Current Events....ARRRGGH!

My husband asked me this weekend if my class will be having a 20th reunion.  I said, it hasn't been that long...it's only been...

19 years.

GASP!

Nineteen years ago, I had a history teacher that required us to read "current events" to our class.  We had to read the newspaper, cut an article, and summarize it.  Every week.

That's a great reading strategy, by the way.  Summarizing.  I've been thinking about reading strategies a lot lately.  But that's something altogether different.

Anyone remember Current Events?  That's about all I do now, summarize, but I don't read the newspaper.  I check the weather app on my phone, I read Drudge a few times a week, and I check the local news station's "school closing" web page....before I even get out of bed. Because last week, I almost took them to school!  GASP AGAIN!  That's the extent of my current event reading these days because you know what's on TV?

PBS Kids and Netflix.  But back to current events.

• Our sweet baby niece was born Friday morning!  Little Miss T arrived safe and sound and didn't even give her mama a hard time about it.  What a good girl!  Hubs and I were able to snuggle her that evening and bring the new parents a meal already.  They all are home, doing well and staying warm.  The boys have met her and looked at her.  They don't seem too impressed.  
  
• My crown has been placed.  It was quite an ordeal and involved hours and tears and lots of local anesthesia, but I'm ok now.  It's big and white and shiny and so brand new that now all of my other teeth look grey in comparison.  Well, they are mostly grey because of all my fillings but my dentist and new hygienist both say I have nice teeth but I need to floss more.  Where have I heard that before? 
• C STILL has an ear infection.  You would never know it...his temp was 98.8 and his only symptom is that he didn't want to eat dinner.  Otherwise, he's running around, curls bouncing, calling, "C'mere!," waving his little hand until Hubs followed him to the couch where he cried, "book!" and made him read a book.  Such a funny kid!  So now he's on yet another antibiotic and has earned himself a referral to the ENT next month.  
• A dear old friend has produced the goods and we are now in possession of 4 pirate family costumes for Friday night.  One of them has been approved by the anti-costume child, a long sleeve T shirt screen printed with a pirate vest image.  So WHO has a whole family of pirate costumes?  Yours truly.  I've only to fashion some eye patches and headgear and we are...the pirates who don't do anything...we just stay at home, and lie around...and if you ask us to do anything, we'll just tell you...we don't do anything!  Okay, that's not really true, we are much too busy for our own good, but it's the only pirate song I can think of, from Veggietales.
• Hmm...what else?  I won't bother telling you how lousy the weather is because you all know, and I can't really complain because it's worse in MN...but it just feels like regular MN here, which is stinky because I was very quickly able to adjust to Michigan weather.  This is like a big fat slap in the face from Minnesota for leaving or something.  
• My yahoo email account has been hacked.  I don't think anyone of you got anything from me but I'm sorry if you did.  It's been a huge pain in the butt this week.  Don't get hacked. 

How Many Teeth Does a Pirate Princess Have?

Since I turned 36 in September, I've acquired my first pair of prescription lenses and broke a tooth, needing a crown.  And if you happen to be following the crown story, the temporary broke off on Day 10 and now I have an ugly stump in my mouth until next Monday.  When I'm getting ready for bed looking at me in my glasses, brushing my stumpy teeth, I'm like, GAH!  I'm so glad my husband met me and married me when I was young and thin and had all my teeth! Fourteen years later, I'm not sure he'd go for a blind, squishy, stumpy mess of a lady! 

And then today, this is just a perfect example of old people and technology...

I've been kind of avoiding Facebook the last few months, just because it's a big fat waste MY of time (not yours) and I don't give a flying flip WHAT princess a Disney quiz tells you you are.  Really?  For crying out that, that's just plain ridiculous. 

BUT now that I"m in need of a THIRD pirate costume for a preschool Family Pirate/Princess Dance next week, I thought I'd turn to my Facebook friends and see what may come of it.

