D - Boundless Love

Tonight Mary and Neil stopped by with Joel who is now a whopping 5 months old. In what I'm sure was meant to be an overwhelming expression of love for her younger cousin, Katie says to him (while retrieving her Dora the Explorer ball):

"Go slobber on your own toys at home - Not on ours!"

D - Attention Kohl's Customers

If you really like this store as much as most of you claim, WHY do you insist on trashing it? I mean, is it REALLY so hard to hang up the clothes you have just tried on and place them on the rack just outside the dressing room?

Thank you.

D - Proud (& not so proud) Mommy Moments

Parenting is hard (in case nobody ever told you). There are plenty of days when I feel extremely inadequate and today was one of those.

This morning Katie yelled excitedly from her room for me to come in there. She proudly showed me how she had arranged all of her pillows on her bed. I said, "That's Beautiful, Katie! Now we just need to pull up your sheets and your quilt and put them just like this again and your bed will be perfect." I thought this was complimentary.........I was wrong. She immediately burst into tears. How mean am I? The first words out of my mouth were telling her how she didn't do it just right.

Noah, on the other hand, was wonderful. He came running into her room to see why she was crying. When I told him what happened, he immediately ran to her and gave her a hug. He told her how great she had done and that he couldn't have done it better himself. WHY, WHY, WHY could I not do that?????

Later that day, he made me proud again. I was pulling weeds back behind our rosebush in front of the house and pricked myself.

Me: "Ow!"

Noah: "What?"

Me: "Oh, nothing. I just poked myself while I was pulling weeds."

Noah: "Why didn't you have me do that?"

Me: "Noah, I'd rather me get hurt than you."

Noah: "Well, I want to be just like Dad. I want to do all the jobs that you don't want to do."

I'm so proud of him - AND my wonderful husband. I'm so lucky that he has such a servant-hearted role model in Mike.

At least one of us is doing something right.....

M - Things Noah has never said on a fishing trip

Three things my son has never said while on the boat - but his sister did tonight:

1. Daddy, I'm getting dirty. (complaining)
2. Can you take me home now? (complaining)
3. The fishing pole is hurting my hands. (stating the facts as she saw them)

Tonight was our first 'real' night out fishing this season. We actually had about an hour to settle in and wet a line. The boys were also happy to welcome the smallest of our girls out on the boat with us. Katie caught a bass and a perch. She did a great job reeling them in all by herself even though you may have surmised from above that she bores quickly.



I caught two bass. One was a keeper and one wasn't. They were biting on my favorite plastic worm - sparkle blue or purple with a fire orange tail. With two kids in tow I didn't actually get much fishing time as you might imagine (I often forget that will be the case). Noah caught three perch - two of which were very nice. If we had time to clean fish tonight we'd definitely have those tiny filets (yes, perch filets!) in our freezer right now. Our Grandma Mary never met a perch she couldn't eat!


Here is a little video of Katie and her bass:

D - Boot Camp - Take 2

Well, I did it. I went back today. Yea me! I simply could not face the fear that I was wimping out. That, plus Kristin was going back, and she invited Cindy who, in turn, invited Kim. That would be 3 of my friends who were tougher than me! I just couldn't miss!

So, I did better today. I took it a little easier on myself and walked every other lap around the gym for most of the hour. That helped. I also only lifted 3 pound weights, but this one wasn't by choice. I was late getting to the class and had a choice of what was left - 3lbs or 10lbs - not a hard choice for me. Anyhow, I don't feel like death right now, and per my trusty heart-rate monitor, I burned 530 calories instead of the 575 last week. I can live with those extra 45 calories if I am not as sore as last week!

D - Interacting with Friends

I think it's always fun to see my kids interact with their friends. It is so interesting the way their behavior changes as they get all giggly and show off.

Today I had the pleasure of driving Katie's friend Brett home from Sonshine School. With no Noah in the car, it was very entertaining to watch Katie transform into another personality. Gone was the girl who frequently defers to her brother's wishes. The girl today was in full show-off mode -belting out Hannah Montana songs and dancing along to the music. She was more aggressive with giving me orders on which songs I should be playing on the radio and took the lead in making sure Brett was having a good time. It was really funny.

