My freedom ends where your rights begin.

I try not to get political on my blog, but the homily at church this week was too good to only be heard by a thousand or so people. The subject was the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and the fallacy of "Freedom of Choice", a term often used to soften the reality of a mother terminating her unborn child's life, for the sake of her convenience. According to this term, she is free to do what she wants with her body. But how much freedom do we all really have? I really need some cash these days, am I free to rob someone? It would be convenient for me to steal someone else's money, then I wouldn't have to worry about my own. Or if a person finds out something about me that could damage my reputation, am I free to kill them, so that they would be unable to share my secret? According to the law, I cannot do either of these things. Why? Because my freedom ends where another's rights begin. The other person has the right to his money and life, and I cannot take those from him. His rights are protected by our law. Unborn children actually have rights protected by the law as well, except in this case, the goverment likes to talk out of both sides of its mouth. In my state, if I were to cause harm to a pregnant woman that resulted in the death of her unborn child, I would be charged with manslaughter and sentenced to time in prison. However, if this same mother were to decide to abort her child, she would do so with the blessing of the law. The baby's rights change depending on whether it's an unwanted pregnancy or not, which is absolutely ludicrous. What if everyone's rights were based on their popularity? Some would literally get away with murder while others would never stand a chance. The American government states that all citizens have the same inalienable rights--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--no matter whether that citizen is Oprah or a bum living under a bridge. Yet we do not uphold this in this case of unborn children. We hide behind more fallacies, like saying a fetus is not a person. What is it then? A bird? A squirrel? Here is a picture of my son Ben at 9 weeks in utero:

Even with the grainy ultrasound, you can see that he was a developing person with a head, a body, arm buds and an immature but functioning muscular system that allowed him to begin movement. He had the beginnings of eyes and ears. My doctors never once called him tissue or fetus. They treated him with respect and called him my baby. Here is a picture of Ben today:

He is the same object as in the picture above, only more developed. He will continue to develop his entire life, just as he has since the day that first picture was taken. But those are the same eyes that allow him to look at me each day, the same ears that enable him to hear my voice and the same arms and muscular system that make him capable of hugging me like no one else can. He doesn't look like he did back then, but he won't look the same in 18 years either. He was a person then, he is now, and he will be always, and he deserves to have the same fundamental rights no matter what stage of his life he enters.

**Congratulations to Luke's cousin Jennifer, who is scheduled to give birth to her fourth child today. I know that she will bless and enrich your life as much as the first three have!

Flashback!

Yes, I realize that I've been a little scan-happy lately, but my kids are boring me to tears right now, so get used to it. Today I walked into the spare room to find that Patrick had dumped a huge box of pictures all over the floor and was crying at what he thought was a horribly scary picture of Mommy. I don't know which one it was...he pointed to a few of them and well, there was nothing really scary about the pictures, I guess he just realized that I'm not as pretty as he thought. So as I was cleaning them up, I found this one of my eighth grade confirmation and I had to crack up for three reasons:

1) Unfortunately, I am the bad-looking one on the far left. While I will admit to having unbelievably frizzy and puffy hair with no style or shape whatsoever, I don't get why my face looks as round and as flat as a frying pan. Must be the camera angle, I have always had a fairly-oval shaped face.

2) And who is that girl, second from the right? Oh yes, that's our very own beloved Cup of Joe. Girl, I got a million of these, we might be having a lot of flashbacks in the near future! Mandy, watch out, I've got a big stash of college pics too!

3) Lastly, I want you to check out the dresses. I have no doubt in my mind that each and every one of you had a dress like this sometime around 1990. That's because these were the epitome of style back then, weren't they girls? A few years ago, back when I was a teacher, I had to take the winner of our school spelling bee to the archdiocesan spelling bee in Atlanta (Mandy, you remember, you came with us). It was held at one of the other grade schools and in the front hall they had all the graduation pictures from the past 20 years or whatever. It wasn't my school, but there were lots of pictures of people that ended up at high school with me, so I was showing them to my student and saying who they were. She looked at me and said "Why are you guys all dressed like Little House on the Prairie?"

'Nuff said about the dresses. We shall never speak of this again, okay? But there'll be more flashbacks...watch out girls!!!