I'm not even going to take C, otherwise I'd need a FOURTH baby pirate costume.  WHO has a whole family of pirate costumes?  The girl families are getting off easy here, lemmee tell ya.  Oh, wait, these people do....

This is what we will NOT look like next week.  But it is a really cute pirate family from Bing Images.

I just spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to post a post on Facebook.  Apparently it's changed again.  I have no idea how to post crazy things about my stumpy teeth and dire need for pirate clothing.  What will I do with my life?

So I can't post on Facebook anymore I guess. Not that it's a big deal.  N doesn't even WANT to wear a pirate costume, but what do I dress him in then?  Should I put him in the Halloween T-shirt that says, "This T shirt is my costume?"

Not such a bad idea now that I think of it....

He'd probably punch me in mouth trying to get him in a costume anyway, and break another tooth or put my eye out.  Then I'd be the princess wearing an eye patch.

I wonder which Disney princess THAT would be?

Her...yeah, that's the look I'm going for...

Well..... it IS an improvement over the stumpy mess look I described earlier.

(Sigh)

Happy Pig Day!

• Happy MLK Day. We celebrated by Hubs staying home, dropping M and N off at pre school, and noshing on breakfast at Pat N Jerry's with C. I totally get why the baby is spoiled. Because after the big kids are gone, mom and dad are like, one kid?! We can TOTALLY start going out to eat again! In MLK's honor, of course. I'm sure he would approve.
• Happy Birthday to my sister P! She's almost always had a three day weekend on her birthday, and today was an actual day off of work for her! Unlike Michigan, Texas does recognize MLK day, presumably because it's part of the south. However, it makes it almost impossible to get a birthday card to her on time. Sorry 'bout that, sis.
• Happy Pig Day! It's a children's book we borrowed from the library last week. N giggled all the way through it, and after a couple of readings, he could read those three words and shouted them out every time we came to them.  I am completely and totally in my element teaching my kids to read. I love, LOVE LOVE it. We go the library every week and check out all kinds of things, things they want, like Lego stories, things I want, like nonfiction and level one easy readers. Then we spend a half hour reading together on the couch after I put C down for his nap. It's my favorite part of the day.

Engineer in the Making

I need to start saving for college.

I have a little engineer on my hands.

Lego Master to be

N's assembled several Lego building sets since Christmas and he wants more.   I'm encouraging him to play with them now that they are built, and he does...but what he really wants to do is BUILD.

He received a small, 50 piece set from his teachers for a Christmas gift.  Since I'd already taught him how to read the directions - there are only pictures - he knew what to do.  I just sat next to him and turned the pages.

Now he's looking at the back of the Lego instruction books and examining all the sets he doesn't  have.  Great marketing, Lego.  I'm daily reminding him of all the wonderful Legos he already  has and that he needs to get really good at those first.

I'm not really surprised.  N has always been fascinated with how things work - his favorite for years has been automatic doors.  When he was two, we lost him at the MN Zoo...he'd gone all the way through the Tropics Trail back to the entrance (we were halfway through for those who know what I'm talking about) and was running through the doors.  Open, run, turn....wait...open, run, turn, wait.... I was  this close to a heart attack that day.

And daily, he is still in awe of light switches, gears, and machines. 

He spent a lot of time this summer examining the gears!

But his curiosity got him in a bit of trouble this week.

Unbeknownst to me, because he admitted doing it "a long time ago," yesterday morning....he turned off the refigerator.

I knew right away it was him once I discovered it.  C is too short and M doesn't give a rip about knobs or buttons.  Because if you turn it to off, the fridge light goes off and it makes a sound.  Then you turn it on, and it fires back on.  I can just picture him...turn...off...turn back...on.  Eureka! 

Everything was warm. The freezer was thawed.

Gah.

We had a little talk...I wasn't too hard on him, I think.  It's not like I've ever explicitly taught him about that little knob way above his head in the refrigerator and what it does and why we never touch it.

