Following instructions

So, Men and directions and instructions... Enough said. Except if you are in my family then it's a whole other, down right, hysterical and utterly lovable thing. Kevin is making me quilting frames. The guy is using his only day off to build me something. He drafted some plans then set to work. After making one of the legs he looked at it and out loud said "this doesn't look like my awesome drawing. I mean seriously my drawings were awesome." Ummmmm hee hee. He suddenly looked very sheepish. Yep he wrote the instructions, drew the instructions for him self then failed to follow the instructions. Typical male. Down right cute. Completely lovable. Hee hee. I told him "I am sooooo blogging this." He just gave me a cute smile and laughed. Then he went back to work. This time using the instructions he wrote for himself.

I knew it would happen

I just thought it would be later rather than sooner. She hasn't even been in school for 2 weeks and I already forgot to send her lunch with her. In my defense she had it in her hand as I opened the door, it just didn't get in the car or to school. Bad mommy, bad mommy. The look on her face was utter betrayal as we got to school and she realized that no mommy did not have her lunch bag. She was completely embarrassed when we got to her classroom and she had to tell her teacher that she didn't have her lunch bag. Poor thing. I felt terrible. WEll until I got home to get it and found it in the hallway of our apt ready to out the main door. yep I think I'll keep a closer eye on that thing from now on. ON a high note I got to see her walking down the hall when we took it to here at school. She's so cute!

lunch box politicking

Ahhhhhh packing a lunch. "mommy I want strawberry shortcake yogurt for lunch". Really? hmmm Where would I get Strawberry Shortcake yogurt? "At the Store". Hahaha if only it was that simple. I have no problems buying her this said yogurt. Mostly due to the fact that I'm already buying them yogurt and the character yogurts are not any more expensive. So a trip to the store we go (no not just for yogurt, we were out of milk too). No SSY there, nor at the other store we went to the next day. We did find Dora yogurt however it's not the same. Oh well she'll have to live with it. :-) She's adjusting to the exhausting pace of school and loving it. She'll come home chat about school then say "OK no more talking about school" and no matter how I try to word questions to try to sneak info out of her she's a smart cookie, looks at me and says "mommy no more talking about school." This includes, friends, food, play and work at school.

remembering

MJ called today. She called to make sure I was doing ok with Kevin and Surgery. It was so nice of her because I really needed the call at that moment. Yesterday was a bear of a day. The 4 am mornings, even though there has been only 2 in a row then a 5 am morning got to me yesterday. I think phychologically as, well knowing I wouldn't see Kev until noon today hit a nerve. We have only been apart twice in our whole 5 years of marriage and it's going to be an adjustment. They did send him home yesterday because it was an extreamly slow day so he didn't spend the night there but he had homework/reading he had to do so he studied until he crashed yesterday around 9:30. Anyway MJ's also going through a bit but she made sure to call to make sure I was ok. That's what good friends are. They remember.

We are officially into surgery

I haven't posted for a bit because we were trying to spend quality time together before surgery started. Well it started yesterday. yeah. I think that was supposed to be an easy day too because they had orientation in the morning then clinic the rest of the day. So Kev left the house yesterday at 6:30am and didn't come home until 7:30 pm. The kid were exhausted so they went to bed at 7pm. Kev walked in asked if the kids were down and went in to give hugs and kisses before they went to sleep. Poor thing. This morning it got worse. The alarm went off at 4:15 this morning. Kev left the house at 4:45. That poor guy. All I can say is thank goodness mom and dad got us a bed we can actually sleep on. I'm going to have the kids take naps after Megan gets home from school so that I can keep them up later so that Kevin and see them awake. I don't think he'll be getting home until after 7 each day so we'll see what we can work out. This is going to be a rough little patch until December. Melissa and I laugh because her husband Jon will be up at the DCVA hospital doing a rotation up there, the same place where Kevin will be. Usually when Jon's up there he has really long hours so she is also planning on not seeing her husband until December. We are already planning on having our support group together. There is also a med student's wife that just moved into our ward. She's going to be our friend too along those lines. Kevin is so cute he's making me quilting frames and Jeanie's given me more hours (money) to watch Caroline during the week, which we are using to pay for Directtv so I have somthing to do while he's gone. So I will be quilting and watching all these fun shows on tv!! You don't realize how cool reception is, especially when it is aquired without tin foil!!! :-) It also came with free DVR so I can record all of our favorite shows for Kev when he gets a chance (thanksgiving? or Christmas) to watch them.... not bad without commercials. hee hee. I already miss him though. He came home yesterday and had some reading he had to get done for this morning. Poor thing. I made a whole bunch of pasta salad though and put it in containers. This salad can be eaten hot or cold so he can grab it and go. I'm going to make a variety each week so he has hearty meals he can eat to keep himself going. His friend said that he lost 10lbs during surgery because he was only able to grab one meal a day, he was so busy. Newfound respect for mom for doing this for 5 years. whew! at least it will break me in for future residencies.

