Shock & Awe & Wine & Cheese

The other day I posted about my killer wine headache that's to the amazing time we had out with friends Saturday night. Everyone who was there has emailed me saying that they had such a fun time seeing everyone and really enjoyed the resturant we went to and expecially the Corkscrew Wine & Cheese bar. We really did have alot of fun there.

I'm not sure if it was later Saturday night (since it's still kind of a blur) or sometime Sunday morning when the realization finally hit me that I believed we very obnoxiously, and very unintentionally, "dined and dashed" out of the wine bar. I could not recall paying for the meat and cheese sampler that I myself had requested, nor did I think I had even left a tip.

I had bought the first bottle of wine when we arrived, and because there was no where to sit at the time, I paid for it at the front counter and we drank it as we stood and mingled around the front of the bar checking out all the wine. Once we took our places on the big couch in the back, everyone else began taking turns buying bottles of wine and there for also paid for it at the front of the store as they grabbed it off the shelf. About an hour into our stay we had all decided that we needed more food. I don't actually think we were starving, but since we were drinking, eating seemed like the next logical thing to do, and so we did.

Once I had realized the horror of us possibly not paying, I called or emailed everyone that was with us to see if maybe they paid the bill unbeknownst to me. Because if they hadn't, I was going back to pay for it. Not only was I feeling completely guilty about it, but I was pretty certain that my husband and I were going to visit this place again and I couldn't imagine them seeing us walk in and thinking "There's the loud, obnoxious people who were here that one time and left without paying."

Everyone confirmed that the bill was not paid, at least by them. One of our single guy friends said he wouldn't go back. Another friend said, "I guess it was free." Hello people! Don't you believe in Karma? I had to go back.

Last night my husband and I drove back over to the wine bar and I walked in to see the young lady who was working that night behind the counter. She and another girl were working, but not the bartender who was working at the counter that night and rung up all our wine bills. I smiled and asked her if she remembered us from the other night, and she did, and I told her that I didn't think that we were giving a bill for our food, and I'd like to pay for it if no one had. Did she know if it had been paid for? She wasn't sure. I think she was surprised by the question and the fact that we were there.

I thought the girl standing next to her was going to hit the floor. She was truely shocked.

"You came back to pay the bill? Wow."

Neither one of them knew for sure if it was paid or not. The waitress we had said that she had saw the bartender bringing over our receipts to sign as we were ordering wine, so she assumed he had given us the bill. I told her that because I had talked to all of our friends and because they all said that they had not paid, I was going to pay for it. They insisted on giving us the "employee discount" for our honestly and we added a few bottles of wine to our bill, which they also gave us the discount for, and thanked us as they handed me the receipt. I looked at it and I said to the waitress:

"I suppose we didn't leave a tip either since we paid for everything at the front of the store and there's no place on this receipt to add a tip?"

She assured me that it was okay, and not to worry about it. But that bothered me as well. My husband had already walked outside (we had the two little guys with us and one more minute in there with them and we'd be paying for many broken bottle of wine) so I walked over to him and told him I needed $10 for a tip. He just shook his head and handed it over and I took it back in and gave it to the girl. Now I felt totally better about coming back to this place.

Some people might think I'm crazy for going back. I don't know if I'd go back into Wal-Mart and pay for a loaf of bread if they forgot to ring it up, but that's probably because I think Wal-Mart would survive without the $1.15 and chances are they would never know. So maybe it was selfish of me to go back because I thought they would remember that we didn't pay WHEN we do go back, even though it was an honest mistake. But alot of it has to do with Karma too. I think that what goes around comes around, and if I knowingly decided not to go back, I'd feel horrible about it and sooner or later it'd come back to bite me on the ass. :)

http://www.corkscrewwineandcheese.com/

Easter At Home

I'm sure we've all heard this saying before. What I like to refer to as those who show up for mass twice a year and take all the seats so those of us that go almost every week end up having to stand in the back of church the entire mass with our unruly kids. Maybe If we just left the house a bit earlier, we'd get a seat, but I still like to blame it on those "Twice-A-Year Catholics".

