How?

How on Earth are you supposed to reprimand your kid when he comes out of time-out looking like this?

Yeah...I couldn't keep a straight face and by the time I stopped laughing I couldn't remember what I was going to say to him.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Budding Artists

Not much has been happening lately as far as Alex and Abby goes. The days are still fairly nice out but I can feel the temperature shifting to the colder days. We actually had to wear coats outside today to keep toasty warm. But the part of the days when we spend our time inside, we are running out of fun new projects to do. One thing is certain though. These kids love love love their art time. I can't seem to keep enough paper in the house. So I decided to break out the old paints for them. I let them wear a couple of old t-shirts that I mow in and they thought that was extra special. I let them each pick a color of paint and a brush and they spent a good 20 minutes making art...abstract art...very very abstract art. I am trying to find new things for them to do. I'm pumped for Christmas so that we can start making construction paper angels, Santas, Christmas trees, and various other fun things. I've got my scissors ready and my cotton balls all in order. Bring on art time!

Notice Abby. She is very into it. She is getting more in to art than Alex is.

Happy Medium

My poor hubby is stuck in the extreme zone. He has been unemployed for a month and so as a result has been having completely idle days. No work. So he gets a call from our friendly neighborhood union and finds he has a job. He called me to relay the information about his new found employment. I could hear the disappointment in his voice almost immediately. It turns out that he has to work 1 1/2 hours away every day. Not only that, but he has to work Monday through Saturday. Mondays are ten hour days and Saturday is an eight hour day. Which means...no weekend. The poor guy is going to be exhausted every day. This is the sort of job where the people don't work to live. They live to work. We just purchased a nice cheap car for him to get to work every day about two months ago and we aren't entirely sure if this car is built for longevity like this. So we might be trading vehicles so that I will get the more unreliable car. Oh my dear van, I shall miss you if this be the case. The difficult part about having a job like this is that the Union doesn't see any job less than 1 1/2 hours away to be worthy of reimbursement. So we get to fill a vehicle up with gas daily. Ouch. So here we are. Either Josh will have no work at all or more work than a family man can take. I don't suppose we can complain though. It's work. And work is work. I just hope and pray for poor Josh. He's gonna have loooooong days and very short nights with no recovery in the middle. I know one thing is for sure. I won't be complaining about my job. Mine may be 24/7, but at least I get to spend it with the ones I love. I suppose that's how life can be...all or nothing. Where the heck is the happy medium? Oh yeah...i forgot. He got laid off from it.

Hallelujah!!

Any blog that starts with a title like this must be good news. So...yes folks. Good news! Josh has got a job! Hallelujah!! Thank the good Lord! It's been a long month. I can't even imagine how those that have been unemployed for much longer stretches must feel. Sometimes it felt like there would never be a job in sight again. Oddly enough, Josh said that he ran into an old professor on Monday that asked him about where he is working. Josh told him that he's not working at all. He told him that he would see if anyone was hiring. Josh is a really great worker and I think that his professors can see that. Now, we of course have no idea if this job is related to it at all, but regardless, we couldn't be more thrilled. Whether the job lasts two days or two years, I am just happy that I can wake up in the morning and say, "Have a good day at work, honey!" It's ironic really. This week was the first week that we actually got our first pay from unemployment because of the work it took to fix all of the crazy problems we had with it. I'm not complaining though. Not even in the slightest. The kids may have a hard time adjusting to not having Josh at home again, but they'll manage. I think Alex and Abby have gotten used to seeing their dad every morning. They ask me every morning, "Is dad stillsleeping?" I will be more than eager to tell them, "Nope. Dad's at work today." They usually know though. Dad is only sleeping if the bedroom door is closed. I have a feeling that the first day of work, Josh will be very tired, so I'll be suggesting he goes to bed before 3:00 in the morning. :-) Have I mentioned I'm thrilled? This really is the best news. After our ceiling spontaneously fell in this past week, I was afraid that things may just get worse. But, this Thanksgiving we will have a lot to be thankful for.