day 2

Megan was so excited to go to school today she didn't go to the bathroom this morning when she woke up. Seriously this child has a bladder the size of Antartica. By the time we got to school she was dancing around. Said hi to her teacher and bolted for the "school potty". Ummm yep. She was excited to use that potty. Yesterday when we asked her what she did during the day she said "I took a nap and I went potty." Yep highlights.

High trauma

My baby had her first day of school today. She's growing up. She could care less who her mama is. So this morning I gave her her finished Pinkalicious quilt (yes I finished it at 10:30 last night). We talked about it being a hug from mommy when she needed one she just had to wrap herself in the quilt. She loved that idea and started hugging it right away. When we finally got to the school it self was really exciting. There is one door that the kids are allowed to enter and a bus had just dropped off a ton of them so there were all these kids going to the doors with back packs on the school busses were right there. Megan was so thrilled she started running down the side walk yelling "I'm going to school! I'm going to school!". The only time she got a bit nervous was when we had to wade through the 2nd graders in the hall, but then she wouldn't hold my hand only Spencer's. When we got to the classroom it was like "mom who?" Yep. She gave her teacher a hug and immediately got down some sorting stuff and off to a table she went. Actually she was a bit shy with one little girl but then she started chatting and she was off. As I was leaving I asked for a kiss and hug. I got an air kiss, but Spencer got the full hug and kiss works. Sigh. She's growing up. She was so adorable there. She will do well and I am excited to see how her day has gone. Kev was able to come home early (fluke, the physicians had a meeting to go to so there wasn't any clinic) so we are sitting around pacing until we can go pick her up. I miss my baby. On the home front, Spencer is LOVING being at home with mommy by himself. He held my hand all the way to the car (which he never does when Megan's around). He also cuddled and snuggled during story time and over all had a fun and great time with me today. My house is quiet. Sad quiet. I'll be better tomorrow.

After Church

Kevin got Spencer from nursery which is right by the Sunbeams class. After getting Spencer he collected Megan from Sunbeams. Megan had a bag of teddy bears and started sharing with Spencer. Luckily we had the camera. The would walk a couple of feet stop swap a teddy bear eat it and continue walking, talking about what they did in class. ONe of the pictures below was just such an exchange. Another is of Spencer holding up his bee craft and showing Megan what he did in class. They then walked down the side walk to the car holding hands. Could they be any cuter. I can't think of a way... unless it's Me making lunch and hearing from the other room... "Swim with Sister Yanni! Swim SWim Swim. Now help me Spencer Help me ! I'm hurt!". Sister Yanni is the sunbeam teacher. Today Megan's lesson was on the Good Samaritan. To personalize it Yanni told a story about her sister in law who runs triathalons. She described what a triathalon was by swimming and having the kids act it out, running and biking. Well during one particular triathalon her sister hit a rock coming down the mountain on a bike and fell, splitting her head open. She kept asking for help but nobody stopped to help her. She ended up having to use her cell phone to call for help (note: blood was running down her face and clothing) because no one would stop for her. She had one of the kids pretend to be hurt and then they each got to walk by the "hurt" person and see if they would help the hurt person. After church Megan was reinacting her class with Spencer. (I found what they were doing at a teacher development meeting we had that night and I told Yanni that my kids worship the ground she walks on saying they were "swimming with Sister Yanni". She then told me how cute that was and told me what happened in class. fun huh? Here are my cuties. After church we went home and made brownies. It was a great day.

new find

So I got a new catalog yesterday. Can I just say I'm in LOVE! I'm already excited to start the fall baking, spice cookies, pumpkin/chocolate bread, pies, rolls and my HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES. Oh yeah baby, if you didn't know I know how to make hand dipped chocolates and truffles. So I picked up some goodie buckets and I am soooooo stoked to make them (note: if you would like homemade chocolates you may send $10 to me and I will send you some wonderful boxes filled with yummy homemade chocolates) Anywho, I digress, I got too excited with the whole chocolate thing. Anyway I got this catalog yesterday and I am in Love. It is called The Baker's Catalogue. Yes I am a baker. I love it. Not for myself or family, but for others. I love cooking for others. This has all the gagets and gizmos I want in my kitchen. I salivate at their mixes, I coo at their cheesecake pans (little popables for cute stuff, they have heart shaped too), their cake pans (cilicone sigh with pleasure), the ove gloves (don't buy some fam, you might be getting some for christmas!). As I said I'm in love.

