Glimmer Of Hope

I've always felt a little guilty that I moved 2 1/2 hours away from my family up in Chicago when I got married. Today I felt a little glimmer of hope that someone from my side of the family might eventually end up down here. My cousin, Julie drove down here to Peoria this morning to pick up an application for the Peoria Fire Department. She stopped by to visit and hung out with me and the babies for a few hours. I gave her the tour of the house and showed her what Ashley says would be Julie's room downstairs, until she could find her own place, if she gets hired and moves to Peoria. (Sorry, Mom.)

Let me just say that you are officially an adult when your 22 year old cousin comes to visit and you drive her around town in your minivan so she can buy birthday balloons for your 11 year old daughter, who also happens to be her God Daughter. I am so old!

She has a really good chance of being hired, though. She's pretty tough and can probably hold her own against any male firefighter. How funny would it be if the two of us both ended up in Peoria?

A Little Behind

I've just now realized that I've named all of my picture files on my computer as "2006". Is that sad since tomorrow starts March of 2007?

Happy Birthday, Ashley

Ashley had her second band concert at school tonight. It's amazing to see how much progress all of the kids have made since their first performance at the beginning of the school year.

She is officially eleven years old today. I can't believe how quickly time has passed and how mature she has become. In five years she'll be driving. (I think my heart may have skipped a couple of beats there.)

Happy Birthday, Ash!

A Riddle

Question: What's worse than being home with two cranky/teething/ear infection/runny nose babies?

Answer: Being home with two cranky/teething/ear infection/runny nose babies and a sick and cranky runny nosed husband.

Only because I'm just as much fun when I'm sick, right?

Running Out Of Time

Ashley's 11th birthday is on Tuesday and I haven't even started going through pictures for a video slide show for her like the one I did for Ryan's birthday. Oh, the guilt! I worked on his for a good month (back when I had tons of free time) and it turned out really well when I got the DVD copy in the mail. Ashley's is a different story. Out of eleven years, I have to go through 8 of those years worth of pictures and scan the ones I choose. (Only 3 years before digital for Ryan's.) Not an easy job. I guess we'll have to see what I can pull off in my limited free time. I already feel a headache starting.

Returned

I had to go from butt kicking mommy to soccer car mommy earlier this evening. No more hummer. Bummer.

Enterprise's Screw Up

If anyone needs us, the girls and I will be out off-roading in our Hummer today.

Today was my scheduled appointment to take my van back to the dealership AGAIN so they could straighten out the problem with the internal computer thingy. They had reserved a loaner for me, but Enterprise screwed up and loaned it to someone else. All they had left were Hummers. Darn. My OCD kicked in before I got home though, and I had to run it through the cheap car wash before I could settle down. The thing was so dirty I couldn't see out the windows and there was no washer fluid left. I've already had to change my clothes once because of all the filth that got all over me when I was trying to get the car seats in. We won't even talk about the condition of the interior. (Starts shivering and shaking.) I think I've got some extra towels and rubber gloves around here somewhere.

Okay, fine. I admit it. I went at the steering wheel and gear shifter with a Lysol wipe. I had to do it. I've had enough fevers, body aches and stuffy noses this winter already.

Swimming When It's Below Freezing

So what do you do when it's below freezing outside and the kids have been cooped up inside for too long? Well, you go swimming, of course! Yesterday afternoon was Brooke's birthday party at the RiverPlex. I cannot believe that she is 5 years old already. Time goes by way too fast. The kids had a blast and it seemed that swimming was just the thing to fix a dreary cold day full of boredom.

* * * *

Ashley, quite the babysitter, took care of Mitchell for most of the party.

Brooke takes on the lazy river and Mitchell holds on for dear life.

Ryan and Bret chill out in the lazy river, too.

Brooke says that it's "party time!"

Ash and Ryan wait patiently for cake and ice cream.

It Just Keeps On Coming

We got 4 more inches of blowing and drifting snow Friday night and Saturday morning.

* * * *

There's nothing like shoveling the street when your tax dollars are suppose to do it for you.

Ryan in the cornfields behind our neighborhood.

Snow Day Number Two

If the school bus doesn't come tomorrow, I will personally go get it and take the kids to school myself. Enough is enough. The kids are getting sick of each other and actually want to go back. I think I hear the house itself begging the kids to go back so it can purge itself of the numerous toys that have littered it's floor.

