Happy Thanksgiving late and Merry Christmas early!

There’s so much updating to do! A month has passed, and it’s been a busy one. First, there was Thanksgiving in Missoula always a good time. Anne Marie and Thomas had the time of their lives. Someday, there will be more kids in our extended families, and those two will have to deal with not always being the center of attention, but right now they are the only kids on either side of our family in more than 20 years. They might as well enjoy it!

From Thanksgiving 2009

From Thanksgiving 2009

From Thanksgiving 2009

From Thanksgiving 2009

We also got to get to know Phil’s girlfriend a little better, although I called her by the wrong name for about 30 minutes, repeating it several times so I wouldn’t forget her name. Whatever I called her, she's very nice. :)

From Thanksgiving 2009

Then came December, both a really long and a really short month. The longest day was Dec. 2, Anne Marie’s surgery day. We got to the hospital at 6 a.m., and Anne Marie was a dream patient- happy, quiet and willing to do whatever the nurses wanted. Two hours later, she was out of surgery, and the doctor told us he couldn’t get the tube in the top of her tear duct, so he taped it to the outside of her eye. Then he said, “I don’t think we’ll leave it in for six months. We’ll probably have to take it out in six weeks.”
What?! He’s had kids. I can’t imagine why he would think a two-year old could go six weeks with something taped to the outside of her eye. Still, there was nothing we could do, so when she finally recovered from surgery, we got in the car and headed home.
In the van, I turned around to ask Anne Marie if she wanted ice cream, only to hear a huge scream and see a long piece of tubing hanging from the side of her eye. Her nose was bleeding and she was freaking out, yelling, “Get it out!” She had noticed something next to her eye and pulled it, just like anyone would do.
We drove to the doctor’s office and he patched it and told us she would have to have another surgery that day to either remove it or put it back in. I told him to take that sucker out, and that we’d hope that the probing was enough to clear the duct. He agreed and apologized. Anne Marie asked me to draw a frowny face on her patch. She wanted it off.

From eye surgery and random fun

Since she had eaten jello at the hospital, we had to wait until 6 p.m. so her stomach was clear again. The poor kid hadn’t eaten anything but those couple of bites of jello for more than 30 hours, but we had to just sit it out.
We went back in, and Matt and I went to the waiting room for what we thought would be a 15-minute procedure. Two hours later, she wasn’t out yet. Turns out, she pulled that tube so far that they couldn’t find a piece of it. Our doctor called another specialist to help, but they still never found it. To avoid tears running into where the piece might be, they put in another tube, but this time the specialist was able to help get it inside the eye. When she came out the first time, she looked fine. The second time, the eye was patched and when we took off the patch later, it looked like she’d been in a bar fight. The best part was the next day at day care, they took photos and made Christmas ornaments of them. Now we have an ornament on our tree that looks like a police photo for child abuse.

But, the tube is in now, and will remain in for 6 months. I’m not looking forward to having it taken out. Anne Marie takes the anesthesia well, but I don’t think any kid really wakes up well from being put under. Both times she spent about 20 minutes screaming, another 20 minutes sleeping, then about an hour of alternating crying and sleeping. Awesome.
All that junk, however, was two weeks ago. Since then, we’ve had a few ear infections, strep throat and other incidents that make it hard to get things done.
Now, however, we’re all well and ready for a fun Christmas. Things are looking up!

No worries anymore

It looks like the creepy site that had my blog on their site doesn't have it anymore, and I've been able to keep my blog public without having people randomly come across it. All is well, and I'm public again. :)

Spooky

After I've had some strangers viewing my blog and putting it on their sites, I'm going to make this private for awhile, then I'm going to move it and open it up again. Sorry!

Another blog

I've decided I need to better control my grocery bills, so I've made a blog, mostly for myself, to keep me accountable. I'm going to budget $65 per week for groceries, plan my meals and tell all about it. If you'd like to take a look, it's here:

I'm going to keep track of my grocery bill, along with what I buy, my meals for the week and some recipe links that I'll put on my almost-dead recipe blog. They'll be quick, easy, and at least partially able to be made ahead. Wish me luck! It will be blogtastic!

Happy Halloween!

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

From Halloween 2009

Some photos and an update

Do you ever have those times in life when you know you are just treading water, hoping not to drown but knowing you don't have anywhere really to go? You assume that there will be an end to the madness, but you really don't know when or where. And it isn't bad treading water, but it is totally exhausting and not really fun.

That's where I am right now. I'm probably making it sound a bit worse than it is. Matt and I decided it was important for the kids to not be in day care full-time. We can't afford it, and kids should get to spend some days at home. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday the kids are at the on-campus day care, Tuesday and Thursday they are home with Matt and Saturday and Sunday they are with me. In a lot of ways, it's great. Matt gets to spend more one-on-one time with the kids, and we are equally involved in their daily lives and care. On his work days, Matt has a lot of evening shifts- great for the kids because they don't usually have to get up early with me for work. But it means that when I am home, he's not.

I love being with the kids during the day. I really miss it. I miss things like playgroup, library story time and meeting friends for lunch. At night, regardless of where they have been all day, kids need extra attention, and I have to make dinner, feed them and still try to find some time for play with both of them, all while they are tired, hungry and not at their best. I also miss Matt. Sometimes we don't see each other at all under after midnight. On most days, we don't see each other until after 10 p.m.