Postcards from the Edge

...or at least the other side of the pond. I got this postcard from Shannon today--yay! You might remember that we had a little conversation a while back about this goat in her country that climbs a type of tree, eats the fruit, and spits out the seeds, which are the harvested for a tasty cooking oil, much like olive oil. I heard about this on Iron Chef America and thought it was whack! Thanks Shannon, for thinking of me! It was a sursprise and a treat to get this postcard today. I may put it in a kitschy frame and hang it over my spice rack...it'll be a great conversation piece!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is David and Sandi's 3rd wedding anniversary and I just wanted to give them a shout-out since there are no two people in the world better suited for each other. David and Sandi are like two peas in a pod and I am so glad that they are lucky enough to be able to live happily ever after together. Here's wishing you a great anniversary and many happy returns of the day!!!

Be Prepared

It's the motto for the Boy Scouts of America, but I think it's much better suited to motherhood, don't you? Over our weekend of wonderful weather, Luke took Patrick to visit the Scout troop that he sometimes helps out with. They were camping at someone's property nearby and parcticing their skills for badges. Patrick had a blast hanging out with them, helping them collect wood for the fire and having a picnic. I gave Luke the camera and told him to document it well, and I love the pics he got...they are priceless!

When Patrick got home, he jumped out of the truck and came running over to tell me all about it. I asked him if it was awesome and he said "Yeah! Mommy, I pooped in the woods like a DOG!!!!" That's my boy!

Great Expectations

What a great day it was, huh? We spent almost the whole day outside. This morning after church we went for a long walk around a nearby lake. Then after the kids snoozed we headed back out to wash the cars and play in the yard. Patrick has been begging me since it got cold to take his shorts back out so he can be like "Quiet Rule", so today it was finally warm enough that I consented.

Our older neighbor came over to chat while we were outside and commented on Patrick's shorts. She said that it was still too chilly for her to wear shorts since when you get old, your blood doesn't pump as quickly and forcefully to keep you warm....to which Patrick responded "When I get old, I'm going to drink beer and chew red gum."

We're so proud.

He can sleep in a chair, he can sleep on the stair, he can sleep most anywhere!

Of all the places Patrick has fallen asleep lately, face down on the stairs--in the middle of the day--has got to be the wackiest.

It's Baaaaaack!

Blogger's not letting me post pictures today, but I wanted to put something up, so please put your hands together to welcome back the Friday's Feast! This may just be a guest appearance...I'm not sure if I'll really start it back up again...

Appetizer: What comes to mind when you see the color orange?
Some seasons I think "yuck!" and some seasons I can't get enough of it. It's generally not my favorite color.

Soup: Did you ever get in trouble while you were in school? If so, what was it for?
I remember in 2nd grade, I had a teacher named Portia (pronounced like the car) Hendricks and she was going to save the environment. So she made us recycling bags to hang off the side of our desk. One day she caught me storing markers (gasp!) in mine and yelled at me. I was such a goody-goody that I put my head down and cried until my whole desk was soaked.

Salad: Which topping(s) make up your perfect pizza?
Tomatoes, mushrooms and pepperoni.

Main Course: Do you believe in UFOs/aliens/etc.? Why or why not?
Agent Mulder tells me that The Truth is Out There, and I don't argue with Mulder. Based on his looks, his rationale is perfect.

Dessert: What color is your bedspread/comforter/quilt?
Yellow and blue and green...but seeing as how I like to change my comforter as often as my socks, this could be different soon...

Hot Shot

Since January 1, Ben has accomplished the following:

1. Taken three steps.
2. Mastered the use of uh-oh and tried out night-night, gone-gone and moon.
3. Learned to drink from a real sippy cup, gave up the messy ones with straws.
4. Charmed the socks off of Mommy!!!

2007 is only ten days old, and already he owns this year!

I'm going to my happy place...

As we've been cleaning up the new game room (which was formerly the "storage room"), I ran across some pictures that I've had stashed away for a long time. One of them was this one, which is pretty much my favorite picture of me ever. This photo means a lot to me--I always had it on my bulletin board growing up, as you can see by the holes in the paper--but more than that, it represents some really great times in my childhood. We had a summer beach house in Old Saybrook, CT (famous for Kathrine Hepburn living there, and being only a stone's throw from Old Lyme, which is I guess where Lyme disease first became a big deal), and we got to spend all summer there (back when summers were three months long). My grandparents had a beach house in Madison, which was only about 20 or 30 minutes from our house, so we visited a lot. I loved their house. I loved it so much that you are going to hear all about it right now, because that's where this picture was taken.

