The Start of a Toothless Grin

Today was a "magical" day for Ms. Anna. She lost her very first baby tooth! And from the wiggling and wobbling in her mouth it appears in a very short amount of time she will have quite a large gap in the front of her mouth as a bottom tooth next to the one she lost and her two top front teeth are all loose as well. I guess she is wasting no time getting in on this whole tooth fairy thing. :-)

Anna was determined to lose the tooth yesterday but she got scared when Bill offered to pull it out for her. I told him it might have something to do with the fact that he kept offering to, "yank it out" for her rather than say "help her get it out." As a 40-year old woman I cringed when he said "yank" so you can imagine the fear it instilled in a 5-year old! Well today she decided to let daddy help her. While sitting at my desk at work my phone beeped with a text message. When I retrieved it there was Anna in her toothless glory! She can't wait for me to get home so I can see the tooth and also for tonight to come so the tooth fairy will visit and bring her money (which she has already planned how it will be spent!).

Here is Anna:

A Very Merry Christmas

It is hard to believe that Christmas is already done. After the mad sprint of shopping, cooking, cleaning and decorating it is all over. :-( Always sort of a let down.

We had a lovely Christmas once again this year. On Christmas Eve we hosted Bill's family for the annual family get together. 18 relatives plus the four of us, ate, drank and celebrated late into the evening. I think everyone had a nice time.

Christmas morning came early after the late night. Bill had to work this year but had arranged for another fire fighter to stay late so that he could see the kids get their Santa gifts, stockings and open their presents from us. Believe it or not at 8:15 both were still sound asleep and we somewhat reluctantly woke them. Santa didn't disappoint as he gave Ryan two more Lego sets to nearly complete his Mars Mission collection and Anna was the proud recipient of "Julie" the latest American Girl doll. Since opening her she has been a constant companion of Anna's. Very cute indeed.

My parents and Aunt arrived in the early afternoon of Christmas Day. We had a lazy day with lots of snacks, gift opening and then a dinner of prime rib. Ryan received a big surprise for a gift from my parents - a digital camera. He was so busy learning how to use it and then applying all he learned that he burned through one set of batteries that day!

Bill and I had agreed to not buy gifts for one another this year given the Disney trip in October, the economy and truly a lack of needing anything. But I think it only reminded us that gifts don't make the holiday and truly it isn't what it is all about. The true meaning of Christmas remains in our hearts and minds and that is by far the greatest gift of all.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!

Twas The Night Before The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a thing was in order, not even my spouse (he was at work).
The stockings he hung on the chimney by nail,
In hopes that his fingers he didn't impale.

The children were nestled in front of their video game,
While visions of them never sleeping to my head came.
And mamma (that's me) in her workout clothes, in need of a nap,
Had just sat down to try to figure out all this crap (and have the first of many night caps).

When out of my brain there arose such a plan,
That I had to sit down right there and than.
To heck with the windows, to them I will pass,
I shall just vacuum and take out the trash.

The lights on the breast of the week-old dust
Gave me an idea I simply had to trust.
And what to my wondering eyes did appear,
My trusty vacuum and duster that left me no fear.

With a push of the vacuum and a swipe of the duster,
My house would get clean quicker than I thought possible to muster.
Throw the clutter in the closet or under the bed (don't tell anyone),
The mess I soon would no longer dread.

Now Ryan! now, Anna! now Gracie and Sophie!
It's now time for bed and I'm in no mood for being poky!
To the bathroom to brush! To bed to read!
A little peace and quiet is what I now need.

As wrapping paper that before the scissors it does meet,
Is tightly rolled and ever no neat.
So is my gift wrap, my tags and my bows,
Good heavens the presents are all still hidden down below!

And so with some wrestling, I toted the gifts out
The boxes, the bags and gift cards with clout.
As I drew in all the loot, and was turning around,
Sophie came running down the hall with a bound.

She jumped in the bags, she attacked all the bows,
And when she was done she struck the funniest pose.
A look of mischief crossed her kitty cat face,
And it looked like my endless wrapping might feel more like a race.

