Loooong Christmas Lists

This blog is for family mostly, who will possibly be interested in what to get the kids for Christmas this year. Ian (who is 4 years old) has the list that's 5 miles long after seeing the Target catalog. He wants everything from page 4 to page 27. Including the toys that are for ages 8+. "I a big boy," he insists. But seriously, he is very much into Hot Wheels and wants a race track. The kind where you really race the cars. He also loves volcanoes. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but he always adds that in. He really really wants another pair of cowboy boots, having outgrown the last ones, much to his dismay. He likes books and PlayDoh like it's going out of style. He also wants a Leapster (cha-ching!) and about 47 games that go with it. We'll see if any miracles happen. He also wants his own digital camera, but now he's really starting to get into the land of fantasy.

Erin is 1. She doesn't care. But she does need a little bookshelf for her room to hold all of her books (plus the ones that Ian feels he has outgrown, yet still goes back to read in her room). She also needs a girly type rug for that hardwood floor next to her crib. She could also use some dresses for church (size 18-24 months), but remember it is really cold here. She also loves bath toys, books and music with any kind of singing. And stealing everyone else's cup for a sneaky drink before she is discovered. She likes to play with kitchen stuff too and she likes to color. She also plays with Ian's toys when he's not looking, so she is pretty diverse.

Has that helped anyone??

A Crazy Week

I have been absent from Blog World for the past week because several things have happened this week that have required my attention. So far, I have done 78 loads of laundry, yet still have piles of dirty in the laundry area. I also made a pecan pie, which was wonderful, but now we are all pecan-ed out. Erin is sick again, so she's been back and forth to the doctor trying to get rid of whatever it is that's making her wheeze, cough, phlegm up and have diarrhea. We have been on the nebulizer, breathing in smoke for 4 fours a day (+nights) ever since. Sigh. The diarrhea is now going even stronger (no pun intended, he he) because she was put on a z-pack, which kills good bacteria too, so we are eating a lot of Gogurt. I also set the house on fire, by way of our natural gas heater. So I've been cleaning smoke residue off of everything ever since. And we had to get a new heater, because the old one was pretty crisped.
I'm not sure I want to get into all that right now, but just for my peace of mind, can everyone make sure their smoke alarms are still working? Just for me?? Because I had both kids in the tub and I wouldn't have known about the fire in time if ours hadn't been working so well. I got both naked-but-towel-wrapped kids outside and into the car (it was 30 degrees out!), called 911, eventually got the fire department there, got Buddy out of the house and the Jeep backed into the driveway across the street. I was very grateful that I at least had diapers and sweatpants in the diaper bag. After a lot of commotion, we were let back into the house, where it got to air out a lot more. Then the cleanup started, as well as shopping for a new heater, which was financed by God with the option of low interest payments.
And we have company coming in 2 days!
Then Ian got the cough from Erin, which makes him throw up every time he bends over. So we had a lot of that. But he can keep everything down just fine as long as he doesn't cough within 10 minutes of eating anything. So...yeah. Ew.

Add a couple of sleepless nights, mess mess mess, bug bombing because the smoke was some sort of attractant to every bug still alive after the last frost.
And there is a renegade cat (whose name should be Heathcliff) in the neighborhood who is targeting our trash cans and taking great delight in stringing it out all over our porch.
And Berry ate our $30 waterhose. It is in small pieces all over the yard still. Sigh.
And we got an unexpected bill that made our eyes bug out a little (ah-OOOga). [Think Roger Rabbit]
Ian is now on Thanksgiving Break. No school all week long, which I'm happy about, for his sake. We still have homework, but that's okay, he missed school because of his gag reflex, so we can catch up on our reading no problem.
How come these things pile up right before family comes to visit???

Not School Again!

Just read the title in a whiny voice and you'll get what I've been hearing from Ian. We really need to start getting to bed earlier. Like at 7. Erin has been sick again. More Reactive Airway stuff and a cold with it. So she is wheezing and coughing a lot and is attached to the nebulizer even more now that the PA-C is doubling her Pulmacort. And if she's wheezing, it's best to do the Albuterol before the Pulmacort, so that's at least 20 minutes of holding a squirming, energetic curly-haired noodle while trying to get her to breathe smoke. And Someone deposited a Goldfish cracker into the nebulizer's mouthpiece and I didn't notice it right away, resulting in a soggy extraction and a multitude of giggles and ewws from both offspring. That case remains unsolved, though both suspects are under surveillance.

