Jesus Activity Center

Friday evening we had my folks and grandmother up for dinner.

As part of the evening visit, my grandmother doled out her traditional early Christmas packages to our kids. This is a tradition I remember throughout my childhood. Only now she is continuing the tradition with her great grandchildren. This early package contains a special ornament that is often part of a series. They then have the new ornaments to add to their collection and are able to display it on our tree during the current season. We selected a new Noel Nutcracker series for Abby this year, Ellie is on her 6th Jack-in-the-Box, and Spencer received his 3rd Gingerbread house. They each opened their ornaments with excitement and couldn't wait to hang them on our tree!

As a bonus, grandma also had another package for the kids to open. Spencer received a couple of books. Both Abby & Ellie received little nativity sets for them to put in their room. At least that was my grandma's intentions. While they have found a home for them in their room, they've also been carried around the house! They make a nice little mess everywhere they go.

When the girls opened their nativity sets my grandma explained to them what it was and how it would tell the story of Jesus. A story of which the girls are familiar with.

Maybe this is where I note that they have been exposed to nativity sets throughout their childhood. Not only do we have some of our own, three of which are child friendly versions allowing them to be hands on without worry. Then there are three more little sets that are more fragile but have become hands on and we just don't worry much about it. This totally explains why there are missing pieces! Just the other night Ellie appeared with a baby Jesus that had been in their room (unknowingly to us) since last Christmas. But also, Yia Yia is known for collecting nativity sets, of which she had many more than an average person would tend to have. Until they moved a year ago she would organize this incredible nativity fair type thing where literally hundreds of various nativity scenes would be setup for folks to view. Each year we would be a part of this experience in some capacity. It was truly a beautiful sight!

For some reason on this night Abby kept referring to her new nativity set as the "Jesus Activity Center". We would say nativity and she would say activity. Maybe it's this darn cold/sinus infection we've got going on? I've noticed that our ability to listen has decreased dramatically! Maybe it's the crazy amount of activity centers they have going on at school? At any rate, it really doesn't matter. Activity center was on her mind. Reality is she knows what a nativity set is, what it is about, and who all the figures are by name. Even if it is a Jesus Activity Center in her mind, right now.

Later that night, after saying their goodbye's and all, they head up to their room to get ready for bed. Their new nativity sets in hand.

A few minutes later Abby appeared with her nativity set.

"Mommy, great grandma said that this would tell Jesus story. But I keep pushing on baby Jesus and nothing happens."

Well, great grandma did say it would "tell" the story of Jesus!

Carie explained what she really meant.

Thanksgiving

Stepping back in time...

Happy Thanksgiving from our little turkeys!















We hope all of our friends and family had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We truly have so much to be thankful for.

We hosted a fabulous celebration and shared the day with Carie's sister, brother-in-law, brother & niece. We enjoyed good food and good company. We didn't quite get to all the things we thought we might, but we did get to relax and enjoy the day. It was perfect!

The one project we did get to was decorating gingerbread houses. This has become a Thanksgiving tradition for us and the kids enjoyed it yet again.

Waiting patiently...












Digging in...

Eviction Notice

Notice: All blood sucking purple spiders with 5 legs, eyes, and no mouth need to leave our house immediately.

Stop tormenting our children. These nightmares must stop!

Mind Boggling

I need to go back and do my Thanksgiving post and a few other posts I've got bouncing around in my head. There just hasn't been time to dedicate to doing so. But soon! Soon it will take some priority. It needs to! I’ve got it all in my head; I just need to find time to get it down on the virtual paper.

Until then...

We made a quick stop by the Peds office today to take care of the children who have too much green gunk oozing from their heads. And while there the first order of business was to weigh them. Then while waiting in the room for our turn Spencer asks Mommy to measure him with a book. This has kind of become a ritual, it seems. Carie measured Spencer and then he had to measure Carie.

The crazy thing is... he's grown, by like A LOT.