They had a couple of conversations too that just cracked me up, so I wrote them down to share with you.

Story #1

I opened Katie's lunch to see what she had left in there and handed her the grapes that she hadn't finished.

Brett: "I want some grapes."

Katie: "I'm sorry I can't share with you (said very passionately, but very insincerely). I'm sick."

Brett: "You're sick?"

Katie: "Yep. Wanna here? (Cue loud forced cough sound HERE) See?"

Alright, I can see that this isn't as funny as I try to write it out. Sorry. But since I told Melanie I was going to post them here, I'm going to forge ahead.

Story #2

Katie wanted Brett to hand her a monster truck that he was playing with. She persistently requested it and even said "Please" each time.

K: "Can I have it PLEASE???"

B: "Say the magic word."

K: "I said, PLEASE!"

B: "No. Abracadabra."

He's a hoot, Melanie!

D - Excercise, Housework & Other Babblings

This morning I let my "friend" Kristin talk me into joining her at the Y for a Boot Camp class. Thus far I have worked quite hard to never attend one of those classes, and now I know why. It was AWFUL!!!!! About 45 minutes into it I seriously considered sneaking out. I didn't though, so I suppose I'm proud that I finished it and still have enough mobility left in my arms to type this. Just when I start to feel like I'm in pretty good shape, something will happen like a substitute teacher or trying a new class, and that will put me back in my place. Ugh.

I really don't plan on going again, but I'm trying to decide if it's because I'm a wimp or if it's just that I don't want to disrupt my weekly schedule to add another class. If you're really bored, you can read on, otherwise you have my permission to check out. I'm pretty much just thinking out loud here.

Here's my weekly daytime schedule:

Monday - Also known as Weekend Recovery Day - I strip all the beds, wash sheets and remake them. Catch up on weekend's laundry and start picking up the MULTITUDE of toys and clothes that have covered the floor over the weekend.

Tuesday - Sonshine School day & Spin class. After getting cleaned up from spin, I empty trash cans, clean bathrooms, vacuum, mop and dust (kind of lying on this one - no one come over with white gloves). These are the remnants of my Flylady habits. I quit getting her emails, and my house is definitely not as well-ordered because of it.

Wednesday - I do a toning class at the Y and usually work on some laundry.

Thursday - Sonshine School & Spin. This is my play day. After I get cleaned up from spin, I let myself go shopping or read a book or something else totally unproductive.

Friday - Fun day. This is the only morning of the week that we do things like go to the zoo or the park or something fun for the kids.

Saturday/Sunday - Pretty much just family stuff. Soccer games, a yoga class, church. I pretty much do nothing around the house on weekends which is why Mondays and Tuesdays are so rough.

So, that's it. I always wonder how other women manage their homes, so if you feel like sharing your schedule, I'd love to hear it. Now that I've got mine all laid out there, I see why I am so busy at the start of each week - it looks like I kind of slack toward the end. Oh well, it works for me. But that is precisely why a Monday Boot Camp class does not work for me, right? I'm not just a wimp, right? Right? I said, RIGHT????

M - Sunrise at 35,000 feet

Even after having traveled to many fascinating places all over the world, I'm quite a fearful flyer. It really just aggravates the snot (not literally) out of me that I have issues with this but, alas, 'tis very true. I've been to the Far East twice including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea. I've traveled as far as Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Sweden. Canada and Mexico are easy ones. I've been to England three times with Dana and toured a stretch of Europe (London, Paris, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and Frankfurt) with my lovely bride for 11 days carrying nothing but a backpack, checking no luggage on the plane, and spending about half our nights on a train traveling to a new city. We even made another trip with the Maucks to London and Paris. We've seen PLACES, ya' know. A few years ago I endured a brutal (for me) 16 hour flight to Melbourne, Australia. Even after all that, I still dread flying. Repeated exposure is supposed to be one of the best fixes for an anxiety but no luck here. I hated my very first flight to Washington DC in seventh grade and it's never improved from that point!

