Ugh, more winter

So I'm tired of it already. More snow, more being trapped in my house. Kyle missed the first 2 days of school this week because of his strep throat. Then he went back on Wed. for a regular day, and yesterday they let school out early because of weather. Today they had off for teacher in service but that got cancelled too. Rob was supposed to have "snippety-snip" surgery today which got postponed and Emma was supposed to spend the night with Grandma and Grandpa. So here we sit, bored, waiting for our satellite go go out again, getting tired of each other's company. We would have never survived back in the pioneer days. Our poorly constructed wagon would have never made it across the "mighty Mississip" and we all would have drown. We were born in the correct era, I think. ;)
Being cooped up did give me a chance to finish up some of my winter/snow scrapbook pages. It is good that I got them out of the way because now the thought of looking at snow makes me gag. Supposedly by next week we'll be in the 40's. I am so ready for spring!

Fever induced ramblings

I took Kyle to the doctor today and as it turns out, he has strep. He is on amoxicillan now and is sleeping. His fever spiked at around 103 degrees on Saturday night. He came into our room crying and told me that he had to throw up. I took him in the bathroom and sure enough, he puked. I took his temp and told him he could lay in my bed as long as he didn't puke in it. He laid down and I laid next to him. Rob went down to the couch. I had just fallen asleep when I awoke to have this crazy ass conversation:


Kyle: Kevin? (my nephew)
Kyle: Kevin?!
Me: Honey, it's Mommy, lay down
Kyle: Hi
Me: Hi, lay down and go to sleep
(a few minutes pass and I start to fall asleep again)
Kyle: (yelling in my face) You are invincible!!!!
Me: Jesus, Kyle! Shhhhhhh, lay down and go to sleep
Kyle: (still yelling)You are invincible!
Me: Kyle, hush. You are going to wake up your sister.
Kyle:(grabbing my arm and shaking it) Rrrrrroar, Grrrrrrr, Rrrrroar!
Me: SHHHHHHHHHHH! Stop that and lay down.
(another few minutes go by)
Kyle: (crying) Mommy?
Me: What, baby?
Kyle: If we go on a field trip, I don't want to go on any scary rides, ok?
Me: Ok honey, now lay down and go to sleep.


Of course the next morning he remembered none of it and thought it was hilarious when I relayed the story.

Lately

Today has some wacky weather in store for us. Freezing rain and snow, etc. Kyle's last basketball game is today followed by his end of season party. He stayed overnight with Grandma and Grandpa last night and they brought him back this morning with a cough and a fever. Those old people can't be trusted! ;) So now I'm hoping they will cancel his game because of weather because he can't play anyway and will miss his party. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. I've been checking the hot line number, but so far things are still a "go".
We recently found out that Emma got in to a new preschool in Ankeny for next year. We really have liked her preschool in Des Moines, but since she'll be going 3 days a week and that would be a lot of driving/killing time for me. Plus the Ankeny preschool is over $30 less per month for tuition. It will be nice to just drop her off and come home, too. We went and had a look around a couple of weeks ago and she just made herself at home. I know she'll miss her old friends, but hopefully some of the Ankeny preschool kids will be ones that she'll go to kindergarten with. She is pretty easy going as far as change is concerned so I think she'll be alright.
I went cropping last night with a couple of friends and although I was freezing my ass off all night, I did get everything done that I brought. I had a coupon too, so I got to do some shopping as well. Here are some pictures of finished pages. Valentine's party and Emma at tap dance:

Can't dead people just be buried already?!!!!

COLUMBIA, S.C. Anna Nicole Smith isn't the only dead celebrity who hasn't been buried. James Brown remains above ground, almost two months after he died of heart failure.

A dispute over Brown's estate and burial delayed a decision on the Godfather of Soul's final resting place.

But while a medical examiner says Smith's body is decomposing rapidly, a funeral director says Brown is looking good.

Experts say the reason for the difference is the conditions of the bodies. Brown was embalmed within a few hours of his death. Smith's body was refrigerated more than a week before being embalmed. Refrigeration creates moisture that contributes to decay.

Sloths!

