I've Been

Been spending lots of time with.......

While cozied up with.......

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with both of our families. A few quotes heard throughout the week that will clue you in to what's been happening around here:

• "I am so glad you're a teacher mom, so we don't have to go to a daycare over break!" (said on the way to McDonalds for lunch)

• "Whoa, Oh! Livin' on a Prayer!" (both boys got Ipods for Christmas. Lots of LOUD singing going on at all times of the day.)

• "Mom, what's the name of the song that goes, -insert any line from any random song here-?" (Kids desperately filling their Ipods with music)

"I love my DS!" (Connor is thrilled with his present...we knew he would be!)

• "When are you going to tell dad where to hang our Twins lighted signs in our rooms?" (said dad tried to hang those without the decorator's my guidance. As if.....)

• "Boy those chipmunks can sure sing!"

• ****crickets chirping*****

(the sound heard while the kids were putting together their Lego sets Christmas day.....heavenly peace and quiet!)

• "Sniff, SNIFF, SSNNNIIFFF........" (Connor while battling a bout of what we think is allergies)

• "Blow out the boogs! Blow out the boogs! Blow harder!" (Me encouraging Connor to blow out instead of snuffing in)

• "Yeah, but I never spend this much on a purse." (me talking to my purse-loving friend who is convincing me to buy the cute purse. She won and I love it!)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Anniversary, Shots, and Snow Day

First, Happy Anniversary to myself and boyslife2! On the 4th it had been a year since I started this. A big thank you goes out to Stacey for convincing me that it's easy and not time consuming. She is absolutely right. I get asked all the time, "How do you have time to update all the time?" Honestly, this blog takes me 20 minutes at the most, most of the time 10. Easy Peasy.

We had our first official snow day of the year on Wednesday. We had upwards of 10 inches of snow, 40 mph winds, and plows that decided they didn't want to clear the streets. Nice combination, as you can imagine.

Check out the drifts on the front door! Way on top too!

Normally, a snow day would mean Mike and I going to work and my mom watching the boys. I was up at 5:15 checking the weather and found out that school was in fact cancelled. I started to get ready, ate some breakfast, and planned to call my mom to make sure she was up around 6:30.

Quickly the phone began to ring. My principal had started the crisis calling tree to let everyone know that we couldn't get into our parking lot and to not try to come in....."until later". Until later? What exactly does that mean? Kind of vague, don't you think?

"Later" to you might mean a totally different thing than what "later" means to me. But, I proceeded to put some coffee on, find my slippers, and go downstairs to watch some Tivo-ed Regis and Kelly and The View. I had heard Bryant Gumbel announced his lung cancer and wanted to check that out.

As the morning carried on, the phone continued to ring. Many of my co-workers had tried to get into the parking lot of our building only to get stuck. I decided to wait it out another hour or so.

Around 10:00 Mike decided to leave for work. I wasn't real happy about it. The highway he takes is horrible on a good day, let alone when there are white-out conditions. He refused to take a vacation day though since he gets so few, and so off he went. He called later to say he had made it. I got to spend the rest of the day stressed about him returning from work in the dark. Oh goody.

Finally one last call from a co-worker informed me that there was no way to get to our building, and even if we could, all the doors were iced shut (apparently found out by our janitor who had trecked the mile from the road to check the situation out). It was then the call was made that we were not going to be able to report today.

The kids and I decided to enjoy the afternoon and rent a movie off of pay-per-view and eat lunch off TV trays. We do this occasionally on rainy days in the summer and it's always a lot of fun. This time we rented Monsters Vs. Aliens and cozied up under blankets and let the snow fall!!

Yes, mismatched pajamas were required.

Unfortunately, I had made appointments for the kids to get their H1N1 shots and the appointment was at 3:00 this afternoon. Darn it! I really did not want to leave the house! But, I needed to get this crossed off my list, so I decided not to reschedule. My parents picked us up in their truck and hauled us all the way out to the clinic, which might as well be in TX for how far you have to drive to get to it.


Both boys snuffed that puppy up and off we went. Connor has to get another one in 30 days (which I don't get. It's not like he gets less of a dose. She said it's because he's under 7 and it's his first dose. I still don't get it. Why does he get double the dose, but Noah doesn't even though it's the first one Noah has ever received as well? Because Noah is 10? Is that why? Who knows. Probably won't matter because they will probably run out within the next 30 days anyway).