So I've been getting up in the night to do neb treatments. And Erin's lava lamp bulb blew, so I've been lighting tealights. And her heater fried itself last night. Poor Erin is having a rough few days. It was another 3 hour trip to the doctor, too, yesterday. Our appt was for 8:15. They called our name at 9-something. We got home at 11-something. By now I can do it myself. I just wish the nurses would listen to me when I tell them to do her pulse/ox. (We watch her O2 levels when she's sick to make sure she's getting enough oxygen. Yesterday was 95, not too bad, but bad enough to where we had to do a breathing treatment in the office, which would have been irrelevant if they'd seen us at 8:15 and we'd have gone home and done it ourselves!) So we have a follow-up appt Thursday, where we will again go sit in that stupid empty office for hours. Anyway, I didn't mean to go into a diatribe about doctors.
Ian got reader #6 and can't quite seem to remember the bear's name, Tim. He keeps wanting to say Tang. Explanations are fruitless. This one is for the teacher.
We are down to the last week before our holiday visitors arrive. Yay! Ian already has extensive plans for the games they will play and the books they will read and how much time they will spend outside in the freezing temperatures looking for something to do (this is really killing time before you can bang on the door and ask for hot chocolate). We are especially looking forward to going hiking at Devil's Den. Except Elmo will be staying home and Erin will be in the carrier on a grown-up's back. Just to make all that clear. But in the meantime, it is a big toy.
And it's freezing outside! It was so cold this morning, in fact, that Ian opted to drive to school instead of riding his bike. Come on! It was only 28. We drove.
Erin and HC were still asleep so we left them home. And yet, when we walked in the school, I still saw kids wearing flip flops and short sleeved shirts around the school yard. I want to buy them all shoes and jackets. After a certain point (like,hm, below freezing?), the "I'm tough" coolness factor has dissolved and now it's "You poor thing!" I wonder if they would dress properly if they got more pity. We had hats and extra layers. We were the only ones wearing hats. But who cares? We were the only ones with warm ears.
As soon as everyone wakes up and gets moving, we're all going to do errands. Bank, post office, library pickup, get gas, GROCERY SHOPPING. This is exciting because it only happens twice a month. It is also exciting because we are completely out of tub butter, and I can't have toast this morning. Or popsicles. Shucks.
At least we have Ian's balloon hat to play with if we get bored. There was a guy at a table in the mall on Saturday (the last time I will EVER go to the city on a Saturday; I really mean it this time), making balloon creations for tips. We scrabbled for some change and Ian picked this out. He's a funny guy, isn't he. I thought for sure he would pick the sword and pirate hat. Not my litle guy. He wanted the silly hat. You gotta love him.

Suckers and Turtles

I'm being literal about the suckers. Erin has been losing half-eaten suckers around the house. You can follow the sticky trail, but you may not ever find that sucker.
And I have been leaving strings of caramel everywhere because I had some left over from the caramel apples I made yesterday. hehehe. Yeah. Remember that commercial about the "you are what you eat" and one guy had a donut with sprinkles around his waist? Another lady had huge sticky buns on her hips. Well, I think I'll just turn into a giant square of caramel because I can't stop. Oooooh. It's all buttery creamy chewy sweet and melt in your mouth. Ooooooh. Okay, I need to stop.
We've been picking up pecans from our backyard (there's a tree that overhangs the fence) and my HC has been cracking them. I go back over them and get the tiny shell pieces out of the wrinkles and creases (that sounds funny) and then put them in a quart sized freezer bag. So far we have 2!!! Pretty good for the backyard.
It is my goal to make turtles for Christmas. It's something my Gramma always used to do. There would be riots and fist fights, hair pulling and gnashing of teeth. Everyone guarded their tin under the tree and growled (I kid you not) at anyone who ventured too close. When the tins got home, it got worse. Family squabbles, petty disagreements and downright feuding occurred if anyone took one not allotted to them. And believe me, they were counted out, divided and hidden.
It was really close when a roommate filched one from my closet my freshman year of college. She'll never know how close she was having salt poured in her bed.
Anyway, Gramma stopped making them when our pecan supplier went home to heaven (my Great-Grandaddy, one of the best men I've ever known; I hope I have one-tenth of his knack for gardening). It's a lot different when you don't know someone with pecan trees. Some years they are $7 a pound (already shelled)! So Gramma stopped and the world wept. She tried to make it up by sending baklava. It worked. The masses were placated, but a secret part of us yearned for the gooey goodness of turtles. And baklava. And fried squash. (Hey, it's Christmas, right?) Anyway, I am taking my life into my own hands and deciding to make my own turtles. I figure as long as nothing gets burned, we should be able to salvage most of it. It will never be as good as Gramma's (nothing ever is. I miss your fried squash, Gramma! Mine never turns out as good), but at least we tried.

