Look what we got.

That's right. It's a lava lamp. The generous people at Google sent it to my husband to compensate him for long hours away from his family and middle of the night phone calls while Beta testing some new radio software. We also got a large supply of very nice clicky pens.

So we ate dinner last night all watching this thing in anticipation. The kids just didn't seem to understand that it would take some time to warm up and work properly. Finally after baths, the kids oohed and ahhed over it, then went to bed.

Chris and I spent a nice evening on the couch, speculating on the water problems and watching Bruce Almighty. Which we both agree is a serious funny movie.

Movie ends and I walk into the bedroom.....and what do you think I find? That darn lava lamp. And my husband.....you could just about hear the porn music emanating from his head. Not really.....but he I'm pretty sure he did really think that lime green lava lamp was a nice addition to the bedroom I have slowly been decorating for the past year. I don't think he was messing with me on that account. And being that he had the look of a child whose drawing didn't make it on the fridge when I mentioned it did not fit with the look I was going for.....it looks like I may have to live with it in there for quite awhile. I'm telling you honey, it would look way better in the playroom. Or the basement. Lava lamps look GREAT in basements. I'm pretty sure that's the room they were designed for! But if you really want it to stay in the bedroom....I will grudgingly find a way to fit it in. Our friends may wonder though....

Celia has been quietly playing as I've been typing this. Then she crawled up on the couch with me and I noticed a particularly nasty odor about her. I endured it while she used her cute little Yoda way of talking to tell me about what she had "Surprise for you in my purse I do have mommy!" I'm trying not to breathe as she pulls one thing after another out of the purse, showing them to me one at a time. Finally as the purse is empty she said "I have a surprise poop for you too!" Sorry honey.....it wasn't that big of a surprise.

Really? This is what you're telling me?

Jordan is home from school and once again we're under a boil and conserve water advisory. Our water is once again disappearing. This is the same issue we had several weeks ago, so the city called in some Canadian experts who solved all our water woes and we were told to drink it up. Now, last week I thought it looked nasty and called the city about it....I was fed some story about a perfectly safe treatment method they were using. I'm not buying it.

I'm no conspiracy theorist. I have no problem believing that Elvis is dead, JFK was indeed shot by Lee Harvey Oswald and I generally don't believe the whole world is deviously plotting against me. But something is up with our water and I don't like it. Maybe I've watched too many movies where the water is bad, kids get sick, and it's covered up. Where is Julia Roberts and her fabulous cleavage when I need MY water department to give me some answers?

I'm starting to really get worried about the school situation now. I'm not sure on the exact count, but I think we're well past 10 days this year. On of the few days he has had school this month, he brought home a progress report. High A's in everything except math. Well, we knew the math would be low, because they started something new. Then we worked on it here at home, he's got it now. Except....they haven't had any math grades since almost the beginning of February, so he doesn't have a chance to prove he knows it and bring that grade up! I know him understanding the concept is really the important thing, but I would really like the grade on his report card to reflect his understanding and hard work. And again, I wish the water dept would be more forthcoming with information. If we knew these kids were going to be off for an extended period of time, I bet most of the teachers would be willing to send out correspondence work (maybe not for a grade....fair and equal education for all, even if your parents don't give a crap and won't work with you at home!) but for extra credit or enrichment or SOMETHING.

Celia has a cold or allergy thing going on. I've always hated it when my toddlers get sick. When Jordan was little, it was because you couldn't get him to take any meds, no matter how high his fever was or how miserable he felt. I tried everything....sneaking it in juice, reasoning with him, replacing Sweet Tarts with Soft Chews, forcing it down. It all resulted in the same....puking it back up. But since he learned to swallow pills (and medicine makers started producing "Junior" versions of things he needed in the correct dosage) we've had no problem. Plus, he's old enough to tell me if his head hurts or his throat hurts.....which makes treating symptoms much easier.

Now Celia will gladly take any medicine you wave her way, but none of it does much good for her. She has something called RAD (Reactive Airway Disease). Basically, anytime she gets the slightest cold or starts having some allergy issues, she gets asthma symptoms. Last year we took her to an allergist, found she was allergic to dust mites (among other things). We started her on allergy meds, ripped up a bunch of carpet. Plus this year I'm staying home with her, so she's not catching a bunch of germs every day at daycare. So it's much better. But that asthma cough is heartbreaking to listen to at night. I don't know how parents of kids with serious asthma do it. So right now we back to albuterol treatments and coughing at night.

I'll leave you with my funny story from yesterday. I've had this funny rib pain the past week or so. Not awful, but enough to say "Huh....wonder that that is?" Not that I went to the doctor or anything, but I did a little internet research and discovered that sometimes, for no good reason at all, the cartilage and stuff between your ribs gets irritated. Bummer. Well, yesterday I decided a nice hot shower was what I needed. Got the kids all set up to play in the family room, shut the door, and turned the water on. I got in, and it was WAY too hot. Instead of getting out and adjusting the water like a normal person would, I decided just to arch my body around the stream of scalding water to turn the cold up. Bad idea. (Though, I have done this before and never had a problem) I overbalanced.....got tangled in the shower curtain and spent what seemed like a very long time all wrapped up, one leg in the shower, pinwheeling my arms over the open space called "the rest of the bathroom" thinking "Don't fall! Oh, this is bad don't fall! You're naked, and wet, and you're going to hit your head on the heater and bleed to death! Your kids are going to find you and have to call 911 and be traumatized for life! Don't fall!" Then I shook my leg free and in some contortionist move managed to regain my balance......right into the path of the scalding water. Whew! Thank goodness that curtain bar is a serious one anchored to the wall....not that sproingy suspension kind. I would have been a goner! It probably felt a lot more dramatic than it looked....but Chris still said he wishes he had a video.

Learn from my mistakes....use the buddy system in the shower!

Real Ninjas DON'T sleep in beds!

Duh! Didn't you know?

We had a ninja sleepover last night (well, part of one. One of the ninjas was grounded so we're a ninja short....must have one again soon with the complete ninja troop). At 10:00 I went up and told them to clear off the bed and finish up the games. The Ninjas informed me that they would NOT be sleeping on the bed.....they would be sleeping in the Ninja clubhouse. Said clubhouse is Jordan's closet......which is about 4x3.....not big enough for two sleeping boys. Plus it's hardwood. I convinced them that sometimes Ninjas will sleep under the fooseball table. You know, on the carpet....




And yes. I did sneak into the room with my camera on night vision (I had to even wake Chris to have him help me figure THAT one out) and risk waking sleeping children with the flash.

I had to though....there's just something about these boys, they are so adorable when together. They remind me of puppies from the some litter when together. They are just happy go lucky, falling all over one another in joyous boy togetherness....

Celia is taking the whole "boy togetherness" thing pretty well too. I take her up with me to "check on those boys" every once in awhile...and I did let her sit in there with them for a little bit. But she decided to re-arrange a Lego army (or clean up, in her mind....thank you sweetheart!) and had to come out of there. She's either coming down with a cold or has some allergy stuff going on....so hard to tell with her. She doesn't seem to feel bad though, so that's good!

The Green-Eyed Monster

That's right, this week we were talking about envy (week 4 of Chestnut Ridge's series Seven). Another one of those biggies that I think everyone struggles with now and again.

It was particularly pertinent to me in light of several events of my week and conversations I had. Lots of friends read and were bothered by an "anonymous" response to one of my blogs and questioned why I put negative stuff out there (not primarily I hope, but on occasion).....and open myself up to such comments. Aside from the personal cathartic reasons, I do it because it's real. I've talked to so many women who struggle with feelings of envy and inadequacy....over someone else's "perfect" life. So I want what I write to be real. I've got a great life. Great husband, nice house, wonderful kids, an adequate amount of money, health. But sometimes I fight with my husband, have a messy house, get frustrated with my kids, stress over finances, and I get sick. Those aren't the norm, but they do happen......and I don't want to pretend that they don't. It perpetuates this false sense of perfection that we see EVERYWHERE. So many women get brought down because you watch tv, and every thing is perfect. On all the mommy boards on the Internet everyone post photos of their huge, spotless houses, talks of their perfect children, and how they never fight with their husbands.