I've actually started to become what I call a "Twice-A-Year-Non-Catholic" and that's not really a good thing. The two days that I should be in church, Christmas and Easter, I'm home. It's starting to become more of a hassle trying to get two little kids ready and to church where they are just going to act crazy and be bouncing off the walls the whole time. I make a much better effort, actually not so much an effort, but I actually go, when we have family in town or when we have the older boys with us then when it's just Scott and I and the little boys. Neither one of us looks forward to how we think the two little guys are going to act in church. We run around all morning trying to make sure that they don't get their new Christmas or Easter outfits dirty. And let's face it, especially at Christmas when there's a house full of people and you're just completely drained by all the activities, I can barely pull myself out of bed on Christmas morning. I'm content to just lay there until the first kid finally wakes up and remembers that Santa was there.

Yesterday was one of these years where it was just Scott and I and the little guys. The older boys were with their mom. My mom had stayed the night with us because she had watched the boys the night before when we went out with friends (see previous post), which contributed a tiny bit to my not really feeling up to getting out of bed quiet so early that morning. Scott had to go into work Easter morning, so we were kind of up in the air as too when he'd be home and we could get to mass. I had already decided that my mother was insane for suggesting that she and I go with the kids. If they decided to be just the slightest bit out of control that would be enough.

The boys had decided to sleep in, and Scott actually was home at a pretty decent hour, so in all honesty if I would have just dragged my sorry butt out of bed BEFORE the boys got up and not WHEN they got up, I probably could have been ready to go to mass at 10:30, 11:00 or even noon, but we had other things to worry about. Like how the Easter bunny was a bit buzzed the night before and had planned to go to the store after dinner with friends to buy goodies for the Easter baskets, but didn't quiet make it there. So Easter bunny had to go to the store with a wine headache the next morning to buy goodies and groceries for Easter dinner. (On a side note all the Easter Candy was 50% off. BONUS!!) Good thing the boys really don't get the whole Easter bunny thing yet. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't yet introduced them to dying Easter eggs. I had fully intended to do that this year, but since I had the carpets cleaned this past week, I wasn't looking forward to anyone accidently spilling egg dye on the dining room floor. So we'll wait another year for that. Needless to say they had no idea that they were supposed to wake up and go running around looking for their Easter baskets. The fact that they had already gotten a basket at daycare, and from my friend and from grandma might have contributed to this as well. I'm sure they thought they had enough baskets and candy. I sure did. But the Easter Bunny did finally make an appearence later that morning, leaving a basket full of goodies for each of them on the front porch. Of course as soon as they ran out and got them and started going through all their fun stuff, Christian exclaimed with delight, "Thanks Mom!". And I told him, not mom, the Easter Bunny left those for you. To which he responded, "Okay. Thanks Mom!".

Note to self: To a better job of explaining Easter to the kids.

So our day was pretty much shot. Everything I had planned on doing, really didn't get done. We never really left the house. I had bought the boys new Easter outfits so I broke down and dressed them up just so I could at least take a picture and not it be a total waste. We did have a nice dinner, thanks to Scott cooking for us...I helped..but burned my hand on the oven, and pretty much gave up after that. My mom ate with us and my dad and step-mom stopped over later in the afternoon. It was a lazy Sunday spent at home, but with good food and good company. Just another Easter at home.

P.S. This is what happens when your husband gives your 2-yr-old and solid chocolate bunny:

Holy Hangover Batman!

I'm nursing a wine hangover this a.m. I am by no means a connaisseur of wine. In all honesty, I've never really been a fan of the stuff. But I'll have a few sips of it occationally, mostly when we are out. Never at home. I'm not the type of person that drinks wine at home with dinner, or at night to wind down. I'd rather have a beer.

Last night my husband and I and a group of my High School friends and their spouses went out to dinner. One of my best friends from school just got engaged, and she and her new fiance were going to be in town this weekend for Easter, so I thought it would be nice to get a group of our friends together for dinner that we are still in touch with. Nine of us went out last night to dinner at TASTE, which was very good food, but not very big portions, so we compensated by drinking alot more. (One of my friends husbands made the comment that he felt like he was on that Visa commercial where the get into the big fancy resturant and get served tiny little meals.)

We had a couple of bottle of white wine with dinner and then the majority of us decided since it was still early (8:00 p.m.) we'd walk across the parking lot to the Corkscrew Wine and Cheese company and eat and drink more.