In late September, just one month before he turned 3 1/2, he was 42" tall and weighed 42 pounds. Today, just 2 full months later, he is 44" tall and weighed 43 pounds.

He has grown 2 full inches in just 2 short months!

Ellie is only 2 1/2 pounds heavier and 3" taller. Abby’s measurements fall somewhere in between.

Longing For Sleep

The day finally arrived! We got to meet with some doctors yesterday. Doctors who are sleep specialists at our local Children's Hospital. We were eager and excited for this appointment. We had completed and submitted a lengthy questionnaire prior to setting up the appointment and a sleep chart prior to the appointment. Not knowing what to expect or what the outcome may be, we went in with an open mind and some hope. Okay, so maybe a lot of hope! We also promised Abby there would be no shots and no poking by the doctors. We were pretty sure!

Damn that was an expensive pat on the back! Which was nice and all, but I don't need a pat on the back. I need my child to be able to get more sleep! And really, she may be managing fine on the sleep she is getting. But she could be better off with even a little more sleep each day. We see that possibility on the rare day that she is fully rested.

Bottom line... in most cases where parents suspect that genetics are a cause for their child’s sleep habits... the parents have totally and utterly missed the mark. In most all cases, they are able to tweak things with the parents and child in ways that suddenly the child is able to get a couple more hours of sleep... each day. This comes straight from the docs mouth.

Ideally, a child should be able to fall asleep within 30ish minutes of going to bed. Falling asleep rather quickly is cause for concern just as is taking hours to fall asleep. We are on the longer end of that spectrum.

At this point of the conversation I still had hope!

After reviewing the results of the lengthy questionnaire, studying the sleep chart, asking a bazillion questions, and a great dialogue between the 6 of us, he/they concluded that she is plagued by genetics (my summary) and she has the natural sleep schedule of an adolescent… at the age of 6 and almost ½. Except, we’ve experienced this with her since birth. Those are memories that I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

While we didn't leave with our hopes and dreams fulfilled, we did leave with a better understanding and some ideas. They've given us a few things to try... that won't yield more sleep but theoretically will yield a child falling asleep in less time. Confused? That's okay! But it's a starting place.

THEN if we are able to make some strides with that effort we can then slowly tweak things with the very slight potential that she may obtain more sleep.

Regardless, we need to continue our “good sleep habits” as she is predisposed to having greater sleep problems as an adolescent and adult.

That is, until she has children and that level of sleep deprivation supersedes all other... especially with multiples... who don't sleep. But hopefully we have many years before that becomes a factor. And hey, at least Mommy can sympathize.

Hotel Weekend

This past weekend was our hotel weekend with some friends. We didn't go anywhere exciting; this was practically down the street from where we live. But it was a nice little "get away" and it was all about hanging out and swimming with the kids. This hotel had a great swimming pool, the reason the hotel was selected. All in all, we probably logged a good 6 hours at the pool!

We had 4 rooms in a little pod at the end of the hall. Good choice on the hotels part! All in all there were 10 kids, the bulk of them being 6-7 yo's (1st graders) and 3-4 yo's (preschoolers).

The pool had a zero depth entrance and went to a max of 3' deep. The zero depth entrance was really nice. We thought it would be great for Spencer! He had other ideas. The bulk of his time was spent in the "deep end". He could touch, if only barely. He didn't want any help; he was "swimming like a big kid".

The slides were a huge hit! I couldn't even begin to count the number of times they all went down. It was like one big constant circle. Abby & Ellie had a blast and they kept figuring out new ways to go down. Sitting down and just sliding wasn't enough excitement, I guess. Spencer started out by insisting that we catch him. It didn't take long before he demanded that we don't catch him. Then he thought he'd try going down sideways. He also thought jumping in the pool backwards was fun. Thankfully he missed the ledge!

We managed to get some swimming time in Sunday morning before checking out. We needed to head out a littler earlier than we otherwise may have in order to get to Church. When these plans came up we figured we'd end up missing Church that weekend, but as it turned out this was the weekend the kids got to sing in Church. Abby was really excited about this opportunity, nearly a first for her! So we were determined to make this a priority. After Church we got to catch up with some other friends we haven’t had a chance to spend much time with lately. It all worked out wonderfully!