The house itself was great to me. It was small, but there was only the two of them, so that didn't matter. It was on a neighborly street that was lined with big trees, maybe oaks, I don't really know, but it was always shady and cool outside. My grandfather had a big inboard motorboat in the side yard that he let us play in when we weren't at the beach. There was a huge screened-in front porch, with those chaise louges and chairs with really comfy squishy all-weather plastic cushions on them--that's where we'd hang out if it was raining. Their living room was decorated with lots of driftwood and those colored glass balls that hung in nets. I don't really know what those were, but you'd see them at the beach a lot in those days. They had a huge kitchen with vinyl-covered barstools that would spin around really fast. The kids room had wallpaper covered in toy soldiers and my grandparent's room had a giant white and pink conch shell on the dresser. My grandmother told me that one day at the beach, someone discovered a huge bed of conchs way out in the deep and she made my grandfather swim out there and dive for one. Out back was a really small porch where my grandfather would do his grilling, and we used to toast marshmallows out there after dinner. My grandmother would always pinch my side to see if I'd saved room for marsmallows.

Their beach was great, too--only because it was so unusual. I think it was meant to be a private beach, so there was never any appropriate public access. You had to walk down a staircase that was built into the side of a wall and then scoot across a ledge to get to the sand. It was easy at low tide, but at high tide the waves would be crashing on you as you walked along. I'm sure it was completely safe or my parents wouldn't have let me do it, but it always felt scary. Once you got down to the beach, there was so much to do. Being a northern beach, it was rocky. The rock in the picture was covered in mussels, which were great for catching crabs if you could pry them off the rock and smash them open. Out in the water was a HUGE rock called Betty Rock. You could walk out on a bunch of smaller rocks that formed a jetty. We would take our mussels out there and run all over that rock looking for crabs and playing. But we had to be careful and watch the water, because when the tide came in, the jetty was gone and then you'd have to swim for it. When I was little, Betty Rock seemed as big as a house to me. My mom took me back when I was a teenager. It wasn't as big as I remembered it, but still pretty large.

I still remember the day this picture was taken. My cousins Eric and Andrea, who lived in PA, were up to visit my grandparents, so we drove over from our house to see them. It must have been early summer, because my mom had thought it was too chilly to swim. But when we got there, Eric and Andrea were ready to get in the ocean. My brother David was okay...I guess he swam in his shorts, but I didn't have a suit and Andrea only had one, so I just rolled up my pants and played on the rocks that day. I can't remember if I was upset about it (probably not--I got to swim in the ocean every day), but now I'm glad it happened that way. Like I said, this is one of my favorite pictures, and it never would have been snapped if I had gone swimming with David and my cousins. It's one of those pictures that really portrays a moment frozen in time, and I remember that my grandparents always kept a big 8 x 10 copy of it in their house. To me it kind of represents the person I still feel like inside when I am not swept up with mommyhood. It's one of my most sentimental possessions and I will always cherish it.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

My sweet lil nephew Matthew is two years old today--a great age despite what they say. Matthew is a hoot, very funny and charming to be around. He has a lamb named Larry and when he's tired, instead of napping, he "goes to see Larry". Right now he loves all things train--including Thomas the Train--and is at that starting-to-really-talk age that is so fun to listen to (he calls Ben "Men").
Happy Birthday Matthew! I hope you have a great day and a great year. Aunt Becky is a slacker and hasn't gotten your present yet, but I will soon and then you'll get to open a present on a regular day, which is great fun! There's a method to my madness...um, yeah. Anyway, HAPPY TWO YEARS OLD!

Ping Pong Mania!

We have recently re-acquired Luke's ping-pong table--he's had it for a while, he was just storing it at someone else's house. I was against this, but I have to admit, I have enjoyed it the past few days. We have a large extra room upstairs (which used to be Ben's room, hence the pastel walls) which has morphed into a game room in the past week. The past couple nights we've been going up there after dinner, blasting the Jimmy Buffet and having some pretty intense dart games and ping-pong matches. At this point, Luke is the leader--he has beaten me twice in ping-pong (barely!) and he has the high score in darts. But revenge is coming and it will be sweet! Mwahaaahaaa!!! Yes, this whole game room thing could be a trial on our marriage since Luke is rather good and I am rather average but competitive. We will have to see what comes of this...

Patrick is getting the hang of it very slowly; Ben just likes to cheer us on! My favorite thing to do in the game room however, is just lay on the bed and try to catch forty winks while being pelted with little plastic balls.

Filter? What filter?