I was feeling pretty happy at this point already and got really excited when we walked in the door and the first bottle of wine I saw was a red called "Bitch". For some reason all us girls found that to be extremely hilarious and we had to have that. All the ingredient on the back of the label were: "bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch....." You get the idea. Between the seven of us who decided to stick around, we took turns buying bottles of wine to share. Then we moved onto the cheese and meat trays. I can't even tell you what all we drank at this point other than they were all red and pretty much all tasted the same to me after a while. And they were doing down nice and fast.

We were loud and obnoxious and we had a blast. The place was packed when we got there and we closed it down. We were the last ones to leave, laughing our way out the door. Me with my empty souvenir bottle of "Bitch" in hand. What was left of the rest of the night is pretty much a blur, but that just consisted of the ride home and me passing out and going to bed.

This morning one of my friends called me to tell me that she's going to have to break down and paint her master bathroom now because the red wine stain on the wall where she got sick last night wasn't cleaning up very well. We just laughed. Thank God I didn't get sick. I can live with the minor headache all day, but I'm sure that if I would have gotten sick I would have sworn off of wine for the rest of my life which would be a shame. I think I might actually start to like the stuff.

Private vs Public

For many of you reading this, you'll surely know that my post today stemmed from a small discusion that was going on on another site. I could have gone on and on about my thoughts and feelings, but decided that I'd just come over here and maybe the topic would make for an interesting blog.

The questions that was posed was this: "What are your feelings on the private schools in this area?"

Many had responded. Everyone had an opinion. All had pros and cons.

The subject of private school comes up alot in our household. Scott and I were both "priviledged" to have had a catholic education. The reason that I put it in quotes is because I don't think he feels like it was a priviledge. We had very different experiences.

I grew up dirt poor in a so-so neighborhood and attended a catholic grade school with other poor catholic kids. The majority of us came to school every day on a school bus. Most of us, my sister and I included, qualified for free lunch. We had an average class size of maybe 20, and one classroom of every grade. The kids in my school were from all different backgrounds and races. We had a crappy little playground with a metal teeter-totter and a couple of swings and we played four-square or kick ball every day when we were outside for recess, and Bunco or Heads Up 7-Up, every time we had to stay inside for recess.

When I was in 5th grade, it was decided that two of the smaller catholic schools in poor parishes would be closed the next year and the students from those schools would either be sent to my school, or another poor catholic school a few miles away. Two other parishes whos schools had closed years before would also be joining with us and we'd essential become one school, with six parishes. Are school name was changed to All Saints, and if you ended up in my school you went to All Saints West, and if you ended up in the "other building", as we liked to call it, you went to All Saints East. Once a month all the students in both schools would meet at an "All School Mass" at one of the six parishes and spend the day with same grade counterparts from the "other building" and all was good.

Those of us who were privilegded enough to be able to go on to a Catholic High School, did, and those who weren't, didn't. Those of us who probably had a choice in the matter, but knew that it would be impossible for our single parents to afford to send us to a Catholic High School, even the "poor" Catholic High Schools, "decided" to opt for the Public High School; myself included.

My husband grew up in a different state, in a much smaller town where there were a couple different Catholic Grade Schools and one Catholic High School. If you were enrolled in catholic school, you were pretty lucky. There were poor catholic grade schools and there were not-so-poor catholic grade schools, but everyone ended up in the same high school regardless of your social status. Kids who's parents worked for the city, or the local grocery store were going to school with kids whos parents were judges and doctors. There was a distinct line between the rich kids and the not-so-rich kids, and that's about all that my husband has taken with him from that experience. He was "priviledged" enough to attend High School with a bunch of rich snotty kids.

So the debate always comes up in our house on whether or not our kids will be attending a Catholic school. For the most part, my husband had always been adamant that the boys would not go to a catholic school. Why waste the money? Why send them to a school with a bunch of rich stuck up kids? I always argue that they should get to experience the same education that we did, and he always argues back that he hated the education he got. Mostly he just hated the politics of it all.

My second argument alwasy comes down to the fact that his three older boys have all attended a Catholic school and why shouldn't our boys have the same opportunity? He can't really argue a whole lot about that with me. The older boys started in that school when he and his ex were still married, so it wasn't like it happened after the fact. He always argues back that he really didn't have a say in the matter. He doesn't think they are getting any better of an education there then they would be getting in a public school, and I can't really argue with that. Two of the three of them have had to have extra help in school and because the resourses weren't available to them at their school, one eventually moved over to the public school system where he is now an honor roll student.