Stocking Up!

Those apples were so good we got some more.... sixty three pounds more. In case you were thinking about adding it all up, that would be 150 pounds total. The sale ends today!

We probably only have about 50lbs (of the 87lbs) left from the first apple run. We also started with quite a few (20ish pounds) already in our fridge and those are gone as well! Believe it or not, we'll fairly easily go through every single pound! Go ahead; feed 6-7 starving kids (who love apples) after school and see how fast you go through them. :)

When discussing menu items for Thanksgiving we suggested that folks didn't need to bring apples or items with apples. We've pretty much got that covered!

Canned veggies were also on a huge sale... 39¢ a can for Green Giant! Thank you Thanksgiving! We eat a lot of fresh and frozen veggies. But if we can't get them fresh, we prefer green beans and corn from a can. I think we ended up with 8 flats (96 cans) of green beans and like 4 flats (48 cans) of corn. We should be set for the winter and quite possibly longer. But don’t worry; we'll use every single can! They've also been handy to have for donating to programs at school and church!

And... we've been stocking up on Christmas gifts. Those packages are now wrapped and labeled. Wrapping packages this early is a first for us! But why move the packages, take inventory, re-stack them, etc... without wrapping them? We are probably 90% done with our shopping and everything we have in our possession is wrapped. WOOHOO!

Teacher shopping is done. Friend shopping is done. All the shopping we do for the grandparents/great grandparents (for our kids) is done. All of the shopping for our immediate family is done except one last thing for Abby & Ellie... and we have an option on hand. Though, I can’t vouch for the shopping Carie has to do solo. ;) All of our Santa shopping is done... all of it... including stockings! Oh, though Santa shopping isn't wrapped yet. Mommy & Momma want to have fun before we wrap it all up!

The tricky thing is going to be that we'll soon get hit up for Christmas lists for our kids and we'll have to step back and figure that out. We've thought about their Christmas wishes, made our decisions for us and the great grandparents, and have moved on. We should step back a few steps and think of other ideas to share. Spencer is easy. Take him down an aisle, any aisle, and he thinks he wants one of everything! If only we could get more ideas out of Abby & Ellie!

All we have left is my Grandparents (we pretty much know what we are getting them), one niece (we'll get her wish list), one set of parents (still debating options), one thing each for Abby & Ellie (waiting for that to shake out), and the kids name exchange for the big family celebration (the names haven't been drawn yet).

Oh, and the kids have done almost all of their shopping as well. We just need to take Abby & Ellie out separate to choose something for each other. They are thinking about what they'd like to get each other.

Christmas Meme

Shannon over at Other-Motherhood (a private blog) tagged me for a Christmas meme. Yes, folks, it's that time already! I don't normally do these, but I'm ready for the Christmas season and thought it sounded fun.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Primarily wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I grew up with artificial. Carie grew up not having a tree as their tradition. We opted to do a real tree and thought we’d continue that tradition. We did that for a long long time then one recent year we took the easy route and got a pre-lit artificial. I’m seriously hooked, for now.

3. When do you put up the tree? Anytime after Thanksgiving Day… quite possibly that weekend. We are thinking that outdoor lights might go up this weekend, depending on the weather... and the sickness factor. Carie is currently down for the count.

4. When do you take the tree down? After New Year's.

5. Do you like eggnog? Nope. But I’m not sure I’ve even tried it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm… I don’t know.

7. Hardest person to buy for? The parents… on both sides.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Spencer, he wants one of everything!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I know we have some kid sets but I don’t recall if we have a nicer (adult) one or not. This is Carie’s mom’s thing and we’ve always enjoyed her many many many nativity scenes.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I’ve done both. I like to mail them, but I’m also not good about getting them in the mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Not going to go there.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Movie? Who has time to watch movies?

