Flyin' Away

Ok, I have problems with inappropriate laughter. I tend to laugh at things that would be funny if you watched them in a movie, but aren't funny when they are happening to you or a friend in real life. I've laughed in pretty much every unacceptable situation - not because I'm so overcome with emotion and it just emerges as laughter. No, it's because usually in the middle of some type of nonfunny event something strikes me as funny. Maybe it wouldn't be that funny normally, but when you aren't supposed to laugh, or perhaps it's something that is a bit off color and you don't want people to realize that your mind is in the gutter (happens more often to me than I'd like to admit) - that is when I tend towards uncontrollable laughter. I'm talking tears in the eyes laughter. I would share some of those stories but it would take too long and I think they are usually better told in person.

I brought this up because of a little incident today that had me thinking - "what kind of mom am I to laugh at that?" I didn't think about it for too long because Matt was laughing as well and together we both can't be that bad! Actually just picturing it makes me start laughing again. Just a warning - like I said before, funny stories are usually funnier when told in person and I am not that good of a writer to do it justice - but I'll try. Set the bar low....

As we left church today Ella was clutching her precious bag of pretzels that she got after much begging and pleading from the vending machine (we meet in a YMCA and have to deal with the temptations offered in the vending machines outside our worship room). We were late to church so our car was parked pretty far away and Ella was walking along behind Matt and Catherine and I was about 20 feet behind them. Ella tripped on a speed bump and fell (no I didn't laugh at that - what kind of person do you think I am!?). She started to cry - understandably. The pretzels fell on the ground - not sure if which fall, the pretzels or hers, made her cry more. Matt stopped to help her and I tried to catch up. A big gust of wind (I'm talking big...) swept up and the pretzels and the bag start flying everywhere. This upset Ella more so she got up and started running after them. I was impressed and in that split second I thought "wow, Ella is running fast!". What I didn't realize until a second later was that, no Ella did not develop lightening fast speed, but the wind was so strong and so fast that it was making her practically fly - right into the side of a car about 8 feet in front of her. There it is. I laughed to the point of tears because my daughter ran/flew into a car. It was one of the times I wish I had a video camera somehow permamentally connected to my eyes. Ella was completely fine - upset about the pretzels and wanting the wind to go away, but she wasn't scarred by her parents' laughter.

Anyone else have the tendency to laugh when you shouldn't? Willing to share? Post it on your blog or leave a comment - we all need some laughs on a Monday morning!

The Carvers

Tonight we had some good quality family time. We've had a busy week so I thought it would be nice to have a relaxing evening at home. Dinner, not takeout or leftovers or PB&J, but something I had actually cooked tonight. Of course that was just for Matt and me, the kids just ate chicken nuggets! After dinner we carved pumpkins and baked Halloween cookies. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? What it looked like was this....

Ella was so worked up she couldn't sit still during dinner. She galloped back and forth between the kitchen and the family room all excited about a project that her and Matt had been working on earlier. I was barely able to get her to sit and eat. Catherine was fine, she decided she liked ketchup and spent most of the meal dipping and licking - probably a ratio of 10 dips to one nugget. After Ella shoved a few nuggets in her mouth we went outside to "pick" her pumpkin out of the four lined up on the porch. Of course, she wanted the biggest one. Matt was a little sad because he wanted the biggest one. But he agreed to share it with her. So we got all set up at the kitchen table and after cutting the top off, prepared to scoop. I had the video camera going to catch Ella's first time cleaning out a pumpkin. It was eventful. I think she touched one seed. We were able to get her to put her hand in the pumpkin to find a piece of candy we hid. Then she wanted to use a spoon - she said the pumpkin was yucky and cold. I don't know where she gets that. I am not a wuss around her. I regularly kill the dreaded stink bugs that prowl around her room without flinching (me, not the bugs - I imagine they might flinch a bit when I squash them) and only freak out when one lands on me (who wouldn't?). I clean up the gross messes that inevitably come with having young kids. Matt actually does all of the above and deals with the worst of the worst (no need to mention). But for some reason Ella can't help scoop out a pumpkin - too icky for her.

That pretty much ended her pumpkin experience. The next 1/2 hour or so was Matt trying to carve the pumpkin while I was trying to distract Ella by involving her in cookie making. The cookie making which was peeling the pre-cut cookie dough off the little sheet of dough and plopping it on a baking sheet. I thought something that easy would be doable with Ella - but I didn't count on Catherine hanging on me, trying to poke her head through my knees and waiting until I look down at her and say "hello!!!" (she laughs hysterically at this) - it made the whole balance thing a bit more difficult. So our family night ended up being different than I thought. I'm not sure why I thought cookies and pumpkin carving would be great activities to a 3 year old and one year old.

Oh, and after Matt carved his pumpkin and wasn't happy with the results, I decided to give it a try. It's been years since I've carved a pumpkin and started to regret my design after a bit, but it worked Tonight I'll get a picture of both pumpkins and you can guess who did which one and which one is better!

