Happy Birthday Sis!

I dusted out the old photos today, in honor of my sisters birthday. Yes, the cute little baby in this picture turned 26 years old today!



I remember when my mom was still pregnant. I was three and we were sitting at the dinner table and the debate started between me and my brother, as to whether we were going to have a brother or sister. Of course I wanted a girl baby. I had it in my head that she would be like a little baby doll. I got my wish that day 26 years ago, although I don't think I know exactly what I was getting into, It certainly wasn't a baby doll.



Sure, I had to give up half my room, but In return, I always had someone to talk to when it was late and I wasn't tired. And those Saturdday mornings when we were banned till our rooms till they were clean, I had someone to complain to that believed room cleaning was torture parents inflict purposely on their kids.

Jess was always good for a laugh. Whether it was her soaked puppy that had a potty training acident, her mild obsession with "Shakey-leg" & Pee-Wee Herman, and the instintive ham radar that lead to fridge raiding at an early age, there wasn't a dull moment growing up.


So Jess, heres to big curly hair, funky glasses, and surviving growing up in the 80's. I love you! Happy birthday! XOXO Jen

We always knew he wasn't right in the head...

So this is how my afternoon went.

I come home and and I settle down to have some free time to myself.

But that was not to happen. Jim calls. He was quite frantic. All I heard was that he hurt his head and needed stitches so he was on his way home. He told me he was turning on a st. near us and would be home in a minute

He was definatly out of it. Why he didn't call me to pick him up? He didn't even bother to get the information from his company about where he needs to go to get it taken care of.

So I'm sitting here waiting for him and he doesn't come and doesn't come. I get frantic b/c he wasn't picking up his cell phone. I have visions of him in a ditch passed out from a concussion or something.

So, I end up driving trying to find him,expecting to find the truck in a ditch. Turns out when he called he was farther away than he told me, and then had no signal.

Anyway, turns out he needed to have stitches on the top of his head. He's still not quite with it, and has a pretty big headache. The kids are so funny. The running joke is that daddy almost lost all his brains, through the hole in his head.

So much for my free day without homework.

The Cat Sauna

I think these pictures say it all. Every time we burn this is where Finn is. He is so spoiled, I'm sure he thinks that we burn just for him. Crazy, lazy Cat

Froggy's First Kiss

Caleb Brought this library book home from school.




It kind of surprised me, b/c I can see the girls wanting to read this book, but Caleb is so rough and tough and super-hero/action oriented, this is not the normal book he brings home to read.

Of course I had to tease him about it. I took one look at the cover and scolded him. "Kissing? You brought a book about KISSING into my house???"

He just had this dumbfounded look on his face like "What did I do?"

"I'm going to have to talk to your teacher and the principal. Kissing books are not allowed in this house. You're in big trouble boy" Now, I'm not the world greatest bluffer. I can't lie without you seeing it on my face. So by now he knows that I'm kidding.

So anyway, while we are waiting for breakfast, we sit down to read. Caleb read nearly the entire book to me. He's been bringing home early readers that they read in class and then send home to read. But this is different. This was a book he never heard before so he didn't memorize it, and he couldn't tell what the words were by looking at the pictures!

So, he's really reading! This is my favorite part of kindergarten! I had to hold my excitement back. I was ready to hop in the car, head to the library and start picking out books for him to read that I know he will love. How to eat fried worms... Ralph the mouse... The chocolate touch... now that he is reading, it's like there is a whole new world opened up to him!

Anyway, I know not everyone will appreciate my excitement over this milestone, but I can honestly say I am the proudest mom right now. There is just something about reading that in my mind means he officially is leaving his baby days behind. He's entering his childhood. I just hope he loves to read as much as I do.

I'm all about the books...

And when they make good movies out of books I love, then I'm all about the movies too.

However, not all movies based on books are good. So when I hear that Narnia was coming to the theaters, I purposely did not read the book before seeing it. However, I did read it afterwards, and I was impressed at how true to the book the film was.

