Spitting Prohibited

...a 2 hour delay.

Of which I have mostly wasted already.  But heres a little bit of Sketchy fun for you to take with you as you go about your daily lives:

We (finally) have a Christmas tree and it is all decorated and everything.  Yay!  I don't think we have been this late since the Mac-Gyver tree.  But it's up and it's purty and the kids have messed with the lights so now they are all wonky as opposed to perfectly sequenced the way their dad left them, but oh well this is not a problem I am prepared to be concerned with right now.

We bought new lights this year (well, last year during the after Christmas sales) and they are pretty, and they don't get hot to the touch, and they don't use a lot of electricity so Tom lets me leave them on all the time (but maybe he is less afraid of this tree burning down as it only has to survive 5 days). However, they don't allow good enough lighting for me to take a cute picture of my kids sleeping under the tree.  We will be going back to the burning down the house model next year, because as you all know, it's all about the picture around here.

This year they remembered the "tradition" of sleeping under the tree all by themselves and it was cute to see them all excited.

Saturday, we baked.  Brooke and her friend Brittney helped.  They were cute.  "This is so much fun!"  Hmmm.  I thought it was a job to be crossed off my "Do Before Christmas" list.  I didn't realize it was supposed to be enjoyable.  But I tried to not intrude too much on their whole "having fun"; crazy attitude towards Christmas.

Tom will be happy I used a semi-colon there.  I used it just for him.  Apparently it is his favorite punctuation.  And I thought I already knew everything about him.

Sunday during the passing of the sacrament, Alex piped up:  "I wish they'd pass around some peanut butter too!  And bless that!" 

Needless to say our spiritual enlightenment was enriched with gratitude for our kids.  I mean honestly.  Not only did it crack me up that he wanted a peanut butter sandwich Christ's Supper, but he also thought ahead enough to forestall the objection I was just about to offer, by insisting that the blessing be offered over the peanut-butter as well.  Smart cookie.

PS: my spell checker is messed up.  It's taking perfectly normal words like objection and turning them into objection and then objeClion.  And I don't know who or what objeClion is or what he's doing with my blog.  And it's not just objeclion, there was crack and tried and many others and I tried to click skip but I may have messed up a time or too.  So let's pretend this is a bloggy game and you try to come up with the right word to match the right sentence, if you see one.  Enjoy Bloggy friends and family!  It's a little holiday bloggy party, if you are good maybe I'll serve dip.

So long Miss Fairy

Well, it's over.

My youngest of young now knows the truth about Miss Tooth Fairy.  And as much as I hated that wench, I'm sort of sad now that she's gone.  I think I've told you before about my failings in the Tooth Fairy department, so I should be happy.  At least now they know that when cash/present fails to appear magically under their pillows, that it is just their lame mom and she will eventually come through if given enough reminders.  But still, that "magic" appears to be somewhat sullied now that there are no longer any visions of winged humanoid shaped insect in their little minds.

It, like so many other things, is all my fault.

So I shouldn't whine too much.

You see...

I told him.

I know!  It's horrible.  But I did.

It happened like this:

"Look Mom!  My tooth fell out!"

"Mom!!!  Look at Meeee!  I LOST my TOOTH!" 

"MAH-OM!!!!!!!!!!!!"

(That may or may not be a slightly over-dramatized version of our actual conversation, I'll leave you to figure that out.)

"That's great Boo!  Go put it under your pillow."  And then continue cooking dinner/picking up the house/playing on the Internet. (again you figure that out)

And off he gleefully goes.

                                                                     Fast forward to the following morning at the breakfast table.

"OH!  I FORGOT TO CHECK UNDER MY PILLOW!!!" and off he quickly and expectantly goes...

"Um, buddy, you know sometimes the tooth fairy has a really busy night and she ummm, is running a little late..."  As my 3 other children give me knowing and you're-so-pathetic looks.

Sobs from the upstairs bedroom are heard.

"Oh Crap." from the kitchen is heard.

Guilty and accepting of my patheticness, I climb the stairs to find the boy on his bed, tears in his eyes.

"No Mom.  She's not late.  She took my tooth.  But,  b...b...b...UT SHE DIDN'T LEAVE ME ANYTHING!!!!!"  Wails, sobs and tears.

"I'm sure it's here somewhere buddy, it probably just fell off your bed."

"N...n...n...no.  It's gone.  She.  She...She just doesn't want to give me ANYTHING."

more sobs.