Still, for me it's so important that I at least try to give my boys the opportunity if I can. I will say that the money is going to be an issue. We struggle now to make ends meet, and we honestly can't afford to help pay for the older boys education right now. I don't think the catholic school we plan on sending them to has free lunch, so I'm going to have to start saving up. Less shopping. More in the bank. :)

I think my husband has started to come around lately. He's not a huge fan of the school or some of the people there, but I think that's because he still thinks of it as being the same situation that he was in. Poor kid in rich school, but the older boys all loved it there, and so I think that makes a big difference. He even said to me the other day that it was a good thing that I'm leading a high school youth group through the parish because the fact if I'm involved in a parish activity coupled with the fact that we already have kids that attend the school, it will be easier for us to get our boys into the school there.

And if we are lucky enough, or I should say if our boys are lucky enough to end up being able to attend that school, I will make sure that they realize just how lucky they are. They are not there because we have the money to send them to a private school. They are not there because they are better then anyone else or because they are going to be smarter then anyone else. They are their because their parents worked their ass off to save money to get them into a school where they are going to receive a catholic education. Where they are going to learn about their faith and where they are going to learn christian values. Where they will get a good education, but if they screw up and don't take it seriously, then then will not be at that school the next year. They can't get just as good of an education in a public school, but they won't get the faith based education that I want them to have. And they will know from day one that it is a priviledge for them to be where they are.

8 Message Board Members Split Lottery Jackpot

I decided that this is going to be the headline when me and 7 other girls from "The Nest" win the powerball. Obviously the only people who win the big jackpots are groups of 8. Eight packing plant workers in Lincoln, Ne. Eight Women in the County Tax office in West Virginia.



The first seven girls from "The Nest" who read this blog and want in, are in. Leave me a comment so I know who you are.



I'll start collecting money once the jackpot reaches $200 mil again. LOL! :)

Everyone Needs Another Hole In Their Head

My 16-year-old step-son let his girlfriend pierce his ear.

My husband called me from at work yesterday afternoon while he and above mentioned kid were driving in the car.

Scott: "Hey, I'm putting you on Speaker. Blaine has something to tell you."
Blaine: "Hi Shannon. I let Ellen pierce my ear last night. But mom made me take it out."
Me: "With what?"
Blaine: "An earing."
Me: "Gross. Why didn't you just go some place and have it done the right way. Why'd your mom make you take it out?"
Blaine: "She didn't like it."
Scott: "I would have pulled it out if she didn't make him take it out."

He kept telling my husband that he wanted to get his ear pierced and my husband told him if he came home with an earing he was going to rip it out of his ear.

Last night when were laying in bed I bring up the earing thing again:

Me: "What's the big deal? He could have done something alot worse, and believe me, he's done worse."
Scott: "I know. I just don't like it. Blaine said 'See, Shannon didn't make a big deal about it like you and mom did. It's because she's younger and cooler then you guys.' "

:)

When all else fails, DVR it.

Can I just say that the DVR has to be one of the greatest inventions ever. That sounds so pathetic, but honestly, how else would I ever be able to watch TV. For instance; when I spent 2 hours at urgent care last Thursday, I was able to come home, put the kids to bed, and stay up until 11:00 p.m. watching that nights episode of LOST. Instead of having to run from room to room last night watching American Idol on one TV and Dancing with the Stars on another TV while at the same time trying to keep my two little ones from killing each other, I could just DVR both of them and still be able to keep my kids from killing each other and then just watch both of the shows later. It's a godsend.

Especially when the kids are trying to body-slam or do a choke hold on one another.

I can just simple say, "Boys, do you want to watch Elmo's Christmas Countdown?!" (because it's been on the DVR since December) and they stop trying to strangle each other and actually sit down for a few quiet, blissful minutes. Then again, they assume that every show they have ever wanted to watch can just magically appear on the TV at any given time. Which basically leads me to tape an episode of every show they do watch, and then we get to watch the same episode over and over and over again until it "accidently" gets deleted and Mommy has to explain how the TV is broke and the show has gone bye-bye...lets pick a new show to watch!!