Her tail it did twitch! Little noises she did make!
Her body was trembling, almost nearly in a quake!
Her paws though clawless aren't really that little,
And I knew my gift wrap would be toast when she jumped in the middle.

I will have to entertain her and try to wrap,
And get it all done in a very quick snap.
For my night is young with much to do,
And I am ignoring my work and writing for all of you (can you tell I procrastinate).

You see there are cards with greetings from us,
That need to be addressed, signed, stamped and stuffed.
And more holiday decorating to do,
And I might like to sleep, wouldn't you?

So not another word should I write,
Or I will never get done all of this tonight.
So laying my fingers upon my MAC keys,
I realize I have to wrap this poem up, oh jeez!

I will spring into action, to myself give a nudge,
And away I will fly despite not wanting to budge.
But I exclaim to you before I sign off,
"Happy Christmas to all, cheers and Mazel Tov!"

Let The Bells Ring

As I posted earlier, today we headed out into the snow to ring the Salvation Army bells for a couple hours on behalf of the Saint Paul Fire Department. We were stationed at the Lund's grocery store in a neighborhood known as Highland Park in Saint Paul. Our shift was from 1:00 - 3:00 but the Salvation Army forgot to come and pick up the money so we ended up being there until nearly 4:00. We were fortunate because the temp wasn't too bad until the wind picked up during the last hour or so that we stood outside. The only part of me that got cold was my toes. I had on my long down coat so was pretty much covered from head to toe.

It was amazing to me the number of people who dropped money in the fire boot that replaced the normal red bucket on the hook. And there weren't a lot of $1 bills - lots of $5s and $10s. One couple dropped in a check for $200. We got so many nice comments as people found the boot very unique and they seem to have a definite affection for the city's fire fighters. There were even several people who thanked us for standing there and ringing the bells. Amazing. Truly the spirit of Christmas is alive and well in the Twin Cities. A refreshing change from the mood I encountered last night at the Mall of America.

On another note the snow continued throughout the day and is falling as I write. According to the Weather Channel forecast the snow will continue through some time tomorrow afternoon. No worries on a white Christmas here. In addition the wind has picked up and the temps have plummeted as promised. Last check my thermometer read -8 degrees. Not sure where the wind chill sits.

After we finished ringing bells we headed to a little Chinese restaurant nearby called the Cleveland Wok. They have a very small but most wonderful buffet. We arrived just as the buffet opened and the food was very good. Of course no Chinese meal is complete without a fortune cookie and mine provided me with a very curious fortune indeed. It read, "Soon, a visitor shall delight you." Well I will have quite a few visitors this week so I am preparing myself to be delighted. Hope I am not disappointed. :-)

Countdown to Christmas

Wow I can't quite believe when I looked at the calendar this morning and saw Christmas is but 5 days away. With Thanksgiving so late this year it has literally been a dash to Christmas. Interestingly enough for the third year now my work load hasn't lightened in the least even with the holidays bearing down on us. It seems nothing slows us down anymore. Don't get me wrong - I am thankful each and every day that I have a fairly stable job and one I like to boot but it is sad in a way to me that we don't seem to slow down in the business world even to take a collective breath and remember what is really important.

I am happy to report that my shopping is about 90% complete now. Not bad huh? I kept it simple this year and that helped. I think next year I am going to look to more Internet shopping as well. I truly love hitting the malls but my schedule just isn't exactly conducive to it so it seems.