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This is kind of a new thing (in the past couple of years) for us, but we start collecting items as we come across them. I remember coming across a bunch of Christmas stuff in July this year. We’ve got a lot of our shopping done, most of which is for our kids (including Santa gifts!) and I’m pretty much done shopping for Carie... including the kids shopping for her. We’ve got shopping left to do for our extended families and my extended extended family where we exchange names and haven’t done so yet. Some of them are even wrapped!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Hmm… this is a tough one. We are settling into some new traditions and the food isn’t a focus like they used to be. Though last year Carie discovered a recipe for cinnamon rolls / monkey bread that was easy, delicious, and perfect for Christmas morning. I suspect that will become a tradition.

16. Lights on the tree? Yes! Absolutely!

17. Favorite Christmas song? I love singing all the traditional songs at Church on Christmas Eve. Especially Silent Night. It will be nice when the kids are older and we can resume going to the midnight service on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately the family service isn’t an option for us given that we celebrate with my family that evening.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We stay fairly close to home. No overnights anywhere.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both… and then some. We celebrate with my family on Christmas Eve. We don’t open any of our family gifts on Christmas Eve; those are saved for Christmas morning. We then celebrate with my Dad’s extended family the Saturday after Christmas. And we often don’t celebrate with Carie’s family until New Year’s Day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The family drama. It always starts the first week of November.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Growing up my Grandmother had a tradition of gifting us an ornament every year. She would give it to us at Thanksgiving so we could put it on the tree that year. So, I’ve got a lot of Hallmark ornaments. And while my series has retired, she is now gifting ornaments to our kids. We’ve got some other favorite ornaments, but no theme or color.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Grandma’s cranberry jell-o and her stuffing. I know her stuffing recipe is a long time family recipe but I don’t know that the cranberry jell-o recipe is.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Peace

I tag whoever would like to have fun with it!

Gotta Like Them Apples

I went to a store yesterday with the intent of looking for a few specific items. I found some of the items and got what I went for. This is good for me! I'm not very good at "sticking to the list" when it comes to shopping.

As the family ahead of me was checking out I discovered that apples were on sale. Like, by a lot. My attention wouldn't have been drawn to her given the measly (for us!) 3 bags she was preparing to purchase. But then the woman and the checker commented on the great price. I didn't ponder that too long before I had grabbed my little basket and headed to the produce section. There were several varieties to choose from, a couple being some of our favorites. So I grabbed a couple bags of Gala's, a couple bags of Braeburns, and then picked up a bag of the "sour apples" that Ellie had just told us that she liked. With my basket now being significantly heavier, I made my way back through the check out. I checked out and headed back to work.

Then I got to thinking... 15lbs of apples for $4.95. Did I get "enough"? I mean sure, 15lbs is a lot. But at 33¢ a pound, should I have gotten more? I chat with Carie and we agree that I should return to get more. They'll make great snacks for school... for 2 classrooms. They'll be great eating apples, and all of our kids and the daycare kids love them. They'll be great for making applesauce, fried apples (Abby's favorite), apple cake, and apple pie. We easily go through apples in a flash, even without all the baking.

So, I after work I return to the store. I grabbed a full size cart and went to town. I never really added it all up until I was leaving the store and looked at the receipt.

But we ended up with 87lbs of apples! EIGHY SEVEN POUNDS of apples. Okay, so maybe I went a little crazy!?!? The cashier was a young boy and the look on his face was priceless. That was really worth it!

And, I "saved" $72.00 on that one trip and $87 overall just on apples. HA! The thing is I would not have bought 87 pounds of apples if they weren't on this kick ass sale. We didn't "need" apples, but we'll sure find a way to use them now!

And, ummm... it isn't like our apple drawer at home was empty.

Apples were sent to school today for snacks. That takes care of about 12 pounds, just 75 more to go!

Wow

Unsettled Thanksgiving

Sunday morning Carie and I were standing in the lengthy line at Panera preparing to enjoy our 30 minutes of adult debriefing time.

