WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Because a picture is worth a thousand words.

Our Newest Angel is Official

Yesterday our little angel was baptised. The service was at St. Peter's at 5:00 with two other baby boys. Max's Godparents are Jake and Bill. During the ceremony Jake did the girl's
part, and we teased him mightily about that. When the sacramental garment was laid on Max, Jen leaned across and asked Dale what it said on it. He replied "I was baptised today, and all I got was this lousy t shirt." We went back to Molly and Jeff's for a buffet in their brand new family room downstairs. We left at 11:15, at which time we could hear Jake howling, "I don't want to take a nap!" Everyone was on a sugar high from the TWO fabulous cakes at the party. By the way, Max was a little angel the whole night.

Wordless Wednesday

Because a picture is worth a thousand words

Sniffles, Sickness and Safaris

It's official! Six weeks from tonight, I will be laying deranged on Emily's living room floor in Cape Town, after enduring 24 hours of flights. Hopefully after a day of rest, we will get the circus on the road. Bob, Zach and Zach's friend Liz will be rounding out our clown posse. The teenagers are excited, Emily is psyched, and Bob can't wait to try out his driving skills on the "wrong" side of the road. I am having a little bit of "buyer's remorse" now that we booked non-refundable tickets, worried if I can keep up.Katrina has offered us her room when she is traveling. Emily has agreed to return to some of her favorite places with us, and we all look forward to the highlight of our vacation- the safari. We still have alot of planning to do, reservations to make and an appointment with the travel clinic to find out if we need shots! But the biggest hurdle is behind us, finding the airline tickets. Now we just have to fly the almost 20,000 miles!
Yesterday Sarah dropped off the kids even though Sophie had been up all night throwing up. Today, even though Luke was sick, Patrick also would've dropped them off if he had not been caught up in the flu himself. We found ourselves with an unexpected afternoon off so I picked up Hannah after class and we took her to her favorite restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings. Bob went home and I got my hair cut while Hannah played with the puppies at the pet store. Hannah and I rounded out the day with a trip to the doctor for her, a prescription at target, and a little retail therapy. I dropped Hannah off with two bags of groceries and headed home myself. I had a few messages from my Discover card both on the phone and online. They wanted to know if I was the one that charged that much at Delta.com today. In the end I had to say yes. Both of us were stunned.

My Heart Shaped Post

We celebrated Valentine's Day with our annual party with the usual suspects. We had heart shaped balloons, heart shaped pizzas, heart shaped desserts....well, you get the picture. The absolute highlight of the party was everyone able to video chat with Emily in Africa. ( Thank you to Emmy for staying up way past her bedtime to do that for us!) In Grandpa's words " wow, we're talking to her RIGHT NOW. That's amazing." It sure is. And that's not all-four generations in the same room and everyone lived to tell about it!
On Sunday I had to take my mom to urgent care. She has shingles (by the way, which I had already diagnosed.) After the Doctor I took her to get her prescription, fed her and took her home. And after MY afternoon nap, I finished all the busywork I had been putting off. Another weekend lived.

The Shover Thrower 3000

Another week. Another story. Nothing as cool as Emily's life, but then again, not much is.
One day Luke went in to use the potty alone as usual. I still don't know what he did but he flooded the bathroom, kitchen, hallway and my bedroom in about 5 seconds flat. I have never seen so much flowing water indoors. I emptied the linen closet onto the mess and turned around just in time to see Sophie playing in the toilet. Both kids were wet up to their knees and Sophie was also wet up to her elbows. I had to change both of them into new clothes and toss the wet stuff into the tub for later. I had two whole loads of towels.
I had the kids alone for 3 days this week because of Bob's work schedule. On Wednesday I dug out the giant duplo Lego's for Sophie, but Luke wanted in too. She didn't want to stack them as much as sit in them. He made himself a gun out of his. The "shover thrower 3000" according to Luke.(Uncle Dean and I had to take turns "freezing" when we got shot.) I spent about half hour stacking them after they left so they would fit back into the bin! After that I turned down a lunch date with Jill in favor of a nap because I was so tired. My mom ditched her in favor of getting a blood transfusion.
On Thursday, Bob and I took the kids to Maplewood Mall Play area. Molly, Jake and Max met us there. The boys were very excited to see each other since they have not been together except in school since Max was born. There was alot of screaming and hugging. Sophie saw Max for the first time. She wasn't too interested until she saw him move. Then she reached out and touched his hat and smiled.WOW A living doll. The rest of the time she was a daredevil, running and climbing and going down the slide like a big kid, most of the time with Jake right on her heels. We finished up with a quick bite at BW3.
On Friday Luke was busy stringing candy necklaces at the kitchen table. He was almost finished when he dropped the string and had to start over. He tired of it soon after that and asked me to string them for him "in a hurry." I did. Then he ate them in a hurry. I don't know why I had to string them if he was just going to eat it right away. Whatever!
I went out for supper at the last minute with Robyn. We went to Chili's (where else?) and had an appetizer, fajitas and dessert. Yeah! Great way to end the week...