Now he knows, so hopefully history won't repeat itself.

I spent some time cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer, tossing and salvaging what I thought I could.  I don't schedule those types of cleanings, so when something like this happens, it's always a good time to clean.  

And tonight we are having a special dinner party serving up a bunch of the thawed goods. 

I'd like to think that one day he'll appreciate all my home cooking...the day he's eating ramen noodles studying engineering in college.

Now Back to Regular Programming....

Today we are back to "normal"

Normal weather: January in Michigan, 20's and overcast

Normal schedule: kids in preschool, Hubs traveling, me doing housework at home with C.

Normal kids: all seem healthy and behaving relatively well.

Normal me: broken tooth is temporarily fixed.  That last post was nutty because I was feeling pretty nutty and dreading that afternoon's dentist appointment which DID result in me needing a crown (boo hoo for me, right?)

I know this about myself, but on days like today it's so clear: I am a creature of habit and routine.  So are my kids.  We all enjoy a break but 3 weeks is way too long!  We were all coming a little bit unglued by the end of it; thank goodness for the Legos they got for Christmas.  I've built more Legos in the last two weeks than I have in my whole life, but I'm okay with that, really.  I kind of like them, actually.  My kids stay focused, relatively still and quiet, learning hand-eye coordination, reading skills, construction techniques...all kinds of good stuff. 

I'm happy to say that we are back to our regularly scheduled programming, which a change in our sports season.  M and N will be taking a Tumble Bears gymnastics class instead of swimming.  They are very excited about their first day tomorrow (last week's first day was cancelled due to weather). 

So am I!

This is Getting Ridiculous

No school again today.

And don't be all like, "you'll want to have your littles at home with you again someday."

Baloney.

No one wants to continue this Christmas Break, the one that began 22 days ago.  The one that contain(ed)

• 3 little boys, bored or sick with a cold for most of it.
• The Plague -the most vicious cold I/we've had in years, which gave C an ear infection.
• a broken molar
• 4 snow/bad weather days
• frozen water pipes for 3 days 
• at least a foot of snow
• missed garbage today at 8:05...Waste Management flew by at 50 MPH this morning and customer service is all like, "they can't even cross the street for safety reasons when they come back down your road to do the other side."  Really?  No one ELSE goes 50 mph down our street.  Only them.  
• A bedwetter.  Yep, I've got one.  

GRRRRR.

But I can't just quit typing there.  I have to be all positive to make you and me feel better about this. So here are some good things that happened in the last 3 weeks.

• We slept in our own beds during the holidays.  Pretty sure I've told you how awesome that is.
• My old electric blanket still works. Put it on the bed last night, which may be part of the reason I missed the garbage this morning because I was NOT about to climb out of that warm little nest to wake the kids with all my garbage gathering noise on a snow day.  No way.
• The Plauge has passed.  I got the worst of it, all that's left is C's ear re-check tomorrow, but I'm having some doubts after he was up crying for 1.5 hours last night.  Maybe that was part of the missed garbage, too.
• A 4 day visit to MN to attend a New Year's Eve wedding of an old friend and to visit others, and to get our hairs done and to take the twins to the MOA rides...they've been asking for months, "Where is our new Mall of America?"  (Um, there isn't one.)
• Some excellent news about our townhouse in MN.  Yes, we still own it, but perhaps not much longer.  Suffice it to say that news from 10:30 last night makes up for all of the above. I'll just have to keep that good news in mind all day because it is the only thing I really wanted for Christmas, something money couldn't buy...okay, someone ELSE'S money could, like a miraculous stranger who appeared to me last night...you get the drift. 

UPDATE: So the garbage man just came back going down the north side of the road.  I raced out there in the nick of time to drag the can across the street.  He said he had to go to the landfill already this morning and just picked a road to go down (and now that I think of it, ours is the most frequently plowed since the trucks are just a block away so it makes sense) and was nice and thanked me for walking the can across the street for him.  So I'm not such a jerk and neither is he.  Things are looking up.  Let's hope my broken tooth appointment this afternoon has such a pleasant surprise ending...