Patrick--like all kids his age--says whatever is on his mind. There is no filter to keep the outrageous stuff in his head, it all just comes pouring out. The other day I took him with me to Victoria's Secret to get some jammies with a gift certificate from Christmas, which took a while. So after he passed the time parading around the store modeling black satin bras, we finally headed to the check-out counter, where there was a pretty college-age girl behind us. She obviously didn't have kids, but she tried really hard to be nice when Patrick struck up a conversation with her:

Patrick: Look at this! (pointing to some sort of massage oil or something)
Girl: Yes, what is that?
Patrick: It's SHAMPOO!
Girl: Oh, do you wash your hair with shampoo?
Patrick: Yeah, I wash my hair. My hair doesn't stink anymore. I also wash my butt and my penis. My butt doesn't stink anymore, either.

The story ends like it always does...as the girl and the salesperson were convulsing in laughter, I grabbed my jammies, quickly apologized and hightailed it out before he could say anything really bad.

And because Katie says a blog without pictures is like a book without words, and because no blog is complete without a snapshot of kids in the bathtub, here are a few pictures of the boys getting ready to wash said body parts so they can be sqeaky clean in case someone asks again...

This one takes the cake.

For those of you who aren't familiar with my house, this is the landing at the top of the stairs. Straight ahead is his bathroom and to the left is his bedroom...where we keep a twin-sized bed for him. I have no idea why he saw fit to set up camp in the hallway tonight, but he was obviously comfy because he was sleeping like a log when I went up to check on him. There is nothing more to say here except that my kid is weird, weird, weird.

Get your smile on...

...with V-Smile learning system! Okay Katie, this one's for you...Patrick got this V-Smile for Christmas and he LOVES. IT. TO. DEATH. He asks to play with it every day, and will sit and play for an hour by himself, no instruction needed. We got him the Bert and Ernie Sesame Street game to go with it, and at first we had to help him figure it out, but now he can work the controls by himself, and the content is hard enough that he can still learn something from it. All I've got to say is, if Joe was to love it as much as Fat-pick does, it would be your dream come true, your search for the holy grail would be over. Maybe next time old Pops comes around you can drop a few hints??? I gotta give props to Luke for picking it out, it was totally his idea. Let's just hope it lasts...

2007

Happy New Year to everyone!

2007 is going to be a good year for us, I know it. We're going to settle into a groove and just cruise...haha, famous last words right? Well, I'm going to do my best to make it great, starting today, when I eat those naaaasssty black-eyed peas and turnip greens. Yuck! But hey, I'll do whatever it takes for a good year!
Here's to 2007!

Uh-Oh

Ben has finally uttered his first word..."Uh-oh"...and I'm not sure he knows what it means yet, but he says it deliberately and repeatedly and it's very cute, so I'm happy.

The county has just finished building a new park just two miles down the road from us, so we moseyed on down to try it out. Ben loved it, he screamed when we took him away. Patrick was still not feeling well enough to really enjoy it (yes, it's his turn to be sick this week), but he humored us. I think it's going to be great to be able to pop over there in the spring, instead of having to drive 25 min. to the big park in town. They are in the process of building tennis courts and baseball fields and picnic pavilions, and I hope they finish soon, because it was kind of isolated today and I wouldn't want to be there by myself (Luke was with us today). Anyway, it should be fun. We've been enjoying our time off and all the relaxing that comes with it, but not much has been going on, so sorry for the boring post. I'll be back when life happens again.

Christmas Fun

Christmas Day was fun and filled with activity, as usual. On Christmas Eve, we went to the 4:00 Mass with Luke's family and then went to Joan's house for the entire-family get-together and gift exchange. I had to snap a shot of how handsome my boys looked for church before they peeled their clothes off over the course of the evening. They both got some toys that night, but Patrick really had fun helping other people open their presents, and Ben had a good time with Mary Kate hanging out by the Chex Mix.

Christmas morning was fun, although Ben was so tired from the night before, we had to wake him up since Patrick couldn't wait any longer. Santa was good to them. Patrick's favorites were his "awesome fire truck and ambulance", as well as a train set and a Home Depot tool bench from uncle Adam. I really don't think Ben even realizes there were presents.

My dad came up late that morning to watch the boys finish their presents and have a delicious lunch. Luke made us his spectacular smoked pork tenderloin and it was awesome. The smoker was a Christmas present from a few years back and I don't think we've ever gotten a better gift. After Ben napped we went to Luke's parents' house and ate a wonderful turkey dinner with them and exchanged gifts. The boys loved this see-saw (well...we all did, and my quads hurt today)--it'll be nice when the weather gets better and we can go outside and use it more.