"I'm sure we can just write her a note explaining that you lost your tooth."

"No.   IT'S OVER!"

Here's where I lost control of the situation completely, not that I ever had it. 

So I sat the boy on my lap and hugged him tightly and then, I did it.  I told him I knew the tooth fairy would respond to his note and asked him if he wanted to know how I knew.  And then I told him this was a very big boy secret and did he think he could keep a very big boy secret?  And then, and then...And then, I said "I am the tooth fairy."

And he looked at me in stunned amazement. 

I'm not sure whether that is an insult or a compliment that I don't match his vision of the winged-humanoid-shaped-insect known as the tooth fairy.

"And Mom would never let you down like that would I?" 

No he agreed, quite gratifyingly, as I had just let him down completely.  Mom would come through...eventually.  And then he got that look in his eye.

"Does that mean I can make a wish?"

"Sure, buddy, you can make a wish, what would you like the tooth fairy to bring you?"

"How 'bout a Nintendo DS?"

Um, no.  Sorry just because the tooth fairy secret is out doesn't mean the tooth fairy budget has just gone limitless.

We finally got the wish scaled down to Pokemon cards or a Bakugan.  Now that's a realm I, I mean, the Tooth Fairy, oh heck, I can deal with.

It's probably super pathetic, but I still made him write the note:    

I wonder if he was writing to the real Tooth Fairy, if she would have gotten a more detailed request. But then again, maybe she wouldn't have gotten a "best friend, Alex K." I guess I can take that. 

Happy things from the 'burg

One fun thing about my new job is I'm getting familiar with more weird PA town names...although most of them are townships or boros (not to be confused with burros).  And I have some new favorites to add to my list of CRAZY AND WONDERFUL PENNSYLVANIA NAMES,  of which is not currently in existence, but I think will have to become so now.

And the 2 townships or boros (not to be confused with burros) lucky enough to begin my list are:

1. Moosic, PA  I don't know how Moosic got it's township name and you know I don't care.  But I'd like to imagine a lot of pastures and cows and one day 2 farmers (or would that be ranchers with cows?  Anyway I like the word farmer better than rancher, somehow that's too close to raunchers and this is my delusional story so I'm calling them farmers...ahem) ...2 FARMERS were laughing and telling jokes in that farmerly way they have about them and then the cows started up complaining about one thing or another, as cows are wont to do, and one of them says "Well, I guess that means its time to get back to work..."  and the other one says, "Yep, I set my alarm on Moo-oooo-oooo-sic..."   Get it?  Moosic?  Oh I kill me. 
2. Mowcow, PA  I found this township next and I was quite happy!  Look another bovine reference!  (Really, my job is exceptionally boring sometimes and this gets me through the day...mostly I sit at my desk working and thinking, if we had a decent computer system this could be done so much more efficiently!!!  And then I realize that while that may be true, if it were so, then I wouldn't have a job.  So I don't complain out loud.  Much.) And then I realized that it was only a typo and it's really Moscow, PA.  Which you know, although it has that whole Russian thing, doesn't really lend itself to cow jokes.  So now I'm less enchanted with it.  I guess we could just pretend it was Mowcow...

And it's not all just CRAZY AND AMAZING PA NAMES, I have to bring you.  Oh no!  I offer more.  Much more!

I have CRAZY AND AMAZING PA WORDS too!  Now how much would you pay?

I think I already taught you "Yinz" that hybrid of "you all" or "y'all" in case Paula Deen happens to be reading my blog.  So let's move right along.

This one I heard for the very first time to day:  HOOPIE

Any quick guesses on the definition?

                                                                                                             No?

Alright, I'll put it in context for you:

                                                                                They're all just a bunch of Hoopies.

Or this one ought to make it easy for you: 

                                                                                   That Walmart is Hoopie-city!

Apparently (according to Word Detective), Hoopie originally meant any native of West Virginia, but now it pert' much  means yinz found yerself a bunch of hillbillies.

But isn't it a nice sounding word?  Hoopie, Hoopie, Hoopie, Hoopie, Hoopie...

It's got a musical quality to it! 

                                            I think I'll just wish you all a Hoopie Day!

There is hope.

or: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

You're welcome.

A very merry...

I just have a minute, I'm on a break.

Work.

Sorry, it's taking up a lot of time.

Who knew?

But...

I have to mention just one thing.

                                    My husband is the best!!!!

And

                                          It's his birthday!!!!!