My only other complaint is that when I actually have time to sit down and watch the show at its regularly scheduled time, I'm frustrated that I can't just fast forward through the commercials. Or of course when I'm DVRing two shows at once and it only lets you flip between the two channels your recording. Of course there is always a third show I have to see...like the other night when I just had to know if that cute little kid on Deal or No Deal was going to take the money and walk away even though he still had the million dollar case left. I had to go into the bedroom and watch that because I'm such a sucker for that show and I NEEDED to know what was going to happen. And I actually did have it set to DVR, but then my husband decided he needed to DVR a Minnesota Wild hockey game and he actually cancelled on of my recordings! The nerve.

I told him to get his own DVR for his "man cave" in the basement.

Wet floor + 3 year old = 2 plus hours at Urgent Care

Pretty self-explainitory. Four stitches to the right eye later and all is good. Christian is such a trooper. He actually didn't even realize he was hurt. After he fell, he stood up he annoucned:
"I'm okay dad!" and jumped back into the shower. It wasn't until a few seconds later when Scott walked over to peak at him through the shower door that he realized he was bleeding from the head. :)

We are no strangers to stitches. Every one of the five boys has had them now. The older three when they were little; before my time. My first experience was more nerve racking then this. Poor Noah had just turned 1 and was barely walking when Christian decided to push him from behind into the TV stand. He hit his eye on the corner of the table and split his eyebrow verically. That required 3 stitches to his little face two days before Halloween. If I hadn't already had a Tigger costume for him, I would have considered Frankenstein. :)

I had just left the house last night for a quick run to the mall, and hadn't even gotten half way through the parking lot when my phone rang and Scott was telling me I'd better come back home because Christian probably needed stitches. Scott had just put the boys into the shower together in our master bath and had walked into the bedroom to answer the phone when Christian decided he wanted to get out of the shower and turn on the track lighting above the shower for more light. He had made it to the light switch, but on his way back to the shower he slipped on the floor and fell flat on his face. As I mentioned above, it didn't phase him and wasn't until Scott walked over to see if he was okay back in the shower that he noticed he had split his eye, below the brow.

I actually debated on whether or not to take him in. It really didn't look that bad and wasn't bleeding by the time I got back home. I thought maybe we could just butterfly it up. I thought for sure it was too low on his eye for stitches. It is more on the eye lid then the eye brow, but after consulting with our nurse neighbor, who offered us liquid band-aid's, we figured it would take as much energy trying to hold him down to apply the liquid band-aid as it would to just hop in the car and take him to Urgent Care.

I explained to him what was going on.

Me: "We need to go to the Doctor's office so he can look at your owie.

Christian: "I slipped mom and got hurt. The Doctor will fix it?"

Me: "Yep, he'll fix it and it will be all better and you'll be a brave and good boy for him, okay?"

Christian: "Okay mom. He'll put a band-aid on? Can I bring him a BackYardigan Band-aid?"

Of course. So with our bright backyardigan band-aid in hand, He and I headed off to Urgent Care...us and every other kid in town it seemed like. :)

The place was packed. Mostly with sick babies, but there was one other girl who's fate had proved to be similar to Christian's. Not sure what exactly had happened to her, but she was sitting in the waiting room holding a towel to her chin. She came back out later, stiched and bandaged and off on her way.

Our entire stay lasted about two and a half hours. Much longer then I remember when we went to Clarkson West for Noah's incident. There we got in right away and he was papoosed (sp?) and numbed with a shot and stitched up in no time. He also screamed bloody murder the entire time he was there. Not because it hurt, but from being held down and then having a cloth placed over his head with just an opening over his wound so they could stitch it. Being only a year old I'm sure he was scared to death. He couldn't have understood what was going on, but was perfectly fine once he was freed from his bindings and handed off to us. Big smile on his face.

At Urgent Care there were no shots to the face to numb the area, which was a good thing. I was dreading that the most. At three years old, Christian is well aware of what's going on and I didn't want to have to tell him that he was being held down to get a shot to the face. In this case the nurses apply this gel to a cotton ball and they tape it to the wound and it does the numbing. I'm convinced that that has to be one of the best inventions ever. Only bad thing about it is that it takes longer to numb, and you have to apply it more then once to make sure it works properly, so that accounted for alot of our waiting around. We got called back to do his weight and check his temp, then sent back out to the waiting room to wait. They called us back again, this time to apply the first round of gel to numb. It took a little coaxing and finally a firm "push" to get Christian to lay down long enough for the nurse to apply the cotton ball with gel and tape it to his face, and then we were set back out to wait some more.