Boredom

This bookshelf had three shelves of books. Note that the shelves are also missing.

With dreary weather comes the inevitable boredom for kids. If it is nasty outside and there is no way else to expel the infinite amounts of energy, kids will resort to any way necessary to alleviate the pain of boredom. My children just happen to utilize their destructo-skills. They find any and every way to cause massive chaos in the house. I believe that they are trying to send me a message. The message being: "I'm bored mom. And if you don't find something for me to do then you have only yourself to blame for the mass destruction I will cause." And destroy, they do. When they are in trouble, the timeout corner has apparently become a vent for their frustration. When I'm not looking, they peel the paint off of our lovely wood paneling walls and rip the trim off of the corners. When they are just mindlessly looking outside our large picture window in the living room, they feel compelled to shred tiny bits of the energy saver coating from the glass. And when they have utilized all other forms of destruction they settle for the 'daily mess'. This consists of taking every toy and book and dumping them on the ground for no other purpose but to cause a mess. I am teaching them to clean up but it is a slow learning process. But after all of this, I have come to the conclusion that when you sell or buy a house, there should be a section stating that toddlers were raised there. It would explain away about 3/4 of the things that need to be replaced.

Swingin'

I just thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the kiddos enjoying their swing-set. They do so love their swing-set. I actually removed their 'baby' swings this week. Alex still enjoys one of them, but unfortunately he is just too big for it. his feet drag the ground and we can barely get him in and out anymore. Abby was never a big fan of her slightly different baby swing. She just loves to swing on her tummy on the big-kid swings. I'm just waiting for them to knock heads together. Anyhow...enjoy!

Grandpa

My dad - AKA, Grandpa - is great with grandkids. He is sort of the grandpa that all little kids look at and say, "Wow! Grandpa is so cool!" And Alex and Abby adore him. He's a wild and wacky guy. (And I mean my dad by that.) He is always entertaining the kids with some crazy little trick or funny face. They just can't get enough of Grandpa. I even have proof that Grandpa is a favorite around here. I have been waiting for miss Abby to say those three wonderful words to me. You know the words I speak of. "I love you." I remember the first time Alex said it to me, my heart just melted. Actually, it still melts when he says it. Abby has been talking just wonderfully. Words are flowing from that little mouth and she learns something new everyday. But one evening, my mom and dad were leaving from our house. As my dad was getting into the truck, Abby waved through the window at him and said, "I love you grandpa!" Now keep in mind, that when she says 'grandpa' she really pronounces it like "tampah". Just adorable. I know the words weren't meant for me, but hearing her say "I love you" to my dad was just precious. Since then, she has said those wonderful words to me as well, but I will always tell her that her first 'I love you' was for grandpa.

Peanut Fail

If it was appropriate to utilize four letter words (the bad kind) on a blog, I would be using them right about now. But I am doing my very best to refrain from writing or saying them for the moment. As you are aware, if you read this blog regularly, then about a month ago I decided to try and turn our house into a peanut friendly zone. Three years of avoiding them with a child who has never tested positive to peanuts on his allergy tests was long enough. So I finally became brave enough and began the great peanut challenge. It went fine. I actually got the guts to rub a little on both Alex and Abby's lips and they didn't react. Day two I gave them a teeny, tiny amount to eat. It went fine again. So since that day about three or so weeks ago, I've been randomly giving them about a pea sized amount to eat every so often with out even the slightest hint of danger.

Until today.

