Blog Changes

Hello everyone! Happy 2011! I hope you all had wonderful holidays and I promise to put up photos and videos from ours soon.

In the mean time, I added some features to the blog for fun. The first one is a Book Review page. Instead of doing reviews on the main blog, I'll be posting them on this page. You can also see what I've been reading (starting in 2011) at the very bottom of the blog on a book shelf called Shelfari (thanks to Ann for finding this one).

The other feature I added is a menu page. Every year, we try to make at least one new recipe a week - I have so many wonderful cook books and it's nice to try something new. Brent and I take turns picking, and I wanted to let you know what thought in case you wanted to try any of them.

I thought this would be a good change - let me know if you like it or if I should go back to putting that information in the main blog. Thanks!

Will's School Christmas

Will's been lucky enough in K4 to be able to go on field trips. For Christmas, they went downtown to the Hyatt for the Festival of Trees - different schools, businesses, and charities all decorate trees to put up at the Hyatt, and actually expanded this year to other locations downtown.


Since this was a walking field trip, I asked Mrs. Armstrong if Fi and I could come. She said, "Sure" and we went to Will's class Friday morning. I really liked the Christmas tree they made out of picture plates, so I had to take a picture.

Each parent had two children, which was nice - Will's friend Jackson was with us. We had a lot of fun wandering around looking at trees. The class even found the tree our school decorated and the ornaments that our class made - it was very cute and everyone actually sat still for a picture in front of it.

We were very fortunate that one of Will's friends, Elek's dad is the executive chef at the Hyatt. He reserved a small room for us and made wonderful hot chocolate, biscotti (for the adults) and rice crispy treats and HUGE chocolate chip cookies (for the kids). It was such a nice treat for everyone. He ended by giving each child a measuring tape with a level in it - such a hit with all the kids.

We headed back to school and I ran into my first snafu with bringing Fi to events. Will and Jackson were walking through the leaves, making crunching noises and Fi wanted to do it too. Unfortunately, she walks WAY slower than the boys do, and the class was coming up to a cross walk at a busy street. I wanted to catch up to the boys (we were the caboose, as Will said), so I grabbed up Fi and caught up, with her screaming all the way. We were a little ways down the street when a car drove up to me and told me she had lost her shoe in the cross-walk. I made sure Will and Jackson caught up to the rest of the class (thanks to Elek's mom, Poppy, for helping them get back to school) and ran back with her to get the shoe. It didn't get run over and was fine - thank goodness.

When we picked Will up at the end of the day, I asked him if he had fun. He told me, "Daddy could be a chef, right?" Smiling, I said, "Sure," thinking that Brent doesn't cook at all. Will then followed up and said,"Yeah, he could take out the garbage." I laughed and said, "Yes, he definitely can do that." :)

This past Wednesday was Will's Christmas party for his classroom. Again, the teachers were kind enough to include Sofia. We had ice cream, cupcakes, and juice - yum! And, we made ornaments, which was a very cute craft and kept the kids busy.

The most wonderful story though was when Fi and I walked into the room. Will turned around and told his friend, Jack (very popular name in this class), "That's my sister, Sofia. Isn't she beautiful?" My heart just melted and he earned about a billion points with Santa - he really is a sweet boy.

Unfortunately, Greenville had rain and cold temps so school was canceled for the Christmas program - it wasn't icy but the south doesn't deal well with any potential ice or snow. Also, unfortunately, we had already gotten dressed up and to school before we found out it was closed. To make up for it, we all went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. :)

All in all, Will had a great Christmas season at school. We know the rest of the holiday will be just as awesome.

Christmas Fun in Greenville

We decorated for Christmas in South Carolina - and I did it with just a fleece! :) Such a change from putting up lights with a heavy coat, boots, and gloves. And, I was happy to see that almost everything made it through over a year in storage without any issue (I was a little concerned). It was really nice to have the inside of the house decorated this year too - it just really helped get us all in the mood and it was really nice to tell the kids stories about all the ornaments and remember the stories behind them.