This week was a fun one. At my work we had our employee Christmas celebration. We played hooky on Wednesday afternoon and headed to Park Tavern in St. Louis Park where we had bar Olympics. We were split into four teams of three people each and played two games of bowling, a round of darts and two rounds of pool. I pretty much stunk at all of it but I did throw one strike in the two rounds of bowling. Having never thrown a dart in my life imagine my surprise when on my second dart I got a bulls eye! Pool - well that was another story. I don't get the fun of that game. The darts and bowling were more my style. Here is a photo of my team "The Young Guns." From left to right: Nik (drawing a blank on his bowling name), Jeremy "Rev" and yours truly "Pinky." I am so proud to say we came in 4th place! :-)

I had to cut out from the fun early as Anna had her holiday dance program that evening and I had mom duty to get her dressed and her hair looking pretty. We have had a pretty rough start to dance this year as Anna suddenly and inexplicably developed a fear of attending dance class. So strange as this is her third year. She missed classes as a result and then illnesses didn't help. But it seems with age comes the ability to better learn dances so she still did pretty well on her three numbers - ballet, jazz and tap. Here are a couple photos I captured as well as a class shot.

The dance studio always has Santa there so Ryan and Anna took a moment to say hi.

Today we are getting a dumping of snow. I am hearing numbers ranging from 4 - 8 inches. Not such a big deal except there are high winds expected to arrive at some point driving the temps down and most likely blowing the snow and making travel, etc. treacherous. Soon we are headed over to Saint Paul to ring bells for the Salvation Army on behalf of the Saint Paul Fire Department. I will try to capture some photos to share with you. I am hearing reports that they are very far behind where they need to be donation-wise. No doubt the economy is having a HUGE impact - more families now in need and less families able to give. I hope we are successful in getting some nice donations.

Riding a Roller Coaster

I have had some tough weeks recently parent-wise. I equate being a parent to a long-term roller coaster ride. You first approach it with wide-eyed wonder as you try to take in the twists, turns, descents and ascents and you wonder what it will hold for you when you hop in your "car" and begin your ride. You feel excitement for the unknown that lies ahead and also fear. You don't expect the ride to be without bumps along the way and in fact your "car" may even stall on the track at points. But still you push ahead and when your car returns to the "loading" area you happily opt for another go around. And so it goes.

Parenting a child with ADHD is no different except for one thing. When you step into your "car" you get to put on a blindfold. With no way to ever see what is ahead of you, you are unable to anticipate the curve coming around the bend, the sudden drop or the steep climb. It comes at you from different directions and just when you think you are confident and maybe even no longer afraid, you suddenly find your "car" might have even jumped the track. Well the latter is how I am feeling these days.

When I signed on for this parenting thing I agreed to a lifetime pass. Right now however I feel as though I am need of a bit of a break from the ride. Who knew a 50 pound 10-year old could take so much out of me? I know it is no fun for him either but much of the time once the meds kick in in the morning there is no recollection of the bad behavior. A seemingly total disconnect from the bad behavior that resulted in consequences like groundings from computer, video games, TV, etc. etc. What a baffling and frustrating disorder.

But not to worry, I am not fleeing my "car." Just don't be surprised if you find me hiding under the front. :-)

The Birds and The Bees

Well I think I may have misspoke a few weeks ago when I recapped my conversation with Anna about how babies are made. If memory serves me correctly I believe I commented on Ryan's apparent lack of interest in subjects such as this.

We received a phone call this week from the teacher at school who had confiscated a "racy book" that Ryan had on the bus. Another child had tattled that "Ryan has a book with dirty pictures in it." Of course what immediately comes to mind is something Playboyish in nature or maybe worse, right? Well (at least as far as I am aware) we do not have books or magazines in our house of this nature so I was baffled as to what book he had. It turns out he had a book titled "It's Perfectly Normal." This is a book designed for parents to use with their kids to discuss the changes their bodies will go through, etc. This book and a partner book that details how a baby is conceived, etc. are I believe very good tools for parents but they have a controversial reputation from what I can tell.

I got these books by way of my old job at Realityworks where our focus was life skills education for teens and pre-teens. The author of these books contacted me and sent samples of the books in the hopes we might offer them for sale. We decided not to but she encouraged me to keep the books for my children. I thought they would be very helpful some day so tucked them away.

The weekend after Thanksgiving I went on a mad cleaning spree in our basement unearthing a bunch of books. These books were in the pile and unbeknown to me Ryan claimed "It's Perfectly Normal" for his own. The story we got from the teacher was that he had the book on the bus and was showing the pictures to others. The pictures are actually illustrations geared toward a kid but are graphic none the less.

