Long Lost Blogger

Things have been going lately which has kept me from writing. Chris got sick- ANOTHER double ear infection layered with an acute sinus infection. Then I got sick with a sinus infection that actually was so bad I went to bed at 7am last Wed, called in sick to work Friday and went to the doctor.

Some GREAT things have happened since I last posted though:

1. My Goddaughter, Lauren, was Baptised on 6/6/10. I have pictures at home to load.
2. The wall has made wonderful progress
3. The deck furniture is in and that project is 85% complete. We need an umbrella [and a frickin' all-outdoors de-humidifier!] and we'll be suitable for actually using it!
4. I'm 2 hours into my photo project for Chris's first birthday (6/23/10) and it looks GREAT

Are any other Twilight fans reading Bree Tanner?

Since I've been sick and have had no energy to do anything productive, I've caught up on my DVR a bit. I've been watching:

• Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole (Thanks to Tom for the suggestion)
• Cake Boss
• So You Think You Can Dance
• Taboo

I've also DVRed America's Got Talent but have yet to watch it....

I'm no Viki, but I'm trying to make a vow to eat salad for lunch 2X/week to prep for swimming on our family vacation in July. My body isn't really back to where I'd like it to be post-Chris and, contrary to his initial requests, Jim says that he'd prefer I not excersise due to the time commitment. *victory*

Declaration of War

Music Notes

Many times I've stated my love for the radio. I would very much consider myself a "music appreciator", I think largely because I myself am not musically talented (something I intend to rectify with my kids).

• My current favorite song? Breakeven
• Songs that I'll always listen to, even if I just heard it- Little Wonders, Fast Car, Sway, Time of My Life, Won't Be Like this For Long, etc.
• A song I'm REALLY over is I Need You Now.
• If someone tells me that a certain song is meaningful or a favorite of theirs I feel compelled to listen to it. One of Jim's favorite songs is The Freshman. Nicole adores I Love Rock and Roll. My boss told me that the song he thinks of when he thinks of his wife is Then. I'm plagued by hearing them on the radio and being able to bring myself to changing the station. I feel the same way about the song Jim and I danced to at our wedding
• My co-worker's favorite band is Slipknot. This is NOT my kind of music mostly because it (brace yourself, I'm about to sound old) sounds like noise to me. We listened to several songs yesterday and I think I physically understand only about 1/12th of what they're actually saying.
• Thanks to some kudos from Tom's Blog I started paying more attention to Lady Gaga and now I'm all wound around her finger. I really do like her voice and find her songs catchy in general. I'm not really sure why People doesn't feature her more than they do- if nothing else she's weird which often translates to interesting. ** Update** apparently Larry King thinks she's intersesting - she was on last night! Here is the show! **
• In case you're interested, this is my Pandora station that I listen to at work.

Last weekend in May

Thank God for national holidays. We all appreciated the vacation day on Monday for Memorial Day.

• Chris broke 2 teeth in one day and when I felt for them I noticed that his gums on either side of the new teeth were swollen too. You can imagine how happy a baby we have on our hands right now.
• Greg's graduation party was on Sunday- Jenna did a really nice job putting everything together. Congrats to the newest MBA in the family! I thought this was really sweet - my dad offered to let my mom go back to school to get her Masters Degree so she wouldn't be the "only one in the family without one" (Mike's in progress for his MBA now). She appreciated the gesture but declined stating she was "too old" (I disagree she's too old for anything but understand why she doesn't want to go back less than one year from retirement).
• I bought patio furniture at Lowes this weekend and it looks LOVELY! We set the firepit out too. The chairs for the dining table are in and we need to schedule delivery from Menards. Add some plants and some pretty lighting and we're in business!
• I headed up to the Outlet Mall (Monroe, OH) with the girls on Saturday. Spent about $100 on lots of fun things and had a great time in general!
• I should have mentioned it in the Nicole blog from last week but Nicole has lots of grandmothers and we normally refer to them by their last name- Grandma Hook (Jim's mom), Grandma Templin (my grandmother), etc. However, my mother, who she sees 1+/week is just "Grandma". As a result when Nicole needs clarification she refers to her as "Normal Grandma". This is especially funny when we have several Grandmas together (at the Graduation Party for example) and I tell her to say good-bye to Grandma. "Normal Grandma or Grandma Wolf?" she'll ask in front of both of them.