Labor of Love

Sunday afternoon, I decided to tackle the 2 pumpkins that had been sitting next to the heater for almost a week. I got a recipe for making your own pumpkin puree from the Pioneer Woman and decided to try it for myself, since we are pumpkin eaters and go through a big chunk of Libby's every year. When the pumpkins went on sale for 50 cents apiece after Halloween, I grabbed two.
Well, I didn't bake the pumpkin pieces quite long enough and they took Forever to puree. The motor on my processor got hot to the touch and started to smell like burnt plastic. Greeeeat. I still had two more pans of pumpkin to go. Each pan took over an hour to bake, so consider that as well. At 11 last night, I was still going at it, even though I only gave the processor a few short breaks to cool off. At about midnight, I put the last cupful of puree in a freezer baggie and plopped it in the freezer. Then it was cleanup time. No fun. Did you know that when pumpkin strings or seeds or pieces dry, it is like Gorilla Glue? It expands and sticks like freckles on a redhead (and I should know). Those suckers don't come off. Not even with harsh chemical agents (the pumpkin doesn't either, I tried). The pumpkin, as I found, does come off if you drown it in a puddle of water and let it soak. At least until your husband comes in with muddy boots. Then it's a whole other ballpark.
That being said, we now have enough pumpkin puree for about 8 pies. Or 16 pumpkin rolls. Mmm.
I was talking to a friend last night who asked me why I was going to all that bother. I didn't know what to say. The satisfaction of making it myself? The fact that I actually have an excuse to use my food processor? The triumph of finding a cheap pumpkin? Probably not, but it sounds good.
At least now I can say I made pumpkin pie from the gourd. Oh yeah. I even decided to document my progress, as you can see.
And pay no attention to the nasal aspirator in the one picture. It was clean out of the dishwasher and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. No, wait, I changed my mind. It was there to show the scale of the picture, right Rachel? Like those geologists do when they put a hammer or something next to a rock. So the nasal aspirator is there to show you how big pile of pumpkin skin is? Suuuure.
There. Witness my insanity. And all for a pumpkin pie that I probably won't even get to taste.

Tasks Long Undone

Today was a pretty busy day for me. I got some unlooked for motivation and tackled some tasks long undone. Those little things that you never seem to want to do, or want to do at the wrong times. Case in point. Today I took down all the curtains and washed them. And let me just say, the ones in the kitchen? Yuck. Seriously. Yuck. They've only been up for a year. Where did all that dust and greasy film come from? I think I'll stop before I make everyone think that my house is a cesspool of nastiness. Now it's a bit cleaner. I finished in time to get the kids' curtains on their windows before it got dark. Score! That took all day and was a complete pain in the butt to rehang all the curtains on those confounded curtain rods. No, I wasn't frustrated at all; I kept a cool head every time the curtains snagged on the rods and the rods bent while I was putting them up and the brackets came out of the wall. Even when I hung up curtains that were backwards or with mismatched curtains. Yeah. Cool head. Uh huh.
We also got some little details taken care of (translation: I reminded my HC constantly until he got out from in front of the computer and got it done). We got the portable AC out of Erin's room, since it was 45 outside at 2pm. I guess we figured we didn't need it anymore. And it was a great way to get window shut all the way and the cardboard blocker thing above the AC vent tube out of the picture. And we got a couple more things hung up. And some trim put back on in the kitchen that was never reinstalled after we got the dishwasher. Someone put the whole 8 feet of it on top of a curtain rod and forgot about it. There were nails still in it. I found it rather quickly when I was taking the dirty curtains down. Yup.
I also got the last of the little baby toys and burp cloths packed away so I can quit shifting them from one side of Erin's room to the other. Still have not gotten everyone's warm weather clothes squared away, but it might help if I had some boxes or something to store them in. The kids are really hard on those Tupperware storage boxes. Ian has the tendency to jump up and down on them or play fort in them until they get cracks and get a blowout.
The kids got up superearly this morning (Erin was up at 6:30), so I was kind of tired while waiting for the last load of curtains to dry. I lay down for a couple of minutes and didn't wake up until it was time for my HC to get ready for work (work was at 6 tonight!). No clue how I managed to fall asleep with all the racket and goings on. I guess I must have found my earplugs in my sleep and put them in, because they were wedged in my ears when I woke up. Hm. When I woke up it was dusk, all cold and gray outside, so I rushed to put up the curtains.
It's supposed to be in the 20s tonight. I really need to find a box to put Ian's summer stuff in so he'll quit begging to wear his flip flops everywhere. He didn't feel like putting on warm clothes today, so I sent him in short sleeves, with one flip flop and one bare foot, out the door and down the driveway to see for himself what the weather was like. It started out nonchalant, but ended up with him hippity skipping his cold-toed way back to the door. He changed his mind about going outside.
Berry is moping because my HC's unit blew its transmission last night. Therefore, Berry can't go to work (no dogbox in the backseat). He is upset.
I made pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese icing. No one is eating it. So much for variety. I guess everyone just wants pumpkin pie until they get burnt out on it. Maybe I should have just made the caramel apples instead. They were supposed to be for Halloween, but we were in the hospital so it got put off.
Hark, I hear strange bumping noises and a large crash. Sounds like I need to go clean something else up.