As we were standing in line my attention was drawn to an area where several tables were pushed together, with every space filled with a women who appeared to be enjoying her morning. Conversations were flying about when all of a sudden one woman got everyone's attention. She had some important news to share about her health. Every person at that table listened intently. They were genuinely interested and concerned, and it showed. You can't fake this, folks. They were truly concerned about the situation and how they could help. Then the topic of Thanksgiving came up. It seemed that maybe this woman has hosted it in the past or maybe it was her turn this year. I don't know the details; after all it really wasn't any of my business. It was just fascinating watching them all work it out. Immediately there were many offers and suggestions on the small Thanksgiving dilemma. Their dialogue was quite civil, caring, and they appeared to have a unique goal in mind. They listened to one another! It wasn't about when; it was about how they could come together.

I was really blown away by this exchange. It gave me hope. At this point in my life, not necessarily hope for my extended family. But hope that somewhere Thanksgiving is celebrated with joy, peace, togetherness, and a true desire to have all that and be all that. I want that. I want my kids to have that.

We can only manage our priorities, interests, desires, etc... We can have hope that things will be a certain way. But when our hopes, dreams, and priorities depend on others having similar interests and priorities, all we can do is manage our own end of things. We can't make anyone else want it like we want it.

It's that time of year again. To say that we weren't bracing for it would be a lie. We wish things could be different, we really do. It would be so awesome if everyone really just wanted to be together and that the logistics of it all just didn't matter.

But for such a small family, it always is so difficult. So frustrating and difficult. It isn't like there are 6, 8, or even 10 siblings. There are just 3 of us. I get that there is visitation, in-laws, and all the common considerations that should be taken. But this isn't unusual. This isn't anything new. This isn't anything unique to our family, it really isn't.

Yet every year we hit this road block where everyone's panties get in a bunch. I would say that maybe it's just our panties getting in a bunch, but I know for certain that we aren't the only ones who are unsettled. And this year, I'm pushing the envelope. I'm pushing the envelope because change must happen. Maybe I should borrow some of Obama's signs! We cannot participate in this unsettledness any longer. I've said that before. I've asked for this to happen over the past 3 years and yet here we are, faced with adversity yet again.

And the thing is, we (my immediately family) have been and continue to be completely flexible. I don't know how many times WE have said... just tell us when we are celebrating and we will be there. Period. Keep us out of the drama. Period. It isn't about us and it won't be about us. Period. But this year I am making it about us because this unsettledness must end.

Bottom line, it is impossible to make everyone happy. It is impossible to meet every single need. Some of the considerations are downright appalling. It is not reasonable to be expected to meet some of the needs on the table. Simply not reasonable. Period.

If all these other things take precedence, if there really are too many things to work around, then perhaps it is true that we all don't have a common interest or desire to come together as a family to share the joys of the Holiday.

Sometimes, like it or not, you just have to meet in the middle. Because when you don't you get this unsettled feeling. And that must stop.

Heat Restored

Heat is a good thing... especially when you don't have it.

We got home extremely late Friday night. I'm sure we checked the thermostat in our routine of getting everyone settled into bed. I'm sure there wasn't anything notable at that point. While it is early in the season, this isn't the first time the heat has been on in our house.

We all get a fairly good night’s sleep. I'm woken by the boy Saturday morning, as usual. I do think to myself that it is a bit chilly, but brush it off because I did just climb out of a comfy, cozy, and warm (electric mattress pad warm) bed. I look at the thermostat, clearly blurry eyed and thought hey I'll just bump it up a couple of degrees. The boy and I then head downstairs to the coldest part of the house. Yeah, it was cold but I figured the heat would kick on and it would warm up. I wasn't really paying attention to notice that the heat never kicked on. We went upstairs to get ready to go to basketball and I take another look at the thermostat. Thermostat was reading 64. Yep, it was cold for a reason!