When they finally called us back again, we were pushing an hour and a half since we first arrived. We were taken this time to what I like to call the "operating room'. Where they actually do the stitching, and unlike the other friendly little rooms in the pedi office, this looks like the ER. Christian of course wanted to look in every drawer and touch every thing in the room. We finally got him to sit on the bed so the nurse could apply another round of gel. This time she brought back-up with her. Another nurse to help coax him into laying down so she could change the cotton. That went pretty well and then once again we were left to wait, this time in the room.

Good thing they had a TV. Bad thing is they were playing a DVD of Madagascar. We own the movie and the boys have probably watched it non-stop for the last three weeks. I was not happy to see that movie again and couldn't help thinking that instead of being at the Dr's office watching a cartoon about animals stranded on an island, I should be home watching the show I wait all week to see about people stranded on an island...and I'm not talking Survivor. :)

Our wait in this room wasn't nearly as long and when the nurse returned with the Dr finally, I have to admit my stomach was starting to flip. I was very nervous about how Christian was going to react and a part of me couldn't help but wonder if this numbing gel was really going to work. I thought for sure he would freak when they pulled out the papoose, but he allowed them to lay him down and strap him in with no problem. Probably because he could still see the TV and was engrossed in his movie. It took him a minute to realize that he was strapped down and couldn't move and that's when a bit of panic started to set in; for both of us. He kind of gave me a look like "What's the deal here, mom." and I reasured him he was being a very brave boy and all was going okay, but that didn't stop him from crying a bit and yelling a bit too.

"I gotta get out of here mom! I have to pee! I have to go home! Don't touch me! Stop touching me! I don't want to talk to you!"

He didn't feel a thing, but I think the fact that the nurse had to sit at his head and hold it steady for the Dr. freaked him out a bit. That coupled with the fact that he couldn't move his body just set him off a bit, as it would any kid. But he toughed it out and four stitches later, he was thanking the Dr. for helping him and even presented him with his Backyardigan Band-aid that he hadn't forgotten about.

So far so good. He didn't complain about any pain the rest of the night or this morning. He had a fresh band-aid on his eye this morning. A more neutral band-aid today as it's picure day at school, of course. :) And he even allowed me to take a few pictures of his "owie" today...I may need them for his scrapbook someday. He keeps telling me that he's sorry he slipped and fell, which I've reassured him is not his fault and that he doesn't need to be sorry. Mommy and Daddy are just glad he's okay.

Words, Words, Words

I'm obsessed with my wall words. I know this is totally random, but I love them and I want to put them up all over my house. Problem is I'm going to run out of walls to put them on. I just think they are so fun! I just want to change them all the time but that would be pointless since once they are stuck to the walls, you can take them off, but you can't put them back on.


That's just my random babble for today. :)

Tweezers, Please

Are the majority of children obsessed with sticking things up their nose? We never had an issue with Christian that I can remember. Other than his finger, I don't recall him every wanting to put something in his nose. Noah, on the other hand, is a different story.

Quite honestly the kid is obsessed with just sticking or putting anything on his face. It started out with stickers. He would peel them all off and stick them to his face. Then one day I gave him a granola bar while he was sitting at the kitchen table, turned my back for a minute and when I came back, he pulled tiny pieces of the bar apart and stuck them all over his face. A few weeks ago we were at a hockey game and I had brought some snacks along for the boys and had giving him a pack of "YoGo's", which look similar to Trix cereal, but are a little smaller. I look over at him and he has one in his ear and another coming out his nose. Thank God it was too big to shove all the way up his nostril, but I still had to yank it out. And he kept trying to stick them back it so I had to sit there and hand feed them to him to prevent him from trying to do it again.

Fast forward to the other night. My aunt was over to see the boys and they were getting ready for bed. They both wanted a snack, so I settled on something semi-healthy; fruit snacks. Now these particular ones are 100% fruit nuggets, Florida Naturals they are called, and come in this tiny little packet. They are pretty small, square shaped little chewy nuggets. Very good if I do say so myself. Anywho, both boys are giving their snacks in a little bowl, and off they went. A few minutes later, I hear Scott yell out to me in the living room to come in there. Noah is standing there pointing at his nose saying "Stuck, Dad, Stuck" and he's shaking his head. Scott looks at me and says "He stuck one of those snacks up his nose." And it was pretty high up there considering it's small and he probably stuck his finger up there and pushed it up more. He really doesn't understand yet how to blow his nose, and most often when I ask him to do it, he just sucks in instead of blowing out, so I figure now isn't a good time to as him to blow his nose, because he'll probably suck the thing up even farther. I wonder if he did would it have come out his mouth?