Hope you are staying warm!
LB

The Evil That is Gingerbread

My friend talked me into going out and buying one of those kits to make a gingerbread house. She posted pictures on facebook of her gorgeous children making it, and the magnificent end result in all its glory.

Yeah, well that didn't happen here in our house.

THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT MAKING A GINGERBREAD HOUSE:

#1. The icing is like cement and it's very hard to apply....and yet it still drips. Is this supposed to appear as snow? Icicles? Yeah, not so much. Just screams, "You are not crafty!"

#2. After decorating the roof and front of the house, everyone is a mess. I am tired of piping, the kids are tired of applying candy, and there are no supplies left anyway. So, half of the house will be done and the other will not. Only take pictures of the done side.

#3. Have you ever tried applying frosting the consistency of frozen lard, piped out of a bag longer than my arm, onto a line around a window about 1cm x 1cm  that is UNDER the overhang of the roof of a house? I only swore once a couple of times. Quietly. To myself.

#4. The gingerbread tastes terrible. Now I know. Admit it, you have always wondered. Connor watched me take a bite of it as if watching someone eat a turd. He even backed away from me at one point.

#5. Most of the candy is too heavy to stay-put while being applied to the house already put together and standing vertically. So plan for the gumdrops and peppermint candies to slide down the front of the house dragging a line of frosting with them.

#6. Reapplying the candy 100 times will not make them stick and stay. Even if you push really hard because you are annoyed.

These houses are overrated.....because what the heck do I do with it now? If you know me, then you know I hate clutter. There is a soupy-mess-of-nasty sitting on my kitchen table. How long do I have to keep it until it's okay to throw it away? Willl Santa know? Are the elves watching?

Now I know why I never try this stuff.

Turkey, Friends, and Tree

What a great 5 days off I have had! So sad to think it's coming to an end. I think I have squeezed out every second of it though.

Friday we had a blast at the MOA. We were there from 11:00 until 7:30 which I can honestly say is the longest I have ever spent at that mall! The kids rode ride after ride, we ate lunch, and then rode some more rides! We went to the fourth floor and saw Planet 51 and then we went back and the kids rode one last ride before we left to go home. We were all exhausted and my feet and legs were killing me. I figured it was a good work-out to counteract all that food I intended on eating the next day!

Thanksgiving was nice. We ate lunch with my family. Mom made all the regular foods and the whole family was there. Lunch was excellent, as always. After spending a few hours, we worked our way over to Mike's family Thanksgiving. We hung out there for a few hours and reminded ourselves how wonderful it is to have such great families. And it's perfect that they both live within about 8 blocks of each other!

Friday Mike got up and joined the crazy people at Walmart to get Connor his DS for Christmas. Mike can't pass up a deal. Myself, I enjoy my sleep too much and would have never missed out on precious slumber to save $30. He said the people were insane at the store. He also had to work that day, poor guy (whoever made up the saying "bankers hours" was never a banker nor were they married to one. It's like retail, they are always open). I lounged around home and did some organizing. Felt good to have no plans. I had been battling a headache all day and it was nice to rest and not have to go anywhere.

Friday night we hung out with our friends Tammy and Paul (the ones we went to Chicago with last summer)and another friend of mine, Leslie and her husband Tom. We went out to eat and had great food, had a few cocktails (try a purple haze at Torey's Owatonna people), and visited. We went to a local bar and had another drink and just talked after supper and it was so nice to just hang out with people I don't hardly get to see. Friends are so important to me, it was just a great night.

Saturday we debated....should we go and look at a Tahoe in Wayzata? Or do we go and cut our Christmas tree? Such a hard decision, but in the end we decided on the tree! We would like to get rid of the van, although we love it, because we need something to haul the boat next summmer. We inherited this boat when Mike's dad passed away, and we have nothing to haul it with. The bottom line is we really don't want a larger car payment than we already have, so even though we would like to be able to haul the boat without having to borrow my parents truck....it's just not meant to be. Maybe in 6 months we will feel differently and we will consider a new vehicle. We will see.