As we were running out the door to get to Spencer's basketball game I grab the number for the service company who was last out. After a conversation with them, a conversation amongst Carie and I, and then again the service company we set an appointment for Monday morning.

We knew we'd be facing weekend rates if they came out prior to Monday. The earliest they could come out was Saturday evening, which would have been nice to get it going prior to the night hours. But geesh, their weekends rates were practically double their regular rate. Rightly so, I'm sure. We opt to skip the weekend rate and spend that difference on a space heater that we already had been debating about getting. We hoped that we could get by the rest of the weekend without the furnace. Oh, and it was the coldest weekend we've had by far this season. We didn't get the snow that was predicted, but our lows were in the 25-30 range all weekend. With the intense wind we had on Saturday the wind-chill temps had to have been quite low. I'm really thankful that it wasn't colder!

And ya know what, our plan worked. It was really fairly cozy all weekend. The fireplace helped more than we ever thought it did. We just had to keep stoking it to get some really good heat out of it. The kitchen and dining area benefited from us baking dinner and fresh bread. And what the heck, why not make a pie while we are at it.

This morning we got the call from the service guy who was headed out. Yay for the phone call that they said we would get! We must have been towards the beginning of his list to start his day. He cleaned the flame sensor, as they have done in the past. We thought about trying to do that last fall on our own. But after watching him do it this morning there is good reason for us not to do it. With our particular model of furnace it really is more complicated than it need to be. Good to know! All along I'm thinking it has to be something else. We've lived in this house for 9 years and have had no furnace problems until last winter. While cleaning the sensor annually may be a good idea, we seem to need it more frequently. And at the rates they charge to come out and do it, I was really looking for a bigger picture answer. So when he appeared and said that it looked like it might be more than the flame sensor, I wasn't surprised. I was probably a little relieved, actually. That is until we discovered the price tag! $375 later, our furnace appears to be working again. I'm glad we didn't go with the weekend rate! Thankfully he noted that everything else looked to be in great working order.

Heat restored.

Beautiful Shade Of Blue

Courtesy of his middle sister...

Too bad he didn't have his favorite Cinderella dress on. It would have matched perfect!

(Backing Up To) Halloween 2008

Deciding on costumes... Very early on Ellie had decided that she would be a ghost. She made her decision and she stuck with it. I found her a ghost costume on Craigslist and we were all happy.

Abby thought about being a ghost, a Dracula (I think), and something else. I don't really recall all the options we bounced around, but once we thought she was settled on something she changed her mind in the final days. We had everything to assemble any of her costume choices, except the ghost. She now wanted to be a ghost. We discussed making her a costume but Carie ended up finding this one pretty reasonable. We really loved Ellie's version of the ghost costume and I wish we would have had enough time to get a second one. And then she ended up losing the hood part of her costume and we went with plan B. The face paint.

Spencer was pretty easy. Last year after Halloween I found this rocket costume on clearance through Disney. It was such a huge steal (with free shipping no less) that I couldn't pass it up. I didn't even care if he actually wore it "for" Halloween; we thought he would at least have fun with it.



















The celebrations all began Thursday morning when Spencer had his Halloween party at preschool. We had an eye appointment for Ellie that morning and then arrived at preschool just after the festivities had gotten started. All the kids had a great time. I did get to snap a few photos that morning.















Then Thursday evening was Spooktacular at Abby & Ellie's school. Carie and I helped get the event kicked off a few weeks ago and then we helped out a little that evening. It turned out pretty well, though I do have some ideas floating around in my head that I might share to switch things up a bit in the future. I need to get them written down! Bottom line, the kids had a great time! Abby managed to lose a portion of her ghost costume, somewhere around the time we were doing spin art cookie decorating. It has yet to show up and I imagine it won't. I didn't get a single photo taken that evening!

Friday afternoon I went looking for white face paint (due to the above incident) and was lucky to find some. Though, after looking at some of the pictures it looks more like a face mask than anything else. Oh well, it seemed to look okay that evening!