Well who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't envy someone who has all that? I know I did! The first time I was even invited to the home of someone I knew from church was so overwhelming to me (keep in mind, I was pregnant here, so hormones certainly factored into this). She had this gorgeous house, perfectly kept. Nicely decorated. It was a scrapbook party....something I had no experience with. So we spent an hour in this perfect house, making these cute little pages to hold 5 picture. One hour....5 pictures. And the whole time I'm sitting there thinking.. "Where do they all find the time to do this? I mean, how many pictures do I have sitting in boxes at home? I don't have the time to do this! And this house! How does she have the time to keep it looking this great? How could they afford all this? What am I doing wrong? My house will never look like this! I'll never have the time to so this scrapbooking stuff!. What are they doing that I'm not?"

And I came home just completely upset over the whole thing. Crying my eyes out asking Chris what in the world I was doing wrong. And he's just baffled......doesn't get it at all. He's just shaking his head trying to do anything he can to calm his pregnant wife. Before retiring to the bedroom, I bawl at him to "get that scrapbook page out of my sight....it's just a blaring reminder of what a failure I am". He obliges and I've never seen it since.

The funny thing is......I was envious of something I already had. Someone's "company face". You know, that good deep clean, spiff the place up, put a smile on your face because someone's coming over? Well, shoot, I already have that! We do that all the time. I have been known to have people over, and they have been known to think I have a cute little house. I like my house! Why in the world did I want someone else's that bad? Who knows. I'd like to blame it all on raging pregnancy hormones....but I think they just brought out a feeling that was there all along.

I like to think my eyes have opened a little since then.....I still have moments where I start to do that.....to be envious of the blessings of others. But then I realize I have quite a few of them myself.

And I used this to better my own life. Not in a "keeping up the Jones" kind of way.....but I learned to scrapbook and I REALLY like doing it. I now have several nice albums that my kids love to look through and see their special pages. We've started remodeling some rooms in our house. Not so it looks nicer when we put on our "company face".....but just to make the most of what we have. We're doing it ourselves and learning a lot in the process (let me clarify...I ripped down some walls, Chris did the ceiling, and we bought a bunch of stuff. Chuck has taken over rebuilding the shower, but is almost done so I can take over again soon). Lots of this stuff I never thought I could do....never tried because I didn't want to mess something up....to have it not be perfect. But I don't think there really is a perfect. There's just stuff you can do, and some you can't. And most of the time you can do a lot than you thought you could....before you tried it.

Anyway, back to the church service....I liked it, thought it was very good. Chris thought it was the best he has seen yet. We were both blown away by the special music. Lauren Byrer sang a song that fit the topic of envy so well. Just a perfectly expressed feeling and cry of help for this struggle. And it was GOOD. I mean, the song and musically good, plus she's got a great voice and sang it really well. She and Chris kind of knew each other (she used to work at his company) so we spoke with her a few minutes after church (she's a super sweet person, btw!) about the creative process that goes into all this....which is something I've been wondering about. They have a whole creative team that gets together and brainstorms and plans services together, which is an awesome resource in itself. They were having a real hard time finding a song they liked for special music illustrating Envy.....so Karen Haring (music director, wife of the senior pastor) wrote it! This is a serious song now....not some "we needed a song about envy so I wrote one fluff". I'm thoroughly impressed.

While at first I was a little overwhelmed by the hugeness of Chestnut Ridge....that's dissipating now. Each week we seem to run into and talk to a member of the staff or leadership team...and I find them each to be a very friendly, well-spoken person that I would like to spend more time talking with and getting to know!

Leaving you with one of the scriptures from service....

"No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

Conversations from my head....

You know...those conversations that only take place in your own head. Here are mine for the day.
(with Chris)

"Gee Honey, your hair looks great! Did you cut it again?"

or maybe

"You look difference....what's different?"

or at least a

"You cut your hair.....it looks a little butch"

What I really get: "Check out my pecs!"

(with Jordan)

"Wow mom, thanks so much for buying me cool new shelves, hanging my tv on the wall, and organizing all my stuff again! I love it"

or

"Mmmm, dinner"

What I really get "Did you buy me batteries yet?"

Amazingly enough...here are some of the real comments I get from Celia, crazy as they may be!

"Mommy, does my poop make you happy? Watch out, it's a dangerous poop!"

"You wike my new shoes? I wike deese shoes! Deese are nice shoes"

and my personal favorite....

"Aw mommy, I wuv you hair. It's nice hair. You an angelmommy"

Brrrr....I'm freezing.

Just to the bone cold! Now, it is 68 in here. A perfectly normal tempature. I just happen to be one of those people who is always cold....I wear jeans most of the summer. Chris is better than most men (I've found that most men are always burning up and women are freezing....until midlife....then the tables turn!) and humors me turning the heat up in the winter. He can't abide me having the AC off all summer and cranks it up as soon as he gets home, but in the winter our house is pretty warm.

In light of our recent gas and boiler woes, I'm forcing myself to conserve. I will NOT kick that thermostat up to 72! I will adapt. I will adjust. So I'm sitting here drinking hot tea, wearing slippers and slipper socks, wrapped in a blanket with a heated rice bag on my lap. Brr.

I finally bucked up enough to try the St John's Wort last night. No adverse side effects. I'm not flying around with my usual level of PMS rage. But I did start feeling better yesterday, before I swallowed said pill. And I only took one. I will take another tonight and work my way up to the dosage on the bottle this weekend.

Went to KMart in search of the fabled almost free diapers. Struck out on that account, but did find new shoes for both kids on clearance there. Jordan's were soccer cleats, but the season starts in a month and his old ones were too small last year. He was very excited to see those when he got home from school! Then at Target I discovered that the DYR shelves I've had my eye on for his room were on 75% clearance! Woohoo! I've been wanting to update the storage in his room for almost a year and now I can do it. Plus I got to spend some time with a good friend, and Celia got to spend time with her little friend, so it was a good morning.

We laughed in the car on the way home about me and my total inability to hang shelves straight. This is the one part of home decorating/remodeling that I depend on Chris for (take that back...one of two. I also don't dabble in electricity). I had planned to mostly avoid dealing with him all weekend as I'm still feeling quite crabby over his inattention while out of town (though he did call last night and I could tell he was trying REALLY hard. I just wasn't ready to give in yet.) SO I was going to have to decide to call a truce and get the shelves hung.......hang them crooked myself (no way) or just not have them get done at all.

Then I got home and found a hee-LAR-ious message on our machine. Too good to wait so I called him cackling and played it for him. Needless to say crabbiness is gone on my part. He called be "Babe" so I'm guessing there is a mutual uncrabiness. Note to hubby- Being called "Babe" reminds me of the pig from the movie and makes me start snorting hysterically ....in my own head. Just thought you should know.

Looking Up

Successfully made it through the taking Jordan to school and milk retrieval. Tried to sit outside in the car and see if it would overheat...but the then guy from the gas company pulled up so I figured we shoud go in the house (*cringe* how did that look? a lady and her toddler sitting in the car outside thir house, just reading the paper........)

Unfortunately, I was reading the numbers right. They are higher than the estimate. I will be auctioning a kidney to pay the gas bill this month. Jk...but that's a real bummer. So much for a saving account.

The very nice gas man offered to come in a check for leaks. He didn't find any buy think our boiler could use service (ya think? it's about 50 years old!) and gave me a company to call. I called them and they are sending someone out to give it a once over....and possibly (if it's neccesary, and I'm pretty sure it will be) give us an estimate on a new boiler. He was also very nice when I was profusely apologing over the mess of our basement (we're remodeling a bathroom, plus, we just have a lot of junk down there. It's alternating piles a displaced furniture, sawdust, and building supplies) and told me "Hey, this is nothing, you wouldn't beleive some of the places I see!"

Regardless, I spent most of the morning in a cleaning frenzy since the heating repair guy was very vague about when someone would stop by ("They'll call before they come"). Could be today, could be next week....who knows? Likely it will be tomorrow when I have the car at the shop.