The weather continues to be amazing. We cut our tree with sweatshirts on. In Minnesota? Unheard of this time of year....it was awesome. Our goal was to find a small tree this year. Our livingroom is small. There just isn't room for a big tree.

Decisions, decisions.

Connor checking out the prices

This one looks pretty good!

The cut begins. I think Connor is hilarious in this picture...doesn't want to miss a thing.

Success!

Noah can handle this one.

While brother was doing man-labor, small brother had found a stick.

Which makes a great bat to hit weeds.

After I get the lights on (DREAD this job. UGH!) the kids are such great helpers at getting the balls hung. It goes quickly once they jump in and help.

DECORATING:

Love the tongue.

The masterpiece!

As much as I hate Sunday's arrival, I love watching the Vikings and my favorite show Brothers & Sisters is on Sunday night as well. So, I will savor every last millisecond of my 5 days off and take a deep breath to get through these weeks in December until I get to my next period of consecutive days off.

Hope you had wonderful holiday weekend.

Randomness...is that a word?

I am SOOO looking forward to this week. I need some days off. It's time. The elementary buildings in town have conferences Wednesday so my kids don't have school, but I still have to work because I work at the middle school and our students have school. Mike and I decided to take a day off and take the kids to the MOA to Nickelodeon Universe to ride some of the rides and to see Planet 51. I am looking foward to a nice day away. We might even go to Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

Speaking of movies we went and saw The Blind Side over the weekend. I have been waiting for this movie to come out since I started seeing the previews about 2 months ago. I LOVED this movie.

This is the perfect Bullock role....the no-nonsense, slighty-bitchy but still lovable, and stubborn type. 10 out of 10 from me. Mike and my parents loved it too.

I can't get into this New Moon drama and craziness. Granted, I didn't read the series. But, I just don't see the allure of this:

What I see is grease, pasty-white skin, and lots of eyebrows. I just don't get it. Also, what's with denying that you are dating your costar while being seen all over the country together? That I find annoying.

Sun Country Airlines?. Are you listening? Can you hear me? You need to offer some more flights to Fort Myers in March and you need to lower your prices. Are you listening to me? I need Florida in March and I can't afford $500 tickets. By March, I have been sitting in figid temps for 4 months and need to bake my booty in the sun. Can you help me? The Twins need me.

I get to see my favorite couple in the world this week:

Could she be more gorgeous?

Tammy and Paul are coming home from Indiana for Thanksgiving. I have my parents all set up to watch the kids Friday night and we are going out! I miss her so much. This week can not go fast enough! If Sun Country refuses to listen to me, I may have to hop a flight to IN in March!

I want this book for Christmas.

I have always liked Andre Agassi. I miss him not playing tennis. Now I have no one to watch. Remember those Agassi / Sampras matches.....so good! Remember when he cried when he won his last tournament before retiring...the best! I know this book has some dark material in it.....that's what makes it a good read. On a side note, see those glassy eyes on the cover? I have been working with my Photoshop to get that look in my photos, I almost have it. I am so close.

It has been gorgeous here in MN this November. As I type it is 63 degrees out. That is unheard of for us. Of course they are forecasting snow for Wednesday, but it's been such a treat to have this nice weather. The kids are outside every day after school and all day on the weekends. How lucky are we this year? Mike is outside as I type putting up lights on the house in a short sleeved t-shirt.

Are any of you upgraded to the new blogger? If so, how do you spell check? It's not an option with this new format. The little letter with the check mark is gone. Disappeared. Nothing there. I asked for help and typed in "spell check" and it told me to click on the letter A with the check mark....the one that doesn't exist. I will say that adding pictures and links is WWAAYY easier with this format though. However, I don't want to edit my posts 100 times looking for spelling errors. That's what spell check is for. It's not cool for a teacher to spell words wrong. Keeps me up at night.

Not much else to report, just hoping to get through 2 whole days of work. Can I do it? We will see......

Have  great week!

LB

Family Pictures

It's been almost 4 years since we did family pictures or ANY professional pictures, for that matter. I decided it was time.

