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.

random daily irony

running 7 miles on the treadmill, wearing a "les miserables" t-shirt

fussy's nightmare

we woke up the other night, in the middle of the night, to a bloodcurdling scream. now, it probably was scarier for big d, who was face to face with fussy, seeing it was fussy who screamed. i had never heard my child, or any child, scream so loud, so scared, or for so long. it took a good minute to calm him down. he spent the next hour shaking and burrowing under the covers of my bed. i tried to find out what was wrong, the only thing i got out of him was something about daddy's head.

i don't know if it is right or not, but i like to find out what my kids nightmares were about. so the next day, fussy and i were talking about what he had dreamed about. it went something like this:

"did you have a scary dream last night?"

"uh-huh"

"what did you dream about"

"daddy's head"

"was daddy's head not on his body?"

"nope, it was off"

"how did that happen?"

"i cut it off, like this" (sliding his hand across his throat)


should i be concerned about this? i mean, my child is dreaming of cutting off his fathers head! i'm hoping it's just a bit of halloween gore that is giving my kid nightmares. i must say the screaming freaked us out, but hearing the details of the dream kinda freaked me out more. it probably unsettles big d much more.

bloggin about the weekend

friday, big d came home early. i decided it was beautiful weather and went for a run. with my dog. we went not very far when a big german shepard came out of nowhere and attacked my dog. poor lil' lexi. i was distraught. after kicking and screaming, and getting the dogs separated, we came home. i cried, lexi shook. she hid. she bled a lot. she had quite the puncture wound. we watched her close friday night. she was breathing hard, even sleeping. it was scary. i never realized how much i love that stupid dog.

saturday, we did chores. we watched lexi get better. i went for a nice run. harry and i went to an usborn party where we spent more money than we should have, but hopefully got some good books for christmas. we then went on a hike, where the boys wore us out. we had a lot of fun exploring, even if fussy screamed to walk, and chili didn't' want to go because he didn't want his feet to hurt. we had a late dinner and watched a movie after. we were up with chili who had a stomach ache, and harry who had a sore throat. we stayed up too late, and we were already tired.

sunday, we spent the day being sick. with a snotty nosed fussy, and a sore throat harry and a stomach ache chili, we decided to stay home from church. we watched that mini series "john adams", and were quite lazy. we found out that our chickens were moulting. it was crazy, the coop is full of feathers.

sunday night, we had the same stomach pain from chili, sore throat from harry. only big d and i were also feeling cruddy.

that lead to monday where we stayed home from school and were lazy again. only about half way through the day i wish i had sent the boys to school. because they felt better and were crazy. big d took chili to the wood store and they started on a project for halloween.

so even though we had a long weekend, with monday off, we were still home sick. it was nice today when i got them off to school. and it was quiet. i think we are all still fighting a bug, but at least we can function now.

wordless thursday

found in the backpack yesterday

guess the child

mom: "look at the parachuters!"
child: "yeah, a plane must have blown up!"

child:"i wish you two would stop swearing"
under his breath "but i know it's never going to happen"

child: "mom, i'm not a big red clifford dog"
mom "uh, okay"

i took fussy for a run today. it's getting to be the time of year when you have more bad days, more cold weather days. it's a treat when you can get outside for a run. i don't want to miss any opportunity to get outside.

i peeked out the window before we left, and i noticed that the trees were swaying. it didn't look too bad, so we went anyway.

i realized my mistake about 2 miles in. the wind was fierce. fussy had a blanket wrapped around him, and a blanket over the jogger. he was fine, the wind was just a minor thing for him. he was snuggled down watching a movie on my ipod. me, on the other hand, was pushing the jogger, decked out in blankets, into the wind. i had the dog leashed up to the jogger, but she was struggling like i was. it was just like an intense uphill run. my lungs and legs were burning, and i'm sure i was doing close to a 12 minute mile.

i couldn't wait to turn around and point the jogger the direction the wind was blowing, so that i could have a break, so i could breath. so i could feel my legs, and finish the run going a 6 minute mile.

as i was struggling with the jogger, pushing with all my might, trying not to trip, i thought that this is how life is exactly. we know we should be pointed the right way. we know we should be doing the things we are supposed to. we know what God wants from us, to be good people. it's when we think we know better, and we go against Him, that we understand how hard it really is. we get too tired, we don't understand that turning around, and doing what He wants us to, makes it so much easier.

it's like looking out the window and not recognizing the wind. you can see the effects of it, with the tree's moving and the birds being thrown off course, but until you get out into, you don't realize how really strong it is. such is life. the world can blow us way off course.

i finished my run about 10 minutes longer than the same distance usually takes. if only i had turned around earlier, i could have achieved my goal so much quicker. and i was exhausted when i got home. i felt as if i had run 10 miles, instead of the 7 i actually ran.

where did it go?

the time that is.

i pulled out the 3T clothes for fussy last night. i rummaged and found so many favorites from harry and chilli. i started picturing pictures of harry wearing the same clothes. clothes that he wore when his baby brother was born. i realized fussy is the same age harry was when chilli was born. and close to the age chilli was when he was born.

fussy still seems so much like a baby to me. maybe that is why he is so spoiled. i mean, he is my baby, and he always will be. it just feels like the time is going way to fast. like someone left my life on fast forward and i can't get it to pause.

sometimes i do have a hard time with the certain stages of childhood. i rather someone else potty train my kid for me, or wean him, or get through the terrible two's. but still, i know i need to hold still and appreciate this time more than i do. when you are in the throws of it, it is hard to appreciate the kid screaming about the dog eating his food when he fed it to the dog. or the endless nights of waking up. cleaning up the bathroom after an accident. holding a fevered child, figuring out why the vacuum doesn't work anymore, or cleaning up the endless piles of sand on the carpet. i guess i should look at it this way, no other time in my life will i have so much to complain about. i should enjoy it while i can.

wordless wednesday

crazy hair day

i really like chili. he loves to do crazy stuff, which sometimes, can be bad. most times, it's just fun. where harry is against coloring or doing anything fun to his hair, chili wanted something fun for crazy hair day. so we did this:

eggs

our chickens have decided to slow down on the laying right now(kinda like my blogging). i get maybe one or two a day, which is pretty bad production. i actually had to buy eggs at the grocery store the other day.



when i cracked them open to make puffy pancakes on sunday, this is what i saw:




that is a store egg, and a fresh from our chicken egg. the biggest difference is the color. the store egg is so pale yellow, it looks kinda sickly. our fresh egg is nice and orange, like it's supposed to be. there are other differences, the store eggs shell is really easy to pop open, i always break them by accidentally sticking my thumb through them. our chicken egg shells are tough. they need more force to break them, and to pry them open. the yolks are different. the store bought eggs yolks break open easily, while it takes a bit to break the fresh egg yolks.



i thought it was interesting to see them side by side. i really like getting fresh eggs. we've been so spoiled by having them since spring. if our chickens follow what they've done in years past, they will pick up production for a few weeks, and then they will take the winter off. it's always so much fun to find that first egg of the season, and it's always sad to check the coop and find nothing there.