So on Monday night after receiving this call (and me communicating via email with the teacher to hopefully save some face!) we sat down with Ryan to have a talk. We stressed that we weren't mad but wanted to hear his side of the story. It took quite a bit of coaxing but he did confess and claimed the title "interested" him because it was so different. We were pretty frank with him about the book and its purpose and of course then had to ask if he had questions or was curious about things with his body. He claimed no, but interestingly enough after I told Ryan he was more than welcome to read the book once we got it back from school, his interest seemed to pick up and he was very receptive to that.

I also had to chuckle a bit because I later overheard Bill telling Ryan that girl's private areas are OFF LIMITS. :-)

Later Bill asked me if I thought Ryan was telling the whole truth and I said, "absolutely not, do you?" Bill said "no but I remember being 10 and being curious." Big sigh. And so it begins I guess.

This is just another example of why my gray hairs continue to multiply . . .

It Must Be The Holiday Season

I was a bit shocked and embarrassed when I logged onto my blog to discover I hadn't posted since before Thanksgiving. Where does the time go? Quickly I thought, "oh yeah it is the holiday season and time goes into double overdrive on the race to Christmas." I have been especially busy at work with a large scale project for one of my clients that has taken quite a large chunk of my time and taken me out of the office quite a bit. In our house we seem to continue to battle illnesses. Ryan came down with the nasty cold I was fighting a few weeks ago. Unfortunately he got a more serious version than I did and ended up at the doctor the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. He still has a lingering cough. Nasty stuff so early in the season. This past week Anna got quite sick with a stomach bug and spent two days home from school. She bounced back pretty quickly but now it appears Bill is down for the count. Oh how I hate when the older "boy" in the house gets sick. :-) Aren't I mean??

Since last writing we traveled north to Cambridge to cut down our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. This is a traditional event that Bill and I started way back in 1991. Other than the 8 Christmases spent in Eau Claire (where we found a tree farm there to cut a tree at) we have always gone to Cambridge. We have enjoyed near-balmy temps to frigid ones in all the years as well as barren ground to knee deep snow. This year was pretty mild with only a light dusting of snow. And this year was a first for me who usually walks around for an hour or more to find "the perfect tree" as I found our tree on the second time I asked Bill "how does this look?" Apparently with turning 40 comes decisiveness? Ha ha ha.
We also celebrated Ryan's 10th Birthday. He turned 10 December 3rd but we didn't get to really celebrate since Bill was working and Anna was sick. So we surprised him with a small cake the next night. He also had a small party with some family yesterday and tonight we took him to Famous Dave's for his birthday dinner. I still can't believe he has entered double digits in age. Doesn't seem possible.

No I haven't officially started Christmas shopping but I do have a pretty good idea in my head of much of what I will be buying when I get the chance. Money is tight for us this holiday season (as I am sure it is for everyone) so gifts will be light. We have prepared the kids for fewer gifts especially given the October Disney trip. We even have told them times are tough for Santa. Bill and I have tried to agree on a "no gift exchange" truce this year and I hope we are both good on it. I know Bill really has his heart set on a flat panel HDTV but it may have to wait for ts refund time. I would also like to get in some baking but we will see if I have the time. Sad as that is likely my most favorite thing to do for the holidays.

Hope you enjoy the photos sprinkled throughout the post and if anyone out there wants to take my shopping list and get it done for me just drop me a line. :-)

You Know You Are Getting Old When . . .

Your 5-year-old daughter, while watching Charlie Brown and the Pilgrims turns to you and says, "Daddy were you on the Mayflower?"

:-)

Redecorating - Kid Style

Ever since I have known Bill (18+ years now) he has never held a traditional "9-5" type job. He has always worked odd hours, weekends, nights and 24-hour shifts. Being the fiercely independent female that I am this has rarely bothered me and in fact it seems quite normal to me as I know nothing different. Most weekends Bill is at work for 24 hours on either Saturday or Sunday. I usually like to try to take that day to clean, de-clutter and do laundry. That way when Bill returns home he, with luck, returns to one that is neat, orderly and clean. This weekend was no different as Bill worked yesterday.