We had a very nice Christmas, and I hope all of you did as well. As I looked at these great pictures from the past two days, I was reflecting on Christmas 2005, when I didn't even take pictures, because I was so zoned out from having a six-week-old in the house. It made me really grateful to be where we are today! Here's to Christmas Past being behind me, Christmas Present being so fun, and many wonderful Christmas Futures to come!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my blogging gals! Yes, I am still alive, but we've been having marathon days getting ready for Christmas and shuttling kids back and forth to the doctor and drugstore. My kids are permanently sick this winter. After tomorrow, spring cannot come fast enough. On top of it all, Blogger decided to be testy, so I gave up for a few days and enjoyed the time away from the computer. Thought I'd check in today and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all get fun treats, but more than that, I hope the time spent and memories formed with your families and loved ones will be your greatest gift this season.

Christmas with the Fam

We made the short trek back down to my parents' house this past Sunday to have early Christmas with them and David and Sandi. My mom will be in CT on Christmas Day and David and Sandi are going to OH as usual. We had a delicious lunch, courtesy of mom and Sandi, and let our food digest while the kids slept. Then we had a delicious dessert (courtesy of me) and got to the good stuff--PRESENTS!

Patrick waited patiently next to the tree, although he did make us tell him which ones were his so he could inspect the package. He was super-psyched to get two new pairs of jammies (one with MONSTER TRUCKS on them), and so was I--he really needed them!

Ben's still getting the hang of opening gifts. Like all babies, he had a great time playing with wrapping and boxes, but he perked up when we opened one for him and showed him what it was...a basketball goal just like the one he loves in Gigi and Grandpa's playroom.

Here's each of the kids enjoying a new possession...Matthew with a Thomas the Tank Engine book, Patrick with some sort of construction mechanism (I don't know what, you have to ask him) that he is so obsessed with he wants to take it to bed with him every night, and Ben with the best gift of all, a cardboard box.

As always, it was great to see my family. Even though we'll be spread out this Christmas, I'm glad we had this day to celebrate the season together. Merry Christmas guys!

I'm allright--don't nobody worry 'bout me...

I haven't really said anything about how Savannah's been since her surgery, but I assure you she's doing juuuust fine. In fact, she's better off now than she was before, since Luke often takes pity on her and lets her sleep on the bed with us. Grrrr....anyway, her ear healed wonderfully--even better than her other ear did the first time we had this surgery--and she is back to her old neurotic self, passing the days by chasing falling leaves, barking at squirrels that are 50 feet over her head and licking the back patio. Don't ask, I have no idea...

I'm ready for sainthood.

You have to perform three miracles to become a saint, and I'm obviously ready since I've done three in a week. First, I made Ben and Patrick get along for 15 whole minutes by allowing them to destroy my throw pillows together, then I cured Patrick's throw-ups in less than 24 hours (I'm not sure how I did that one, but I'll still take the credit), and thirdly, I successfully got Patrick to sing (and sing happily) at his preschool Christmas program. All it took was a little bribe in the form of Barnes & Noble, his favorite "book fair" ever. He was very serious about acheiving this goal, because apparently he told all the other kids as well that there was to be no crying, no crying at all!

Well, regardless of how he got there, he sang very sweetly and did all the right hand motions (except during the part when they were supposed to be quiet so the soloist could sing, he illustrated this fact by putting his finger over his lips when no one else was doing that...it was cute at the time, but in the picture it just looks like he's picking his nose). Mommy was so proud and he was so proud of himself too, for not crying, and then he found the coolest lift-the-flap truck book at B & N, so all was well in the end.

Happy Birthday to Our Homeboy!

I'm sure I speak for all of us Blogger sistahs when I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sweet 3-year old Joe. I know Katie has done her own post already, but I have to give props to our man on his big day since he keeps us entertained on a regular basis (with a little help from a certain sausage...). Anyway, you're 3 now big guy, give 'em hell! (A fair warning to Katie...he's going to be taking that literally.)

Never jump into a pile of leaves holding a wet sucker.

A little bit of advice from the great Charles M. Schulz there. In what can only be described as a Christmas miracle, Patrick recovered from his illness in record time yesterday (thank yoooouuuuuuuuu, God!) and was able to go to school today. When he got home, we went outside to play since we are having unseasonable mild days (again, many thanks). We have one flower bed that has not been attended to very well this fall because...well, it's my flower bed, that's why. I haven't touched it and Luke hasn't noticed it, so the leaves are just a-pilin' up. Patrick waded in and almost sunk to his waist, and that's when the fun began.

Sob Story II

I have decided that, at least from a spectator's vantage point, that throwing up is better than diahrrea. And I would know.

