My timeless reality of parenting

As Oprah says there are certain 'a-ha' moments. Oh how I love a day where I can quote Oprah. We just recently took down christmas and there was a lingering bunch of 'what do we do with this stuff'. Among the 'stuff' was a victorian era looking cardboard box. Against every bit of 'I Should save this' training I had, I decided to recycle it. As metaphoric as it seemed, I was pretty much getting rid of pre-kids ideas. Prior to kids I had always envisioned a christmas of Victorian proportions. Egg nog, gathering around a piano caroling, perhaps a wassil or two. Most of all though, a gorgeous, almost untouchable tree with candle light (somehow done safely) and fragile, sentimental ornaments. Though we had no real money when we were first married, we managed to buy a few things towards my victorian christmas vision. Spike pretty much got no say in the decorating. Even the first two years of having kids, I managed to keep some semblance of Elizabethan elegance. And then...it happened. The Spider-man ornament picked out by Jake. This would be followed by batman, and starwars. Bob the Builder and Thomas the Train were selected by Aidan and my humble untouchable tree, was shattered. And you know, as I was getting rid of some element of my petticoat wearing, wassiling imaginary christmas I did honestly think that I was happier with the new ornaments because they meant so much to the boys. Now really, I had heard my mom and countless other mothers breathlessly, and selflessly declare that something made them happy simply if their children were happy. A child myself, I couldn't buy that. I thought they were programmed to say that. While there might be some people who subscribe to that 'must say it' theory still, I actually do get happy when the boys are so happy. When Aidan did his little jump up and down in hyper excitement because his Crayola ornament arrived and when Jake rushes to show everyone his light up spidey on the tree, I do smile.

Bowling Day

So Amy and I naively thought that it would be fun to bring the kids bowling. C'mon, we're going nuts all winter with the kids cooped up inside. So let's just say that bowling left me with no energy to 'spare'. If I say fiasco you have to take the word as no exaggeration for the description of today's bowling... If someone ever proposes taking two 2-year olds and 2 four year olds bowling. Just say no. Actually Jake and Hailey (the other 4 year old) were okay, but it was hard for them to wait and take turns. And thank god the machines in the arcade were not turned on!

Aidan and James (the other 2 year old) however were a mess. Aidan did well for a little while. He got such a kick out of it. But once the thrill was gone, that was it. James had no interest at all and accidentally ran onto the slippery part of the lane and when we called for him to come back, he lost concentration and fell. He hit his head sooo hard on the wood lane. I could practically feel it. Luckily I travel with chocolate chip cookies and one of them instantly helped him. So we left early--before our paid hour was up. and we headed right to McDonalds. Little did we know everyone in Chester decided to go to McDonald's for lunch, also. But imagine sitting in a McDonald's parking lot (with the playland clearly visible) and telling the kids "Sorry, too crowded" so we went in. I will say they did better after eating. But wow. I'm not even sure Amy and I got a coherent sentence out all day. It was so tiring.

The joy of my colonoscopy

Oh joy of joys. Today was colonoscopy day! Yesterday was actually more fun. I got to fast and takes lots of laxatives. What a joyous treat. The cool part was that the boys wanted their usual barrage of snacks and mini-meals throughout the day so I literally couldn't get away from food as much as I wanted to. The procedure today wasn't too bad, but yesterday sucked. I tried to get them to give me as much sedatives as possible so I could be knocked out for days. Nothing like a few days of drug induced sleep to look forward to. However, they only gave me enough to get through the procedure. stinkers. I'll know in about 2 weeks the results of the biopsies and stuff. Good times.

Believe I am officially done with Christmas shopping even though my dad and Tara have just barely now sent out their lists.

The Hell of a 2-Hour Delay

All last night I had been wishing for at least a 2-hour delay today. Reduced to the mentality of a middle schooler who has test the next day...I sat up, staring at the windy night, praying for a snow day or delay. There was no great reason...nothing I was dreading....I just couldn't face another monday. I didn't want to deal with the boys and the snow and the jackets and car seats.

SO the old attidge goes 'careful what you wish for'.