I was braver today and decided to give him a bit more; about the size of two peas. He put it in his mouth, told me it was bad and that he didn't like it. Then about 2 minutes later he was complaining about his throat. He asked for a drink and after the drink I looked in his mouth, only to find red, swollen spots around his tonsil area. There were a couple of, what looked like, puss-filled pockets. Keep in mind that it is really hard to look into a reluctant three-year old's mouth. But I did my best. I find myself at a loss of words for this moment. Okay...that's a lie. I'm not totally at a loss for words, but the words I want to use are not appropriate for a PG rated blog. I suppose I just don't understand the black cloud that is hovering constantly over our house lately. I have adjusted to the milk allergy and the asthma, the dog allergy, the mold allergy...blah blah blah. The list goes on. But after having so many family and friends reassure me that 'he'll be fine with the peanut test', I suppose I just expected that things would turn out fine. He'll have to go in to be officially tested, but I don't know when I am going to be willing to subject him to getting his blood drawn again. Until then, I guess it's back to soybutter for the time being. Abby, on the other hand, was fine with the peanut challenge. I suppose this is just another thing to add to my list of things to fret about. (As if having no income wasn't enough.) I'd say that things are going to look up soon, but the house might spontaneously explode. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go knock on wood...

I am Woman

I'm not a feminist. Not even in the slightest. I couldn't care less about being 'empowered' or whatever you want to call it. I am, however, born of a long line of very independent women. So I can take care of things pretty good when push comes to shove. So today I told Josh to let me do the talking to the unemployment people and guess what? Josh gave them permission to talk to me instead of him and lo and behold! Problems solved! Yup, that's right folks. We are officially going to receive unemployment benefits for Josh's down time. Woo-hoo! We won't have to live in a cardboard box after all. Okay, so it really wasn't an option to live in a box, but I did start to worry. The lovely lady I spoke to on the phone was more than helpful and we joked about how if you want something done, ask a man. If you want something done right, ask a woman. :-) Hey now...I'm only kidding people. I just got a kick out of talking to this lady. She was very nice and I'm now thankful that things are going to get back on track...sort of. I am woman. Hear me roar...at my children who are throwing things across the front room again.

Urban Legend

*************venting about to commence*************

It is my theory that people who get checks from some organization called 'The department of labor', do not, in fact, exist. They are an urban legend. There is no such thing as unemployment. It is merely an artificial organization created by some twisted individual to keep people with out jobs 'busy' in-between jobs. They tell you to call and file your claims through some crappy automated response system that is horribly constructed only then to put you on hold and tell you that the call volume is too high. Then they proceed to hang up on you and tell you to call again later. And it is even virtually impossible to actually talk to the one lone employee that answers the phone for customer service. There is no money. No check. No help. It...is...a...myth. This can be the only explanation. We have spent nearly three weeks attempting to file Josh's claims. We have been sent papers to sign to explain accusations that were false in the first place. We've been told our claims are not valid. We've been repetitively told that the claims were fixed and filed and we should expect payment shortly only to find out the next day that our claims were totally suspended pending investigation. What the heck?!? What are you supposed to do when it comes to this, folks? They leave me no other option but to believe that the entire organization is false. If we actually get a check from them, it will be a miracle because you can't get a check from something that doesn't exist.

*************venting complete*************

5 Seconds

It's amazing how the concept of time changes when you have kids. Time speeds up and so much happens so quickly. I have watched them grow into two toddlers in the blink of an eye. It's amazing and you start to respect the time that you have more and more the quicker they grow. Blah blah blah...okay...sappy part over. Time has come to mean even more to me. I just discovered that five seconds to me is nothing compared to five seconds to a three year old. I went to grab a washrag for Alex while he was in the tub, I peeked out to see what Abby was doing and I couldn't have had my back turned for more than five whopping seconds. In that five seconds, Alex grabbed his full bottle of shampoo and proceeded to squeeze it all over the tub. No...seriously...ALL over the tub. I walked back around the corner and he said, "See mom! I made a bubble bath!" Of course about 50% of it ended up dripping outside of the tub down onto the floor as well. Five seconds! Five! Ugh...it seems that a toddler can create total chaos and mass destruction in five seconds. It took me five minutes to get him rinsed off. Apparently, shampoo isn't meant to be used as bubble bath. *sigh*