After decorating, the kids and I (Brent was on his way back from China) joined the Bries' family (Andy, Tara, Cooper, and Ali) for the annual Greenville Christmas parade. I wasn't expecting much but thought it would still be something fun to see. And, while we still needed hats and gloves, it wasn't that bad (I'm really getting used to winter down south).

There were a ton of bands and wonderful floats; there was an airplane (to promote the airport), some monster trucks, several dance teams, and some fire engines (a total hit with Cooper and Will).

There were even a couple of train floats - again, huge hit with Cooper and Will. Sofia liked seeing Santa and Mrs. Claus, and the Chick-Fil-A cow. After the parade, we went to the airport to get Brent, and told him all about the parade. We had a great time and look forward to sharing it next year with Daddy!

More Christmas Fun in Greenville

We actually managed to play in the snow in South Carolina! :) On Tuesday the 14th, Tara, Cooper, Ali, Will, Fi, and I went to George's Day with Santa (George is the little train we have at this great park we have called the Pavilion).

Unfortunately, it was too cold for George to come out of his shed, but we still had an awesome time. The first thing we did was play on the snow on the ice rink at the Pavilion - the Zamboni had made two huge piles of snow in the middle of the rink for the kids to play in. All the kids threw snowballs at Tara and I (and each other - we had to remind them not to get Ali) and then they decided to make snow angels (even Ali got in on it).

After snow angels, Will and Fi decided to take a ride in the sled. The nice guy pushed all the kids around the ice and they all had a blast.

Then, Santa came skating! :) Will hid behind my legs (despite a bribe I tried to use to get him to stand next to Santa) but Fi went right up to him and gave him a big hug. Yea!

After our fun on the ice (it was only open from 10:30 to 11), we headed over to the bouncy house area. It's so much fun - there are 7 or 8 bouncy things for the kids (and adults!) and Will and Fi always have so much fun in there. They were totally ready to attack it! Cooper's a little shy, but after playing with Tara and Ali, and seeing Will and Fi running around, he got into it. It was so, so cute when Will took his hand and helped him go through the maze. Cooper wouldn't go up the climb to the slide though - maybe next time! :)

After an hour in the bouncy area (yup - a whole hour - they were so sweaty!), we went upstairs for a snack and some juice. Santa was up by the tree, but the kids didn't want anything to do with him. Will and Cooper hid, Fi waved, and Ali looked for a minute before starting to cry (it was funny-cute). Then, we had potato chips, M&Ms, a cookie, and Hersey kisses.

When we were done with snacks, we got in line for our balloons. The Balloon Man was in rare form - he was making all kinds of cool things. Cooper decided he wanted a Rudolph hat (so, so cute!) and Fi wanted a ballerina (which the Man even put on a stick so the ballerina could "dance" - so fun!). Will asked for a trumpet - unfortunately, the Balloon Man had been working for 4 hours at this point and said that while he could make a trumpet, it would just take too long. So, Will picked a sword - which also doubled as a guitar, a tuba, a trumpet, and a trombone.

We had an awesome day and were totally tuckered out when we got home. We're really glad we got to do it, and share it with Tara's family. We hope to do it again next year!

Little Miss Independent

Sofia has a mind of her own, and wants everything the way she wants it, when she wants it - ah, the terrible twos have totally hit. She screams and cries if you dare to do her car seat buckle and/or actually put the shoulder straps on instead of letting her do it herself. This is especially fun when we're running late for school (which we do most days). The same attitude goes for shoes and mittens (20 minutes of screaming for the mittens - a new record). Lately, she's started to do the same thing for clothes too (she will allow my suggestions if I think something doesn't match). At least getting dressed is minus the screaming.

One wonderful blessing has come out of her independent attitude. Saturday, she decided she wanted to wear "big girl" underwear, not Dora pull-ups. I said fine. She made it ALL DAY - including 2 hours or so at the parade downtown (where I was scared to death that she'd wet herself in the cold and I'd have no where to change her). The next day, she had several accidents but wouldn't go back to pull-ups. The past 2 days have been great - she's done a wonderful job and I'm beyond thrilled! I've told her if she makes it the rest of the week then she officially is a big girl and gets her Tinker Bell movie (the potty training reward/bribe we've been using all along).

