Nothing to Say

Hey- me again. My day is busy and I am avoiding housework by blogging. I spent the entire morning at the doctor's office with Little Boy. He's had this appointment for months (man is it busy at this hospital!). However they are starting to recognize me in pediatrics now when I come in, what with the 5 kids and all. I was just there yesterday to have them take a look at Baby Girl's ears. She has been acting so fussy and has had a runny nose and cough for about 4 weeks now, poor baby. I had 2 different employees ask me if I wasn't just here yesterday. Nice to be noticed I guess. There is this man who's name will be unmentioned who I have known for 10 years now and I still can't get him to say hello to me at church. Don't really know why I care, but it's like an itch that I gotta scratch to get him to bother with a simple good morning. Sound's like I'm a stalker or something eh? I'm just bugged by unfriendly types. Maybe it's my need for attention or something. So we get out of our respective cars on Sunday morning and he proceeds to the building not looking in our direction and before I could stop myself I shout out "well-good morning!" I succeeded in scaring a hello out of him, but alas he ignored once again (after I clearly said hello to him first) in the hallway. What is it with this guy? Oh well, maybe I will just let it go.

On to other things. We had a most lovely Thanksgiving with all the trimmings (T even made wassel). We had a friend of T's from the hospital and a good pal of mine from my childhood who lives about 4 hours away. She brought her 2 kids up and they had fun hanging out with my boys. She is pretty newly divorced and going through rough times, and it felt good to listen and help her out. She is an awesome person! She is now a therapist and it was fun to see her work her magic on my headstrong 4 year old diva. We now have Big Girl sleeping in her own bed instead of insisting on sleeping in Little Boy's room every night. We started letting her do that when Baby Girl was going through a period of bad sleeping at night. Anyways it's gotten to be quite a power struggle to get her back where she needs to be. DR also talked me through some issues I have been having with my own family members. (okay it's Dad in case anyone reads this and thinks it might be you). I think I just may work up my courage and tell him my true feelings. Thanks for the therapy DR!

Well I guess that's all I have to say for having nothing much to say... Gotta go do laundry and dishes now- dangit!

That's What I'm Talkin' About

Okay, so I have been meaning to post this for some time. However 2 things were blocking me. I didn't want people feeling jealous (esp my friends still stuck in Korea), and I couldn't get a good picture. Too lazy to go outside and take one myself, and not technical enough to access the picture sent to me before we decided to take the house. Troy helped me with the technical part this morning. He is so smart. He got home safe and sound at 11:11 on my November 11th birthday last night-pretty awesome. Okay so it was really 11:10, but 11:11 sounds better.

Anyways, back to the house photo- it is so nice to have this home and especially the back yard. After 2 years with no back yard this is feeling pretty good indeed!

Happy Birthday

Well today is the day of my birth. I am 39! I can hardly believe this and think I will refuse to turn 40. For some reason the years just prior to a new decade of years are hardest on me. I recall turning 29 in Iowa (just ten years ago it seems), and feeling my youth slip away as I plucked my first gray hair that I had noticed ironically as I was picking at a pimple. I have been lucky I guess. Not much gray hair. Still pretty healthy (except that darn foot). Happy to be alive I guess.

The day has been okay. It would have been better if my husband were home. He was away at a conference and is on his way home right now. Unfortunately he missed a connecting flight and had to drive in a rental car for the last leg of the trip or he would be here already. The good thing is that he has the day off tomorrow to spend with me. The other good thing is that I was well taken care of by my friends here in Iowa today without him. 3 cards, cupcakes, cookies and 3 phone calls from family members. All in all not a bad way to turn 39. Yahoo for the thirties! I'm gonna miss you baby.

Foot Frustration

Well I finally had an appointment today to take care of a lingering foot-pain problem I have been having for far too long. Don't bother to ask why I kept putting it off or I will just defer to the usual excuse of the 5 kids, etc etc... So I went in hoping to have a new set of orthotic supports made (I lost one of mine in Korea somehow). Turns out the doctor feels that I don't really have plantar facitis. He felt my symptoms were more like arthritis and took and X-ray to confirm. The treatment is supportive shoes and Tylenol. He relayed it to me like this. It's not that your getting old, it's just like anything as it ages you have to take better care of it. Like an old car needs more oil changes. Somehow I wasn't too consoled at that analogy. Then when I asked if I should be getting a mamogram at my age he said no- I'm too young still. Ah yes! Some threat of youth I can still hold on to. I was relaying this story to a friend of mine that I walk with and she asked "don't you have a birthday coming up this Sunday?" She had to remember...

The After-Math

Halloween is so great. The sugar, the excitement. The scares. I have some pretty sad memories of my dentist father taking our candy for a nickel a piece. We'd have enough cash to buy paper dolls at Sprouse Ritz the next day- what a thrill!

My kids get to eat their candy and share a lot of it with me, to make up for my missed childhood Halloween festivities. I mean how many times did I have to be that red haired genie? Plastic face, sheer tie-in-the-back outfit... you get the picture.

Hmmm...

Baby Girl isn't so sure about a holiday that makes her wear a hat and green make-up. It was pretty darn hard to get a picture with this hat on, but it made me laugh so much to see her in a hat 3 times the size of her head.

Halloween

We all had a wonderful time this Halloween. New this year was Big Boy scaring kids on the porch dressed as a semi scary scarecrow. Hope we can do it for years to come!

I am a cucumber

This is classic Big Boy. I'm sure he'll make us take it down the moment he realizes it's here. In case you can't hear properly, at the end he says "please don't take me to the pickle farm" Seems logical for a cucumber to want to stay a cucumber I guess...

Tickets to the gun show

Well, Little Boy is ever our determined boy! He actually has the advantage of having been picked on by his two older brothers enough that he is highly motivated to achieve everything they have and more. He wants to be stronger than his brothers and has been asking for some weights of his own so that he could work on this. When T was a the local sporting goods store buying some bike equipment the other day, Little Boy convinced his Dad to buy him some weights of his very own. Now this is what we see outside our bedroom door at night. This has actually rubbed off on Big Girl who came up to me the other day asking me if I had my tickets yet, and when I said to what she replied "tickets to the gun show baby!" and then pushed up her bicep and kissed it! Wonder where she gets that?!?

Feild trip of dreams

Okay when your are in Iowa you need to work in that movie title whenever possible. It was a rather nice field trip if I do say so myself. Very Iowa-esque. You go to a local farm, get a hay ride, see some farm animals, go through a hay maze, drink cocoa, and walk through a spook alley full of plastic scary stuff. Oh then there was the knee deep kernels of corn you could wade through in the shed. It was so fun I had to take the family back for some pumpkins later that evening. They had fun playing with a new litter of kittens that were roaming around. Iowa is so awesome!