My BFF

How long is a relationship meant to last in such innocence? I watch as Alex and Abby grow together. The older they get, the more they rely on one another as playmates. They are nearly never separated anymore. Where one is, the other is surely near. If Abby is finding a way to leap off of the couch into a pile of pillows, Alex is there waiting to give her a good...um...nudge. Yes, I shall call it a 'nudge'. What Alex didn't figure out how to do until he was two, Abby is quickly learning to do much sooner and much more efficiently. They are always making each other laugh...and cry. But I watch them play and giggle together, talk to each other, and ask where the other one is when they can't find one another. I can't help but wonder how long they will enjoy being friends like this. When they are 5 and 7, will they want to play together? When they are 12 and 14 will it stop being cool to be friends with your sibling? And what about when they are 22 and 24? 33 and 35? 86 and 88? I think it will be interesting to see how they grow together. I hope that I am raising them so that they have a close, lasting relationship together. But honestly, they already fight over the last cheerio. So I suppose it's only a matter of time before they will be fighting over who gets to drive the car on Friday night.

Week Three

Early tomorrow morning, there will be no annoying sound of the alarm clock to wake my sleeping husband. For so long, I would wake up to the nasal sound of the cheap alarm clock, screaming to wake Josh up at the bright old time of 5:00 a.m. I, of course, would roll back over and fall back into my somewhat peaceful slumber until the kiddos wake me up. They are my tried and true alarm clock. I'm guaranteed to never oversleep. Now the tables have turned. Somehow, the world decided that Josh and I would switch schedules. I used to be the last to go to bed and the last to wake up. Now I am the first to go to bed and the first to wake up. Since time change, the kids now go to bed one hour earlier (yay! more evening for mama!) and they wake up one and a half hours earlier. Josh, being home 24/7, has not felt compelled to go to bed at his normal time nor wake up at his normal time. I can't blame him. It's almost like a little mandatory vacation. Only, there's no job to go back to, no vacation pay, and it can be a bit depressing from time to time. Okay, so maybe it's not anything like a vacation. I don't mind having him home, but as I told him the other day (which he agreed fully with), when you get married, you aren't meant to be together 24 hours a day. Eventually you want to scream at each other from lack of personal space. Luckily, I still have play dates with my friend Mandy to keep us out of the house one or two days a week. But now that we are going on the third week of no work, I'm not sure how much longer this can go on before one of us break from the stress of the unknown. My new question is, how long do you wait for the Union to find you a job before you throw three years of schooling and steady health insurance down the drain and give up on them? For the first time in a while, I think I may need to break out my Tums again. So begins our third week of unemployment.

A Date With Fiction

It's official. Two weeks from today I have a date with a vampire...and a werewolf...and a few other fictional characters. My friend Mandy and I have tickets for the Twilight: New Moon movie that is set to hit theaters in two weeks. She, being the mama of a new baby, will be leaving her two kiddos with her hubby and we will both set off together to see our obsession on the big screen. I am so freakin' pumped! I didn't get swept up in the Twilight saga until after the first movie came out, so I didn't get the pleasure of seeing that one in the theater. Mandy tried to get me to read it because she wanted to talk about it with me. I hesitated because I know my obsessive nature. I knew that my history of becoming obsessed with movie/tv/book series can be quite...um...crazy. I have a tendency to take my fandom to strange levels. I knew that I would more than likely become a crazed fan of the books and I wasn't entirely sure I needed yet another thing to fit into the already full geek section of my brain. But one snowy winter day, I borrowed the first book from her and gave it a go. I mean, what the heck, right? I swear I have more geek knowledge in my brain than useful information. Two weeks later I owned all four books and the movie. And two weeks from today, I'll be watching New Moon (without my kids of course). Did I mention I'm freakin' pumped? Okay, so I'll let you know how it goes and I'll be sure to tell you how it is the second time when I go with my mom (I sucked her into the Twilight insanity too). Woo-hoo! Two weeks!