You know you're doing something right Part II

I've stated in the past how much my kids like eachother. Well last night we went to the Target to get them some socks and to window shop. It was actually a decompression trip becasue Kev went with us and we just sauntered around the store. One of my rules with the kids is when there are a lot of people around they need to hold my hand (so they don't have a panicky momma on their hands). Well there were not a lot of people at the store last night but everytime we passed someone they would rush to hold hands. Finally they decided that Mom was not cool enough (yes it's started already) so they walked throughout the store holding each other's hands. CUTEST THING EVER!! They were both wearing yellow shirts and they were just down right adorable walking hand in hand down the aisles. Yep things couldn't get better. Well then they stated playing crack the whip and hug wrestling, which if you haven't seen it's a thing to behold. They start by going "hug! hug!" which then turns into a sumo wrestle until one of them is able to knock the other one down on the ground for a pin. No, I know what you're thinking, they did not learn this from their parents. It is however one of the funniest things to see someone walking down the aisle see the kids hugging coo at them and then stare ahgast at the kids tackling each other in the store. Their faces are like a face someone would make watching a cute duckling in a pond only to have it swallowed by a croc a minute later. Yep those are mine, and you know what they sure are stinking cute. I can't help it, I think people's reaction to the hug wrestling is adorable and endearing because the kids are laughing the whole time and they are technically just hugging.

Quilting

So creating is my thing. I love creating new or to be truthful taking other things and making them my own. I'm doing this with this patterns. Angelz (bytheway Motts they have beehives). My mom brought a book for Megan called Pinkalicious by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann. Megan and Spencer LOVE it. Seriously, Megan has started toting around the house so she can read it whenever she wants to. I just found it under my bed. She was taking her nap yesterday and had to have her books to sleep (she has an inflatable toddler bed we put in our room on the floor for her naps). Thus the book ended up under the bed. Anyway, I wanted to do something special for her for school. Well she has to take a crib sized quilt for her nap times. So I am putting together a "pinkalicious quilt" for her. It will have some cool piecing on the sides and some cupcakes scattered about on the quilt. I also will have 6 of the Angelz from the pattern on it. These are some of my Angelz so far. I really am having so much fun with this.

oral history

So around here they've been encouraging everyone to go to the Library of Congress and record their histories of 9-11. The Library of Congress has decided that the 5th anniversary of 9-11 was appropriate due to the fact that 1 year was too soon but within 5 years you still vividly remember where you were, what you were doing, how you found out, but it's not so incredibly emotional. I still have immediate tears thinking of that day. I won't be able to make it down to the Library of Congress with my work schedule so here's my oral history. On September 10th I was pregnant. I didn't know I was pregnant but I was. I had been having these terrible migraines for the previous week. As I was getting ready for be another one hit me. I was up all night long with excruciating pain. Knowing that I would be useless if I went to work that next morning I called in sick. I taught 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies. Dealing with 93 12 and 13 year olds while recovering from a migraine was not my idea of fun. So at 5 am pacific time I called in sick. Knowing that I didn't have extra lesson plans waiting on my desk I drove them into school at 7am September 11. I drove to school knowing something was weird. I just couldn't put my finger on it. We lived on the incoming flight plan into Sky Harbor airport. It was only later that I realized there were no airplanes. As I got to school I saw one of my students already there and asked how she was doing. I had ridden to school without the radio on so I was still clueless. She was all excited and said "A plane flew into the buildings." Not knowing what she was talking about I went into the office to distribute my lesson plans. As I walked in Several teachers and the office staff including assistant principal were all standing there around the TV. One of them turned to me and asked "Is this the reason you called in sick? Don't you know we need you?" No knowing what she was talking about (I couldn't see the TV) I asked her "What are you talking about? I've been up all night with a migraine." Seeing that I still didn't know she pointed to the TV. I stood there in silence, stunned for a good 5 mintues. That's when all the teachers went into action... except me. I went home. I turned on NPR on the way home to hear that the Pentagon had been struck. I listened as a reported ran through the neighborhoods close to the pentagon in order to see what was going on. The roads were closed near the Pentagon so he was running attempting to get close to see what was happening. I was in tears on the way home, finally realizing that there were no planes. I arrived home and ran into the apt. Kevin was still sleeping. As I turned on the TV I yelled for him to come in that "The US was under attack". Kevin came flying in from the back room. He saw what was happening and told me that he thought that I had meant via planes and such like Pearl Harbor. They were planes. We sat there in front of the TV all day long shocked. We cried as the towers came down. We were horrified as we watched Ashley Banfield on Fox as she huddled behind a car trying to get closer as dust cover police tried to tell people to get back. We watched as the clouds came billowing out obscuring the view to downtown NY. It felt like we sat there for days. I know I went to work and Kevin went to school but I can't remember doing so. We would come home and sit and watch repeats. This morning as I woke up I watched video of that day. I sat today in utter horror remembering what happened. It was like it was happening again. The memories were still that fresh. The emotion still raw. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be so close to the actual events. I look out on the street right by our house and I can see capital Hill. I can drive 5 minutes down the road and be right by the Pentagon where one of the planes struck. What an overwhelming feeling to be here now.