Update: I didn't get a chance to post this until Sunday and I still don't have a picture - it's been a busy weekend. I worked a catering job yesterday and didn't get home until 2:30am. As I was guzzling diet Coke at 12:30am to stay alert I kept reminding myself, Christmas money, Christmas money! Needless to say, I haven't gotten outside to get pumpkin pictures....

Just pics

I love how most people post pictures that go along with their blogs, but I just can never get it together so I figure I'll try and post new pictures every week - just because I like them - no funny story to go along with them.


This is Ella after getting into my makeup. I told her to repeat after me "I don't need makeup, I don't need makeup"...until you're old like mommy!








On a hayride at Merrymead Farm.














The look on her face just cracks me up.









Catherine got a chance to snuggle on the couch with Ella's doggy - probably one of maybe three times she's ever gotten to touch Ella's favorite stuffed animal. Only lasted about 30 seconds before Ella but a stop to it!

Stay tuned for more pictures next week!

There and Back Again...

No, we didn't go dragon slaying or on any big adventure like that, but we did make our way to Grove City College (mine and Matt's alma mater) for the first time in probably five years. We made the trip to Clearfield on Friday - it always seems to take forever because we usually take a long break for lunch (never intended to be long, but ends up like that - even at McDonalds or Wendy's). We left early the next morning for GCC, leaving the kids behind with my mom and dad because it was supposed to be cold and we figured they would have more fun staying back. Oh, but we almost didn't go at all. Friday night my mom went to the emergency room with some severe back/side pain that she described as "worse than labor". She went through three completely natural births, two of those being breech, and still claims that labor wasn't that bad. So her pain threshhold is highly respected amongst our family and we didn't doubt that something must be wrong. When she went to the hospital (because it was Friday night and her doctor wasn't around) we weren't sure if she would have to stay or not. If she did, we wouldn't subject my dad to the pure joy of watching both Ella and Catherine alone. We were debating taking one of the kids and leaving the other behind so that Matt and I could still play in our lacrosse and soccer alumni games. Basically we ended by being up very late that night waiting to hear what was going on with my mom before we decided. It ended up that she had a very severe UTI and was able to come with some medicine.

So thankfully she was fine and we were able to go with no problem. It was weird to be one of the oldest people playing in the alumni soccer game because I don't feel old at all. I just felt like the girls on the team just look young. Did I look that young in college? Probably. We hadn't been back to GCC since they have built a new student union center, new classrooms and apartments. In some ways it felt so normal to be there but when we visited the newer areas it felt like a totally different campus - no memories of these places, not what I picture when I remember college. It was neat and the new buildings are beautiful and really add to the campus. I can't go back and show my kids where Matt and I would talk between classes before we started dating. I can't go back and sit in the booth at the Gee and remember all the ice cream I used to eat for under a buck. So even though the changes are an improvement I felt a little sad.

I tried to add these pictures to the previous post but it just wouldn't work. Figured it's been awhile since I've posted any pictures of the girls.
This picture they are partaking in their favorite snack - the cheese stick! I love how they sat next to each other on their own - no prompting from mom or dad.








Here is Catherine, so happy that she could get into the grocery bags, find an apple, get it out of the bag and start chomping. I didn't realize until later that she took a tiny bit out of every apple. That's definitely something she learned from Ella.









My messy eater. Often times her food doubles as hair gel. It works suprisingly well!



We went on a hayride today and enjoyed some fall activities - hopefully I'll post some of those pictures later today, tonight, tomorrow....sometime!

Hodge-Podge

It's been awhile since I put any wise and thoughtful words out into the blog world. And it will be awhile longer. On my mind now are just random thoughts and stories

Microderm abrasion -
My mother in law bought me this cool little home microderm abrasion set. You pop this little spongy thingy on to little plastic thingamabob (looks like a electric razor without any razor) and dip the sponge in this gritty cream stuff (you would think I would know more about the things I'm putting on my face) push the on button and circulate it gently on your face. Good stuff. Last night I used it for the second time. It felt a little different than the time before. Not so soft - in fact it kind of hurt my forehead and afterwards my face was a little red. I tried to pop the sponge off to wash it and it wouldn't come off - I pulled and twisted and it wouldn't budge. Wanna know why? Because I hadn't bothered to attach the sponge at all - I just rubbed a gritty piece of plastic on my face - I can't wait to see how that helps diminish the appearance of fine lines and give my skin a radiant glow!