I was a woman on a mission yesterday. In only a little over a week's time the amount of paper (school things, receipts, bills, junk mail not gone through and newspapers) that had piled up in our kitchen, dining room and living room was frightening. I will say with Anna in Kindergarten our school papers have easily doubled. And because the kids are at two different schools this means a lot of duplicated pieces of school/district related announcements. Ugh. I spent quite a bit of time sorting, recycling and filing. Let's just say I am convinced that in some way paper is a close cousin to bunnies given the way it seems to "reproduce."

After getting the main area of the house in shape I headed back to the bedrooms for clean sheets and de-cluttering. I started out with Ryan's room. Upon stripping his bed I was horrified to look along the side next to the wall and see nothing but a sea of food wrappers! They consisted of Halloween candy, yogurt stick wrappers, beef jerky wrappers and granola bar wrappers (along with partially eaten bars). I had to use a broom to get everything out. Why oh why do boys do things like this? I told him he is darn lucky that he didn't have bugs or mice living with him in there. Yuck!

I moved on to Anna's room and it was here I discovered the first "redecorating." It seems Anna had added some colors to her pink wall next to her bed. Then something on the floor caught my eye and I noticed she now had green marks on her blue carpet (I should note Anna's bedroom had blue carpet when we bought the house and since it was in perfectly good shape we couldn't see replacing it until later . . . now I am very glad we didn't). I don't know if it is marker or ink from her stamper ink pads and when asked she gave me a blank look which I equated to, "If I just say nothing what can mom possibly do?"

After my bedroom it was time to tackle the vacuuming in the living room/dining room and kitchen. As I was vacuuming the tan carpet in the living/dining room my eyes were first drawn to blue on the carpet in quite a large area. Lots of blue spots. Upon closer inspection I noticed sparkly glitter in the blue color. How lovely. Ryan claims it was from Anna's latest art project, Anna pleaded the fifth. However not long after she quickly pointed out to me the red smiley face that was drawn on the carpet near the dining room table. This was followed by "Ryan did it." I still haven't solved that one.

I don't know what makes me more frustrated at this point. The fact that Bill and I bust our butts at our jobs so we can have this house (a house I might add that is not a fancy one, it is a rather ordinary house but still it is OURS) and that Ryan and Anna seem to have so little disregard for it. Or the fact that how in the heck did I miss all this? I am sure it didn't miraculously appear overnight on Friday night so just how long has this stuff been here? I would love to redecorate, would love new carpet but with the economy as it is this will not be happening any time soon.

So I guess I shall have to live with the "redecorating - kid style." Big sigh. . . .

Beaming With Pride

Today while I was at work my cell phone rang. I looked to see who was calling and it was Bill presumably checking in from work to see how my day at work was going. When I answered the phone on the other end was a positively giddy Bill. A few weeks ago Bill applied for a Squad position on the fire department. If he got it, this would be a promotion for him. It would also take him off of working on an ambulance as a paramedic which would mean he might actually get some sleep at night when at work. He has applied for a squad position two other times in the last year and a half only to be passed over. It seems this time however things were different and today he got the call offering him the position! Of course he accepted. I am so so so proud of him. It was the first critical step up in his career path as the majority of the promotions to Captain come from the Squad positions. Bill will also keep his paramedic status current so not to lose those skills but he will no longer be assigned to an ambulance.

Bill will start his new position the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The only downside is that his promotion will take him to a new fire station located on Snelling Avenue. He has had such a great crew to work with at Station 4 and he will miss his "fire family" there but he looks forward to the new challenges awaiting him.

I am so so proud and happy for Bill!

Conversations With Anna

I know this is not the first post with this topic but bear with me. For some reason conversations with Ryan tend to center around math and science and books and seemingly "normal" things. They aren't conversations that put my parenting skills to the test and make me question my qualifications as a mother. Anna on the other hand is a whole other story. Clearly they are not of the same mold.

