counter... wow, the pantry holds a lot of stuff!) Coulson's friend walks into the kitchen and asks,
"What are you doing?"
"Cleaning out the pantry."
He looks at the huge mess all over my kitchen and shakes his head "That's not how you're supposed to do it."
"Then, I'm re-organizing my pantry? Is that better?"
"This is going to make me hungry (long pause) I'm hungry (long pause) Can I have a snack?"

And later, while the boys are playing Star Wars (what else would they play?) his friend remarks, "I like to be slave Princess Leia." (you know, the one in that bikini, tethered to Jabba the Hutt.)
Casey responds, "Do your parents know this?"
He answers, "Yeah, my mom knows that I want to be Slave Princess Leia all the time."
"Okay" we say, and just leave it at that. Maybe he likes to cuddle up with Jabba the Hutt?

I give him an A+!

I think Casey did a fabulous job this past weekend! And he had a harder job than most of the other dads this weekend since I was the only stay-at-home-mom who went. All the other dads had the benefits of day care, regular babysitters and/or school aged children, so they all went to work on Friday and Monday. Casey on the other hand had to stay home with the boys for four long days in a row. And he did the dishes. And he did the laundry. And he put the laundry away (one of my weaknesses). And he vaccuumed out the car. And he mowed the lawn. And he finished the playset. And he blogged everyday. And he taught my Sunday School class of 3rd-5th graders (that's an experience I don't know how to put into words!) And he played in the worship band at church. And he took Coulson to the dentist. The kids were alive and healthy when I got home and the house wasn't a disaster. Sometimes I like to think of Casey as "Captain Awesome," but he's even better that - he's almost as good as a mom!

Thanks, Honey, for a job well done! You can do it again anytime ;-)

And I give myself a B+

So today was parenting finals. She had laid out a rigorous exam: get Coulson to preschool on time while somehow also sleeping in (I'm not a morning person), watch Charlie while simultaneously taking care of my normal morning grooming, and then take Coulson to a dentist appointment. That's right - a dentist appointment. It's like having to take the calculus AP exam all over again--the anxiety, the stress, it all takes me back there. Add in a surprise challenge: Coulson found a pair of crocs in our room that Val had gotten for him that are too large.

"I WANT TO KEEP THEM"

"No Coulson, they have to go back, they're too big."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So naturally I promised him we would return them today and get an appropriate size. NO big deal right?

Knowing that this day would test my mettle I wisely planned ahead. I filled a little container with milk and put bowls and cereal out so they could feed themselves in the morning and went to bed early at about midnight so I would be slightly less groggy at 7AM when they invariably wake up. I should have anticipated though that they would fight over the cereal so I had to get up anyway to separate them and ensure the kitchen would not be covered in milk. Also apparently 2 cups of milk is not enough for 2 small children and a normal sized bowl of cereal. It seems that there is only enough milk when all the cheerios are floating in their own little sea of milk - like personal space for cheerios.

Coulson got to school on time (with teeth brushed) and one episode of Diego later I was clean and clean shaven and Charlie and I played. Or more like Charlie played while I 1) did the laundry 2) vacuumed out the cars 3) cleaned the kitchen and straightened up the playroom. We also managed to get to the dentist on time and had an uneventful visit there. At Coulson's request I took him straight from the dentist to McDonald's where we got another KidzBop CD (the current toy in the happy meal - think Billboard #1s from the last few years sung by kids) which the kids LOVE and so I have had to listen to it like 40 times today. We got home and Charlie took his nap. Oh, I forgot to mention that I also took them to walmart to exchange the crocs WITHOUT INCIDENT (by which I mean child related incident). Chinese food for dinner and now it's just about bedtime. Total TV time for Coulson today - 1 hour.

So how did I do this weekend? Feel free to leave a comment below. If I had to grade myself I would give me a B+. I did cave on the TV and junk food and there was that 45 minutes on Sunday that I lost track of Charlie but I did clean the house and go shopping and church with both kids with minimal help from my parents. Overall we all enjoyed the weekend so I think it was a sucess. Now Valerie is home and can resume her normal blogging duties - I hope she gets a kick out of the record of the last couple of days. It will probably guarantee I won't have to do it again. So long!

