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.