Anway, result of cleaning frenzy is that I didn't have the morning to mope around and the house is clean. Both of which make me feel better. Still not good enough to visit with my friend (I think it was a pity invite anyway....but I told her I'm still feeling kind of toxic and just wanted to stay home with the kids) but better.

Trying to get out of my funk.

That's what I'm going to be doing today....just trying to get out of my bad mood funk.

Church was really the breaking point for me last night. I put the kids and all this stuff I needed to return to the church in the car, turned it on, and the "Check Engine" light was glowing bright orange. I've been having problems with it since...before Christmas...and have been asking Chris to take care of it. You can see how that has turned out.

Then I get to church and Celia is saying over and over "I want to stay with you mom". So I'm trying to drag her by the hand down the hall with me and hold this enormous box under the other arm (which is going numb) without dropping it. The very pushy children's church worker (that was one of the big reasons we left the church) walked past and said "Hi". So I gasped "hi" back...but apparently that wasn't good enough. She loudly says "Hello"....which I kind of ignored because I thought she couldn't be talking to me since we already did the polite exchange then she barks "Rebecca, I said hello to you!". So I stop (arm the the box is about to fall of and Celia valiantly trying to jerk the other one off), turn, and reply, "Yes, and I said hello back". As I continued down the hall to the information desk our very nice secretary said "Hi" and since I was no longer in any mood, I shouted "HI! WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU HEAR ME THERE!" Back at her. Everyone in the hall stopped and looked at me. So I'm going to call and apologise to her shortly....I'm pretty sure she knew why/what happened.....but still.....

Then on to do Chapter 2 of our marriage book. The one I suggested and enjoyed....and now feel it's a total waste of time for me to do with the class because my husband is not the least bit interested in participating. In fact, we've (or me, the kids just be default since they are stuck here with me) pretty much ceased to exist in his world....which was a nice haunting thought the whole time we were reading the chapter in class and working through the questions. Our assignment next week is to draw a picture about how our spouse was before marriage and another on how they are now. What can I possibly draw for this? Anything I would draw about how I really feel would be dismissed as false or irrational, he would just get mad anyway, so really, what's the point. If it's not going to help, what's the freaking point?

After church my very nice friend sent her very nice husband over to wrestle 40 lbs of cat litter out of my trunk so I could change the cat boxes and then he looked at my car a little. turns out most of my problem is that it has NO antifreeze. He, of course, has some at the ready and fixes my car up while I'm stand out there trying not to cry because I just feel so STUPID! I mean really.....40lbs isn't that much, I ought to be able to get that out on my own...and the car thing...it's not hard to check something like that. I'm not an idiot, and I should be able to figure out that if my freaking car overheats at every stoplight, you should check the fluid levels. Granted, both of these things fall under "Things Chris is supposed to take care of" category.....but it's before abundantly clear that he has no intention of doing anything about my car. So why didn't I do something about it before now?

Celia got up at 6:30 this morning after a very fitful night's sleep. She's just about as crabby and fussy as I am. I think we're going to lay on the couch and watch some cartoons and pray for an early nap.

Frustration.

Ugh...that's been my whole day so far. Just one frustrating thing after another.

First, dealing with the water company. Our water looks nasty (again) so I called them to find out what the deal was. They are treating the water with Manganese, which discolors is, but it's still safe to drink. Since I don't believe much of anything a water dept employee says, I googled it. It's either perfectly safe or will give us all Parkinson's. Ask me in 20 years.

Next, the gas company. Last night I got an e-mail that our February bill was ready. I accessed it....and found it to be over $600!!! Holy cats! Are you freaking kidding me?!?! We've NEVER had a gas bill over $300 for one month! Now, I know it was cold, but jeez! So I called them today. It's an estimate, but they recommend that I go ahead and pay it, they'll adjust it next month. Right.....last time I checked Dominion Hope doesn't pay interest on their overcharges. I asked for an actual reading....got "transferred" (read, hung up on) and had to call back. This time schedule a reading for tomorrow and found that there is a "glitch" in the system that is overestimating bills this month. But the lady told me how to read my meter and I looked....hopefully I'm doing it wrong because it's actually MORE than the estimate.

Celia....not into napping today. At all. She also got into Jordan's lunch and got out his Tapioca pudding. She ripped it open before I got to her, so I set it aside for her to eat later.....she found it this afternoon and helped herself. Tapioca is hard to wipe off.

Plus, Jordan and his lunch. We got home from shopping (I needed a little retail therapy) at 11:00 and I found his lunch sitting on the piano. I threw Celia back in the car and ran that over to the school....and we just got back from picking him up. We needed to give him a ride home today since he had his guitar for the talent show and I didn't want him taking it on the bus.

My husband will not answer or return any calls from home...which just irritates me to no end! I know, you're working, you're busy....but come on! Spare 5 minutes each day for your family! Again.....we're talking radio, not a cure for cancer here. Of course I can't JUST be mad...that's too easy. The disaster oriented part of my brain keeps throwing in "What if something's really wrong..." scenarios. Which in turn makes me even more mad because I know NOTHING is wrong, he does this all the time when he travels, he knows I start to worry and does it anyway. It's an endless cycle of guilt (because I'd feel really bad if something had happened, you can bet I'd delete this blog in a hurry!) and anger.......

On the sunny side of things, shopping went well. K-Mart did not have what I was looking for (there are rumored to be Pampers and PullUps clearance for $1 at select KMarts) but did have some good coupons that I picked up for later use. I cleaned out Target's Valentine clothing section. They had a lot of really cute toddler things, so I got her a few for this year (who says girls can't wear hearts all spring) and a ton of stuff for the next few years. At less than $1 each piece, I was pretty happy! Plus we bought tons of valentines to play with (and for the tattoos!). Celia found this little Backyardigans mailbox and has been playing with it most of the day. More free Choxie and some free chips! I also picked up some of that St John's Wort stuff....it says right on the bottle that it's a "mood enhancer". Now if I could just be brave enough to take some....

My favorite place.

That's right, it's my rocking chair. I was rocking Celia before her nap yesterday thinking that in another year, she'll be too old to rock and probably not want it in her room. Heartbreaking really.

My brother bought me the chair right before I had Jordan. That in itself makes it a HUGE thing. We had NOTHING, so a nice chair was a great gift. Plus my brother and I did not get along growing up....we were very close in age....too much sibling rivalry I guess. That chair was the first nice thing I can ever remember him doing for me. It really meant something coming from him, especially when I take getting a lot of flack from a lot of people about being a young, unwed mother.

Well, Jordan was never a big rocker. Even as an infant, he was a bouncer. You had to bounce that kid to sleep! Strangest thing I ever heard of! The chair was used, but just as a nice chair to sit in in the living room.

So years later we were expecting Celia, and I start working on her room. Since the chair had seen it's share of spills, I put a slipcover on it to match her crib and room decor. One of me students knitted me a gorgeous blanket, and I made a little pillow. She has been a rocking baby from day 1. We sat in that chair for hours while nursing and rocking to sleep....I usually rocked her long after she was out....just because it was so nice to do so. We're growing out of the chair now, and it makes me really sad. I wrestle her into it with me before nap time and we rock and sing for awhile....until the motion works it's magic and she lays her little head on me. I can't rock her to sleep now (all the experts say toddlers need to put themselves to sleep...and I think they are right on that account.) but I do make sure she's nice and sleepy before she goes to bed.

I would have pictures....but my MacBook is out of town and I can't get the digital camera to work...grr...

Enough melancholy for now....I'm baking up a storm. In an effort to not eat crap the whole time Chris is out of town, I'm making a bunch (umm, 20, but most will be frozen for later use!) twice baked potatoes and homemade pepperoni rolls for out quick before church dinner tomorrow. I also have to wash the sheets (again) as Celia snuck in my room, spilled my cup of water all over the bed then drew on the sheets with lip balm. If it weren't for the lip balm, I'd just sleep on the other side!

You can take a kid to the dentist...