So, good job my little strong-willed girl! I'm glad you decided this was a good time to get potty trained!

Basement Bummers

Most of you know that we have two houses - one in MI that we rent to great tenants and one in SC that we actually live in. Both houses have basements - the awesome basement was a big selling point for us in SC as most houses down south lack basements. While basements are a great way to get extra space, we've learned recently that they can also be a giant pain in the patookus (Barry's wonderful word).

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, our tenants called up and let us know that we had a new leak in the MI basement. Keep in mind that we had a small leak when they moved in which required a mold remediation company, special paint and patch for the wall, and new pad and carpet. So, hearing there was another leak just made my day - especially before the holiday as I wouldn't be able to get anyone in to look at it.

Then, my parents were planning on leaving SC the Monday after Thanksgiving. So, Sunday night, they were down in the basement getting ready. Dad took a shower and said the cats had peed on the steps as there were a couple of wet spots. Twenty minutes later, Mom went down for a shower and saw that the carpet was really, really wet and squishy. Dad and I went down there and it was a mess - the carpet all around the stairs and the "cat room" (really storage). We originally thought it was the bathroom, but after we looked around, we saw the pump under the stairs had stopped working and that's what caused the flooding. Good times. We spent the next two hours trying to get stuff sopped up with towels and moving the CDs and records from the other side of the stairs. Just what I wanted to do at 2 am!

The next morning, we all got up really early to call State Farm and get things going. They got a company out to the house by 11:30 (not as fast as I would have liked) and they just started ripping up carpet and padding. It was incredible how far the water had actually leaked - they had to rip out over half the great room carpet and half the spare room carpet. The plumber came and explained what had happened with our pump but said he couldn't get me a new one until the next day. Awesome!

After 3 days of fans and people coming in and out of my basement, there's a new pump (complete with an alarm!), things are finally sanitized and ready to be put back together. The baseboard guy and carpet guy have both measured, and I hope to have that all done before Xmas. The basement in MI is getting a waterproof system this coming Wednesday, so that should be all set as well.

I can't thank my parents enough for helping with the clean up in the am and for staying all of Monday and Tuesday morning here in SC. And, for getting the quotes and watching over the install in MI. I really, really appreciate it - it made everything so much easier and having Dad's handy advice makes me feel better with contractors. So, thank you Mom and Dad! I hope next year is completely uneventful (as far as basements are concerned).

Twas a Tantrum Night

Twas a night full of tantrums
And I could not retreat,
Though my children
Were screaming and kicking their feet.

Their once darling faces
Were colored bright red
While large, glistening teardrops
Fell onto their beds.

"She took my trains;
he messed up my dollies";
"I want to watch Thomas
Not Mr. Rodger's trolleys."

"NO MORE CARTOONS,"
said I with a shout.
Why, oh why
isn't Daddy about?

The poor man's in China,
jet-lagged and behind.
And I'm here in Carolina,
Losing my mind.

"Please, Will. Please Sofia."
"Please listen to me."
Mommy's sick and she's tired,
Just let me be.

"Go sit on the stairs;
NOT next to each other."
Two minutes for Fi,
and four for her brother.

"She pinched me;
He hit me."
The time-out's not working-
It's onto Plan B.

It's bedtime for all
Even if it's 6:30.
March upstairs for jammies,
Come on now, hurry!

On diapers, on bottoms, on tops, and on slippers
Now brush teeth and rinse them,
And quick into bed.

No stories tonight,
you've tried Mommy's patience.
Say your prayers, hug your sister,
a quick kiss on the head.

One hour later,
I creep back up the stairs,
Hoping and praying
you're both unaware.

You both are in dreamland
With angelic faces,
How could someone so sweet
Take so much patience?

I can't help but exclaim
As I turn out the light,
"Let's have a better day tomorrow,
And to all, a good night."