Last night as she and I snuggled in her bed after reading, after prayer and after lights out the questions started. Yep, the ones as parents we think we are ready for. The ones we have vowed to answer with honesty and openness. Can you guess where this is going? Yep, S-E-X. Ugh. It all started somewhat innocently when she asked if my friend (who has a son Anna's age) was going to get married. This friend was never married to her son's father and is in fact in a very committed relationship with another man whom her son views as his father because his birth father has chosen to not be involved in his life. Did you get all that?

I explained to Anna that yes my friend might get married some day. Anna went on to ask well if she isn't married how did she have her son? Now this is tough for me because I do believe a couple should be married before having a child but I am also empathetic and understanding that this isn't always the case and certainly I would never judge someone on this. My response was "well while it is a good idea to be married before you have a baby, you don't have to be married to have one." That wasn't making sense to Anna so she kept prying. Finally I said that what it takes to have a baby is a man and woman. Yep, the next question was "how?" So I said, "remember how we talked about the egg in a woman's tummy that a baby grows from, where that is how the baby grows." To which Anna said, "but what about the man mommy?" By now my legs are squirming. Not because I don't want to answer but because I am thinking "how much do I say??"

After taking a deep breath I said, "well the woman has an egg and the man has something inside him called sperm (I told her it swims like a fish) and that it meets up with the egg and that makes the baby that grows in the woman's body." I was very proud of myself at this point thinking I had conquered this discussion. Not so soon . . .

Anna's next question, "but mommy HOW does that fish thing get in the egg?" Now I am really troubled and wracking my brain for what my parenting web sites have said in regards to how to address this. Lucky for me Anna saved me. Here is what she came up with, "Oh mom I get it! So everyone is connected and that is how it happens." I said "yes that is it!" I finally made eye contact with her at this point and she was ear to ear grins, "I really get it mom." And then she was on to a completely new topic.

How much of what I said she will remember remains to be seen but for now I think I am home free!

Second Attempt At Snow

I awoke this morning to gray, wintry looking skies. I did my usual first-thing-in-the-morning peek out our bedroom window blinds and thought "boy it could snow any minute." Oh the power of suggestion! Within minutes it was snowing. It hasn't amounted to much of anything although at 1:27 in the afternoon it continues to fall. It did however manage to put a bit of a wrinkle in the morning commute for some (luckily not me). As I listened to accident reports on the radio while in my car I couldn't help but think to myself, "come on people, this is MN, we DO know how to drive in snow, or have we forgot??"

Here are a couple of photos I got this morning. Note most of this snow I photographed appears to be gone now as I look out my office window.

I've Got The Bug

And the sniffles and the cough and the sore throat . . . Yep compliments of Ryan and Anna I caught the cold that seems to be circulating in our neck of the woods. It started out Monday with me feeling tired and achy which turned into a big time sore throat by Monday night. Thinking I could lick this thing I stayed home Tuesday and slept only venturing out to vote. But today I still feel icky. Scratchy throat, stuffed up nose, the works. Ugh - it was definitely the gift that keeps giving unfortunately.

The weather doesn't help as it has definitely turned back to fall-like today - rainy and cloudy and the temps I see are dropping from where they were this morning. Friday night can't come soon enough for me this week.

Why Do Mechanical Things HATE Me???

Is it possible to give off some sort of vibe or aura in such a way that you have an effect on how mechanical things work? Seriously now. It is very very late as I was up working on some important things but I had to vent quick before I slip off to slumber as I am still disturbed about some things that occurred this evening.

