D - Going Off the Grid

As much as I really hate the idea, I think I'm going to take the blog private.  I've been spooked by articles and friends that talk about revealing too much information about my family to the world at large.  And since I'm not really one to hold back little details like names, ages, photos, city, state, street, social security #....anything anyone wants to know, I guess I should heed their advice.

So, this week I'm going to turn on the restriction settings.  Please email me, facebook me, comment on the blog, whatever, if you want to keep reading.  And PLEASE keep reading!  I know I stink at reading my friends' blogs when I don't get their updates in Google Reader.  But check in occasionally, okay?

D - A Very Serious Allergy

When I was young, my family was NOT a pet family, but I loved, loved, loved cats.  I would try to catch the precious little wild kittens that lived around my grandparents' house, & I definitely ordered enough books from Scholastic to get the "free" poster each time one of the fuzzy little guys was available. Eventually, my mom caved and let me get one (& then another, and still another, seeing as they never stayed around the house before running off or being run over).

So, I'm not sure when/why/how my body changed on me, but I can no longer be in a house with one of these little lovelies without turning into a sneezing, swollen-eyed, closed-off-throat absolute beauty.

Over time, while witnessing my various reactions to the feline family, Katie has decided that she too is allergic. I was at a baby shower with her a month or so ago, and by the time we left I couldn't even talk over a whisper because my throat had closed off too much. I went straight to the nearest pharmacy to get that taken care of, and K decided that her throat was really hurting too. To humor her, I bought her some of those yummy Ludens lozenges that we all ate like candy when we were young.  These REALLY helped her.

So the next morning when she woke up with a cold, there was no convincing her that she was sick - it was just her serious cat allergy which was clearly far more grave than any measly condition I might claim to have.  Fast forward another couple of weeks to another cold/sore throat for Miss K.  This time we hadn't been anywhere near a cat, but she had seen one cross the road when we were driving to school. Now THAT, my friends, is an allergy.

D - Snow! - Take 2

In case you've been dying to know whether or not I played with my kids during the second snow week, the answer is "uh-uh."  I was all set mentally to make it happen, but it turns out one good week of playing in the snow is pretty much all they are interested in.  The second time around, they were perfectly content to stay in the house, play wii games together, watch movies and do school-project crafts.  Yay for me!  They actually never even asked to go outside.

But as things began to melt and we began to go stir crazy, we left the house and stopped off at Lowe's to buy one of those elusive snow shovels that they were out of before the snow fell.  Noah and I decided that it would be awesome for him to shovel the driveway of our neighbor across the street.  She's single and had just been driving on it as it was.  Since Noah is working on his LTC Service Challenge, we've really been focusing on how serving others is such a big part of what God calls us to do.

So......off he (and Katie) went to do the job.

I was really proud of them.  They did the whole thing without complaining.  Actually, that part isn't true.  Noah had to do a little complaining because Katie would shovel some snow and throw it behind her on the driveway, so he would then have to pick up what she had just done.  She said it took too long to walk all the way over to the grass to dump it.  :)

And, as it turns out, this project wasn't just an act of kindness.  Because our nice neighbor caught Noah out there, she gave him a $25 gift certificate to take his family out for pizza at Old Chicago.  Huh?  Where else can I drop them off to do some work out of the goodness of their lucrative little hearts?

D - Facebook Highlights 2010 & A New Look

One of the things I most want to preserve on this blog is all of the funny things my kiddos say. But since I didn't do any blogging last year, the only remembrances I have are those that I put on Facebook. So I'm adding my Facebook highlights from last year to have them on the blog. Sorry that you've already seen this!

But don't you like the new look of the blog?  Look at me starting to catch up to all you cool peeps!

D - Snow! - Take 1

Well, it turns out that it only takes about 5 posts to catch up on a year's worth of family fun.  Hmmmmm.  I guess my life isn't all that exciting after all.  From here on out it's all downhill, so I guess I'll ramble on a little about the weather.  That's what you do when you have nothing else to talk about, right?

Well, it's cold here.  And I hate being cold.  I freeze all summer long because I'm not dressed appropriately for the frigid restaurant temperatures, so I actually somewhat look forward to winter when I can layer up.  What I don't EVER look forward to is snow.  I'm not like you fun moms who are out building snowmen and sledding with your children.  I just layer the clothes on my kiddos and watch them from the window.  "Ahhhhhhh.  Aren't they cute?," I say as I laugh at their antics.

But since Mike is a much more fun father than I am a mother, he took the kiddos out to play.  See?  Proof.

And my sister, too, is more fun than I.  She and her fam came down to play.  I hear tales of exciting snowball fights and snowmen.  More proof.

But this picture....

....that one there, really got to me.  It sparked a memory from long ago of another time when I was looking out the window, watching this same kid eat him a big ole' snowball.

This one.

How can that be?

And when I was searching the computer for that one, I stumbled on this one.

And this one, which proves I once was willing to brave the frigid temps to be a fun mom.

Which tells me that I may have it in me to do it again.  Maybe tomorrow I'll be more fun than I was last week...... or maybe I'll just stay inside with this chick who also doesn't like to layer up and we'll just eat us some brownies!

D - The Land, The Land

Having grown up in Ardmore on 60 acres, Mike has never quite been at home living in "town," watching his high-fallutin' cable tv and not having to hitch up the wagon to go to the store.  Oh, he's made due by fishing in our pond, catching crawdads in the creek, and photographing all kinds of wildlife that the rest of the people around here have no idea lives in their vicinity.  But there just seems to be something missing from his life.

Well, no more.  Back in November, the Fergusons and the Bosleys joined forces to buy 'em some land.  Ahhhh - the land, the land!

Here we are, signing our lives away.

 Our celebration picnic the next day

We each bought 5 acres and we plan on building on it sometime in the next couple of years. 

If you look REALLY closely, you can catch a peek of Lake Arcadia in this one.

 
And if you climb a tree in the winter, you can see it even better!

But Mary and Neil have the real waterfront views around here.  Just take a look at their pond!

We have a lot of work to do to get this land the way we want it, and Mike has put us all to work.  This is how we have been spending our Saturdays this winter.

First, some fine dining in the back of the van,

followed by a lot of work.  Mike has the fun job of using his chain saw and pole saw to clear the mess from around all of the trees of any size.

I then have the pleasure of hauling all of the discarded limbs to a massive pile that we will eventually have to shred into mulch.  Fun!

The kids aren't immune to work either.  Oh, no!  Noah was so proud of downing his first tree.  You can tell by the sunlight that it took him an entire day to get this down with a hatchet.  He was pretty proud of his huge blister too.

And even our baby girl is hard at work.  She is an evergreen removal machine!

Once they earn their keep, they are allowed to have some fun.  They love to ride their bikes down the big hill.

And swing on the tire swing

Mike has Noah all set up to be a full-fledged country boy with his new bb gun and bow & arrow.

Even Katie is embracing the new life.

Like the fire pit she and Mike built?

Yes, the hillbill-ification of my family has begun.  But I'm not joining them.  Not yet.