Nicole's Art

This was the peacock she made with a handstamp (birthday card for Aunt Jenna)



This is the drawing she drew all by herself of "Dora's Mommy" for Lisa, Kendall & Max (which we forgot to take to Dayton with us on Saturday). The green is "bushes" and the blue is "clouds".

Nicole

• One of Nicole's favorite crafty things to do is make hand prints. She's all about painting her hand and putting it to paper. So, her mother has to get creative when it comes to turning all these hand prints into something interesting. So far we've made turkeys (fingers are tail feathers) to tell her teachers she's thankful for them and flower pots (her hand is the pot and fingers are the flower stems; fingerprints make the center of the flowers) amongst others. Last night we finished up a peacock where I let her glue on googly eyes and sequins to make it beautiful.
• 5 is her favorite number. Everything in her mind should come in fives - five books before bedtime, five minutes of cuddling, five blackberries for breakfast, etc.


• She astounds me with the volume of song lyrics she knows. She gets a smattering of nursery rhymes (Row Row Row your Boat) and Mom-made-up songs (Your Mommy Loves You) at home, songs off the radio/cd player (I Love Rock n' Roll), songs from her dance parties at school (Hey Mickey), and songs from music class at school (Miss Lucy). She'll randomly break into song and it could be from any of these "genres". The song she sings a lot recently about a turtle in a bathtub was really really cute though.


• She moves up to the 3-4 year old room next Monday at school. There are a mix of kids from her current class who are also getting moved and some that are 3 1/2 so they're already in this room. We'll see how it goes - I'm optimistic!
• Her coloring/art is also showing progress. She gets now that you don't just scribble all over the page (though she often does that too) that objects have color and you need to color it accordingly. For example, Pooh's tummy is yellow but his shirt is red. She's also drawing more independant objects like "Dora's Mommy" that she made for the Erdahls. It does somewhat resemble a person (has hair, eyes, a mouth, and is long with limb-like looking things).


• Mark took some pictures of the kids on Saturday which was really nice of him. It's a further developing hobby of his from what I'm gathering. Both kids were constantly in motion so not all of the pictures are great (an issue with the models, not the photographer) but a lot of them are really fantastic! Since then she's all about posing for pictures....

And in case you were concerned that my kids are perfect (ha ha):

Pictures from New York

At Grimaldi's Pizza (as referenced in 1000 Things to see in the US before you die book)

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

Hanging out in Times Square



The whole gang at the Irish Famine Memorial

Looking at their apartment from the garden rooftop of a sister building

So in love!

Swinging at Central Park

$2 carousel at Central Park

Shopping in New York

Parking in New York

New York & Wapakoneta

Things in the last several days have been highs and lows of stress and relaxation.

We went to NYC to stay with friends of ours this past weekend - a trip we've had planned for several weeks. The morning that we were to leave, Thursday, we got a call that Jim's stepfather had been taken into emergency surgery and the outlook wasn't good. Our trip hung in the balance for several hours until he was successfully out of surgery and we decided to go out of town as planned.

We called Jim's mom while we were taxing in NYC and learned that Doug had passed away a half hour before. Ugh.

We ended up staying in NYC, a fact that had me teetering on guilt several times but I'm glad we did, and coming home on Sunday on our original flight. What did we do in NY?

• Nicole rode in a shuttle, airplane, taxi, subway, & town car all for the first time
• Hung out at the really great park by John & Ruth's apartment
• Ate lunch at Grimaldi's pizza
• Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Went to Macy's
• Had a lousy experience in Chinatown - bathroom incident with Nicole & it was SOOOO crowded!
• Sipped Starbucks frappacinos on Time's Square
• Played Central Park and rode the carousel
• Went out for a nice adults only dinner (if you're wondering, a babysitter for 4 kids for four hours is $100), split a $4 cupcake, and played chess on Union Square

All in all a WONDERFUL weekend away. Pictures to follow....

All of our down time was spent talking about what to do about Jim's mom so there was a necessary serious undertone to the quiet times of the trip.

When we got home and picked up Chris I got to witness some new things he'd learned - how to pull himself up well (he was casual about using this skill before) and how to climb up steps (greeeeaaaattttt). He's since climbed the entire staircase at our house (with me right behind him just in case!) so he's got it down pretty good. While we were gone he attended a Reds game, graduation party, and generally seemed to enjoy being doted on.