Yes, in the never-ending parade of sickness that is my household, Luke awoke this morning at 5:30 to find Patrick sleeping on the couch again, but this time it was because his bed was covered in vomit. Sadly, this is the biggest thing happening in my life at the moment. Even more sad is the fact that preschool Christmas break starts Thursday and even though I was dreading two weeks at home entertaining the kids in freezing cold weather, now Patrick will miss this week and I'll actually have three weeks of entertaining sick kids in freezing cold weather. It's like summer vacation, only miserable.

Ben hasn't had any symptoms yet, but give him time and I'm sure he'll deliver...

Peek a Boo!

Thought I'd give Ben some screen time...

Patrick, Patrick and more Patrick

Boys Will Be Boys

Today the boys teamed up to give me more gray hairs, and when I mean boys, for once I don't mean Patrick and Ben, but actually Patrick and Wilson. Patrick was playing outside when he brought to the door the lovliest of gifts for Mommy dearest, namely: a live baby lizard. This would not be so bad if he hadn't been holding it by the head, which for some reason really grossed me out, so I yelled at him to PUT IT DOWN. He did, and then promptly smashed it with his shoe. That really grossed me out, so I started making loud sick noises, which Patrick took as a cue to kick around the mutilated lizard, causing it's tail to detach and squirm on the pavement, and that was the point where Wilson decided to join the fun and began to eat the twitching tail. Do I need to say any more?

The Importance of Being Persistent

Patrick has has a thing about Super K-Mart for about a year and a half now. I don't even remember how it started, all I know is that for the past eighteen months, whenever we passed Super K-Mart (which is every day), he would start begging for the "purple book". He was VERY CONSISTENT about this. Not a day has gone by where we haven't heard about the purple book at K-Mart. We've even looked for it on the rare occasion that we enter this store. I have never been able to figure out what the "purple book" was. Until yesterday. We went to K-Mart to look for dog food with high fat content for our anorexic dog (by the way, this dog food doesn't exist. I should have realized that after I couldn't find it at Walmart. If it's not at Walmart, it doesn't exist) and on a whim strolled through the book aisle. Lo and behold...there, amongst rays of light from heaven and amidst the choruses of angels, sat the "purple book". Patrick just about freaked, as did we, since we had obviously found the equivalent of Atlantis, or the Fountain of Youth, or the Lost City of Gold. Since it came shrink-wrapped with two other books for the bargain basement price of $2.49, we snapped it up, not caring how much it resembles all of the other truck books that Patrick owns, or that it really would have been more appropriate for him say...eighteen months ago. No, all that matters is that we have located the purple book and now he can hold it in his hot little paws all day long should he choose to. Ladies and gents, I present to you...The Purple Book!

Quiet Rule Lives!

I may have made an important discovery regarding Quiet Rule. Apparently, there is a boy at Patrick's preschool named Wyatt Carroll. Do I have to point out how similar these two names sound? I am thinking that Patrick has a little friend on the playground whose name is a little hard for him to pronouce, but that's okay, because it sounds a lot like something he hears probably eighty times a day and can pronounce perfectly, so we'll just call him that instead! And if this is the case, I'm going to hunt down Wyatt/Quiet's mom and tell her to put some pants on her kid because it's freakin' freezing outside and all my kids wants to do is imitate your kid and that means I have to have fights with him three times a day about wearing shorts and sandals outside. Other than that, he seems like a great kid.

O Tanenbaum

We put up our Christmas tree fairly early this year, which I do NOT feel guilty about because it's such a hassle that you have to make it worth the effort. This is the first year we've had a fake tree...we made the decision to switch after last year's gifts were covered in sap and bugs. So Luke's mom got this one at a discount after Christmas last year and gave it to us. I must admit, for someone who has been a Live Tree Purist her whole life, I am pleased with the results. For the first time in our relationship, Luke and I did not scream at each other while putting the tree in the stand, I did not have to string lights on it (woohoooo!), and watering it has been a cinch. Plus the branches are strong enough to hold our heavy ornaments, and evenly dispersed--no gaps! Yep, I'm officially converted...

Patrick and Ben "helping" me decorate the tree (actually, Patrick didn't do too badly as long as I kept shouting "Spread them out!!!!!" )...and the finished product!

The other day the kids were playing in front of the tree and it was so cute to see them laughing and playing together...a Christmas miracle!

Birthday Wishes for Sandi

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Sandi, dear wife to my brother David and devoted mom to Matthew. Sandi's great and since I never had a sister myself, it's fun to have her in the family to throw girl-talk around with. As it turns out, Sandi shares a birthday with two other women that I know of, one good one and one not-so-good one...