...but you can't make him open his mouth! Round Two of Jordan and the filling went on this morning. Score Jordan 2-0. Now, let me just say that we have a great dentist. I myself am not fond of the dentist and have some major anxiety over it. But this guy is good. You barely feel it when he numbs you, which is always the worst part. Also, Jordan has had a filling in the past! He barely flinched, said it was no big deal! But that was two years ago and his little mind has apparently spent a lot of time blowing this thing out of proportion.

Today we went in prepared to use a little laughing gas. Our dentist isn't crazy about drugs of any kind (which I like) but will use them if necessary. Jordan had bucked up a little and decided he was going to have it done without the gas. He really seemed more calm and I thought he's go through with it. Nope. then he wouldn't even let them put this little mask over his nose to try the laughing gas. So we left the office, sans filling. Dentist is going to think about this problem today and call me with some ideas.

Basically, we've got 4 options. First, just hold the kid down, gas him, numb him and fill the tooth. Dentist if a very kind and gentle man, not into holding kids down. He says he saw some awful things in dental school and hates to traumatize a child. So this is, for many reasons, a last resort.

Option 2: Slip him a mickey. Is that still current slang? Anyway, drug the kid up at home and then bring him in. With Jordan and his medicine taking/picky eating issues, this would probably also entail some holding down and possibly some pukage. Now, there's a chance we could slip it in some Coke....which was the dentist's thought. But my kid is going to wonder why I'm letting him drink Coke in the first place, probably figure it out, and refuse to drink the spiked soda. We've been down THAT road before. (Honestly, I wrote it in the baby book when he was old enough to swallow pills....small pills only though!)

Option 3: Sedate him with a shot. Okay....that's not going to work. If the kid won't let you give him a tiny shot in the mouth to numb a tooth, he's sure not going to let you put one in his arm.

Option 4: Try another dentist. We have a pediatric dentist in our area with a bunch of bells and whistles in the office. Headset games for the kids to play during procedures. Maybe the distraction will be enough. I think this is the option I'm leaning toward. Chris doesn't want to take him all the way up there just to waste another dentist's time (though I'm willing to bet that they charge for a chicken out appointment, which our current dentist doesn't).

So there you have it folks.....what would you do if it were your kid?

My weekly church blog.

It's Sunday again, time for me to review in my mind our new church happenings for the week.

We really wanted to check out a new church this week, but didn't want to miss one of the series at Chestnut Ridge. I should have been doing this all along, but I encourage you to check out the MP3's they have online of the sermons in this series "Seven". Pride and Sloth are currently available, this week's will be up soon (I'm sure, not like I have any control over that. They are pretty on top of things though!)

This week Pastor Tim Haring spoke about the sins of excess: Lust, Greed, Gluttony. I don't know whether it was because we had Celia in service with us (she's a little distracting, but was overall pretty well behaved. She did take a big poo in the middle of the sermon...could have done without that!) or because I don't feel like I'm in too much danger of these particular sins (like I struggle with Pride and Sloth). I'm pretty much the picture of anti-lust.....enough said there! (I know, lust can be used as a non-sexual thing. And while I did really want those Cloggens someone introduced me to the other day, I wouldn't say I "lusted" after them). I don't *think* I'm greedy. I am the ultimate bargain shopper (sometimes to a fault) but don't it it just to get more stuff (in my defense, I do donate lots of that stuff, and enjoy doing it! It makes me feel really good to be able to just give someone in need, friend or stranger, a bunch of things to help them out). As for Gluttony.....I have been known to put away a few to many cookies or chocolate or bread from time to time.....but I don't really think it's to excess. It was still a great service overall....though I didn't "get" the poetry for this week like I have for the other two.

This morning (Sunday) we got up and went to Trinity Assembly of God. Pastor Adam (minister of music) and I have the same taste in music. Almost every song they did was something Chris and I either did or had planned to do with our old church. They do have a large group doing praise and worship, but both Chris and I can see a place for us among them if we are led to stay there (I'm not sure I can say the same for Chestnut Ridge myself....Chris certainly can!). We also chose a bad week to go (in terms of evaluating a church) since they had a guest speaker. He was okay....said a few things I'm not sure about but his overall message was very pointed and pertinent to me (us): God just tells you to go.....but not always where you're going. You just have to trust Him and go......you'll know it when you get there.

That being said, I'm starting to doubt that the pentecostal church is something I'll ever be comfortable with. Nothing wrong with it, just different strokes for different folks. It was nice to be so warmly embraced by the leadership of the church (although one new guest greeter was squeezing a little too tight! She kept introducing us to every one saying "This is Chris, he's been here before...he worked on the cd. This is Rebecca, this is her FIRST TIME. She's NEW. after about the sixth introduction of this type I felt like I was wearing a blinking sign on my head flashing "Newbie" or maybe even "Heathen". She had good intentions, but the introspective cynic in me was overwhelmed) Anyway, we were warmly welcomed and I hope in any case we get to spend some more time with Pastor Adam and his family. They are so fun to be with, have a little girl Celia's age and another baby on the way. (We got to spend a good bit of time with them in Chicago last summer)

Both kids enjoyed their rooms. Celia found a slide in the toddler room the minute we walked in the door and never looked back. She went full steam ahead with a room of rough and tumble boys the whole time. Jordan really enjoyed children's church. (He said even more than Chestnut Ridge, which is quite something because that's ALL he's talked about these past few weeks). They've really done a good job with the room and the kid's service. His favorite "character" was Napoleon Explosion (ahh....Dynamite?).

Looking forward to going back and hearing the head pastor speak on another week!

Some of my favorite clips.

For all my mommy friends who watch way too much Blues Clues (and everyone knows Steve is WAY better than Joe)




WARNING - Don't let your kids see this or they will ask to watch it every single day! mine do.



More to come. As expected, now that I sat down to put this blog together, I can't remember anything funny.

Check THIS out!

Those of you who know me in real life know that I'm a pretty big YouTube watcher. Just when I think I've seen every cool video there is to see, something else comes along.

Mortification at the Post Office!

It's been a whirlwind morning so far! Jordan actually went to school today, but on a two hour delay. I blew off making cookies for his classroom party last night to go out with Heather (we were both getting cabin fever after being stuck inside with all the kids all week! We planned coffee, but the little coffee shop near out house closed! For good! Boo!) So I had to whip u some cookies this morning, get my packages ready for the post office, get everyone clean, dressed and out the door. I had just got both the kids and all Jordan's stuff in the car (cookies, Valentines, teacher gifts, backpack, and a project that was due today) and realized I forgot to pack him a lunch! So back inside to throw something together.

We got him dropped off at school and then Celia and I went to the post office. My normally sweet, well behaved little cutie was a firecracker this morning! She yanked free of the mommy vise grip when I was trying to pay to ship packages and started doing laps around our tiny little post office, screeching and laughing. Which wasn't too bad, but then a guy came and she ran smack into his butt and grabbed with both hands REALLY high up on his thigh. We really couldn't get out of there fast enough.

I'm leaving you today with our newest family video: "Vadar's Invasion".

Paper Mache and Dress Up

We're having a pretty productive snow day. Celia spent part of the morning changing into different dress up outfits. This one was her favorite. She told me "Mommy, I'm so excited to be a princess!" Jordan had on his ninja gear...because every princess needs a ninja to look out for her. He spent a good bit of time working on fractions (we're not there yet!) I made bread. It's very good, but didn't get a good crown on it. Which means I'll eat a tons of it, but no one else will. Mmm, carbs! Then we got to work putting paper mache on balloons so Jordan could make a model planet. They both had a bunch of fun, but I think it's going to take forever to dry. I see myself spending a good bit of time with a hairdryer and some goopy balloons this afternoon! I'll leave you with some shots of our balloon covering fun!

Radio or Rocket Science

Looks like they are having more problems at the radio station. They've been calling with one problem after another since 7:30 AM. Chris took a short break from answering calls to take a shower and actually go to work. They called while he was in the shower and when I told them he was in the shower, here is what I was told:

"Well, we have an emergency here, we have NO logs for AJR FM. Tell him we'll even talk to him wet!"