On Monday we took the kids to daycare and drove north for the funeral. It was strange because Jim and I both went into auto-pilot the whole weekend but when we were there, amongst the pictures, the tears, and the memories, things got emotional real fast. The service was very nice in general and I was glad to see that Vickie decided to put Doug in the clothes he would have normally worn, not some stuffy suit "because she should". He looked very Doug.

The conversations with Jim's mom went well. She has some options which is good. She also has a lot of legitimate concerns. We offered to let her move to Cincinnati but she wasn't at all interested in that which made me sigh with selfish relief. She's playing things by ear right now until she gets a death certificate and can start actually making some legal changes.

Here it is Thursday and we're all back in our normal routines. Jim and I both went back to work on Tuesday, he played softball yesterday, Nicole and I planted some seeds in a cup and are going to watch them grow (hopefully).

Put this kid in the circus- she's a FREAK!

Nicole has this amazing ability to go to bed at 8:45, keep her panties dry all night, wake up at 7:00am and go to the bathroom around 7:30.

How does she do that?!

When I wake up, as soon as I'm vertical I'm headed to the bathroom. This kid eats a full meal, gets dressed, plays, and pees like it's an afterthought.

Hello, world

• HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESSICA!!
• I've lately gotten into wearing long necklaces. I think they're very flattering. I hope I don't get into a rut....
• The school year is over and I have half of my grades already submitted! HOORAY! With about another hour's worth of effort I'll be totally done. If I could only get the ideas for another new class out of my head I could take a scholastic break!
• Chris has a new tooth- top left.
• Mother's Day was very nice - Mom stole Nicole away and made a darling flower pot project for me. Jim made me breakfast, bought me roses, and we all took a trip to the zoo. Dinner at my mom's finished out a wonderful holiday.
• My niece Ryann has gotten modest about her bathroom activities and told Nicole to "get out of here" when she wanted to go in. Nicole got her feelings hurt by it and after several minutes of sobbing pronounced "Ryann broke my heart". Mom and I tried desperately to not laugh because she was so serious and pathetic. Later on when she was getting buckled into the car Ry asked Mom "what's wrong with Nicole's heart?" and Mom explained that her feelings were hurt. With a dramatic sigh Ryann decided she'd go back in for a hug- an action that made Nicole very happy and Ryann get an appreciative hug from me too. Little kids crack me up.
• Since Martha's wedding I've been reconnecting via email with an old gradeschool friend, Katie (B) J. It's amazing - she's literally THE SAME PERSON and we've been able to pick back up pretty easily. Her email buddy is Martha and mine is Karen C. We both laughed because when we first started emailing frequently we felt like we were cheating on our electronic significant other.

It's Wednesday

Nicole and I are working on new colors - fuchsia, silver (shiny grey), gold (shiny yellow), pearl (shiny white), and turquoise. We do "color hunts" around the house looking for new colors- our kitchen is painted turquoise, the cabinet pulls are silver and the door handles are gold. She doesn't seem to realize we look at the same objects each hunt (or she's pretending not to). Today she correctly and unprompted (!) told me that her cup was fuchsia- hooray! It's sinking in!

Jim expressed to me last night all of his frustrations about work. After he's been so supportive of me on this front I want to fully return the favor to the level he did. I'm trying and hope he knows how encouraging I am/want to be.

I'm sharing my office now at work with my boss. It was my offer to let him move in and functionally/physically it only made logical sense. This is the first time in my entire professional career that I don't have my own office. Know what? For the same reasons that I wanted a roommate in college I really like having a roommate at work. It's working out great.

Chris's biting is getting significantly better- it's so nice to be able to fully enjoy his slobbery kisses without being on-guard for the potential chomp.

Going out on a limb

I watched a Biography channel special on Cher



the other night (don't ask how I got all wrapped up into that)




and something struck me as they flashed the images of her through the years...



She reminded me of someone....

Life in these parts....

Things have been very very busy professionally lately so I'm behind in posting some stuff....

Here's the recent kitchen investment we made- granite countertops.

BEFORE

AFTER

yeah, that was like 3 weeks ago now....





We also started the process of building a wall. I decided I wanted to go with natural stone in lieu of concrete blocks which made this project 1) more expensive and 2) more time consuming as each rock needs to be individually placed and leveled. However, Jim (with Jason's initial guidance and sweat) has done a BEAUTIFUL job. He's done with the whole front yard and will be starting on the backyard as early as this weekend perhaps.