Are only choice is to hold him down and pull it out with a tweezer. The two of us are trying to hold him down on the bed and his arms and legs are head are just going all over the place. I have to call out to my aunt who is still in the living room to come in and help us. Scott has to hold down his head and the tweezers at the same time. I'm holding his arms down and my aunt is holding his legs down. It takes about two seconds for Scott to pull out the fruit snack and Noah is on his merry way...with out a snack for the night amid his protests.

Everybody Poops

I'm in the process of potty training two kids at once. Noah is just getting started. I've tried to put him on the potty a few times, but he immediately jumps off. He hasn't had any interest in it at all, but for the first time last night I actually got him to sit on there for a good 15 minutes. Granted, he didn't do anything....

Christian for the most part is potty trained, I guess. He doesn't wear a diaper anymore during the day, but I still put one on him at night. He hardly ever has an accident; especially when it comes to #1. But #2 is a whole nother story.

My mom bought him the book, "Everybody Poops" by Taro Gomi and Amanda Mayer Stinchecum. We gave it to him right when we started potty training, and he'd take it into the bathroom with him and he'd read it and do his thing. It only took him a few days of sitting on the potty before he was ready to stand up like a big boy to "peepee". But sitting to poop was, and is still an issue.

For the longest time he'd wait until bedtime when the diaper would go on to do his #2. Often he'd come into our room in the middle of the night asking to be changed. This went on for weeks at a time. And then he decided that he just wasn't going to poop anymore. He told me "I can't like to poop, mom." I spoke to his pediatrician about it and he said it's normal for some kids to have anxiety about it, but if we needed to we could give him a little something to make him go. I've been putting that off and have just resorted now to literally dragging him into the bathroom kicking and screaming and making him sit on the potty every other day until he goes. And that is just not a fun experience at all.

The first ten minutes or so consist of him sitting there crying, telling me that he doesn't like to poop. He isn't going to do it. And then I have to go and get the book. And we have to talk about everyone we know that poops. The conversation usually goes something like this:

"Mommy poops. Daddy poops. Grandma poops. Carol (daycare lady) poops. Mrs. Ritchie (his teacher) poops. Does Christian Poop?"
"Yes mom, I already pooped.".
"When did you poop? Today?"
"No..but I already did."
"But you need to poop today."
"I can't want to! I hate poop!"
"Noah Poops."
"Noah poops in his baby diaper."
"Do you poop in a baby diaper?"
"No, I'm a big boy."
"Well, big boys poop on the potty. Babies poop their pants."
"I'm not a baby! I'm a big boy!"
"Well, then you need to poop on the potty like a big boy."
"Don't talk to me mom! I can't like poop."

This generally goes on for another 10 mintues and then I leave the room and every once in awhile he'll scream at me from the bathroom that he hates poop, and then it will get really quiet for a minute or too and then all of the sudden:

"Mom! I did it!" And he'll have a big smile on his face. He's so proud of himself. The tears are all gone. He sits for a few more minutes until I'm sure he's done and it's like we've forgotten abou all the trama of the last 15 mintues. We wipe and flush and wash and he's off. And I think that wasn't so bad. Now he knows that every thing is okay and next time we won't have the drama...and next time rolls around and we start all over again..."Everbody Poops, Christian. It's okay....."

Juno

I have really been wanting to see this movie ever since it came out, and even more so after it got so much Oscer hype. I asked my husband if he'd like to go to the movies and he was game, until I told him what I wanted to see and he said, "That's fine. We'll go and you can see that and I'll be in another theater seeing something else." :( Not the response I was looking for.

I called up one of my Aunts and asked her if she'd like to join me, and she excepted. Said that she'd heard from another friend that it was good, so the two of us set out to see the movie together. We chose to meet at the Cinema Center, since it was an equal distance for us to travel to. Let me say, that I can't remember the last time I was in that theater...ages ago. We arrived about 15 minutes before the movie started and were two of the four people there. Eventually more showed up, but only a handful, so it was a pretty intimate crowd.