Happy birthday honi.

And thanks.

for: liking to teach our kids all the stuff you know.  Even when they aren't listening.*

and for:  being willing to hang on to the misbehaving one so I don't have to do it.

and for:  being willing to risk bird poop to hang out with your kids in what they want to do.

and for: humoring me in my picture needs even when there is a boat ride going by making comments about people getting married and kissing in the lucky tree.

and for:     thinking a Thanksgiving picnic on the beach sounded fine.

And by the way, I think it's cool that you were excited about seeing this:  and     

and even that when I showed you this shirt you had to "read" the calculation to see if you knew what it meant.

       Happy

     Birthday!

For "all that white stuff"

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

Silent, soft and slow, descends the snow.

 

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Snow-Flakes"

 

 

Winter has come early to the North East.

I'm not really a winter wonderland lover.  I'm not really thrilled to enjoy the bounties activities the snow brings.  I will take my kids sledding...if I can't get out of it.  I'll snap pictures of their snowmen as long as I can come inside soon.

I'm sort of hoping that somewhere there is a snow quota which when met, means we get an early Spring.

But there are things I really like about the snow.  Such as:

Looking at it through the window in a warm house.

Christmas lights look even more beautiful through the snow.

Hot Chocolate is even more yummy when drunk through lips cold from being outside, especially this kind:

 

YUM!

Kitty is demonstrating on of my favorite winter products.  I'm especially thankful for what ever brilliant mind thought of door draft blockers that you put on both sides of your door...yeah brilliant mind! And thank you Bed, Bath and Beyond for selling them.

 

And I am really thankful for Kohl's this year and their awesome sale which allowed me to purchase Tom (and Brooke and Jon) a really cool coat for an awesome price.  Check out the cool new coat:

 

And the cool price?  $35.00!  WOOOOOOT!!!!!!  Yes, it was 50% off because of the sale and I had an additional 20% off coupon.  Mmmmhmmm!

                                                                            

For health and strength and daily bread...

  "True gratitude is the ability to humbly see, feel, and even receive love. Gratitude is a form of returning love to God. Recognize His hand, tell Him so, express your love to Him. As you come to truly know the Lord, you will find an intimate, sacred relationship built on trust. You will come to know He understands your anguish and will, in compassion, always respond to you in love."

                               ~Gene R. Cook

I don't think I'm too much of a negative person, a Debbie Downer, or a Pity-Party Patty.  But I don't think I spend enough time just being grateful.  I tend to overlook so many of my blessings, I take them for granted, as my due, or just so much a part of my daily life that I don't even notice them anymore.  But I'm sure I'd notice pretty quickly if they went missing.

I mean I did teach my kids to pray in the right order, we learned the rhyme anyway:

• Dear Heavenly Father

• Thank Thee

• Bless Me

• In Jesus' name, Amen.

Somehow I wonder if that's really enough.

I took a class once about becoming a more motivated and empowered person, one of the weeks lessons was on gratitude.  "That's Great" it was called and all week long we were supposed to focus on the good that would come from the challenges in our daily lives.  My friend, Gina, called me just after my son had gotten into the refrigerator, trying to get himself a drink of water and dumped an entire pitcher of water all over the kitchen floor.  I was so frustrated, and the LAST thing I wanted to do was think of why this was "Great"...  But she kept at me until finally I laughed and said, well I really needed to mop my kitchen floor and now it's done.

And even though I was still annoyed about the pitcher of water it did help that I could look at the issue from the "Great" perspective.

So this week, I'm challenging myself...only grateful posts, only "That's Great!", only opportunities to return God's love.

And I'll start with this:

 

My goodness I'm thankful for these children!  My life, my experience, my ME, would be so completely different if not for the love I have for them.  My desire to be better for them. The completely ridiculously forgiving way they love me.  My Me is thankful for them and to them.

To daycare or not to daycare...that is the question

So, we just got word that the afterschool program we were going to put Jon and Alex in that we thought was going to cost around $55 a week is actually going to cost $110 a week. Suddenly Tom's thought of changing his schedule to 8's and him getting home earlier is sounding a lot better.

Baby on the Brain

Did I scare you?  lol 

No, actually I'm playing along with a Baby Quiz-ology making the rounds.  I got it from my friend Michele, and I am required to complete this one because our first babies were due on the exact same crazy day 4 years apart and you'll find out more about that if you keep reading.  I think that constitutes kismet, don't you?