Grandma and Grandpa

So we had the most wonderful trip with Mom and Dad. It was simply wonderful to be able to have them around. It was great to see my kids interacting with them and to see my parents reactions to these two monkeys. I loved it that Megan kept asking grandma to read the same book over and over. It was great to hear my dad repeating Spencer because he was too cute "ok"? That's Spencer's new thing. After he says anything he says "OK?" It was really nice that they forced us to go on a date (thank you! thank you! thank you!). BTW if you get a chance to go to the Melting Pot go. For dessert. If you go for the whole meal it's too expensive but dessert is honestly the BEST dessert I've ever had. Usually you get a great dessert and by the end of it you are overwhelmed and it doesn't taste as good as the first bite. Not here with their dessert. You are looking at it like... sniff I can't fit anymore (it's bottomless dippers). yummmmmy!!! It was possitively incredible to be able to talk to someone over the age of 3 during the day. It was great to have extra hands to help entertain the kids and wash dishes (I despise washing dishes but hey I'm a mom). You are already sorely missed mom and dad. come back come back!!!

a story for the ages....

So every once in a while there comes along a story that goes on to live into family history of telling and retelling. Grandma and Grandpa were not even away from the baggage claim and another of our family lore has come into existence. So here's the story. We were late getting to the airport to get Grandma and Grandpa. We got there while they were waiting for their luggage. Due to the airport being 45 minutes away I took the kids inside to go potty and to go find Grandma and Grandpa. Well we found Grandma, said our hellos and were going to head off to the potty when we spotted Grandpa looking for his luggage. Thinking it would be really cute for Megan to go up and say hi to grandpa I sent her on her way to say hi to Grandpa who was wearing a yellow shirt (I was about 6 feet behind them). Anyway the view that I had was downright hystarical. Megan goes up to day and said "HI". Dad looked at her and had an "OH crud what do I do?" look on his face. He was like "there's a lost child coming up to me and saying hi." Then she went and gave him a hug. His face at that point was an "OH CRAP! Someone's going to think I'm trying to take their little girl!" look on his face. Needless to say I'm dying of laughter because it just looked soooooooo funny! Then I yelled out "Grandpa say HI". Then it hit him that this was his granddaughter. Well needless to say he was pretty sheepish.

Innocence Lost

So the whole cookie monster branching out thing has taken a negative turn. In case you didn't know cookie monster has turned healthy. Unfortunatley now that Cookie Monster eats other things other than cookies we've got trouble in the land of toddlerhood. You see now I can't just say "Cookie Monster just eats cookies". Because Toddler little boys don't believe it, well because he doesn't just eat cookies anymore. So when a kind a loving grandmother bought and sent some shorts to my dear little man we had a problem. We didn't understand the problem until we put the offending shorts on Spencer. He was all excited for his Elmo shirt that went along with the shorts but the shorts were well, how should we put it? Offending? Scary? Torture? Why would my parents do this to me? OH yes Cookie Monster now eats other things. So of course shorts with an Applicae of Cookie Monster close to the hem of the shorts would incure the following screams from a 2 year old. "NO NO COOKIE MONSTER! DON'T EAT SPENCER'S TOES!" Oh yes, in case you haven't deduced. My son will not wear these very cute shorts anymore. He thinks that Cookie Monster, our fine furry friend, now eats toes. He continued yelling and started getting a bit hystarical after a bit until I took the shorts off of him. Poor thing.