Longest Christmas Break Ever

 M and N's last day of school was Dec. 18 due to a snow day on the 20th...or ice day, whatever it was.  Then we had a full two week Christmas break...then when school was to start yesterday, we had another snow day, and when gymnastics was supposed to start, it was closed due to a cold weather day.  The wind chills ARE far below zero, so I wouldn't have been too happy to have taken them out in it, but...it's time to get back to business!  So here is our Longest Christmas break ever, in pictures. 

Christmas Eve with Hubs' family...M and N start the opening festivities

Me and C...I'm smiling even though I just broke a tooth.

Is there a worse time to break a tooth than Christmas Eve at 4:00? No, there is not.  Your dentist just closed and will remain closed for 6 days, when you learn your dentist is out for the entire week and you can't get an appointment for 9 more days.  That makes 15 days with a broken tooth.   Don't break a tooth on Christmas Eve, k?

C and his new choo choo!

All the girls!  Me and my two sisters in law and cousins

Me and mylove

Second Christmas Eve Party at my grandparents.   

Now that my kids are old enough to go to the bathroom and play with toys (ok, 2/3 can but it's a huge majority now) family gatherings like pictured above are a lot more fun because I can actually talk to people!  Not deeply, but still, I can speak entire sentences for minutes at a time.

Christmas morning we were up bright and early...see how dark it is out the window?  Santa made it, somehow, though we don't have a fireplace.  Though N got a real kick out of "Fireplace for your Home" on Netflix and made sure to put it on first thing in the morning!  

First Christmas morning in our own house!

Santa delivered the goods! 

 It took forever and a day but Santa delivered the elusive "medium size tow truck." Two weeks later is seems hardly touched, but he did it. 

Merry Christmas, M!

 Christmas Day was a flurry of wrapping paper and food at our house and then my in-laws'.  We had a great time and enjoyed spending the day with our families.  It's so much fun to be here in Michigan so we can be a part of everything and then at the end of the celebration, collapse into our own bed.  Nothing like it.

Broken tooth and coming down with the plague but still, I'm gorgeous.

I have more to say but C is biting my ankles hollering, "bee-cher! bee-cher! Dada! Dada!" and now he's on my lap slapping me and trying to type.  I think I need to go and ffill you in on the rest later. Happy New Year!  Oh, and this gift came in handy....

Hubs and Uncle D...guess what they got?

Happy New Year!

2013 Top Ten

1. Moving to MI, Feb.

2. C's first birthday, first party in our new house, May

3. M and N's 4th birthday, when M repeatedly declared, "this is the best day EVER!" May

4. Traverse City getaway for our 11th wedding anniversary, June

5. Renewing my teaching lisence, my one and only new year's resolution, May

6. Family vacation to Tawas...the twins keep asking when we are going back to the beach to pick blueberries, August.

7. Uncle D and Aunt J's wedding, moving, and baby shower. We are so glad to be here to be a part of it all year!

8. Sleeping in our own beds during the holidays, not stressing about flying standby to make it home for them!

9. Visiting MN to see our old friends, enjoying all the things we love about that state, last week.

10. M and N enjoying preschool, us enjoying them becoming independent big kids, this fall.

Looking forward to in 2014, in no particular order...

1. Birthday party season (April 30-June 27)

2. Missouri family vacation, July

3. Kindergarden, September

4. Fixing my tooth that broke eating a meatball Christmas Eve night, Wednesday 

5. Vacation Bible School, June

6. Warm weather to walk to the park again, ASAP!

7. Gymnastics lessons that start tomorrow if things are open in the severe wind chill that's predicted

8. T ball or swimming lessons, spring 

9. My siblings coming home for Christmas and me sleeping in my own bed!

10. Celebrating a dozen years with my love in June, maybe even at a London wedding?