So here we go:  Answer these questions as they pertain to your pregnancy with & the birth of your first baby... please play if you feel so inclined.

1. Were you married at the time?
Yes

2. What was your reaction when you found out you were pregnant?

I don't remember my exact wording.  But I was stunned, we'd been trying to get pregnant for a while, but it wasn't working. 1 month earlier I'd had a lapraoscopy to remove cysts from my ovaries...they were benign thankfully.  But because of the op, let's just say there was slim to no chance that month.  Obviously not no chance but still.  We'd already had false positives on pregnancy tests, I know they say that "can't happen" but it did.  So I really didn't know what to think.  I didn't even tell Tom I was taking the test that morning before work.  I knew I was being paranoid.  But at the time I was in the habit of keeping pregnancy tests on hand, and taking them at the slightest glimmer of hope.  So I just sort of wandered back into the bedroom and without speaking woke Tom up and just sort of shoved the test into his hand.

After a little while we were thrilled but nervous.  Tom especially, he didn't even want to think it until I went in to the doctor and had a blood test to confirm.

3. How old were you?
25

4. How did you find out you were pregnant?
Oh I guess I already answered this.  Please go reread answer #2 if you need a refresher.

5. Whom did you tell first?
And this...  So I'll tell you the second person I told, my co-worker at the time Kim.  My parents and family were all out of town, taking my brother Seth to the MTC, actually.  And I knew I shouldn't tell anyone "important" (sorry Kim) until I told my parents and Tom's parents.  But I had to tell someone.  It probably would have been smarter to keep it to myself for a while, but I had to tell someone, I was bursting!  I should have called my sister Handimom, because she had found out a week or two earlier that she was pregnant and was worried about telling me in case it made me sad.  Instead, when I called and told her she was like "OH GOOD!!! Because..."  I could have saved her some worry.

6. Did you want to find out the sex?
Absolutely!  I wanted to know everything.  I wanted to revel in every single detail of every kind.  I didn't care if it was a boy or a girl.  But I wanted to buy things and call her by a name.  We called her "the little bean" or "LB" before we found out.  A name coined from a Baby book that told me at the time I looked she was about the size of a little bean.  I tried to carry the nickname into her post-pregnancy life, but it never really stuck.  Maybe 'cuz outside the womb I never saw her "little" again...

7. Due date?
February 29, 1996!  I really wanted that Leap-day baby!  But alas, it was not to be.

8. Did you deliver early or late?
Late... A week late.  I begged for intervention.  My doctor assured me he thought she was only 7 or 7 1/2 lbs, but he agreed.  (LIAR!  LIAR!) Later when we moved and I picked up a copy of my file to take to my new doctor I read he thought she was at least 9 lbs.  He just didn't want to scare me.

9. Did you have morning sickness?
Yes!  The worst of all my pregnancies, but it didn't phase me.  My sister-in-law had been much more sick with her first a year earlier, so I treated it like it was daily (hourly sometimes) proof I was indeed pregnant!  I was happy about yakking...I was a nutball for sure.

10. What did you crave?

Peanut butter sandwiches which shocked me, I have never liked peanut butter sandwiches, even as a kid.  And chocolate, which didn't shock me at all.  In fact I'm not sure I've entirely ever gotten over those cravings...

11. Who irritated you the most?
I probably took most of that out on Tom, poor guy.  Mostly I was pretty happy though, I don't think I was too hard on him.  The nurse wanting to talk to him about Montessori schools or some such nonsense after I'd had an epidural and was trying to sleep.  I was just laying there resting and they thought I was sleeping, and were whispering very quietly, but still!  It still bugs me apparently.

12. What was your first child's sex?
I think I've already clarified that too, but she's a girl.

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy?
I think 19 if I remember right, but I had plenty other to contribute to the cause all on my own, lol. 

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy?
No, it was fairly easy, that time.

15. Where did you give birth?
At home in my bathtub, we had a lovely placenta stew after she was born...NOT.  No, at a hospital and hooked up to entirely too many machines.

16. How many hours were you in labor?
I was induced around 9:30.  My doctor had called and set us up at the hospital for the induction, but he neglected to have it written in his schedule.  It was supposed to happen at 8!  And about 9 hours later we had a baby girl.