You're looking at 8 tons of natural stone!

Work in progress... he's done now but we haven't gotten a picture due to the rain this weekend.

Finally, we had an uninterrupted FAMILY weekend. No plans, no parties, no nothing but us four hanging out. Chris had a cough that left him gagging/gasping for air that had us a bit worried so we took him to the doctor on Saturday. Jim thinks that Chris has been sick his entire life and I understand why he thinks so. Kid's had pink eye, croup, ear infections galore, acute sinus infections, and now, according to the pediatrician, acid reflux. Not sure I totally agree with this diagnosis but don't feel medically intelligent enough to argue. So, he's back on some amoxicillin derivative and now Xantax.

Nicole has been in an especially imaginative mood lately. Dress-up was part of our Saturday night. She told me I was the prince and we danced and twirled in her bedroom. After I'd had my turn being the prince, it was Daddy's turn. The "poofing" part caught me off-guard at first....

Looking forward to a slower-paced week all the way around. My class ends on Thursday, our bowling league is only 1 more session and we had out to NYC mid-month for a much-needed mini-vacation.

Chris - 10 month update

Chris turned 10 months old last week. I'd say he's not in the happiest part of his life for a few reasons -

1) he's teething which means he's biting on EVERYTHING and when he bites on people he gets a stern "Chris, no biting" that makes him frown or outright cry. It's really painful though and a habit I can't let him continue. He has gotten to the point that after he kisses me (dozens of times a day) whether he bites my cheek or not he immediately shakes his head 'no' after.

2) He wants everything Nicole has and I'm sure you can guess how well that goes over. He hears lots of "No, Chris!"'s with her running away from him.

3) He can't make up his mind if he wants to be held and cuddled or down and crawling. So we're in a constant flux of him moving and then pulling on me and whining to get picked up. 30 seconds later he changes his mind again.

His daycare was excited to tell me how smart he is though. "He's figured out how to get the toys he wants! He crawls over to the kid who has a toy, pulls their hair until they cry and then when they let go he takes the toy out of their lap." Great.... so glad he's clever like that. :P

He is totally on solid food now and, like his sister, he's not a picky eater. He eats whatever we eat for dinner - nothing special and no babyfood except for cereal or organic yogurt for breakfast. We've also exposed him to all the major allergens - egg, shrimp, crab, wheat, and milk (via yogurt)-with no issues.

He continues to battle ear infections even with the tubes. He was tugging again last night and we're watching him to see if he needs to go back to the doctor again to have it checked out.

We love him a lot and hope that he moves from being happy 80% of the time back to 99% of the time once these teeth come in and ears settle down.

Cleaning House

Cleaning House - well, there are several former bloggers who aren't very diligent about maintaining their sites so this morning I cleaned up my blogroll (list of blogs I read to the left). I don't feel guilty yet (until someone complains/gets their feelings hurt- if you do just tell me so I can put it back up!). I did stumble on someone's blog I used to follow but even she hasn't posted in a while so I didn't "re-instate" her.

My Bad Habits

1. Accomplishing something: I have a somewhat overwhelming urge to be productive. My most recent near-obsession is checking my email at red lights. I can't stand to just sit there. Even when I'm watching DVR I get satisfaction of knocking a show off the list.

2. Biting my chapped lips: I can't not do it. I am probably making the situation worse, I know. I bit my cheek last night and I can't stop messing with that either....

3. Calling people right away with news: Jim obviously gets the brunt of this. Here's an example - I got Chris's ear drop prescription at the pharmacy. There was no generic so OUR cost was like $33. It literally took me zipping my purse so I didn't call to tell him. "You'll be home in 6 minutes and can tell him then! It's not important anyway!" I had to keep reminding myself or I would have been on the phone right away.

4. Feeling like I DESERVE sweets: I rationalize in my head that I do good things like be productive at work, pack my lunch, not eat any at work so I deserve a big scoop of cookie dough at home.... [Un]fortunately this happens every day.

5. Checking people's blogs who are private/remote: It's because they don't update in my blogroll! I have to remember to read Tom's, Martha's, Lisa's, etc. and it drives me crazy because I just plain forget it won't update on the side so when I look I'm always like "eh, nothing new with Tom" when there was! ACK!