I heard the speed-reading voice of the morning DJ...rushing through the ever growing list of delays and cancellations. A-HA there it was..."Minisink Schools: 2-Hour Delay". Well, I was practically dancing now. I had visions of a relaxing morning, with no rushing. Of course that didn't happen. We made the same mad dash to the car that we always do. It was just two hours later...at 10:45. And now it was cold and there was a huge puddle on the floor of the garage that was unavoidable. Off we go to Field of Dreams Preschool. Pull up. Parking lot nearly empty. Hm...this can't be good. There, on the door was a small sign saying that on delay days school would start at NOON. So, ugh...turn around, spend 1/2 an hour at home. Repeat. Then return again 2 hours later to pick up Jake. Add in a fit from Aidan in the lobby of the school and you have the makings of a fantasticly exhausting afternoon.

Luckily I have this all to look forward to again tomorrow--bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be kids.

A Blog?

So I got a blog
So out of the blue today, I decide, "hey I need a blog". Words, of course, I thought were ridiculous prior to this. I'm a stay at home mom who enjoys going to bed at 8:30 and bad reality tv. Why on earth would I need a blog. But the way I figure it, I've been pledging to myself that I would keep a journal for years and I never do. And since I type 100 times faster than writing, this seemed to be a good fit. I don't care if no one ever reads this. It's mostly for me to track things. I hope to capture some of my days, crazy as they are, and have them to tell the boys about. Share with them a detailed account of growing up maybe. Wouldn't that have been cool to read about your own childhood like that. I mean, a blog is essentially an estension of scrapbooking journaling, so why not. So woah, a blog entry completed. My first.

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving 2007
Thanksgiving was nice this year, but still filled with a bit of drama. The day before, Lainie had just gotten here and I was giving the boys their lunch.
I was making the boys their nuggets and of course they were going bonkers and couldn't wait for the nuggets to cool. So I grab a paper plate and begin to fan the nuggets. Once they were cool, I was fooling around and fanned the kids in their face. Jake asked if he could 'cool my face'. Okay...well, two seconds later I'm writhing in pain on the floor after Jake accidentally slices my OPEN eye with the paper plate. Aside from labor, this is the most pain I have ever been in. I couldn't open my eye, it wouldn't stop tearing, and it felt like a bee was trapped under my eye lid and was just stinging away. So I call spike, he has the brilliant suggestion to go to the doctor.

A few hours later and it turns out I have a superficial tear across the entire center of my eye. I have to put antibiotic drops in 4 times a day and pain killer drops in as well. I also have an eye lubricant and the best of all...the cherry on the eye injury sundae....a patch! I have to keep my eye closed for 2 days (blinking is bad) so I have a self adhesive patch, which is like stronger than a band-aid and hurts like hell when I tear it off my eye each time I have to apply medicine.

Yippee. Thank god Lainie had just gotten home when it happened and in a bizarre twist, my dad was home, too. So my dad took me to the dr, while Lainie stayed with the boys.

At least I didn't have 100 people coming for thanksgiving the next day.

Thanksgiving day, I was pretty out of commission. I know it was an eye injury, but I felt like crap all over. I still had very blurred vision out that eye and no depth perception. So basically, I was useless. Luckily, Tara and Lainie took over cooking and we had a great day with tons of food. We slow roasted the bird again and it came out pretty good. I forced Jake to watch the parade. He actually got excited when Santa arrived. Hard to explain that it's another month or so until he actually comes to the house.

World Famous Crescent Roll Ups

November 24
Cresent Meltaways
Mom's world famous German Crescent roll-ups.

Crescent Meltaways (make day before or early in day)
1 pkg 8 Oz creamed cottage cheese
1/2 lb of butter or margarine (1cup)
2 Cups All purpose flour
1/4 cup melted butter or margarine
3/4 cup lite brown sugar packed
dash cinnamon
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water

in medium bowl blend cottage cheese with 1 cup butter-sift flour and blend until dough forms a ball.

start to heat over to 400 degrees F, grease cookie sheet

divide dough into thirds. Roll 1/3 into 1/8inch thick and circular in shape.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar, cinnamon (which she wrote basically a 'c' and then 8 squiggles) , 1/4 cup chopped nuts

Cut circle into 16 pie shaped pieces, begin at outer edge, roll up each piece tightly , then place, point side down, on cookie sheet.

beat egg yolk with water, then use to brush tops of cookie, bake about 20 minutes or until golden.

repeat with out 2/3rds of dough,

4 dozen.