Are you kidding me? This is radio we're talking about here! It's not brain surgery, it's not life or death! Let the man have a shower! To translate the radio speak.....I think AJR is still talk radio (who listens to that?). Logs are just how they merge commercials and music/talk together (? I could have this all wrong, I'm sure Chris will correct me if that's the case) so what's happening is that commercials aren't being played. Now I know that's a real bummer, that's how the radio stations make $$$, by playing commercials. But come on!

Enough of my radio rant for the day. Jordan has no school again. Like I've said before, I love having him at home, but I hate the thought that they will probably have to make all these days up in June. Today we've got to make a model of Venus (the planet, not the Roman god). And we'll be working on more fractions. Jordan never has any problem with any reading based subject (lit, science, social studies, spelling) because he's an awesome reader (he just finished the Hobbit, which I think is an 8th or 9th grade level book). He just takes a little longer to catch on to higher level math concepts. Once he gets his brain wrapped around all the rules and processes, he does great. We've found a couple websites with fun fraction games. My favorite is Fun Brain's Soccer Shootout.

He likes all of the Fun Brain Math Arcade games, plus we always spend some time playing different games to refine the multiplication table. You really can't know those too well.

Celia and I will probably fight over the wearing of clothes (or not, as she prefers) and potty training (I'm of the opinion that if you're going to run around naked, you must use the potty. She thinks that potty is simply one option you've got on a whole list of fun places to pee in the house).

I've got some bread mixed up (finally)! I'm trying just a plain old white bread this time (mmm....but not as healthy). My oatmeal bread is a bit heavy, so I'm trying to see if it's jsut the way i make bread or my oatmeal bread recipe.

The Man, the Myth, the Great Chris Moran

In honor of Valentine's Day, let me introduce you to my husband. Here we are on our wedding day....a pose I know he wishes we'd strike more often! He's pretty understanding of my usual "everyone stay out of my personal space attitude". However you want to look at it, either I got really lucky or I chose really well....in any case I ended up with a pretty good guy. I think what first attracted me to him was his amazing amount of talent (well, after the physical cuteness). He one of those musical people who can play ANY instrument pretty well, and about half of them better than anyone I've ever known. (Thankfully, that talent does not extend to the flute....the only one I can play! Being better than me at that may have worked against him!) Since he can both read music and play by ear, he can play anything that you want or comes to his mind. While we were dating, he used to play "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and make up silly words to it. He still doesn't know all of the word to any song!

Then I learned that he had a super cool radio job! I've learned since then (since he still works with the radio station, just in a different area) that the job does have it's down points (he's basically the only person in his company who know how to do what he does...which makes him very valuable and highly overworked) it's still pretty cool and has some nice perks. Plus (an this came as a real surprise to me) he's REALLY smart. Possibly even smarter than me ~gasp~! I'm not sure why that came as such a shocker to me, since I never thought he was stupid (I have no patience for stupidity) but I guess you just get used to the goofy, everyday face of a person that when they display something new (like extraordinary intelligence), it comes as a surprise!

Now that we've had kids, I get to see a side of him I didn't see when we were dating. He's a complete goofball. Both kids know this and when the want a laugh, dad is where they go. Through the blur of the picture, you can see how happy Celia is to run laps around him with her stroller. He barely flinches when she wacks his leg. Jordan looks to him for all source of bodily humor and as a gaming partner. Dad is an xbox genius on everything except Lego Star Wars. (He just falls asleep while playing that particular game). Jordan has also learned that while mom might be able to teach you all the rules and techniques of things like soccer, it's way more fun to play with dad.....even when he won't follow the rules.

Both kids also know who the softie is around here and who they can wrap around their finger. Celia has discovered that good ole dad can NOT refuse a sweet little plea to "sleep in my bed" and exercises this new found right more than is good for her. Jordan has discovered that dad usually lets you eat a lot more junk food than mom (with the exception of gum. I used to be the gum supplier around here, since Chris is terrified of choking kids. Then we had the gum in the hair and gum on the wall incident last summer and it's banned in the house). Dad also never says crazy things like "turn that video game off, it's melting your brain" like mom might. My personal favorite is that for whatever reason, Jordan now prefers that Dad be present when there is any kind of puking to be done. Can't tell you how sad I am to lose THAT job!

There he is......and I'm off to make him some brownies for Valentine's Day. If you see him, please remind him that today IS Valentine's Day.....

What happened at nap....

or during naptime I should say. Because there was no napping today.


I'm really starting to get scared that she's giving up her nap. I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Of course, I'm one of those mean mommies that puts you in your room for two hours every afternoon whether you're sleepy or not! So she started off really good today. I could hear her talking and playing on her bed, which is fine. After about 40 minutes I heard her get up so I went up and told her to get back in bed. When I helped her in, I noticed her onesie was open and her diaper was gone. Well.......that's something that's just terrifying to me! Onesies have been my saving grace on keeping some clothes on her butt on days like this where she has NO interest in the potty! No more...I don't know what I'm going to do now.

I decided to grab a quick shower while she was still contained in her room since it's the most child safe room in the house. When I got out I found her re-arranging furniture so she could boost herself over the gate. She's just SO smart. But scary devious smart....not cure cancer smart. Well, she might be. She's only 2. It's a little early to tell.

Jordan had an unexplained meltdown at the dentist today and REFUSED to open his mouth for the little filling he needs. We're going back on monday.....armed with the option of laughing gas. I'm not really saying much about it because he's mortified that he acted so badly. He said in the car on the way home that he thought he was getting "soft" since he didn't even flinch last time he needed a filling (two years ago, so it's been awhile).

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Jordan came home from school yesterday VERY excited. He'd heard a rumor that we were getting 6-12 inches of snow. I informed him that was indeed a rumor! While we certainly didn't get that much, we did get enough to cancel school. He's still in bed reading, though I know he's up because Celia snuck up to cuddle with him some. Wait until he finds out I plan on practicing fractions with him all day! Plus the poor kid has to get a filling at the dentist, but I'm not telling him about that until the last possible moment. He'll worry about it all day otherwise!

Those of you who stop by frequently might be getting a little motion sick from all my rapid changes on my blog. Sorry about that! I'm trying to make this thing a legitimately "good" blog. Now, I know that's basically all in the content (well, I'm already out of luck on that account) so I'm settling for making it look "good." I think I'm done changing the layout for now.....I'm just trying to think of a catchy description and paragraph for me "About Me" section.

Grumpy and Foul

Well I'm seriously grumpy and foul this evening! Mostly about all of our stuff! We are just overcome with junk! Chris and I are cleaning the basement out (again, should we really have to do this every freaking year!) and our slow progress is frustrating. Plus, I'm aware that it's completely unreasonable for me to expect to deep clean the kitchen (done) dining room (95% done) and bedroom (ummm....I hung new curtains. shabbily at that) all while potty training my toddler and supervising a play date.....but expect I did, so now I'm grumpy.

I think the biggest bummer of the whole evening is that while I avoided laziness all day long, I totally crashed after dinner and forgot to put away the left half of the pot roast. Horribly wasteful.....and I was dying to make lo mien with it later in the week. I think I make a pretty killer lo mien (americanized, I'm sure) and I've been craving it. I'm just SO mad at myself for that one.

Plus, when I get in this mean and crabby mood....I find it hard to be nice to Chris. Now, my kid's cuteness cuts through just about any grumpiness.....but Chris doesn't have cuteness on his side. Don't get me wrong, he's a very handsome man. But handsome doesn't tug at your soul like cute does......so I find myself just about sneering at him because he's irritatingly into a basketball game. Honestly....why must he yell at the players and call them names? Or ask the tv questions? It's not ever going to answer back. And the hand clapping.....

Moods like this are what make me seriously consider calling up my doctor and requesting some mood enhancing pharmaceuticals.

In hopes of reaching a better mood tomorrow, I'm going to start with some better goals. I will:

Finish dining room (not dwell upon condition of the furniture and dream over painting it black as mom mentioned)

Deep clean bedroom......unfortunately that includes laundry.