6. Making sexual innuendos at work: Somehow this happens all the time. I think it's because I work with all men but the subject comes up constantly it seems. Not about what any of us do, per se, but just the concept. Like if I take a late lunch with the kids one of the guys will tease "you're in a good mood, did you have a quickie over lunch?" and I'll be inclined to answer something like "Yeah, in the park near his work. It was awesome."

For Carole

Tonight was in the mid-sixties so we spent some time playing with chalk outside. Nicole is learning to draw actual pictures. Here's a rainbow:

I won't post the picture of Chris trying to eat the chalk because that might imply some bad parenting (or at least slow reflexes) on my part. ha ha.



Last night my aunt and uncle's dog died. I took the opportunity to explain to Nicole why she won't see Jasper anymore and that Jasper is in Heaven playing with Jesus but that makes Aunt Mary feel sad because she misses him. That drew out an explanation of the fact that Heaven is above us and God watches us.


Here's Nic taking said lessons and applying them to her favorite thing to draw - smile faces.

We made Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom a "feel better" card too. I think it'll make Aunt Mary cry though. :(

Tonight's art lesson was trees- "one big stick and swirlies at the top". I think that even without knowing in advance what it was you could guess "tree". 2-year old level tree of course, but still, not too bad.

Yes, I'm still alive...

Been so busy with work (ugh) that I have had no time to blog or read other's blogs. I'm beat by the time I get home so I'm way behind.

Chris

• Crawling as of last Monday- he's gotten pretty fast
• Wants whatever Nicole has, regardless of what it is
• Got ANOTHER ear infection last Thursday- sees the surgeon for a follow-up appointment on Friday

Nicole

• wraps a blanket around her and over her head an announces "I'm Jesus". Where does she get this stuff?
• is in a huge running phase. She wants to run EVERYWHERE we go and never seems to tire
• Is big into her "marker book" - a book that has an associated dry-erase pen she uses to trace letters, match pictures, etc. She's got the numbers 1, 9 and 10 down pretty well as far as writing (notice a theme in the shapes she can draw?). She's also very big into drawing "smile faces" - either two dots or two lines for eyes and a U for a smile. Strangely all things that require multiple parts (like the number ten or the smile) start from the right and go left. I mean that she'll make the 0 first and then the 1 when she writes 10.

The Adults

• Bought 8 tons of rock to make a natural stone retaining wall around the deck (project starts Sunday)
• Bought the first 3 cubic tons of mulch to spread - ahhhh work
• Jim's first softball game of the season is Wednesday
• Karen is VERY eager to have this semester of school over and done with
• work for both of us is crazy busy
• patio furniture decisions will be made by Sunday of this week. THANK GOD. a 15 month process finally finished!
• We grilled at our new house for the first time this weekend! wahoo for spring and the new grill!
• Karen THOROUGHLY enjoyed Martha's wedding on Saturday for a MULTITUDE of reasons. Mart- you looked beautiful! hope Hawaii is fabulous!

Political Views

I took a 10-question political test and here are the results:

LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend our civil liberties.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Big Weekend!

This weekend was full of excitement! Jim was off all day and I had a half day on Friday so we ran errands, looked for patio furniture, and got a Costco membership ($209 was our first trip- yikes!). We spent time cleaning up in preparation for our big weekend of hosting.

First, on Saturday, the Bostons from NC came for dinner and chatting. It is amazing how big their son Alex has gotten since the last time we saw them.

Sunday morning we got up, ate French toast and looked around for what The Bunny brought. Nicole, with a little suggestion finally found both her and Chris's baskets hiding in the tent.

Nicole got new sunglasses, nail polish, candy, stickers & princess socks.

Chris got some eggs with Cheerios in them, a pirate book, some NumNum crackers & a toy

We kept checking in with my parents and brother on Lindsay's progress. Her water broke the night before and she was in labor all night. We ultimately decided to go to Church and visit her at the hospital after (she hadn't had the baby by the time we left). Here we are on our way:

When we got to the hospital Lauren Elizabeth was getting a bath so we had to wait a little bit to meet her. She was worth the wait though. :)

When we got home we ate lunch and the kids went down for a nap so we could clean up for Easter (we were hosting dinner). Here are the kiddos in their Easter outfits:

Chris is so close to crawling. He technically did move in crawling fashion last night at the party but didn't go very far. I'm sure today he'll have lots of practice at the open play area at daycare. :)