Why?

I was just wondering earlier why Erin is so fascinated with yanking up shirts (particularly mine), driving her little finger into a belly button and digging it around. If you do it back to her, she yells like you're being really annoying and runs away. Why does Ian think it's hysterical to talk in a weird, high-pitched whiny voice and say things that don't make sense? Why does Buddy have the worst gas that has ever come from a living organism? Why does my HC play Mobster like it's his last link to humanity? Why can I still hear the loudspeaker from the last stupid football game of the season (why does the announcer have to keep shouting? He's already magnified 200x!)? Why do I keep baking cakes, cookies and other goodies when I know good and well I'll eat more than I should? Why am I blogging when I could be exercising?!
Sometimes you just gotta wonder.
Why do little girls look so stinking cute with little pigtails on top of their heads?
Awwwww.
It will be in the 30s tonight and we're going to have some frost. I think this time for sure is the start of cold weather. Maybe next week I'll start packing all our summer clothes away. Then Ian will quit dragging out his Wall-E pjs (tank top and shorts) whenever we turn the heaters on.
Of course, after he puts them on he stands in front of the heater and warms his parts like I made him put on the skimpy pjs. Sheesh.
Why am I so proud of myself for snagging a frozen turkey for 88 cents a pound? It is already marking time in the freezer. 3 weeks left. Oh yeah. Thanksgiving is also my HC's birthday. It's a good thing he really really likes pumpkin pie. My mom and step-dad are also coming for Thanksgiving. We have been marking the days on Ian's calendar. Ian is positive that he is the main attraction. I know he'll have a blast when they come to "his house." He gets the entire week of Thanksgiving off for "Thanksgiving Break." Even in college, we only got the Thurs and Fri off. Sheesh. It's 36 outside. Why am I eating a popsicle?
Some things are better off unknown.

Flushed Away

I know there's a movie by that title, I've seen it at the library, but I could never interest Ian in it.
Anyway, Erin has discovered the joys of the toilet. And has proceeded to drown choice items. I'm not sure of everything that has met its demise in the depths of the porcelain throne, but I know for certain that an entire roll of toilet paper drowned there. And today, something else. Something [sniff, sniff] terrible.
I had taken Ian to the doc's to get his flu shot, having been there this morning for Erin's 15 month checkup, now that she's finally better. I asked the nurse about Ian's flu shot and she said to just bring him in and they would do it. So I left Erin at home with HC and took him down to have it done. He cried and fussed and wailed. And that was before we even got out of the car.
After a bit of a wait, with me tapping my foot at the ticking clock (HC had to be at work at 4 and we were sitting there at 3:45), we were called in. The nurse, bless her little ole pea picking heart, asked me if we wanted the nasal injection instead of a shot. I asked Ian. "No SHOT?" he asked, impossible hope stamped on his little face, his eyes huge. "Nope," the nurse said, smiling, "all you have to do is tilt your head back and swallow. Can you do that?" "YES!" Ian said.
And it was done.
Then it was time to swing by and get Erin before the promised post-shot ice cream, which was still insisted upon even in the relieving absence of needles. I got home and ran inside. HC had a crestfallen doomsday look on his face. "She flushed it," he said pitifully. "Huh?" I said intelligently. "I wasn't watching her and then it was gone and it was stuck and--and--she flushed it," he finished weakly. "Huh?" I repeated. "I thought it was just a toy in there. She was standing there next to the toilet and I thought someone forgot to flush and I flushed it and it didn't go down and I thought it was a toy and so I reached my hand way up in there and felt it and it wasn't a toy! It was my PHONE!" I insist at this point that tears were about to start.
"Oh no!" was my reply. "I'm trying to dry it out," he said, holding up a ziplock baggy with the dismantled phone and about a cup of rice to soak up the moisture.
"I have to go to work. It was my fault, I wasn't watching her closely," he said sadly. Then we all left. Poor HC!! Now we'll all be careful about keeping the bathroom door closed.
In the meantime, he has found his old phone, the one that shuts off for no reason whenever you least expect it and has horrible speakers, where you can't tell what the other person is saying when you talk to them. But at least he's not missing any calls? Poor HC!
OH, and is anyone else completely weirded out by the time change? I feel like I'm late if I'm not starting supper at 4:30, when the sun is going down!