Snake People

Yeah, I know. You are probably reading that title and going, "Snake people? What the...?" But trust me. It couldn't be an odder situation. To continue in the potty training saga of our lives, we have hit a...well...snag. Alex has been positively terrified to sit on the toilet and poop. Annoying as that is, I've tried many avenues thus far to no avail. Finally, I sat him down and tried to reason with him. Have you ever reasoned with a three-year old? Um, yeah...it doesn't work. I asked him why he as so afraid to poop on the potty and do you know what that little monkey told me? He said this: "I don't want to poop on the potty because of the snake people." Snake People?? I have no idea what could have possibly put such an idea in his head. At first, I thought it was just a random thing to say, but then he has repetitively asked me to flush away the snake people before he goes into the bathroom. He's even woke up once at night from a nightmare and said there were snake people in his bed. I have wracked my brain trying to find a place or show or anything that could have placed that sort of image in his head, and I've come up dry. And oddly enough, his diapers have been dry of poop for the past two and half days. He only wears a diaper to bed and to poop. And I was worried that the kid was convinced that snake people were going to attack him for pooping. But once again, I was surprised. Today...here to known as the greatest day ever...Alex fought his fear of the snake people and pooped on the potty! Woo hoo! He did it from his own free will with no alternative incentive egging him on. I'm a proud mama today, folks. I guess the snake people packed up and moved to the next potty training kids house. I hope they don't move back in when it's Abby's turn.

Just Thought I'd Share

The weather around here has been at it's finest. It's been staying in the mid 60's and that is perfect for outside playing. And naturally, with Autumn comes the falling of the multitude of leaves. It's a bummer to have to rake them or mow them all up, but it's marvelous when it comes to taking photos. I don't have trees with the gorgeous reds and brilliant orange leaves. I just have the annoyingly brown ones that make a big mess. But the kids have been having a blast playing in them. Alex suffers with a runny nose from every time he decides to dive bomb into the piles. But I figure if he's on medicine, he might as well enjoy himself, right? So mostly, I just thought I'd share some of the photos of our outside time in the leaves.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a blast this year. Both Alex and Abby are at a perfect age to enjoy trick-or-treating. Granted, neither one of them can indulge in the chocolaty plunder from the evening, but they had fun, nonetheless. Alex even got to enjoy the evening with his good buddy Wesley, or as he calls him, his brother (I'll explain in another blog). Both the kids did great. Abby surprised me by not wanting help with her bucket the entire night. She outlasted her brother! Every time we would ask her if she wanted us to take her bucket, she would just say, "No!" But I think the best part of the evening was the great costumes we wore. Are you ready for it? Has the suspense got you on the edge of your seat wondering what amazingness awaits? Well get ready, folks. Because it's...

WIGGLE TIME!!

That's right! We went as the Wiggles! Okay...so we aren't exactly the most convincing as the Wiggles. But hey...I thought it was pretty darn fun. As you can see, the real Wiggles are much cooler.
But you gotta give me some credit here. The costumes cost less than real costumes and are reusable. They can wear them every single day if they wanted to (and believe me Alex has begged to wear the outfit every day).

Alex is Greg Wiggle (Yellow)...

Abby is Jeff Wiggle (Purple)...

Josh was Murray Wiggle (Red)...

and I went as Anthony Wiggle (Blue).

I feel bad for the blue wiggle. I did quite possibly the worst representation of him...ever. He's much nicer to look at in black pants than I am (wink, wink). But it was darn funny. I got a nice black wig so that I could look more like a man. Um...not a good wig, mind you, but it's better than long red hair, right? Anyways, here are the kids in their element.

But, I must say that the highlight of the night was my dad. My dad, for those of you that don't know, is quite the character. So, seeing as how I decorated the house for the occasion, I wanted to have someone hand out candy. So my dad eagerly volunteered for the position. He wanted to dress up, so he got in his hunting gear and this is what he looked like in the end...

Yup. That's my dad! It's called a ghillie suit. We called him the tree man. But I think he looks a bit like bigfoot. It cracked everyone up and he had a blast scaring the daylights out of the teenager trick-or-treaters. Hey, my theory is that if you are a teenager trick-or-treating then you got it comin'. It was awesome.

So we had a great night and I am sure it will only get more fun the older the kids get. So I hope you all had a fun time too. I know it's a couple days delayed, but Happy Halloween!