We tried to get dinner in before trick-or-treating. Abby & Ellie did great with the "you must eat your dinner before you go" ultimatum. Spencer though could have cared less! We finally were on our way at about 6:30 with the kids trick-or-treating with some friends. Spencer took a while to warm up. He didn't want anyone to look at him. Kind of hard to pull off on Halloween night! Then he insisted that I go up to the door with him and he wanted me to do all the talking. I was (mostly) happy to go to the door with him... we could have done without the whining... but it was helpful for me to navigate him around things since his rocket costume was a little bulky.















From left to right... Spencer (hiding), Malien, Alexis, Lexi, Abby, Ellie, Jenna.

The kids kept going, and going, and going. Finally someone decided they were thirsty and it dawned on us that it would have been brilliant to have been prepared with a water bottle. At this point we are a fair distance from home and I just know that the walk home would not be ideal. So I opt to go get the van and some beverages. When I started walking towards home I realized just how far we had gone. I finally make it home, get beverages, get in the van and head towards them. I met up with them and they were ready to go home. But once home they hit up a few of our close neighbors that they didn't get to earlier. Then we decide to go trick-or-treat at Katie & Steve's house. We arrived at about 8:30 and stayed far too late, especially since Spencer's basketball game the next morning was at 8:30 am.

When it was all said and done, the kids collected 12 pounds of candy. Yes, TWELVE pounds of candy between the 3 of them. It was so much that I just had to weigh it with our kitchen scale. Ellie collected the most with 5 1/2 pounds. Abby collected 3 1/2 pounds and Spencer collected 3 pounds. The thing is, Abby & Ellie hung together the whole night. Hmmmmm....

It was so late when we got home Friday night that they didn't go through their bags to really check out their loot. But Saturday afternoon they dumped them out to take a good look. They selected their favorite pieces to keep in their own little Ziploc bags and then offered up the remaining loot to the Candy Fairy. That night at bedtime they set out their bags for the Candy Fairy and by morning she had delivered them some cool prizes. Abby & Ellie got the new Tinkerbell movie to share and a couple Fairy books that they didn't already have. Spencer got an airplane rocket blaster thing that I got stuck in the tree on the first attempt. Nothing like standing outside, on a Sunday morning after the time change, in your backyard, in your "robot" (i.e. robe), fishing an airplane out of your tree with a 14' tree trimmer pole. Thankfully we did get it down!

"Snow Day"

Go vote, we did!

The girls had expressed an interest in going with us to vote. They wanted to personally participate in the experience. We were happy to accommodate, but as the day drew near we were evaluating the possible scenarios that would work. None of them seemed all that promising, but we were certain we could figure it out. By about now we were kicking ourselves for not voting by mail!

And then, at 7:30 on Monday morning we got a call. Actually, we got 4 calls. One to every number our school had on file. School was being cancelled due to a water main break. To say the kids were excited is an understatement. To get an unexpected "snow day" on such a beautiful fall day (with record setting temps of 78) was wonderful. So I decided to take the day off as well and we decided to head to the zoo. But then Spencer puked all over the kitchen floor. Plan was revised and I took Abby, Ellie, B&B, and Lexi (one of A&E's friends) to the zoo while Carie (totally opted!) to stay home with Spencer.

After our zoo adventure I dropped off B&B and took the 3 girls to go vote. Carie had figured out that the voting office, for early voting, was still open and we could just show up. So we did! We got in line at 2:57 and we waited for a good long time. We were so close to the front and Ellie announces that she needs to use the restroom, and Lexi followed suit. Thankfully the folks we had been standing with for the past hour were kind enough to hold our spot so I could get them to a restroom. Then finally at about 4:35 we made it in the door of the election office and it was smooth sailing from there. I completed a form that told them who I was and whatnot. Then we got to go hang out in a waiting area. But hey, we got to sit! It wasn't long and then my name was called to vote. I showed the girls what the ballot looked like and what I had to do. I filled in my circles, turned it in, got our stickers, and we were out of there. It didn't take long as I had already looked over a sample ballot. We were in the van and driving away by 4:50.