-Casey

And on the 7th day he rested

I did not rest today. I was awakened at 0650 by Charlie and Coulson who I think had already been awake for about a half an hour. We got to church all right and I brought my keyboard to play in the band so we were practicing and every other song I had to tell them to stop tearing the sanctuary apart. I also taught Val's sunday school today and it was only after that I realized that I had not taken Charlie to the nursery and I wondered where he was. Fortunately someone else had taken him so it was alright. I managed to get the house cleaned up some and only let Coulson watch one movie. I swear, if Valerie only let them watch more TV then she might not be so frazzled about the housework. After Charlie's nap we even had some time to play on the play structure before Coulson had to go to his youth group. That along with some sink playtime for Charlie gave me enough time to sweep around the kitchen and empty the dishwasher so I think all in all it was a productive day. There were no breakdowns (kids or myself) so if we can just make it through tomorrow we'll be alright. Hasta la bye-bye for now.

"Ohhh, we're half way there ... Ohhh-OH! Livin' on a prayer! . . ."

That was Bon Jovi for those who don't know.  So we've got 48 of 96 hours done, but that means the real endurance stretch comes tomorrow.  So far Coulson has only watched 6 hours of television (for me that's pretty good) including Return of the Jedi twice.  Plus the movie Bedtime Stories last night.  Plus Diego x 2.  So I guess that's more like 8 hours BUT I did get some stuff done today.  I had bought this lemon lawnmower but fortunately a few minutes with my Dad and it's running like clockwork so I mowed the lawn and my Dad and I finished putting together this play-structure we have been working on.  If you've been to Costco recently you've seen it, right next to the gigantic inflatable water slide thingy.  I would call it a swing set but that really doesn't do it justice.  It has over 1000 parts.  Really, 1000 parts.  I have been working on it for over a week.  We ate hot dogs and chips for dinner and I realized at dinner that in the last 48 hours they have not had a single vegetable.  Given that it just naturally occurred that way I have to assume that vegetables are not really something that we are supposed to eat but to make my parents feel better I told the boys that we would have to eat a vegetable tomorrow.  Right now my parents are upstairs putting the boys to bed then they're heading home and I will be solo again.  Oh Valerie, where are you?!  Why would you do this to me?  And then it hits me, it is for me to prove that I can parent as well as she can.  I think I'm going to have to cut back on the T.V. - but how will I get all my internet stuff done?  Oh the mystery of the mothering mind.  Stay tuned for the surprise ending.

Day 1 - in the can.

So we're 24 hours in.  I did not have to yell today although I did have to raise my voice and talk sternly several times.  We were going to go to the zoo but they were calling for thunderstorms and if you have ever been to the NC zoo you know that it's like being out in the woods in a horror movie - there's no where to go if the skies break loose.  The kids also said they didn't want to go to the zoo so we decided to slum it at home.  Fortunately Valerie plans ahead for these things and we had a new Star Wars toy to play with today.  I have found that my children are likely to grow up to be mass murderers because whenever we get a new toy they proceed to dismember all the figurines like that bad kid in Toy Story.  I think it all comes from the part where Luke loses his hand in Star Wars --Coulson is obsessed with that.  Anyway we are alive, fed, and no major breakdowns so far.  My parents are coming tomorrow to help put together a play set so I'll have a little relief from the kids and they'll have some from me and I think we'll all feel better.  Off to play some video games.  See ya!

Guest Blogger: The kids are asleep . . .