Doggie doo-doo-
Our dog Goldie runs away all the time. This is a newer development - she used to be very good with boundaries and we never needed a leash. Now she is always on a leash which has become quite a pain for us. It takes her so long to go to the bathroom and she never pees and poops in the same trip. Noooo....she milks as many trips out of it as she can. Today it was raining and Matt took her outside for the second time - about 10 minutes of running back and forth and sniffing and circling - nothing. She wanted to go back outside a few minutes after coming back in. We made her wait to make sure she really had to go. But again, nothing. Keep in mind it's cold and rainy and not fun for any of us to be outside with the dog. An hour and a half later I took the dog outside again. Goldie goes crazy - jumping around, whining, etc - when she needs to go out, so much so that you can't ignore it (plus she's been peeing in the basement, so we really don't ignore her). Yet it's been two hours and she still has not pooped! Again with the running back and forth and sniffing until finally.....success! As Goldie is squatting (sorry TMI) I look up and Matt, Ella and Catherine are all standing on the couch (not Matt, he can see out the window without standing) waving and cheering her on. Has any dog had such a celebrated poo?! I doubt it....

I can't believe I spent so much time writing about my dog.

My kids....
Everyone is healthy again except Catherine's nose is still runny so we follow her around with tissues. She still prefers crawling but stands on her own alot and talks lots of steps. I keep thinking that walking will make her less clingy so I keep praying she gets the hang of it soon. She is the biggest mama's girl ever. Even more so than Ella (perhaps my memory is a bit fuzzy though). Catherine would rather crawl on me, snuggle, give me kisses and be held than play with our toys. Cute, but it does get a bit old. In the last few weeks she started this growly like laugh that Matt and I love. Imagine a "hahaha" but with a growl to it. She has also become a very picky eater, and I don't know how to work with that at this age. I offer her all sorts of things and she isn't interested. Any ideas? We do lots of PB&J, macaroni and cheese, eggs, oatmeal, grilled cheese, any kind of fruit imagineable, avocado. That might be it. She's a jealous little girl - I think it goes along with the whole mama's girl thing. She gets upset when Matt hugs me or snuggles up to me, which he does often just to torment her. If Ella is in my lap (usually because she saw Catherine crawling over to me and ran over and beat her to it...sisterly love at 2 1/2 is something else) Catherine will crawl up onto my lap as well and then try to push Ella away. But she is doing so well when I have to leave her in nurseries for church and Bible study. Such a relief to know she's not screaming while I'm gone.

Ella. I could probably do a separate post on her. What's new with her? Her latest obsession is the movie Madagascar. We watch parts of it twice a day - it is the only thing she ever wants to watch. I really like the movie but I can barely stand to watch it anymore. She gets so excited about it - we have to skip over a few scary scenes - she always laughs when Alex the lion bites Marty the zebra on the butt. Great. The things she says are so funny - becoming very expressive - when I ask if she did something it's "yup, I sure did." Unfortunately that's not often the answer to "did you put your books away" but instead "Did you rub shampoo all over your clothes?". One of her favorite little things is the clean plate dance that Matt will do with her when she eats all her food. No one but Matt can do the clean plate dance. Great bonding time for daddy and daughter. Bedtime prayers are a trip. When I ask who she wants to pray for she thinks that she needs to say her name first. Sometimes she'll go through a list of people and then say "wait I forgot to say Ella first" and then start over. She always prays for Goldie and Pokey (my parent's dog). It goes like this - without fail- "...and Pokey and Goldie...they don't have hands...they have paws....so they can walk." I have no idea where that came from. But she says it every night- now without pausing - just a long run-on thought. Also she had an ear infection a few weeks ago and had to go on antibiotics - you know the bright pink kind! Most kids don't like medicine and parents have to fight to get them to take it. Not my Ella. She loves her pink medicine. She rubs her tummy in delight after she takes it and usually asks for it a couple of times a day. "No, Ella, you cannot have more medicine" Somehow I never anticipated saying that.

I could go on and on and I already have. So that's all for now.

Sick and tired...

...of being sick and tired. I live in a sick house. Matt was sick a week and a half ago - then the kids got it. The typical runny nose, sore throat, stuffy head thing. It hits all of us differently. Both the kids have been tired and taking long naps but then waking early in the morning (the last few days we've gotten back to our 8am wake up call). I've been feeling it since Tuesday. Sinus pressure, swollen glands, stuffed up nose. It hasn't been that bad except I still don't feel better and it's been a good five days. I'm used to one or two rough days and then waking up and feeling much better. I'm hopeful that tomorrow will be the day.

Of course I didn't get around to posting this until Monday - I started it on Sunday. Thankfully today I am feeling better. Not up to running yet, but I'll get there.

Also, an update....last Tuesday I decided to get up at 7am and do some stuff around the house before the kids got up. I actually felt good getting up - I always do better when I decide to get out of bed, rather than being forced to by my kids. But throughout the day I started feeling worse and worse and ended up being sick for a week. Hmmm....any connection???? Perhaps I will hold off on those early mornings for the sake of my health :) Seriously, I enjoyed getting up (It was just once I know) and once I start sleeping well again I think I'll start doing it a couple times a week. We'll see how it goes.

So I haven't been blogging much because I haven't had the energy and now I have to go work on my Bible study for tomorrow so my other thoughts will have to wait.