Make Valentine's Day cookies

Help Jordan with his Valentines.

There......that sounds pretty do-able. I'm also going to end this blog with some good thoughts.....Jordan is doing great in school, we had a very nice Parent-teacher conference. I have good tea, a Senseo, and coffee mate....and my favorite tea stirring spoons, which make for a very fancy cup of tea. My front porch is now clean and less white-trashy (if you ignore the one white rail, one black rail, and half hacked off bush....couldn't exactly do anything about those tonight!) And while we have no clean bath towels for morning (hand towel anyone?) my favorite pajamas ARE clean.

Blah, it's Monday.

Yep, that's about all that can be said about today. I did really well getting the house looking nice....clean, de-clutter, and organize. Things are going well on the potty training front. Tonight we have parent teacher conference at Jordan's school and someone from the old church is coming over to make diaper cakes. We might be getting snow again though! Yay for snow!

Hmmm....are we sluggards?

Well I guess everyone is at some point and time! But this is the phrase Chris and I have been slinging around all day after our second week at Chestnut Ridge.

This was week two of the series on the seven deadly sins.....sin of the day was sloth. (AKA, being a sluggard!) Now, last week was pride. As a musician and a performer, pride is always something that I struggle with. God has a pretty clear way of dealing with that though! Every time Chris and I would start thinking we were hot stuff, just a little something would come up to remind us who the real achiever really is! Just enough to make us go "Oh, whoops, you're right. I'm not all that great, but You certainly are! The other half of pride is a little more difficult for me to struggle with (the "I can't do that, I'm no good" part...it's equally as self-centered as the "look how good I am" pride). I do have a problem with that, and usually I'm overly critical of myself. At least I think so. Chris always seems happy (musically) with what we do, and I hope he'd be honest if it wasn't good. But anyway, talk about pride to a musician, that's a given. I don't know many musicians who don't struggle with pride at one time or another!

So back to sloth. Right after music there was a dramatic reading...just kind of about what you think of when you think of sloth. Fat, smelly, lazy guy. Whew, that's not me! Off the hook on that one! Then the pastor come up and talks about how we have all these distractions....and to dwell on them when there are other things that NEED done (umm, like posting on BabyCenter instead of cleaning the kitchen) is slovenly. Okay, so maybe I'm not off the hook.

There were lots of other good points made.....like how work is not a bad thing. It's often said that work is God's punishment after the fall, but in fact he put us on the earth to work (though maybe we toil a little more now) and through hard work we receive fulfillment.....of one kind or another. And the punishments of laziness kind of snowball into a big thing you'd rather not deal with....if you'd just gotten up and done a little bit of work in the first place you would have saved yourself a lot of work in the end.

All in all, a great sermon.....both Chris and I came away with it feeling pushed to be less sluggardly and slothful this week. Plus we have a new word......sluggard. Say it, it's fun.....sluggard, sluggard. I even like "sluggardly" (though my spell checker does not, so I'm guessing it's not a real word. Must stop being so sluggardly and call someone about making it one!)

All Partied Out......

Okay, so I did eventually get in the party mood, and had quite a good time. I'm eternally thankful to my friend Heather, because without her the party would have been a total flop. I get overwhelmed by those find of things.

Not that many people came, which was quite surprising to me. Pastor J is very well loved at church and I thought lots of people would want to come to the party to show their appreciation and love for him. But that's how things go there....

The people that did come brought him some very nice things to help him set up house, and we had some serious food. Props to Heather again for what are the BEST masked potatoes I have had since my grandma used to make them! She said there were four stick of butter in them...so much for eating healthy! So good though!

Everyone oohed and ahhed over the cake, but I think they were afraid to eat it, because only a couple pieces were missing. The kids enjoyed eating the bow!

Chris fixed our real camera, so I'm working on figuring out how to use it with the MacBook and Blogspot.........but I missed some of the best pictures today! First, Pastor's J's kids and the senior pastor's grandkids got into the baptismal and had to be chased out! Then they were pulling each other wildly around the floor on my Twister mat. But, here are the boring photos I did manage to take in between servings of potatoes.





A bunch of people eating some food...













Super Heather and her side-kick Bo!












Josh and the kids.......









Opening gifts with lots of little helpers!

Party Day

Well, it's party day and I'm in no mood for a party. Mostly because I'm going to have to be at the church FOREVER. A month ago when we started planning this housewarming party we decided 4-6 would be best since it's a dinner thing. J said that was fine with him, so I made up the invites and passed them out with 4-6 on it. Well, last week in the church bulletin it was advertised as 2-5. After that screw-up (or not, I'm still wondering....) J said he'd prefer it at that time anyway! Nice. Now some people think it's 2-5 and some think it's 4-6 . They had the church calling machine call, bu no one listens to that thing. Every week it's the same.

"God is Good, All the Time! This is ---------- with church, calling to remind you that this sunday we'll be having service at 10, sunday school at 9. Please, bring a friend and join us for a great service"

Really.....church at 10 on sunday? Whew, glad they remind people. Someone might forget that we do that EVERY SINGLE WEEK!

By "we" I don't mean Chris and I...since we don't go there anymore. It's just a general "we".

Anyway, so no one listens to that machine and now people are going to be there all afternoon, which means I have to be there all afternoon. Plus, housewarmings are supposed to be low key....since I planned it for two hours, I didn't plan a lot of stuff. I figured we'd eat, talk, have J open gifts, and we're done. Well that's not going to take 4 hours! So I'm taking the MacBook and we can take funny pictures of everyone.....Heather is bringing catchphrase, I'm bringing my Bible version of MadGab. Thank goodness for Heather......this party would suck without her. She's so good at remembering all the little things (that really do matter) that I totally forget.

I'm off to make a casserole, then buy some bread and salad!

Woohoo! I love my cake!

I'm so exciting that this cake came out! I don't know what it will taste like, but I think it looks pretty good, especially for my first attempt at rolled fondant icing! It's definately not baker quality as you can see little marks or wrinkles in the icing and it's pretty thick (I was afraid to roll it too thin).





This is the bow that will go on top. I'm just going to sit it up there and take it off before cutting. It's all edible, but it's enough sugar to kill a person!



That's Baby cat peeking around the corner. Those darn cats. The kids sure love them though...

I'm making a cake!

I'm getting really excited about this cake I'm working on! I'm a miserable failure with buttercream icing so I've always stuck to glazes (or a bakery!) when I need a pretty cake. So now I'm biting the bullet and trying this fondant icing thing! I'd always heard it was SO hard, and so far it's really not! Like playing with Play-Doh mostly. I rolled out some for this pretty bow for the top of the cake (it has to dry in shape before you put it on the cake) and it looks goo this morning! It will either be a great looking cake or a miserable failure.....either way I'm having fun with it. One more perk about being a SAHM is I have to try stuff like this...

Here's the start of my bow. Doesn't look like much, but I assure you this is exactly what it's SUPPOSED to look like at this stage:





Finally, Jordan goes to school! Funny thing is, it's only 2 degrees warmer than when they cancelled school on monday and tuesday for cold. I guess they finally decided that was ridiculous.

I also need to do some laundry today. We had a bit of a backup (ummm.....Chris and his laundry. I went on strike two weeks ago and stopped washing his laundry. He was being vile and not doing an of his chores. Needless to say, when he started running low on underwear, things changed. But I still make him wash his own from that week, which was almost more trouble than it's worth. Almost, but not quite ) anyway, he finished his laundry last night so now I can do laundry (including his this time )

We're still on a break from potty training, which is frustrating both Celia and I. I think she's ready......but her poo is not. She's still having very messy diapers 3 or so times a day, so until that clears up....I just don't know. Poor thing went to bed with a bit of a rash, so I'm thinking some "free range" time might do her bottom good this morning!

Learning to Eat Pizza

I bet you thought you just always knew how to eat pizza.....not so! Once upon a time your mom used to cut it up into teeny tiny pizza squares, then you had to figure out how to do it the right way. Celia has decided she is quite the big girl, and did NOT want little pizza for lunch. She wanted BIG pizza, so here she is, doing her best to eat it!