It seems like survival mode, but I'm still optimistic that we will find our rhythm. I just hope it's soon! If you have any make-ahead recipes, send them my way. I'm realizing that even cooking quick meals when I get home is an uphill battle.

In the meantime, we have had some fun this fall. We went to Yellowstone earlier this month. It was bitter cold, and the roads were closed for snow everywhere but West Yellowstone to Old Faithful, but we still had a great time! In her mall-girl ways, Anne Marie says her favorite part was staying in the hotel. I have no photos of the hotel, but here were the highlights according to me.

Our new van on its first excursion:

From yellowstone

Post-nursing van party- Anne Marie requested this photo:

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

Day 1 was only a little cold:

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

Day 2 was colder:

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

But the sun came out eventually:

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

The van handled ice like a charm:

From yellowstone

From yellowstone

Also, some fall hike photos. We were a little early- the leaves hadn't really changed yet.

Anne Marie hiked with her "unca." She knows how to say uncle, and all her other uncles are uncle, but for Alex, "unca" is the only real name.

From fall hike

This is the butt tree. Our family poses by it every fall.

From fall hike

cute photo:

From fall hike

From fall hike

Anne Marie helped her unca over the log:

From fall hike

Anne Marie showing unca and grandma how to do it:

From fall hike

Fairin' It

I’m way behind on posting photos and other things. So, a month after it happened, here are some highlights from the Twin Falls and Eastern Idaho State fair.

From Twin Falls fair

From Twin Falls fair

From Twin Falls fair

From Twin Falls fair

From fair 09

From fair 09

This cracks me up. That kid has a face tattoo like Mike Tyson, and it looks like he's about to take out Anne Marie.

From fair 09

From fair 09

Post-fair dinner:

From fair 09

In other, more recent news, I think we might be over the potty-training hill. Anne Marie stayed dry the entire day yesterday, and kept telling me, “diapers are not forever,” the title of one of her current favorite books.
Thomas is pulling up on furniture and cruising around. He doesn’t crawl on hands and knees like a normal kid. Instead, he pushes his butt up with his legs straight and tries to stand up. When it doesn’t work, he army-crawls at lightning-speed across the room. His daycare providers have bets as to when the kid will be walking, ranging from before Thanksgiving to before Christmas. Scary! The kid is only 7 months old, and I’m not sure how he is lifting his short, stout little body up so quickly.
We finally got out hiking this fall, to a little trail we always visit near Victor. More on that trip when I finally download the photos.

Thomas- the first half year

From this:

From Thomas Michael

To this:

From Thomas six months

Let me just say- it's been a good six months.

To update, Thomas is healthy, happy and chubby. At his last check up, he was in the 79th percentile for weight, and the 19th for height. So, like Winnie the Pooh, he's short, fat and proud of that. Still no teeth yet, or even any sign that they might be coming.

He's also going crazy wanting to move- he gets on his hands and knees and rocks, but then he just dive bombs. His latest trick is army-crawling to me, pulling to a stand using my legs as support, then letting go. Of course, he can't stand on his own so he crashes.

Thomas and his sister are still getting along famously, most of the time. Anne Marie has decided that Thomas now is old enough to fight on occasion, but the times they spend sitting there giggling make up for it.

From Thomas six months

Watch out Hells Angels

Anne Marie and Thomas are coming.

Anne Marie-isms

I haven’t taken photos in forever, but I also made a commitment to keep up this blog, for my sanity if nothing else. So, in lieu of photos, here is a list of Anne Marie-isms.

The first needs some explaining. The other night, I told her that she was too wild, and she needed some yoga. She started posing, ala Madonna’s “Vogue,” saying with each pose, “Is this yoga? Is this yoga? Is this yoga?”

She has carried on this theme. She whacked her brother, and I told her that was a bad choice. She started her yoga poses again, “Is this a good choice? Is this a good choice? Is this a good idea?”

Other Anne Marie-isms:

After a failed attempt at the potty, I told her I had to go. Her response: “OK mama, but it’s not as easy as it looks.”
When I was successful, I was greeted with loud cheers and clapping, “Great job, mama! I’m so proud of you!”

In response to a discussion of fears: “I’m not scared of crickets anymore, because crickets are not real. I’m not scared of horses anymore, because horses are not real.”

In response to the dog knocking her over and her parents giggling a bit when she did all sorts of bizarre things to try to get up: “Do you think pushing is funny, papa? It isn’t.”

“Pretending biting is a good choice. Real biting is a bad choice.”

In response to Thomas waking up and screaming in the night: “Ahhhh!!! Thomas saw a monster!”

At the doctor’s office- running down the hall to catch him after he left the exam room: “You forgot to check my arm!” Dr: (checks her arm) “looks like it’s pretty healthy.” Anne Marie: “No, it isn’t. It has an armpit.”

July: a look back

From massacre rocks and fourth of july

From massacre rocks and fourth of july

From massacre rocks and fourth of july

From massacre rocks and fourth of july

From massacre rocks and fourth of july

From redfish 2009

From redfish 2009

From redfish 2009

From redfish 2009

From redfish 2009

From redfish 2009

From redfish2009

From redfish 2009