But let's focus on Sandi--pictured above with her adorable son--this is her post! Girl, you've ventured into new territory (and I say that lovingly since I am only six months behind)...make the most of it! Happy Birthday!

I'm not sure about this kid...

This is how we found Patrick at 7:00 this morning. Apparently there was a storm last night (I wouldn't know, I slept through it) and he was scared in his room. What kills me is that he actually thought out his plan of action. He came down to our room to get the blanket (which the dogs usually sleep on, by the way) and without disturbing us at all, took it out into the living room, got a throw pillow, turned on the Christmas tree and went back to sleep. I'm not sure why the living room is less scary, but whatever.

Oh, I guess now is a good time to mention that Patrick has an imaginary friend named Quiet Rule. I have great hopes that there will be more on this later. All I can tell you for now is that Quiet Rule wears shorts all the time, so Patrick wants to wear shorts as well.

Christmas Parade

We went to our town Christmas Parade last night, and were blessed again with very mild weather. Last year it was absolutely frigid and Ben was only a little over two weeks old or so. I had him wrapped up in about nineteen layers to keep warm. But last night all he needed was a light jacket. We had a rockin' par-tay...Luke pulled his truck up into one of the spaces on the main street and all the kids piled in the back so they could see and we could keep them corralled. I sat on the roof of the truck, using photgraph angle as an excuse, but really I just wanted to be by myself and I could say no to any kids that wanted to climb up there.

Above we have some of our local high schools struttin' their stuff in the band.

The kids enjoy the view from the bed of the truck...the Knights of Columbus from our church remind onlookers of the true reason for the holidays.

Patrick watches from atop Pa's shoulders as a decorated float goes by and then *GASP!* the fire truck!!!!

Some kids from my school marched in the parade, followed by more kids on our decked-out school bus. That's my boss Stephanie hanging out the door...I tried to get her face, but she was waving like a maniac!

Our town has a local Budweiser plant, so we always get to end the parade with the Clydesdale horses...followed by the man of the hour. He stopped to light the town Christmas tree in front of the old courthouse building and then rode on in all his glory. I feel like we've seen him so much lately that we're on a first-name basis with him!!!

The Polar Express

Last night, Ma and Pa took Patrick to Chattanooga to ride the Polar Express train all the way to the North Pole!!!!! How lucky are kids these days, huh? They went with some friend from church and their granddkids, Trevor and Nikki.

Patrick on the ride up...and presenting The Three Stooges!!!!

After dinner the kids met a fireman who was more than happy to show them the ladder truck. It doesn't get any better than that for Patrick...except when followed by ice cream!!!

Patrick and Trevor showing off their conductor hats. Aren't Trevor's eyes pretty? Nikki, being the cool gal that she is, gets to rock a pink conductor's hat!

The big moment...after they pull up to the North Pole, Santa boards the train. You can see the anticipation in Patrick's eyes! Santa listens intently as Patrick rattles off his laundry list of toy trucks that he wants for Christmas.

He had a great time but from what I hear he was zonked on the way home. He didn't remember switching cars or getting into bed. This morning when he woke up, he asked "Where's Nikki and Trevor?"

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was packed with action and thankfully (haha) we were blessed with gorgeous weather. We went to my parents' house, where my brother and his family were also staying. I believe the last time we were all together was at Ben's baptism in February...too long! It was good to see them again. Thursday before the big meal, we all headed outside for some manly time playing sports. I did not participate, but snapped some great photos: We've got Luke channeling Joe Montana, Matthew and Grandpa showing off their baseball skills, Ben and Shaeffer waiting patiently for a fumble to roll their way, and Patrick getting his speed on for a touchdown over Team Daddy. Later at the park, Matthew and Patrick practiced their tackling technique and David instructed on the art of being a kicker. Ben was getting his own thrills by heading down the slide headfirst, with or without adult supervision. In between all the fun, we feasted on a top-notch Thanksgiving buffet, which I must say, since it did NOT include rutabagas, was the best one we've ever had!

On Friday morning we headed over to the famous Yellow River Game Ranch to check out the animals up close and personal. The deer greeted Ben as soon as we walked through the gate and then sniffed out Patrick for some food. We saw lots of other great animals, including the famous rubber-faced horse...
Later, Patrick and I headed over to Katie's for a little playdate. The boys got off to a great start on the Jumpoline (formerly known as the Jumpy Thing), but when Lenny started getting frisky with Fat-pick, we moved it inside to the playroom. Check out Joe doing his rendition of Stairway to Heaven, featuring Barbie on backup vocals!