Other than a nose full of sauce, she did pretty good!

She also tried to help me make fondant this morning! Whew, what a mess. I debated taking my rings off (I never take them off for anything) and I'm so glad I decided to. Just looking at the mess of melted marshmallow made my hands sticky! I had that stuff everywhere. But now I have a nice looking ball of shiny icing. I just need to figure out what to do with it........

Another Day, Another Snowstorm

Here we are on day 5 of no school. Which means Jordan has been home for about 7 days straight (except a sleepover and church). I kind of feel bad, because I honestly don't mind. I felt bad because I was sick yesterday and we did NOTHING, so I asked him what special thing he'd like to do today....he said he liked just sitting in his room playing Legos.....though he could use a new book since he's read all his! What a kid! It makes me think about homeschooling again.....but only for a little bit. I know public school has it's faults, but so does the real world. I guess I'd rather have him learn to deal with them as he's growing, rough as that may be sometimes. Besides, I'm afraid I'd get lazy to stuck on a concept and he'd never get into a good college. But it is nice to have him at home on these nice unexpected breaks.

We got 3 or 4 inches of snow last night and Jordan was just dying to get out there and shovel it off. So I bundled him up and let him go out....for about 15 minutes. Then he was frozen and needed to come in. It looks so sunny and nice out there with big piles of white snow, but it's just bitter cold. He did manage to get the steps cleared before the mailman came, which is pretty impressive in my opinion.

He came in and got warmed up with some hot cocoa. Celia doesn't like cocoa but goes crazy for marshmallows, so she got juice and a bowl of marshmallows. Silly girl will eat just about anything you put in front of her but won't drink anything warm or carbonated.

We ordered Papa John's Pizza last night (a real rarity from cheapskate mom!) I was in no mood to cook the kids were begging for it. Celia described it as "just right". She's very into Goldilocks and the Three Bears, so I think that was quite a compliment.

Jordan still has one lonely balloon on the ceiling!

Balloons on the ceiling!

Okay, since Jordan is home from school yet again, we are doing some fun science stuff. Since it's to dry in the house, we're playing with static electricity. We used a static-y balloon to separate salt from pepper (worked okay, but not great). The we were seeing how many balloons we could stick to the wall (an endless number) so then we decided to stick them to the ceiling and see how long they would stay up there. We currently have 18 balloons stuck to the ceiling!


We had some fun getting them up there. First the kids decided to jump off the chairs and launch a balloon to the ceiling. Well, Jordan was, Celia was just jumping off chairs. While lots of fun.....that was highly ineffective. Here is some chair jumping fun:




Sorry about the blurry photos. They're all from the MacBook camera, which is definitely not made for action shots! So not many balloons were making it to the ceiling (although Jordan really got some air on some of them! Air Jordan, haha!) and one popped after if got landed on....so we put Celia down for her nap and stuck them up with the help of a kitchen stool.

Today I'm also eternally thankful to Huggies and CVS for great coupons and sale (respectively) and restocking my supply of baby wipes. Poor Celia is still recovering from the barrage or raisins and apple juice......all she's done today is poo! Needless to say, potty training is put off until we have some more.....controllable....poo!

The house is nice and toasty too. We were going to make cookies, but I discovered I'm almost out of flour (hmmm....shopping tonight?) so I used this chilly opportunity to set the oven on self clean. I also put shallow dishes of water with lavender oil on the radiators since it's been so dry in here....so it smells nice and fresh too! Nice.

Brrrr...it's cold!

We've got a balmy 0 degrees here....which would be an improvement for some of you northerners....but is pretty cold for us! It snowed some more as well and my kids are going to be so bummed that they can't go out. We have this really nice guy up the street with a scraper/snow blower thing that always walks the whole block and scrapes our sidewalks clean. Which I'm totally grateful for (especially when we have 5+inches) but I'm not sure our little dusting needed done at 5 in the morning! That thing is loud!

This weekend I got out some fabric and made pillow shams for our bedroom (not the project I wanted to do, but it's nice to get something done). I'm going to try and do some curtains today....maybe a throw for the bed. We'll see if that's not too "matchy"

Chris got a ton of work done in the basement, so I'm going to try and clean down there some today. I'm debating painting down there while it's clean before we put stuff in. I think I have enough light blue paint....that would look nice with our brown rugs....I want to keep things nice and light down there since it's such a dark space. I'm thinking of (you know, years from now when we get done remodeling the bathroom and kitchen and get to working on my half of the basement) painting it a very light pink and making it sweet and girly. It's going to be a laundry/craft area.....

I also continued my search for a free piano. We have an electronic one...and it's really nice. Better than the real thing musically.....but I just love the look of a real piano. So, I thought I found one and was really excited because Chris and I looked up the serial number and it was manufactured in 1904.....which would make it an actual antique instead of just more "old stuff" in my house! I set out to go look at it saturday, but I could NOT find this lady's house! They live WAY out (like the closest interstate is a 40 minute drive!) I thought I found it once, but that was someone's driveway, not a road I was looking for. Then I may have found the actual road......but it was a sheet of ice going straight up the side of the mountain and I was afraid to try it. Four wheel drive won't help you much on solid ice! Everything was snow covered, it was impossible. If they list is again this week I'm going to BEG Chris to go look at it and if it's decent (in my head, I've glamourized this thing into a shining gilded glorious thing!) get it for me for Valentine's Day! It's free....so he'd just have to organize his friends to help get it for me!

Jordan is home from school again, due to cold this time....we're still under a boil water advisory, so I'm not sure if they could have had school anyway.

Our experience at "The Ridge"

Chris tells me that's what all the "insiders" call Chestnut Ridge Church....and that we ought to call it that as not to seem like outsiders. So there you have it.

It's definately a beautiful building. They must be doing something (okay, many things, there are lots of great things about the place) right to attract that many people. Not just that many people, but many of them who were not Christians before coming to church. It's a great thing to keep lifelong Christians happy, I'm not downplaying that. But it's a whole other thing to be able to communicate the Word of God in a way that it speaks to someone whose heart had been closed (in the past).

So we got there, take the kids to the kids area. We dropped Jordan off at his room (which was just 4th and 5th graders). He was fine, of course....he's always fine. Plus he had really been looking forward to seeing what the kid's service is like. They do a Bible lesson in small groups, then K-5th graders get together for music and drama, then back to small groups for more on the lesson. They were learning about service and how important it is. Just having Jordan be able to tell us something they learned about is in improvement in itself! He also said for snack they had grapes, cheese, and crackers. Hallelujah! A healthy snack! I'd been fighting with the children's ministry at our old church for years trying to get something other than cupcakes and Oreos fed to my kid right before lunch.

Celia also liked her room. The teacher there really know their stuff (concerning dealing with toddlers). The minute that she showed interest they wisked her right into the room and got er involved in Play-doh. She didn't fuss for one minute. I also noticed during service that of ALL those kids, they only flashed one parent page on the screen. Pretty impressive.

Chris and I made out way to the sanctuary and easily found seats. It wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be, Chris went back out and got us both drinks. They have theater style seating with cupholders (!) and encourage bringing coffee drinks to service. I noticed they had a coffee bar, but was surprised that it was free. Okay, so that was nice and all....not something I base my decision of where to go to church on, but a nice touch.

The music was really good. Everyone on the teams seemed very talented and sincere......which is nice. A little sad because I know if we stay there I'll never have a place among them (I just don't have that kind of talent)....but that may not BE my place anymore. I guess I worry about that overall....just being able to find my place there (whatever it may be) and getting involved. I'm not the kind of person who is content just to sit in a service on Sunday morning and call that Christianity. But the converse of that fear is that it's so HUGE and they have so many ministries, surely I can be used in one of them. I tend to have lots of big ideas and never the resources or support to pull them off.

Anyway, it felt a little impersonal to me.....but I think most of that is me having to adjust than anything the church is doing. I mean, it's been 3 years since Chris and I sat through a service together! That by itself is an adjustment. Plus I know no one there, so it's hard to feel that you fit in among so many people. They have a MOPS group, so I'm going to e-mail the coordinator of that and see if Celia and I can get involved there....meet a few other moms and kids.