17. Who drove you to the hospital?
I wouldn't have anyone else but Tom.  Well actually if it was that or deliver on my front porch I would, but I'd wait for him 'til transition anyway, and since out of 4 kids I've only gone into labor once on my own and that was a weak, non-progressing kind of labor, never without pitocin, I could wait as long as I needed.

18. What happened to 18? 

I don't know.  I followed this quiz back a couple of links and can't find an 18.  They start at 17 and continue right on to 19.  Perhaps were all just slightly terrified at the idea of 18 being associated with our babies.

19. Was it natural or c-section?
Natural with help

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain?
And epidural, the only time I had one that it worked!

21. How much did your child weigh?
9 lbs 15 oz.  My pediatrician came to see her and said, "You didn't tell me you were giving birth to a two month old!"  To which I replied somewhat grumpily, "No one told me either."

22. Did your child have any complications?
She was born with her arm across her forehead (as if 9 lbs 15 oz wasn't hard enough to push her out anyway).  They whisked her away as soon as she was born to check her out because of it.  Apparently some pretty severe complications can be caused by such a birth, but when she seemed to check out OK they didn't tell me any of them...until I was set to deliver Grant, and my doctor told me "If things just aren't clicking along, really smoothly, you are having a C-section."  I was shocked, surely I could handle anything after 9'15", right?  And then he told me everything that could have happened to my sweet girl.  She does have a slight weakness in that arm, but compared with all the other things I heard, I'll take that. 

23. What did you name him/her?

Silly, we don't use full names around here.  Suffice it to say she is named for my Mom and myself and Brooke we just liked.  Well, I just liked.  I had to really convince Tom that he wouldn't first think of Br00ke Shields.

24. How old is your first born today?
12...a hairs breath away from teenager days.

25. Whom does your child look like?
Both of us, she has Tom's eyes and my mouth and a nose somewhere in between. 

   

Consequences, schmosequences...as long as I'm rich.

Sometimes being a Mom is H.A.R.D.   ...especially when you have to let your kids deal with the consequences of their own choices!  It just goes against the grain, I'm suppose to rescue my babies and kiss away their booboos.

The story is thus: In order to encourage Brooke and Grant who have learning disabilities and now Jon with his ADHD we started paying the kids for grades, it's never been much just $20-30.  Jon and Alex get lots of grades in Elementary school so they get $1 for every "Yes" check they receive and Grant and Brooke who only get 1 grade per subject get $5 for every Outstanding grade they get.  They get bonus money for grades that they raise.  I know paying for grades is sort of controversial, but in the beginning I was really just trying to take what ever incentive I could give them. 

 

Well this year with the combination of therapy and medication Jon is doing so well.  He's really very bright, it's been his attention issues that have killed him.  Every grade was a "Y", I was amazed!  He ended up with our highest payout ever $33.00.

 

Grant, who is also very bright has struggled a bit, not with his increased workload at Middle School, but with the organization and independence that's required of him.  He has been doing assignments and then not able to find them, leaving them home, or misfiling them.  Forgetting to do them and then trying to do a rush job on the bus ride to school or during opening announcements or just not completing them at all.  The school finally got me involved about a month ago (it's not like they don't have my phone number, cell phone number, email access, etc.  Why does it take so long for them to let me know there is a problem???) and since then it's been getting better.  I make him put things in the correct folder.  Double check his assignments against his planner or against the school's homework hotline.  But the first month and a half of school's spotty homework scores still counted against him.  He didn't get terrible grades, one Outstanding and 5 Goods.  But he ended up with our lowest payout this year, only $5.00.

 

Oh it hurt to tell him we had to stick to the arrangement.  I wanted to slip him an extra $10 so he'd at least be close to the other kids.  But I didn't, I figured that sometimes you just have to face the consequences or how do you learn?  And I knew if I did that the whole thing would be blown, they'd all know they didn't have to try hard.  So I didn't, but oh I wanted to!

 

Worst of all he is trying to be such a good sport about it.  We took the kids out tonight so they could choose something with their loot.  Grant had about $8.00 of his own money to add to the $5.00, so he was able to get himself something, but not nearly as much as the others.  And I'd see that look on his face as the other kids were comparing what they were getting or asking if they got this did they still have enough to get that?  But he never said anything.  The only thing he said was "Well, I'm thankful for everything I get."

 

Couldn't you just? 

 

Oh man.

 

Well, I'm betting  he's learned a valuable lesson about responsibility and that we'll be seeing a good report card for the 2nd Quarter, but all in all I think that's a small thing compared to what a good kid we have.