Another funny SNL digital short:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LAZgcC3jgo

Taco Johns

So you know how when you go to Taco John's they take your order and then write your name down on the receipt to call later when your food is ready? I've done that kind of thing there and at other places a million times, so with a name like "Trish" they always think I said "Chris", so I always say "Trish, T-R-I-S-H". Every time I say that and usually it's fine. Well, yesterday I did that at Taco John's and as I'm waiting to hear my name, the manager lady yells out "Trash?". I walk over and say "Did you just call me 'Trash'?" She laughs all embarrassed and says "he wrote it" pointing to the guy who took my order. So there I was, staring at her with a "well you are the stupid bitch who said it out loud as if anyone really has the name Trash", look on my face. So she says she's really sorry and gives me a free potato oles coupon. The moral of the story is....being called "Trash" by Taco John's employees is worth roughly $2.

Valentine's Party

We had our Mom's group Valentine's party this past Sat. The kids had a great time. Kyle said his favorite part was playing Bingo. Go figure. ;) They decorated cookies, passed out Valentines, made treat bags and ate like little piggies. What's not to love? Here are some pictures:

M&M's

Our family as M&M's....I'm sure you can tell who is who:










www.becomeanmm.com

Ribbons and bows

I had recently begun attempting to make hair bows for Emma. I'd bought a bunch and thought "certainly I can do this myself". So I set out to do that and realized I have some sort of mental handicap when it comes to tying a bow. I could not figure it out! I tried over and over and it just wasn't right. So I went on Ebay and paid this chick $1.50 to send me step by step directions. It must have worked because I started making some. I took some old, nondescript bows and jazzed them up and made a few from scratch. I like to match Emma's hair bows to her clothes so this is going to be a fun new hobby. And it wasn't nearly as hard as I was making it for myself.

It's been awhile...

Almost a week since I've updated.....shame on me! Let's see, what's been going on? This weekend my mom came to visit. We took the kids to see "Arthur and the Invisibles" and it was a cute movie. Both kids liked it. It's been so damn cold lately that it's torture to even go outside. Kyle had a basketball game on Sat. and my mom got to see him play. Last night Emma had tap dance. Still no clue as to who is the "post its" person, but I'm still holding out hope that I'll figure it out. Then today Rob took the day off. We got our taxes done and he had a couple of doctor's appointments. We're getting a good refund, but not as much as I was hoping. No new laptop....awwwww :( Rob did have his consult with the urologist about his vasectomy. In only a few short weeks he'll be shootin' blanks! The look on his face was priceless when the doctor was describing the procedure. Of course, I was all smiles because it sounded like a drop in the bucket compared to all the child birthing/pregnancy/miscarriage stuff I had to endure. So I say "here are my husband's vas deferens...do your worst!"
I took some pictures of Emma while she was at tap, so here they are:

Happy Birthday to me

Yesterday was my 35th birthday. Sigh. I did get some nice gifts though. Some cool scrapbook stuff, a new bag, a cd I'd been wanting, etc. Also, Kyle made me the cutest/most hilarious damn card:


The "S is for sarcastic" part is my favorite. Does he know me or what?!
I had some friends over this past weekend for a day of scrapbooking and I wound up getting 17 pages done. Some long overdue things, like fall and football. Oh and some Christmas. Here are some of them:

Wojo

Wojo from Barney Miller (aka Max Gail) is on Days of Our Lives now. And not even a regular role, just a guest starring role. That is a major career slide, Woj.

Do you like good music.....do you like to dance?

Lately I've been going through a Billy Idol phase. Back in the day I LOVED Billy Idol. I had albums, posters all over the place and pretty much worshipped at the altar of the Idol. So to this day I still think it rocks. Anyway, my point is, I have found that it is physically impossible to sing along without doing the Billy Idol lip sneer. You know the one I mean:

I've made a conscious effort to not do it and pretty soon I'll find myself doing it again. It's a lost cause. I surrender to the power of the Idol! ;)

Post Its

Get this.....last night I took Emma to tap dance class. I dropped her off and as I was getting into my car I noticed the car next to me had a bunch of "post it" notes all over the rear passenger side window. I thought it was odd, so I looked a little closer. It was the window with the infant car seat. So I went around to the other side to see what the hell was on those post it notes that were "for baby's eyes only". Take a guess....that's right....inspirational messages. To a fucking baby. An illiterate, probably sleeping most of the car ride, couldn't give a shit less anyway, baby. "You are special" "You are loved" "God made you perfect" "You are the light of my life" Holy shit I was gagging. The unfortunate part was that there were too many classes going on to pinpoint whose car it was. Hopefully I'll figure it out because I've got to get a look at this nut job.

