i always tease big d about being an optimist. he can call, busy at work, in a meeting, or something else, and give me a prediction for his arrival home. i usually add and hour. or if we need to meet someone, i add time, or if he wants to have a day off, he will be hopeful, while i just don't make plans until last minute. something always comes up. i always tell him he's an optimist and i'm a realist. i've gotten used to it over time.

in motherhood though, i'm defiantly an optimist. one of my kids will throw up and i'll make an excuse. "maybe dinner was bad", or "maybe he jumped around too much". when in reality i know that he is sick.

such is fussy. since sunday. it started sunday night with a late night puke. and the optimist in me thought, "this is just a one time thing. no big deal, he'll feel better in the morning". and fussy did feel better in the morning. and he played and jumped and then puked again. only it was a lot later. so i just thought "well, his stomach is probably just tired from last night, and he was jumping around a lot". and then he puked that night. and then my realist side kinda kicked in. and i knew he was sick.

last night he was up every hour, on the dot. which makes for the grumpy realist side of me to stomp my foot. tomorrow is the big turkey day, and if this continues as history predicts, well, i won't be going. i will be home with either fussy, or someone else. or even myself. pukey sicks rarely leave the house with just one victim.

i guess it's time to stop making fun of big d.

wow, i know....

i'm as inconsistent as ever. it's been a rough first half of november though. for me. the boys are loving it, as they are off track. we went to arizona. so to try and enlighten you all (hi mom!) on what we did, here's some pictures.

driving to arizona. this is when it started to clear up. yeah, that is snow. obviously we hadn't made it to arizona yet.

the van after the snow storm. that's not snow, it's ice. it was cold. really really cold.

the hotel the first night. the boys were so hyper that we just let them watch movies until they could go to sleep.

glen canyon dam

these were some ruins in some place that i can't remember the name. it was in arizona and it was really cold. but they were totally worth it. you know, for something 800+ years old, they don't look too bad.

the lizards, which ironically were in the 30 degree temperatures, but not so much when we were in tucson.

the lava flow from the volcano. super cool. and still really cold. that is why no one is in this picture. we didn't want to get out of the van, so we let big d do all the dirty work.

then to the zoo. which was cool cuz they had these animals. the otters.

and these, the polar bears. i love the polar bears

then the desert museum. which is awesome. seriously. too bad we were a bit tired and grumpy.

kitt peak. which was a very pretty drive. and not much else. sorry big d. i wish it would have been cool like you remembered

then to old tucson. the place they make western movies. nothin' beats a good john wayne movie, right? it really was interesting.

then the trip home. montezuma's castle. amazing!

and hoover dam, and the new bridge

2200 miles round trip. that is a lot of time in the van. it was 4 days of traveling. we made a lot of stops, ate way too much junk food, way too much fast food, and didn't get to spend near enough time in arizona. and we came home to snow.

halloween

election day

it brought tears to my eyes today as i drove home after taking the kids to school. the tears were for the candidates standing out on the corners of the street waving little signs. they were waving them in earnest and i thought about how wonderful it is to live in a country where you vote for your leaders.

it hit me then, that we are all in this together. even though we all think different, feel different, or value different things, the one thing that is the most important, is our ability to choose those people who we think can do the best job. the leaders that can protect our rights.

and whoever wins, or whatever happens next, we should be proud of the fact that we had a hand in it. there is nothing more awe inspiring than that.

before we left the house, chili asked if it was a holiday today, and i told him that it kinda was. he just wanted to stay home from school. it made me realize that this is one of the most important days of the year, and maybe we should celebrate it. this is the day that reminds us what it is like, and how wonderful it is, to be an american.

halloween hangover

this morning, in an effort to be smart and on top of things, and an all around good homemakery wife and mommy, after i dropped the boys off at school, fussy and i stopped in at the local walmart. i wanted some things for dinner and i wanted to see the halloween clearance.

the boys had a generous helping of halloween candy for breakfast. fussy did too. only he was much enamored with his new found joy of bubble gum. i let him have it because we weren't at home, and i'm a bad, bad mom. as we were cruising around the local walmart, in search of something halloweeny that we did not yet have, and that we desperately needed, fussy shoved his gum to the back of his throat and started choking. then he puked.

all over himself and all over the cart and the floor. i was impressed because i really didn't think he had eaten much this morning. apparently i was wrong. we were close to the bathrooms so i was able to only endure a few stares from shocked customers and employees. in the bathroom i cursed the walmart for not ever having paper towels, or sinks that were child height.

fussy was not sick, he was not upset. he just had puked. he stunk though. enough to make me wanna yarf. there was a moment of dilemma for me. should i leave and take him home in his body fluid soaked clothes, or continue the shopping so i wouldn't have to come back. i continued the shopping.

about 5 minutes later, fussy decided more humiliation was due, and since he was fresh out of puke, he decided to hurl to the floor a plastic potion bottle filled with candy skulls. (it was clearanc-ed!) the bottle shattered in a violent and dramatic way, and of course, the shelf stockers were right there. what luck! i was embarrassed and frustrated but the kind walmart employee was reassuring me that he'd get someone to clean it up for me. i got the rest of my shopping done and we headed for the checkout. in record speed we were out the door, thank goodness, fussy was really starting to get rank.

we loaded the groceries into the van and i noticed that our sneaky dog had been a stowaway from the trip to the school. she was ripping up garbage from the boys latest trip to mcdonalds. fussy climbed in and left the door open, only i didn't see it, and as i was putting the cart away, the dog escaped. i climbed into the van and started the engine and was backing out before i saw my stupid doggy, wagging her tail at me through the window, whinging to get back into the van.

we did make it home. i got the 2 year old cleaned up, i got the dog home, the van cleaned up and the groceries put away. then the dog choked and hacked something up, all over the floor. what is it today that has a lot of puking going on? is it just our halloween hangover? i wonder what else is waiting for me today. i'm hoping it doesn't' involve any more body fluids.