The movie gets right down to the point with the first scene, which was good. I wasn't really wanting to sit through a movie about awkwards teens having sex and I wasn't disapointed. Through out the movie, they do a few flash back scenes to the awkward sex, and it is quite amusing.

The entire cast is hilarious. Just the lines that come out of their mouths crack me up from the parents to the kids in the movie. I was a little disappointed in the Characters that Jennifer Garder and Jason Bateman, as the prospective adopted parents, play. She was too goody-goody, and he mad you think that he was going to be "badder" then he turned out to be, which was kind of disappointing to me. I was hoping he was going to cross the line at any minute.

All in All it was a wonderful film. Ellen Page was perfect as Juno. She really stole the show and I think did a wonderful job playing a 16 year old girl. She made it whole situation believable. The best scene by far to me came towards the end of the movie, after the birth of the baby. Without giving too much away, the scene with Juno and Paulie in the hospital. It was so moving. I even cried. :)

Letters From The Heart

Even though I said this blog was not just going to be about shopping, of course my first post is exactly about that in a way in at way. To get to the point of this story I have to start somewhere, and it all begins with an innocent trip to my favorite place: Target.

I went there for the sole purpose of buying eye make-up remover, but found myself browsing the electronics department, the toy aisles, the grocery side, and ended up somehow in the card section. What brought me there was the sudden realization that my husband and I were going to be hosting a small gathering of friends in the next few weeks and I needed to send out invitations. A friend of mine had just gotten engaged, and she and her fiance were coming to town and so I had decided that it would be a perfect opportunity to get a few of our old friends together for a little party in honor of them. And it's the perfect excuse to send out invites and have people over.

As I walked up and down the aisle looking at all the invitations, and thank you notes, and stationary I thought to myself how lovely it all was. So many different designs. So many fun colors. I just started adding random things to my cart. I never know when I'm going to need thank you cards, and since these are so cute, I'll just get them now. I couldn't decide on which invite to get. Too many to choose from and too cute to just narrow it down to one, so again several were added to my cart. I decided that we don't have nearly enough parties at our home. We should do that more often, and when we do, I'll need these invites.

My attention turned toward the stationary. Again, so many fun designs, complete with cute little matching envelopes to seal up your letters and send them off to that special someone who you are writting to. And then it hit me; When was the last time I actually wrote a letter?

I don't mean a thank you note, or an email. An actual letter, to someone, on a piece of paper, in an envelope, signed, sealed and stamped. I honestly couldn't remember. I mean, I've wrote letters at work on company letter head to a vendor cancelling service, or requesting changes to a contract, but that doesn't count.

I used to write all kinds of "letters" in high school to pass to my friends in the hall in passing. Does that count? Some of those notes were pages long...some took all day to write. But that's been over ten years ago, and most were not that meaningful.

My friend Gina loves to write letters. She is the type of person that not only writes you a lovely little note in every card she gives you, but she also loves to just sit down at her desk and write an honest to goodness letter to a friend. A friend that might live a block away. She could just as easily pick up the phone and give this person a call. She'll probably even see this person before the letter actually ends up in their mailbox, but that doesn't matter to her. She honestly believes that people enjoy opening their mail boxes and seeing a lovely letter addressed to them. And maybe she's right.

I had a pen pal when I was in grade school. A girl named Nicki that I met one year at summer camp. I was maybe twelve. She lived in Columbus, and we became pen pals. I honestly don't know how long we kept in touch. I don't think it was much longer then the end of that summer, but I always looked forward to getting her letter in the mail. I'd check for it every day. It was an obsession. We didn't have email then. I couldn't make long distance phone calls. All I had to look forward to was a letter from my friend to see how she was doing; to hear about what was going on in her life. I dont' think I've carried on a reletionship with anyone via mail since. And that actually makes me quite sad.

As a sit here staring at all the new stationary I bought, mezmerized by the fun colors and cute little designs, I wonder who can I write a letter to. Would someone find it odd to open their mailbox and see a letter from me? Just a random letter asking them how they are and what's going on in their life. Will they wonder "Why didn't she just pick up the phone? Or send me an email?" Will they think it's weird? A letter from the heart from me. Who would appreciate such a thing?

And of course the most obvious person comes to mind. Someone who would not find it odd at all. Someone who will truely appreciate it and not think twice about it. Who no doubt will actually cherish the letter and write one in return; Gina.