About a year ago we had a new garage door opener installed. It has worked beautifully until a few days ago when it didn't want to close the door. The door would start to go down and then something seemed to trip it and it would reverse and go back up. I tried everything I could think of to fix it but it seemed intermittent so I sort of brushed it off. Tonight when I am in a hurry and running late for dance class at 6:30 (of course we have to stop at CVS for treats to share at class too!!!) the dumb garage door won't close - for anything! Finally in desperation I pulled the release cord and closed it manually (not knowing how heavy it was going to be for me to lift it open when we returned - imagine a woman in stiletto heeled boots trying to squat down and balance as she opens a two-ton door - that's o.k. go ahead and laugh I can take it).

Then as we are driving I hear my brakes (can't tell if front or back) making this awful grating noise. Now I know, I know, brakes and the replacement of them is a part of a life if you own a car. But you must understand that precisely ONE month ago I had just under $600 worth of work done to ALL my brakes. I don't even want to think about what this new noise will cost me.

Then finally I went downstairs to our PC to print something and I couldn't get the PC to bring up my files on my flash drive and then couldn't get the printer to work. I did finally succeed in printing what I set out to print but it wasn't without some choice, unrepeatable four-letter words.

So I ask, why do mechanical things hate me?

From The Minds of Little Boys

As I was on my cleaning spree this past weekend I happened upon Ryan's backpack for school. You might have noticed a red and black backpack in some of our Disney photos. We had the kids each use their school backpacks as carry on bags for the trip and Bill decided it would be a good idea to use Ryan's for our daily outings. I can't let this go by without saying this was Bill's idea but I will give you one guess who ended up carrying it the majority of the time.

Anyway when I picked up his backpack I was rather upset because I noticed that it had been written on the outside with what appeared to be permanent marker. My first thought was, "These darn kids just don't take care of anything, what do they think money grows on trees and they can just scribble on their backpacks and I will buy another???" However upon closer inspection what I read brought a chuckle from me and a tear to my eye. I think only a child would think this. Here is what Ryan had written on his backpack:

"Ryan Lambert. This has been to Minnesota, Florida, and some city called Atlanta."

Funny how we spent all this money on our trip but it is something so seemingly inconsequential that is important to Ryan. Here is a picture of his backpack.

Brrrrrrrrr

Yep you read it correctly. That was the temp my car was reading as I drove to work this morning. No doubt Winter is nipping at our heels in Minnesota. The weatherman is calling for a warm up later this week with highs around 60 on Thursday. However I am sure it will just be Mother Nature's way of teasing us. The cool/cold temps are going to move in soon and this time they won't just be visiting . . . they will be staying for the long haul. Gotta love life in Minnesota! :-)

Vacation Recap Day 4 - Epcot

On our 4th day at Disney World we headed to Epcot. We arrived at Epcot in the early afternoon due to our late night at the Magic Kingdom the previous night. We also planned to have a later night at Epcot since our dinner reservations were not until 8:20 at the Askerhus Royal Banquet Hall.

Upon arrival things were not looking good. Anna was in an incredibly foul mood and it seemed nothing could alter it. Finally I tried to pry her with ice cream and that mellowed her mood a bit but not a lot. Bill and Ryan ran over to Mission: Space to get Fast Passes. While waiting for their pass time we went through Spaceship Earth. This is the very cool ride that takes you through the famous Epcot Sphere. It takes you through the history of communication from cave paintings to the space age. We liked it so much that we did it again before we left at the end of the night.

Bill and Ryan left Anna and I to go ride Mission: Space and to try to snag us Fast Passes for Test Track and also Soarin'. They really enjoyed Mission: Space although they opted for the milder "green" version versus the high-intensity orange one where the simulator spins very rapidly. They both agreed that the green version seemed to suit then well.

While the boys were doing their thing I searched for something to cheer up Anna. We happened by the Character Connection and Bingo we had our place. For a rather long (about 45 minutes) wait we got to greet and meet Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Ryan and Bill caught up with us when we were nearly to the front of the line so both kids got to experience this. It was just what the doctor ordered as it completely cheered up Anna.

We went on to see The Seas With Nemo & Friends. This was a very cute ride that was part animated Finding Nemo superimposed onto a real aquarium. When we were done there Bill's sisters and our niece joined us. We tried and tried to get into Soarin' and Test Track but the waits were continually 80 and 90 minutes and we finally discovered all the Fast Passes had been distributed for the day. :-( Sadly both are rides that we have had to put on the list for our next Disney trip.