One of the things I do to pass the time is take pictures from the plane...lots and lots of pictures. Flying around storms has a double disadvantage of turbulence AND nothing to photograph! Nonetheless, I have an enormous collection of amazing and beautiful pictures of God's creation that can only be seen from a plane. CLICK HERE if you get a chance. In fact, I should make that the subject of a post some day...'pics from the plane.' Some of my favorite are of the Grand Canyon, Lake Meade, and Hoover Dam. I also have some amazing pictures of the Sierra Madre range in California and Niagara Falls as seen from taking off from the Buffalo Airport. The flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix and/or Oklahoma City is amazing with regards to terrain. The American southwest, as seen from 25,000+ feet is spectacular.

Nonetheless, the subject of this post is SUNRISE. Here is my view from, according to the captain, 36,000 feet on my way from OKC to Chicago O'Hare. It was absolutely beautiful and I'm always mindful of the Creator's magnificence when I get to experience His Creation in this way.

At a much more shallow level, I also thinks it's really stinkin' cool to take a picture of the sun and moon at the same time! It's kind of a fun irony. I've done it before from the ground but never at 36,000 feet! You might have to click on this next picture for a larger view to find the moon at the upper right of the picture.


Enjoy!

M - Windy City walker

Last week on Wednesday through Friday I attended the NCEO conference in Chicago with a co-worker. The sessions I attended on employee ownership were mostly well-informed but in many cases the advanced tax accounting topics were well over my head!

This was my fourth or fifth overnight trip to Chicago and as such I always enjoy walking around and seeing the sites if I have time. And, I walk. A lot.

On Wednesday evening, according to Google maps, we covered almost 8 miles walking to and from dinner and around downtown. It was 2.8 miles from our hotel just to Giordano's pizza where we had dinner. It was worth the walk though because you just can't get true Chicago-style pizza like that around OKC (at least as far as I know).

On the Thursday night we only covered about 4.5 miles. We had a reception at the Chicago Art Museum sponsored by Bank of America. I didn't see any art but the food was pretty good...and FREE. Afterwards we hoofed over to Orvis, Northface, and the Nike store on Michigan Ave. All I can say is, as always, NEVER pay retail if you can avoid it!





You may be at least party familiar, in name, with Grant Park or Millenium Park. There is usually a whole host of dog walkers, frisbee players, etc. all milling around. Unfortunately for us it was pretty doggone cold and windy (Windy City, ya know) so there wasn't a lot of activity. Somehow having a massive lake next to your city leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to blocking the wind. Nonetheless we are pretty intrepid souls and forged ahead having a great time along the way.

This crazy looking thing fascinates me every time I see it. I need to do a little research on it. I don't know what it's made out of or what it represents but it is fascinating both from an engineering and artistic standpoint. It's like looking at the world through an ultra-wide angle lens on your camera.









Here is the Chicago River that gets dyed green for the St. Patrick's Day parade. This picture was taken from the end of one of many drawbridges over the river. In the late fall, there is a designated Saturday where the bridges spend most of the day in the UP position while the boats all parade in off the lake before the big freeze starts. The schedules are apparently pretty well set and the drawbridges are only lowered occasionally so traffic can flow again.

D - Boys vs. Girls - Take II

I've mentioned before that in our family we have a big Boys vs. Girls thing going. Katie and I like to wear clothes and sing songs that say "Girls Rule!" - which REALLY irritates Noah. But I'm babbling.....

Anyhow, this morning Katie and I were ganging up on poor Noah (who, believe me, can handle his own) when suddenly she turned on me and started siding with her brother.

I said (in a whiny sort of voice) "Kaaaaaatie! Why are you on his team???"

"Ummmmmmmmm, because he told me I was?"

Apparently it doesn't take much.

D - Splashin' with my Baby

I've noticed that lately Katie hasn't had near as much attention on the ole blog as Noah, so this post's for her! She was really excited about the rain yesterday and couldn't wait to put on all her gear and go out splashing. Unfortunately, I couldn't talk Noah into going out with her (Weird!) and she wanted someone to play with, so I had to go too. I really don't like rain as much as her, but we had fun despite my whining that it was cold and I didn't have rain shoes. Too bad Mike was out of town - he's LOTS more fun than me in these situations!

D - Congrats!

J&J H, we just heard your wonderful news, and we are soooooooooooooooooo happy for you both!!!!!

Don't you all wish you could write your own secret, undecodable language that no one else could understnad?