Half office/half scrap room

We decided to turn half of the office into a scrap space for me....and sometimes Emma. ;) So we bought some shelves and rearranged and here is the finished product:

Sledding

It warmed up enough today to take the kids sledding and snowboarding. We got kind of spoiled in Ames because across from our house was a huge hill to sled on and here it took some driving around to find a place that was adequate. The hill wasn't as big as we were used to, but this kids still had some fun.

It's beginning to look a lot like.....Valentine's day?

So we missed the boat on holiday coldness/winter/snow, but we've made up for it now. Here is what my lonely mailbox looked like yesterday morning before I took Kyle to school:

We had gotten a new/used snow blower over the summer and Rob used it yesterday morning and said it was a "beast". Unfortunately it snowed some more and blew a lot after he left so Emma and I had to go back out and shovel again before we could pick up Kyle from school. I didn't know the first thing about starting the snow blower so I used the shovel and got some cardio. ;) The nice thing about being "snowed in" was that I got to use my "new" scrapbook area and did 6 pages. I've also been using the hell out of stamps and that shit ton of 12x12 white paper I have. So good job, me.

Scrapbooking

I went scrapbooking last night with some friends at our local store. I got a few things done like Emma's birthday and some leftover Halloween.


I also moved my table into my office so now I can scrapbook at home conveniently with my stuff all right here. This has made Emma want to scrapbook with me. She calls it her "project":

Martin Mull

There is this art museum in the Quad Cities that Martin Mull, yes that Martin Mull.....Roseanne's gay boss, Sabrina the teenage witch's principal, Glad zipper bags spokesman. Anyway, apparently he facies himself an artist and donated some paintings to the museum to be auctioned off. The idea was that the museum would get all the profits. Check this shit out:


Fucking stick people. Stick people that look worse than my four year old could do. And the starting bid is $2000 per piece. Keep your day job, Martin.

Hmmmm, Let's see.....

What's been going on? Ummmmm, the kids went back to school, Kyle on Thursday, Emma on Friday.
I got all of my scrapbook pages in albums. I had something like 150 finished pages just sitting on my book shelf. So it took 4 albums and 4 refill packs to get them all put away. It's a nice feeling to get that done, but it was hard using my entire Michaels gift card on just boring old albums and refills.
I watched the series premier of "Dirt" last Tuesday in my Nip/Tuck time slot and I think it's going to be a good/raunchy/fun temporary replacement while I wait for Nip/Tuck to reappear.
We tried Z/Mariks noodle cafe in Clive and it was fantastic. Inexpensive, too. The meals are only about $5 to $6 and we had a buy one get one free coupon and kids eat free on Saturdays. Needless to say, we'll be going back on a Saturday.
Last night I watched Kill Bill volume 2 on TBS. My brother and I had gone to the theater to see it and we had rented it at one point, but I haven't seen it in awhile. The first one was necessary, obviously, but I like the second one better. I like to say "wakey wakey, eggs and bakey" when I wake my kids up in the morning.;) And I especially love when the 2 amazons are fighting in the trailer and Uma snatches Daryl's eye right out of the socket...then drops it on the floor and squishes it with her giant amazon foot.
Speaking of Uma's amazon feet....we rented "My Super Ex-girlfriend" on New Year's Eve and although it's certainly not the greatest movie, it was mildly humorous. At one point another character says to her "what are you going to do, kick me with your giant feet?!". I laughed so hard.

Ice skating

We've decided that we need to make our own wintery type activities as Mother Nature is not helping us out, so I took the kids ice skating today. They opened up a new rink in downtown Des Moines and it was small and cute and really was geared towards the non-skater. There was a grab bar all the way around and it might have been because it was about 45 degrees, but the ice wasn't super hard so you kind of got your grip a little easier. Last winter I took Emma to the ISU hockey arena and we fell down constantly, but today I didn't fall once. And I know it's not because I'm getting any better. ;) So here are the customary highlight photos:

SNOW!

I didn't think we'd see any for awhile considering that in the past week it's been in the 40's and 50's, but last night we got some. The kids took advantage and were out for a couple of hours this morning before it all melts away.