Wordless Wednesday

Because a picture is worth a thousand words.

happy Anniversary to Me

Today is our 71st wedding anniversary! (hold on a minute..what?......really?......) Never mind, I've just been informed it is our 34th anniversary. Feels like MUCH longer. Bob brought home flowers, but they were calla lillies, and I don't want a repeat of what happened to Cinders the last time we had lillies in the house, so I couldn't keep them. It's the thought that counts. And anyway, we went to Old Chicago for a "chicago7" pizza and to a movie. (Eat your heart out Diane.) We saw "The Wrestler" with Mickey Rourke. It was good, but just like the last 10 movies I saw, it was depressing and full of dead people. Come to think of it, the last upbeat movie I saw was "Slumdog Millionaire" and that was about orphans and beatings and kidnapping. Other good but depressing movies include- Seven Pounds, Revolutionary Road, The Visitor, Transsiberia, Grand Torino, Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, and the Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (actually that one was NOT good, just depressing.) I might just rent a Disney film.........oh, no, just remembered Bambi's dead mom, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, and Cruella De Ville. I'll watch Barney. Oh yeah, that makes me want to kill mYSeLf! Next time the urge to see a movie hits me, I think I'll take a nap.

CONTRAPTION

Whew, what a week. My mom had the last 2 days of her chemo on Monday and Tuesday, and I took her to eat and out shopping for a while. She always has extra energy during the 7 days she has chemo, and starts to feel lousy after it's done,so I try to take her out when she feels good . I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, and went to lunch with Danielle afterward. (I also got to take care of Max and Jake while Molly took a shower.) I started a new prescription for my fibromyalgia, but it is making me so tired I don't think I'll be able to stay on it. I'll try a half dose before I quit it because it really does help me. Bob took his mom to the doctor on Thursday for another bladder infection. Friday Bob and I went out to lunch alone- a rare treat lately.
We had Luke and Sophie again all week. Luke was particularly disobedient, but also particularly entertaining. He snapped off the computer, which he knows is a NO, NEVER, and then out of the blue, he told Sophie "she has a pretty ugly face." which was kinda funny in a naughty, random sort of way. He sprayed room deodoriser all over the cabinet in the bathroom, but then he wrote on his hands with pen and explained he was making "laser beeps'"(beams). How can you yell at a kid for that, especially after he told me he needed them to shoot things. Luke's Word of the week is CONTRAPTION.
I spent the better part of each day looking at travel to Africa. Bob, Zach and I are trying to go see Emily for 2 weeks in early April. The fare is monstrous though and the flight times and connections are even worse! I can't book until I get word back on the safari we want to go on with her and I am worried that we will miss out completely if fares go up anymore. South Africa is pretty big and we need to fly between Cape Town and Krueger National Park for the safari. Emily has promised to take me to dead penguin beach. This is a trip of a lifetime I keep saying to myself. It has become my mantra. Speaking of Emily, she is on tour until next Thursday night and promised to update her blog after that.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

This and That

It was a very busy weekend. Now that I have Luke and Sophie all week, I live for my weekends like a teenager! First the LOWLIGHTS: balanced the checkbook, paid bills, went to the bank, got taxes done for me, Emily, Hannah and Zach, missed a nap both days, and a million other mundane errands. HIGHLIGHTS: Almost 50 degrees on Saturday, Met Jill and Grandma for lunch after chemo both days, bought myself a bigger TV for the sewing room, spent time with Dean picking out an awesome 47" flat screen high def TV and setting it up with him, picked up Maddy and brought her to Nate's basketball game to surprise him ( She got a much bigger hug than I did), spent the hour watching the game with Jake, Shopped with a capitol S and spent very little money due to coupons, gift cards, general stinginess and deals,and came home to clean floors courtesy of Bob and Zach.