Gigi gets a little more snuggle time in with her three grandsons and then this morning we headed back home. My boys were so tired from their big weekend, they fell asleep almost the minute the car backed out of the driveway. Good times, good memories. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!!!

Happy Birthday Luke!

Happy Birthday to my dear husband Luke, and no this is not Luke in the picture--it's David--but I guess my gift to him was to not nag him about pictures, so I have none! We came down to my parents' house today for the Thanksgiving weekend, and the rest of the fam is here too, so since Luke's b-day is today and Sandi's is coming up soon, we had the party tonight. And of course, Patrick and cute little Matthew did the candle honors again...

A few words about the birthday boy...he is such a great daddy to my babies and a great husband to me. I literally would not have survived the past year without him. Besides that, for the past four years he has been working two jobs so that I can stay at home the majority of the time with the kiddies--how committed is that? You can always count on Luke to make you laugh (even if he didn't mean to) and he's not too shabby to look at either!!! Well, I could keep going on and on, but then I'd just be getting corny, huh? I love you Luke! Happy birthday and thanks for everything you do for our family!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blogging gals out there. I'm going to enjoy the day tomorrow and I'll be back with the recap post on Friday! Eat an extra piece of pie for me!!!

She's baaaaack...

...and LAWS-A-MASSEY she's lookin' like a real sassy Aunt Jamima in her pink headwrap! Just kidding, she is a woeful sight, although she seemed in good spirits when I went to pick her up this morning. The wrap is to keep the wounded ear pressed flat against her head so it won't fill back up with fluid, although she keeps shaking it, so the ear did flip out of the bandages at one point. That was fun. Patrick took one glance and started screaming. I'll spare you the sight of it.

Poor baby, it must be so scary spending the night in a cold kennel when you're used to disobeying Mommy and stretching out on the couch...not to mention the wierd dog in the cage next to her that had apparently bathed in urine--he probably tried to deal her some sketchy rawhide last night. I know she is glad to be home. After she and Wilson greeted each other with some sniffs in the nether-regions, she slid under the bed to stay out of harm's way and catch up on much-needed sleep.

Take a walk in my shoes...

I always have to laugh when I see Luke deal with the kids by himself, not because he's not doing well enough--he does great--but because it gives me great satisfaction to watch from the outside as my kids drive someone else up the wall. The other day Luke was trying to eat his lunch after the kids, which is a futile effort because even though they just ate, they will still try and eat everything on your plate...but I let him figure that out for himself as I sat back to enjoy the show...

The reach-in...

Luke defends his territory!

In the end I put down the camera and helped him out, but it's always nice when someone else feels my pain, if only for a few moments!

*Sniffle*

I took this picture hoping it will not be the last pretty picture I get of Savannah. Yesterday I took her to the vet, mostly because it was time for her annual check-up, but also because she has been in pretty bad shape recently. First of all, she is losing A LOT of weight--wierd since she was overweight at one point in her life--and you can count all of her ribs and vertabrae and see the bones in her haunches and shoulders and even the top of her head. She's like the canine Nicole Richie. Anyway, I attribute this to the fact that she spends her days neurotically running around the yard chasing non-exisitent things and is probably burning waaaayyyyyy more calories than she is ingesting. The vet seemed to agree with me, since he couldn't find anything wrong with her externally, but we're waiting to get bloodwork results back just to make sure. Meanwhile, she's now on a high-fat high-protein diet, while poor lazy Wilson has to eat small portions of fat-dog food (even though he's not, but he will get that way if we don't watch him).

The other thing that wrong with her is that she's developed a hematoma in her ear, which requires major surgery to be removed. The reason I know this is because she had one three years ago and we had to go through this whole charade at that point too. I am really worried because when she came out of that surgery, she looked like she had a wet oil rag attached to the side of her head instead of her pretty velvety ear. It did heal correctly, thankfully, but the vet told me that there was a chance it wouldn't, so now we're going to have to hold our breath and see again. She's going in tomorrow and has to spend the night. I'll put a picture up of her afterwards so you can feel good and sorry for her...you can go ahead and feel sorry for me now because this bill ain't gonna be cheap!

Sorry for the downer post, but I am down about the whole thing and I had to vent and draw sympathy. Tomorrow we will be back to our regularly scheduled post demonstrating the torture my children put me through every day.

A Puzzler...

How can my kids be such goofballs with such awesomely cool parents...?