We picked a good week to go since they are starting a 5 week series on "7 deadly sins". Today Tim Haring spoke about pride. It was quite good. Not life changing or anything....but you get out of it what you put into it. We're going to go for a couple weeks and see what we think.

Charlie Hall and Bebo Norman

Chris and I got to check out the Charlie Hall and Bebo Norman concert at Chestnut Ridge Church last night. It was really awesome. We saw Charlie at Willow Creek Church in Chicago when we were there for the arts conference. It was overwhelmingly awesome at Willow Creek, but I figured part of that was the venue (Willow Creek is an awesome place). But, Charlie was just as good last night a Chestnut Ridge! He also had more time so we got to hear commentary between songs. Both he and Bebo were pretty funny! Bebo's music was also great....but I prefer the "rock" of Charlie Hall. Plus, Chris and I had to leave early because we told Heather we've be back by 10 for Celia, so we had to leave before Bebo really got into his set. We did get to see and talk to Charlie in the hall as we were leaving, which was also pretty cool.

Chestnut Ridge is one of the churches that we're excited to be checking out during our "shop" for a new church home. I was surprised that I wasn't overly impressed with the Chestnut Ridge's worship team (they did an opening set). They were having some sound issues....and I know how hard it is to work with all that stuff when you have a guest group come in...things are changed to suit them. We're planning on going to the 11:00 service this Sunday. Jordan has already been to a Saturday night service there and enjoyed it, but they only have children's church on sunday, so I'd like to go then.

Celia peed on the floor in Heather's new kitchen. I kind of figured that would happen...but she had done so well with the potty training, I was hoping it wouldn't. Unfortunately....when you're new to the whole "peeing in the potty" thing, it rates way down on your priority list. Definately under running around the kitchen with your friends. So today we work more with running around the house, naked, potty training.

I'm also hoping to get to Morgantown and get some shopping done. Walgreens has a toilet paper deal (free) so I want to stop there. Plus I'm hoping to go check out this piano. It was list in the Giveaway section of our local paper. I've been wanting a "real" piano for quite some time. We have a very nice electronic one, but it's getting older and needs some work. Plus...the real thing is just a status thing for me. Anyway, the guy gave me manufacturer and serial number...Chris and I are estimating that it's form 1904! Which would make it an actual antique instead of just plain old (like most of our other things). The guy said none of the keys are broken, none of the strings or hammers are broken, though the hammers have grooves from playing the strings. So I'm hoping to go check it out then talk Chris and Bo into getting it for me. We'll see how that goes! We need a bigger circle of friends for projects like this!

Chuck is already here working on the bathroom! Hopefully we'll make some good progress this weekend and I can work in there this week! We're just at the point right now where it's all plumbing and cement....nothing I can help with.

Goofy kids at lunch.

Here are my two goofballs eating lunch. Ignore me and my blanket wrap. It's 70 in here and I'm still FREEZING! One of these days I'll figure out how to edit these videos so I won't be in them at all, just some funny kids!

Well, maybe just a little water....

Pleasant surprise this morning.....we still have water! It's not drinkable, but you can still flush toilets! I went with my friend last night to one of the sites where they were giving out drinking water than the guys working there had been told the whole city would be out by midnight.......thankfully it seems they were wrong! Local news here is a real waste of airspace and cover nothing....so everything you hear is just that...something someone "heard" from somewhere else. Very frustrating! We're still under a boil water advisory, and morning new said they didn't find the leak....so I got everyone nice and clean then filled the tub again. Just in case.

Chris and I are still hoping to go to our Charlie Hall concert tonight....unless Heather jumps ship. (not that i could blame her) She was talking last night of taking her kids and staying with her mom for a few days....I doubt she'll go unless we really do run out of water. I feel so bad because she stopped over last night after worship team practice. It was the first one without Chris and I.

Sunday morning.....oh the options! I think this Sunday we're checking out the church that's our current favorite....a mega-church the next town over. We also have several in our town we'd like to check out. Yesterday the music pastor at one of them took DH to lunch and told him how much they would love to have us there. He and his wife are great people and we'd love to spend more time with them, but I'm worried the church itself might be too similiar to the one we've just left on some issues (halloween, alcohol, homosexuality)......but we'll see.

So we continue on with Commondo Potty Training.....Day 2. Seems to be going well so far! No accidents and she tells me when she has to go. I really hope this happens.

Since Jordan's home I've got some cool science experiments to try.....static electricity! One where you mix salt and pepper together and ask him to separate them (!). Then you show him how you can make a balloon staticky and it will pull the pepper out. Another where you can make a meter to measure the static properties of different things.

Water, water everywhere....but not so much here.

It seems there is a water problem in my city....they think a water main broke under shifting, frozen ground. Maybe under the river! So some places are without water and we're all under a conservation warning. I went ahead and put some water in the tub, just in case we run out....for flushing, you know! It's kind of...silty, so not for drinking (not that I advocate drinking out of the bathtub anyway!) Will be good to have if we need it though. We have plenty of bottled water in the basement so I'm not worried on that account.

Potty training is going well! Only one partial accident....plus she poopied in the potty (which she hasn't done in ages!) I think it scared her a little because she looked frightened and the minute she was done she hopped off the potty and RAN out of there! She did come back to check out the poo though.....

She also emptied my "put this junk away" basket from the steps.....which made a huge mess but give me a good opportunity to sort and actually put the junk away!

Evolution and Making Change $$

Well I think we're going to try potty training today. Lately she hasn't been peeing on the floor when she decides to strip.....so we're going to stay home today, tomorrow, and saturday.....and see what happens. I figure if she's not trained enough to wear panties by saturday, then she's not ready yet. So we're just going to get the house nice and clean...maybe start on some Valentine's cookies.

I struck gold at Kroger with my free detergent coupons while Jordan was at his guitar lesson (they are across the street, along with several other stores. We usually run over there because it's easier to strap Celia into a cart and browse for half an hour than chase her around a music store!)I found 4 packages of my free detergent, so we got those. We decided not to go to church as Jordan's teacher called and the boys weren't having class....so no need to rush home. I stopped at the bargain store down the road to look for sheets for sewing. Nothing there, but I did find a really nice wool sweater for $1.50! Plus a bunch of high end scrapbooking stuff and some expensive baby blankets for really cheap, so I'm thinking of buying them and eBaying (I started eBaying again and it's going pretty well) Of course, those would also make pretty baby cakes.....so maybe I'll get a few for that too. Chris came home the other day saying how he thinks I should start making and selling them, so I'm thinking about it again.

We have parent teacher conference, so looking forward to that. He brought home math homework that seemed just ridiculous to me yesterday. It was an exercise in money and making change....but it was things like "Make .49 out of exactly 19 coins." Other than the whole logic/brain teaser aspect (which I know has points on it's own) can anyone help me figure out a life application for that or a connection/prep for higher math?

Plus they started talking about evolution....his teacher said "ask your mom about it because we as Christians don't beleive that". Okay, now I don't beleive every theory out there.....because lots of theories are just that.....theories. But I'm also not going to say all the fossils of dinosaurs, primitive man, and micro-organisms are fake just because they aren't in the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God....written by the hand of man. Can you imagine God trying to explain micro-organisms to Moses or Jacob? It would be like trying to teach your toddler algebra. And for what purpose? They needed to know that God was an all powerful creator....he created the heavens, earth, and everything in it. Not scientific details about things they couldn't possibly comprehend while they were trying to save the Israelites! Just because old testament man couldn't understand it, doesn't mean that God can't create it. Or evolve it. Or do anything he wants with it really......

Sorry, I got off track there. It was just difficult to have a deep theological discussion with a 9 year old while trying to figure out how to make .49 with exactly 19 coins! Not that I'm likely to discuss most of that with his teacher either (seems kind of nit-picky on the math and I'm certainly not going to debate religeon with her...what's the point? We both believe in the same God and salvation through Jesus....the rest is just details.