Here We Go Again

Is anyone else over this winter stuff just as much as I am? The kids were off of school today due to the snow that's been falling and blowing all over the place. How much has fallen? I don't know - too much! (My guess would be 6-8 inches, but it's hard to tell since it's blowing everywhere.)

Like an idiot, I kept my 9am appointment this morning at the car dealership because I was desperate to get my CD player to stop eating CD's and figured the Service Vehicle Soon message that kept showing up probably wasn't a good thing. The kids went over to Teri's today while I delt with that. Supposedly a few updated downloads later, the SVS message was taken care of and the monster spat my CD back out. We'll see about that - I'm not convinced. The drive home wasn't too bad but it was quickly getting worse outside.

Then Ashley decides she wants to go down the street to her friend's house to play, so being the nice mom that I am, I drove her. Despite Bret's advice that I not attempt to drive anywhere, I, the stubborn person that I can be, drove her down there and got stuck in the middle of the cul-de-sac right in front of her friend's house and had to be shoveled and pushed out. (While my daughter was wearing my boots because she left hers at school.)

My toes haven't warmed up yet, but we're now getting ready to head out to Bret's parent's house for my niece's birthday. And no, I am NOT crazy and going to go out there and drive in that again. Bret's brother is picking us up in his 4 wheel drive truck. So, if we get stuck - he can be the crazy one.

I guess it could be worse, like this! Whew.

How's About A Break?

They are saying that 6-8 inches of snow is predicted for tomorrow - on top of the 3-4 inches that we just got last week. Makes it pretty much impossible to go anywhere with two infants. (Guess that gives me an excuse to spend the day in my jammies, right?)

The kids don't have school tomorrow and Teri has to work, so I'll have 6 kids here tomorrow. I'll be sure to take some pictures of the pandemonium, including one of myself pulling my hair out. (Just kidding, Teri...LoL) Honestly though, it should be a fun and busy day, but I'll probably be in bed for the night by 6pm.

Future Hockey Player?

After viewing this video of Ryan on the ice yesterday, I'm not so sure he has much of a future in hockey.

Making The Most Of Winter

I'd much rather be sitting in the warm sun sipping Margarita's with my friends, but since that's not likely to happen soon, I took Ryan out to play in the snow with his friend in our neighborhood this afternoon instead.

Ashley missed out on some frozen creek stomping (and wipeouts) since she went over to a friend's house instead of braving the winter elements with us.

Isn't he a cutie?

Notice how far behind my friend and I were from her husband and our kids? We were the ones who were trying not to fall. It looked pretty painful when the kids did.


Maybe Bret and I will take both kids down there tomorrow. (There would be sure to be some really good camera footage from that since it's a much steeper climb down to the creek behind our house.)

How To Tell When Your Life Has Turned Crazy

1. You open your dishwasher at 7:30am to unload the clean dishes and at 3:15pm when your kids get home from school, the door is still open and half of the dishes are still in there.

2. You started laundry yesterday and the hamper is now filled higher today and the washer and dryer are still full. And you haven't even opened the laundry room door today.

3. You've changed one baby's dirty diaper (in your bedroom) 2 hours ago and when you go to change the other baby, you walk into your bedroom and faint from the smell. Yes, you forgot to dispose of the offensive diaper.

4. It's 6:30pm and you're wondering if it's too early to go to bed for the night. Even though the washer and dryer are still full.

5. All 3 or your readers keep telling you that you need to update your blog. And you can't think of a single thing to write.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be more organized.

Game Day

Go Bears !!!

Update: Wow. How very sad and disappointing. The bears didn't deserve to win with the way they played. Quite a big let down after the way they played during the first quarter.

Weekend To Do List

• Party at Cat & Tom's (ooh, the new TomCat?) house tonight.
• Attend friend's 30th surprise birthday party at Chuck E Cheese tomorrow. (And hope he doesn't read my blog. Wouldn't that suck?)
• Watch the Bear's kick some blue and white butt. (And the commercials, too).
• May or may not be a wee bit hung over on Monday. (Hubby is already planning on taking Monday off.)
• Regret the two brownies I ate today after spending an hour at Body Step at the gym this morning. (I spent four days there this week. Pretty good, huh?)

GO BEARS!!!

80"s Flashback

The kids have been participating in Spirit Week at school this week. They've worn crazy socks and clothing with their favorite sports teams on it. Guess what today is? Dressing from an era from the 50's to the 80's. Thanks to Kelly, Ashley is all decked out as an 80's child today. Totally awesome, dude.

I think we need a close up on those socks and leggings.

A couple pictures from last night of the kids with their cousins.