We headed over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. This was a 3D movie where we experienced what it would be like if we had been shrunk. I was doing fine until the mice were let out. I knew that they would make it feel like the mice were running by my feet but that still didn't stop my surprise nor my scream when it happened. Not to mention Bill's sister Mary and I grabbed each other's hand. Oh we laughed and laughed and laughed. Anna was smart and had been sitting with her legs crossed and up on her seat the entire time so she never felt it. Thank goodness or I think she would have been really freaked out. Ryan on the other hand was quite amused by my reaction. Did I tell you I hate mice?

Evening was setting upon us so we decided to take the walk around the World Showcase and end up at Askerhus for our Disney Princess dinner. Epot was in the middle of its annual food and wine festival. Because of this there were many additional vendors and food stands scattered throughout the World Showcase. I think this would have been very cool as a couple but it was not the ideal experience for the kids. Dinner was very good as Askerhus but the highlight for the kids (even Ryan) was getting to meet FIVE princesses. First the kids were greeted by Belle (Beauty and the Beast) before we were seated. Then prior to dinner during appetizers we were visited by Jasmine (Aladdin), Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Alice (Alice in Wonderland) and finally the Princess of all Princesses, Cinderella. Anna in particular did not stop smiling. Princess Aurora is Anna's favorite and it was so cute to sit back and watch as she told Princess Aurora this. Ryan ate up all the compliments and being called a "most handsome prince." Unfortunately our dinner was so late that we saw only a small piece of Epcot's night time laser and fireworks display, "Illumination."

After leaving dinner we took two more rides, the first was the Maelstrom a boat ride that took us through Norway. The second was the El Rio del Tiempo which was a tour of Mexico past and present.

Tired out from the long, fun day but disappointed that we didn't get to ride Soarin' or Test Track we headed home ready for a good night's sleep.

A Fall Weekend in Minnesota

After some busy past weekends I was looking forward to a weekend with no agenda other than the normal Target trip, laundry and house cleaning. For the most part I got my wish. As usual I didn't get everything done I wanted to do. I think I tend to set myself up for failure either by overestimating what I can feasibly do in one weekend around the house or underestimating how long it will take me to do things. Needless to say I still got a lot done — the upstairs is de-clutttered, vacuumed and dusted, all the beds have clean sheets and all the summer clothes are packed in their rubber maid bins and moved to the basement and my closet is clean and organized once again. Most of the laundry is done as well. I cleaned both the kid's rooms today and boy are they pack rats. I can't believe the things I find. Lucky for me they were busy playing today so they were oblivious to the things that went in the trash. :-)

But you know the saying, "All work and no play makes Carol a dull girl." So I did make sure to get in some play too. On Friday night we headed to Apple Jacks near Buffalo for Ryan's monthly Boy Scout pack family event. After a dinner of hot dogs, chips, applesauce and cinnamon apple doughnuts we hopped on a wagon ride over to a bon fire and corn maze. I have never been in a corn maze and boy was that fun in the dark with flashlights. We immensely enjoyed warming up by the bonfire. It was a great evening for it. Anna also tried her hand at the apple cannon (an air powered cannon type device that you shot apples out of and into a field) and deemed it her favorite part of the night. Before we headed home we bought some apples, apple pie and pumpkins for Halloween. Here are some photos from Friday night.


Today the weather took a drastic change to the cold, windy and yes . . . snow. The wind blew most of the remaining leaves off the trees, rattled the windows and screens and drove the temp down to the 30's. A good day to hunker down and stay in. The snow never amounted to anything but it wasn't for lack of trying as it fell for quite a few hours. Just in case you don't believe me, here are the pictures to prove it.

Lucky for us it sounds like warmer weather is on its way. I hope so because it sure is a bummer to have to bundle the kids up so much on Halloween that you have no chance of telling what they are dressed up as.