For the record, I dread the stress of family pictures. Shopping is VERY limited where I live so there's always the annoyance of having to drive an hour to find a decent mall and schlep through every store looking for the perfect outfits. Then there is the struggle of figuring out how to keep the kids clean and wrinkle free on the ride to get photos done (because again, we don't have any reasonably priced studio near us so we have drive an hour). Finally, there is the sweat that goes into performing for the children so they actually smile naturally and not with a cheesy grin. It was SO much easier when they were babies! They just always smiled!

I have to say that this time around, it was pretty darn easy. I forgot my kids are 10 and 6 (when did that happen). That's a whole lot better than 7 and 4 which is how old they were the last time we did this. I didn't have to jump around this time to get them to smile, they just did it. The biggest concern while there was praying Connor's front teeth stayed put and didn't fall out. They are not long for this world.

I had talked with the woman at the studio about things I wanted and didn't want:

No cheesy poses (no heads on each other's shoulders, lying on the floor with our heads together, arm on knee in the football pose)

No props (no sports balls, no fishing rods, no sitting on docks)

No FULL-BODY SHOTS ( I like my pictures close up)

(I guess that was a whole lot of "didn't want")

I repeated these requests to the actual photgrapher when we got there.

Guess what we got?

We got a lot of cheesy shots and a ton full-body shots.

I was able to find one individual and one together shot of the boys that I liked that was close-up, but none of the family....which really bummed me out.

Mike must have sensed my sadness at not getting a decent shot of the family on the way home (did I mention it's an long ride home?) because he "had a plan" and his plan was to have them redone.

I know, he's pretty great. And he's mine.

So, we did! We dressed up in our finest for the second time in a week, made the trek up north, and took the family pictures over.

The results......

I thought they came out much better.

I bought the CD with all the pictures on it for $150. That means I own the rights to them. I already sent 12 8x10's off to Walmart and paid $26. I am so excited to be able to print as many as I want, as many times as I want, for whoever wants one (or two or five).

And a huge bonus....my Christmas pictures are done! WOO WOO! I just have to pick out a template I like, plug in my favorites from the shoot, and order them from whatever store I want. I am loving this "owning the rights" thing.

Have a great weekend!

Crank up the music and enjoy Fireflies (Owl City). The guy is from my town. When went to Playlist to put a new song on my blog, his songs were the most popular searches. Pretty cool. My kids love this song.

Happy 41st

Mike turned 41 today. He's old, very old. And he'll always be older than me. Poor thing.

We bought him a heater for the garage. I know, not near as much fun as shopping for new shirts and ties (which I find quite enjoyable) but he had been talking about wanting to be able to work in the garage during our lovely 6 months of winter. With MUCH help from my dad, who researched which one was good and actually picked it up for me and stored it in his garage (my amazing parents are another post, seriously how would I manage without them?), he was pretty happy with his present this year.

We went out for supper with my parents and Mike's mom and Dave. I feel so lucky to have in-laws and parents that get along and like each other. It makes things like this so much easier!

I have posted about my husband before. He's certainly the best thing that's ever happened to me. I know we are going to grow old together. And even when he takes off his socks and leaves them by the chair in the livingroom each night, squirts saline solution all over the bathroom countertops for me to wipe up, and leaves his shoes in the middle of the kitchen floor for me to fall and break my leg over....I am going to love him, and be thankful everyday that he's with me and takes care of me.

Happy Birthday Honey!

The Jig Is Up

Noah knows. He knows there is no Santa. Here's the conversation;

Noah: "Is Santa real?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Noah: "My friends say he's not." (clearly ignoring my question asked for stalling purposes). "They say it's your mom and dad that put presents under the tree Christmas night."

 ( I have no idea what to say because I am freaking out as Connor sits listening and I don't even want to put this idea into his head.)

Me: "So, you believe your friends?"

Noah: "Well, yeah. They wouldn't lie to me."

(But apparently his parents would)

I guess it was bound to happen. He is 10. I have no idea if this is a normal age to shatter his dreams of men in suits, bunnies, fairies, and the like... but it's happened. That's what friends are for, right?

Am I sad? I don't know. It seems like a normal course of life.

Just another indicator that life keeps moving 100 miles and hour, and that's what I am more sad about.