The girls did an amazing job waiting. I wasn't prepared for a long wait and I totally should have been! In the end they thought it was great to be able to have that experience. They also were surprised at how it worked. They were thrilled with the stickers and they got some to wear to school today. The funniest thing was that Lexi was thinking that we would get bobble heads. Funny funny kids!

They know that Carie and Lexi’s mom are going to vote today and as we drove by the polling place I showed them where they would go. The girls announced that they wanted to go vote again if school was cancelled for a 2nd day. I guess the stickers were worth the wait!?!?

I then ruined their dinners by taking them to get an ice cream treat. And because they hadn't been together long enough that day, Abby & Ellie hung out at Lexi's house before finally coming home. We had a late dinner and called it a day.

Carie was all apologetic for me/us having to stand in line for so long, especially if she didn’t end up having to. The thing is, we just don’t know how long the lines are going to be today and I can’t see pulling the girls out of school for hours if we don’t need to. Especially since they missed just recently for the whole airport thing and then Ellie missed some time for her eye appointment. Predictions are that the lines will be quite long at peak times. So, standing in line it was… And it all worked out just fine. I got to vote. The girls got to be involved. Carie voted this morning after Spencer’s conferences and she was in and out of there within 15 minutes. Lucky her!

It will be interesting to watch the results tonight.

They Kept Falling

Posted price: $1.999
Cash Price: $1.969
After 20¢ coupon: $1.769

When was the last time we could fill up for that? Far too long ago.

Over the past month I've found myself questioning what was up with the falling fuel prices. They just keep falling and falling and falling.

It is so nice to be able to fill up a tank of gas for a whole lot less than we were mere months ago. But seriously, the prices have dropped significantly since the last time I thought they had dropped to such amazing lows... just 28 short days ago.

I still have more questions than answers, though I've not taken any time to really search out the answers. For now, I just reap the benefits.

I'm no expert on markets or Wall Street. I'd have to guess that our "recently discovered" (ha!) economic crisis might have something to do with it. Though I don't know how. Much more so I've personally pondered potential political involvement. Just one of those gut feelings kinda things.

And either people are making a rush to the pumps because it has dropped below $2 or I'm not the only one with those thoughts. It will be fascinating to see what happens to these prices after we hear the outcome of today's election results.

To Our Governor

RE: Safe Haven Law

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I don’t understand how the lawmakers could have gotten this so “wrong” (your perception). And when it was put to the test all we heard was this was not the “intent” of the law. That doesn’t give me much confidence in our lawmakers OR our HHS leaders. And now you have been pushed to your limits to call a special session, a costly special session that will undoubtedly cost the tax payers of our great state.

Personally, I think it is a GOOD thing that these families are coming forward for help. I can’t imagine that it is easy on any of them. Do I think that there are alternate avenues that should be taken? Yes. Do I think “abandoning” your pre-teen or teen is an ideal or even okay thing? No!

But CLEARLY these families are in need of help and I can only imagine that there are many many more families like them. So WHY is it MORE important to call a special session to put an end to this? Why is it so important to revise the Safe Haven law to accurately outline the “intent” as you all intended to do in the first place? Now, I’ve heard mention of an effort to evaluate services to help these families and families like theirs. But the focus at the moment seems to be clearing up your mistakes. WHY does HELP take a back seat to fixing your mistakes?

INSTEAD why not put your first focus on evaluating the services available, the services needed, what is working and what isn’t working, and the process one must go through to get services? Why not focus on the solution to the problems these families are facing?

Leave The Safe Haven law alone. The law, as it stands today, would be your test to see if you are getting it right.

Yeah, I understand that adding these kids to the system is costly. Yeah, I understand that it would be faster to change the bill than it would be to complete the effort to evaluate services and find help. But really, what is in the best interest of THESE KIDS?

Wouldn’t the $80,000 you are spending on a special session be helpful to the social services programs?