The Two Day Wonder

We've been sick so much, it seems like we'll never get back into our normal routine. Now that Erin is feeling better and Ian is only coughing a little bit, it was Mommy and Daddy's turn to wallow in the tissue box for a while. I've been sick for a couple of weeks anyway, just cold/throat infection type stuff. It eventually goes away if you take some ibuprofen and drink a lot. Chris got sick last Friday and it got worse. He lost his voice for about a day and a half and wheezed some. He used the kids' nebulizer (it's a purple train, I got a laugh out of it) since his gave up the ghost and felt a little better. He took something for his asthma and slept a lot (I wonder what that's like?) and voila! this morning, he feels great. So he had a 2 day wonderbug. And that's it. I, meanwhile, am still coughing, sniffling, sneezing and tripping (that part may be normal) my way through the rest of whatever it is I have still. This is starting to get alarming though, since we are almost completely out of tissues. I even went on an emergency run to the groceryt store and got 2 more boxes last week. This cannot keep up. Something needs to happen!!!
We managed to take down all the Halloween decorations (the spider had moved away for something waterfront) and only had to keep half of them for display in Ian's room. They mysteriously ended up in the trash can after bedtime tonight, so we'll see if he notices them missing.
Erin got rescheduled for her well baby appointment. It's her 15 month and includes more shots. These should be it for a while. She'll also be getting her flu shot; I had planned on the kids getting theirs anyway, but it was stressed that she get one because she is "high risk." Oh well, it doesn't make it any easier to get. My HC and I will be travelling to the health dept sometime in the future to get ours. Last year we were the only ones at his work that didn't get the flu and I don't plan on getting it this year. No way! We missed the free flu clinic here in town because we were in the hospital. Oh well.
Ian got his 3rd reader with 2 new words added on to the rest. Now it's "and" and "Baby". He seems to be having a hard time with And, but he read the whole reader twice with only 2 helps. I don't care how many helps he needs, he's still brilliant to me. Every kid should be brilliant to their parents. That's part of the job, right?? :D
At bedtime last night, Ian was afraid of owls, so I got some old ALL/Febreeze type spray and told him it said All on it because it was Owl Spray for All Owls. I sprayed it around his room where he told me the owls came and he slept just fine. Tonight I had to spray it in more places, but I think it's working. And he can smell the difference. It's a pretty good smell, not overpowering. If nothing else, his room will smell fresh instead of like little boy sweat and other mysterious odors.
Also on my agenda is menu planning for Thanksgiving dinner. My mom and step-dad are coming all the way from FL to get a taste of young family life. Partly because we're so much fun to be around and I think the other part is to appreciate the quiet life and spacious house they go back to when they've had their fill of sharing one bathroom with everyone and listening to constant night trains. As my grampa and I agree, no matter how great your visit or vacation is, there's no place like the home toilet.
But we are all looking forward to their visit. 21 days left, or so Ian's calendar says. My HC's birthday is also coming up. I am hoping to take him to the movies; a grown up movie; with just the two of us. We haven't been to a movie alone since before Erin was born. Another reason to be glad that Gramma and Papaw are coming to visit: babysitters!!! Woo-Ha!
Before I get too excited, I have to remember that it is still 3 weeks away and there are other things to do before then, like getting Ian off to school tomorrow. Erin is still not adjusted to the time change, so she will be wide awake at 6am. Yay.