It's Casey blogging here and I've finally got those kids to bed.  I've put them down before (in the down-to-bed sense, not like the put-down-a-dog sense) and tonight actually wasn't too bad.  After I cleaned up the poop in the tub.  You see, I had them in the tub after a good hour at the park (see that - how's that for good parenting) and I was on the computer signing my charts from the day not really paying attention to them.  All I hear is bubbles and Charlie talking about bath farts until it gets quiet and Charlie yells out "I pooped in the tub!"  Sure enough there's a little turd armada floating around so I had to pull them out and put them in the other bathroom to shower the poop water off (Coulson: "I don't need a shower!"  Me:"You CANNOT sleep covered in poop water!!!") and I fish out the poop and cleaned out the tub.  Apparently if you are a) 2 years old and b) try to fart over and over in the tub to make bubbles you will c) poop in the tub.  So far the rest of my evening has been stool-free and I'm hoping to get some good sleep.  I'm sure there will be some poop related event tomorrow.

Itty bitty blogging

This is my first blog from our new netbook - one of those mini-laptop computers that is used mainly for internet and basic word processing. It has a smaller keyboard, but after only typing on it for less than five minutes, my hands adapted to it and it's not so bad.

Casey agonized over the purchase of this netbook. He had his eye on them when they first came out. So when our laptop broke in Colorado, he really wanted to just go out and buy one right away (we are pretty lost without our internet - I had to use the phone book , and printed brochures and talk to the hotel desk clerk to get information about area attractions, so strange!), but we thought we should look into getting the laptop fixed first. Well, as the price to get the laptop fixed surpassed the price of a netbook and we figured out that we could sometimes get the laptop to work if we hooked it up to our desktop monitor (but it's still a bit fickle about when it wants to actually work), we decided to go ahead and get the cute little laptop! But it made us realize that we need to be thinking ahead about our desktop because it's almost eight years old now and Casey configured it himself, so there's no telling when it will decide to just conk out on us.

Well, I'm off for the weekend. Several ladies from my church are taking off on a weekend cruise to the Bahamas! Casey will now be the "primary caregiver" and I think the boys are in for an interesting weekend. I asked Casey to be a guest blogger for me this weekend, but chances are pretty good that he'll be too exhausted to even think about blogging, as I am most of the time. I'm looking forward to the ladies' weekend, but I am going to miss all three of those boys a lot this weekend.

Oh, the silliness!

So the other night at the boys' bedtime, I randomly started speaking in PeeWee Herman's funny voice, which brought on loads of giggles and then brought on loads of questions. What is that voice? Who is Pee-Wee Herman? What else did he do?

Well, that led to the introduction of the Word of the Day. For those of you lucky enough to have not been a viewer of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, a regular, everday word is chosen to be the Word of the Day. Whenever anyone says that word, everyone starts screaming and acting silly. So now we have our own Word of the Day. Yesterday's word was "apple" and today's word was "jump." At first only Coulson fully participated, with Charlie being very confused at first and finally joining in on the scream at the end. But now he has caught on and actively enjoys the scream from the beginning and has the funniest look on his face while screaming. We did have to make a rule that we can't play Word of the Day in the car. Now I have to think of a word for tomorrow - suggestions welcome...

In addition to all that silliness, we also had a backwards eating day. It all started with a "breakfast for dinner" conversation I had with Coulson and I thought, "why only breakfast for dinner?" So at breakfast we ate sandwiches, at lunchtime, we ate dinner (last night's leftovers) and then for dinner we had pancakes (swedish pancakes, a family favorite from my mom). Coulson thought it was so much fun, he told all his friends at preschool. They were rightly confounded.

Well tomorrow we go back to eating our meals in the correct order, but Word of the Day will probably live on!

Top Ten ways I'm becoming my mother

10. I call Casey "Coulson" and Chester "Charlie" sometimes.

9. I make up my own words to songs and sing them to Coulson and Charlie.

8. I forget the punch line to jokes.

7. I can never remember the exact name for things. For example, the book The Middle of Everywhere, I usually talk about “that book The Middle of Nowhere”

6. I laugh at Mr. Bean.

5. I try to use current slang, but it sounds so uncool - Oh snap!

4. I hang out after conferences to talk to the guest speaker and other complete strangers.

3. I have a sore arm from my son dragging me out of church and small group because I am busy talking to my friends when he’s ready to go home.

2. I try to see the good in every situation and in all people.

1. I have a positive outlook on life.

I love you - Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Mom and Coulson

Mom and Charlie