Halloween

Halloween.....my mind goes back to the days when the kids were little. I would dress the boys up in cute costumes my mom made, scarecrows, fluffy white ghosts, and colorful clowns. When Noah was three he was Eeyore and it was about 70 degrees. We had the best time letting him run around until he was a sweaty mess.

 

Those days are gone.

Now I get to go follow them down the aisle of some local store with no enthusiasm. I drag myself through the endless get-ups of blood and gore. Goulish masks, weapons, and fangs take the place of cute and colorful. (And don't even get me started on the cute costumes in the GIRL aisle...ruffles, sparkles, wands, fairy wings). I don't even care what they pick out. I know it will involve a weapon and some sort of fighting-suit-like thing.

This year was no different. I am over it. I am beyond trying to talk them into being something somewhat sensible (like Mario and Luigi... my vote this year. Noah would not be caught dead being a PAIR with his brother) and just let them throw crap in the cart.

The actual day of Halloween is always fun. My parents come over for something yummy for supper, then Mike takes the kids out for tricks-or-treats and we stay back to hand out candy. This year I made cheeseburger soup. Being that Halloween was on a Saturday it was a nice leisurely day.... as opposed to the hectic rushing home from school, trying to get homework done, eating supper as quick as you can, and then throwing the kids out the door.

We even had time to carve pumpkins ON THE ACTUAL DAY!

And the costumes.....

Until next year....

This Is It

Before the movie went into some vault at the Jackson estate, I asked my mom if she wanted to go and see This Is It. Mind you, I am not a huge MJ fan. I liked his music, but I didn't own a single CD of his. I always thought he was a great entertainer, but I found him to be a bit odd. Maybe it was the plastic sugery (that he denies), the children (that he shrouds), or the strange interviews he has given.

Here are my thoughts about this movie:

#1: Shockingly, this is not a movie about just MJ. This movie tells a story about the dancers, back-up singers, directors, choreographers, and producers that were putting together something quite amazing. This was not going to be just an ordinary concert. It was a production. Each person involved had that same look on their face....amazement and gratitude.

#2: There wasn't a single odd thing about MJ. He was humble, he was sweet, he was considerate, he was normal! He was "practicing" in this movie (it was footage from the rehearsals) and yet you felt like he was performing for a crowd with every song. He doesn't do things half-way, that was obvious. The people on the crew and those not in the shot would watch with wide eyes and cheer when he was done. They knew they were watching something special. He thanked his brothers in a part where he sings some of his old stuff from the variety show he did with them. I imagine that was a bittersweet part for the brothers to watch.

#3: This man was 50 years old and he moved and performed like he was 20. His voice hasn't changed. He sounded awesome.

#4: It made me very sad to think about the people involved that never got to see this concert come to be. We lost a genius way too soon and I can't imagine how tragic that was, on so many levels, for all involved.

#5: I loved this movie!

I highly recommend it, you should go see it. Even the little kiddies can go. I was thinking, if Michael Jackson hadn't passed away they would have never made this movie, and I would have never seen this concert. I know I wouldn't have paid the money to go see it. It's sad to think about how great this would have been, it really would have been spectacular. I am glad I got a small glimpse.

Play Group Halloween Party

For the past few years I have been part of a play group of teachers. Every summer we get together once a week with the kids at one of the parks in town. We take turns providing a picnic lunch (yes, it's really sucky when it's your turn and you have to bring lunch for over 20 people but it's just once the whole summer) and the kids play while the moms chat!

This past Monday I hosted the annual Halloween party at my house. We missed Nichole and her two boys (fever kept them home) but the rest sure had a great time.

The Kids! Don't miss Michael Jackson on the right!

Time to eat!

Pinata action! Go Margo!

Usually we bob for apples, but we figured H1N1 would knock on every one of our doors if we continued with that tradition. This year...pinata.

The Foreplay mom's.

Jill, Nancy, Me, Jen, and Jodie

Yes, I said it, Foreplay is the name of our playgroup...according to the adults in the group anyway! Ha!

They are a great group of women. We have had many laughs and I am sure there are many more to come.

It was nice to see everyone and catch up a little. Our next meeting will just be the mom's. We have earned it. After all, we have worked for two whole months.