Now, they just released the trailer for Prince Caspian. It looks to be really good and I can't believer we are going to have to wait nearly 18 months for it to come out. Check it out

Girls night in...

The men have left us. Yes, they are off in a world of testosterone, cheering on the Phantoms. This is Caleb's first hockey game. They left right from work/school to the game. It's been quiet without the boy here, he's definately the loud one.

So Us girls were home alone tonight. We ordered in Chinese, watched The Shaggy Dog and then settled down to some serious business. Tonight was a craft night. :)




Abby has been collecting a ton of pictures, and snip-its from her magazines she gets. So we Decoupaged them onto a tool box she made at a home-depot kids class. It was very messy, but very fun.


Lilly on the other hand, didn't have anything to decoupage, so I pulled out the paints and she made some home made paper for her new scrapbook.


Anyway, I must be going. Abby tells me Monk is coming on shortly. Heaven forbid we miss an episode of Monk... I think she Loves Monk as much as I loved Columbo back when I was her age. Weird...

Tony Shaloub,
Peter Faulk....

Both dark haired, quirky detectives, who can always find the bad guy in 60 minutes or less. There are times when I think we are the same girl, just 20 years apart. She doesn't look much like me, but she sure does act like me in so many ways. I'm vicariously living my childhood all over again through her, only difference is she is a lot more "techno-fied" than I was in 1987. I would have loved an MP3 Player at her age. You can play the songs over and over and over without damaging the tape. I had both a soundtrack of Annie and A Tiffiany tape around her age that didn't make it to my teen years, b/c I just wore them out.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings.

Chow!

Bridge to Terabithia

When we went to see Eragon in the movie theater, I saw the poster for Bridge to Terabithia which is coming out next month. I LOVED this book, so we got it for Abby to read it before we go.

She has a monthly book report to do, so out of all the books she got for Christmas, She picked this one for the report. She was that intrigued by the trailer.

Every time I read this book, I ball my eyes out. The ending is so sad, and it gets me every time. I don't think Jim and the kids "get" why I cry when reading books, and just figure it's a "mom-thing"

However, I went downstairs today to get a drink, and there is Abby laying on the couch, she is reading, and looks up at me. Her Eyes were red and puffy with huge tears streaming down her face. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was time for bed, so I let her stay up and finish the book.

Anyway, Watch the trailer. It's looks great. I really hope Disney did a great job with this book as they did with Narnia. I can't wait until it comes out. :)

The boy turns six.

Caleb turned 6 this past friday. Not only was it his birthday, but it was his "honeys" birthday too. For those who do not know, Caleb was "married" in a kindergarten ceramony at recess earlier this fall to a classmate who lives right up the street from us. It just so happens that they were born within hours of each other, on the same January 12, 2001. :) Anyway, she came down to the party to help us celebrate.

He was happy to see a brand new bicycle waiting for him. His older bike was so beat up, rusty and small for him.


He also received some new clothes, A star wars coloring book, A kite, magnetix and an idog. So far the idog has got the most use. He got an MP3 Player for christmas, and I uploaded the star wars theme song on it for him. Since the idog is pretty much a speaker for the MP3 player, He as been putting that song on repeat and putting it as back ground music for light saber fights. Let me tell you that theme song has been played at least, oh, I'd say 50 times since Saturday...


Star wars is definately his obsession for the time being. Over the past year it has been several different things. Power Rangers, Ghost busters, Spider Man, Super man, bat man. But right now, he is constantly talking about being a jedi knight.

So if you have yet to see his birthday slide show I made for him, Her it is. Jim took him out the other day to play with his new camera and told Caleb just to play, and ended up taking 120+ pictures. I used them with a few others to come up with what he calls his "movie" I think I captured the essence of his imagination pretty well...

Anyway, he isn't done birthday-ing yet. Next weekend he gets to celebrate all over again with Nanny and Pappy.

After this mom and dad will be glad to get back to normal. Having a kid three weeks before and three weeks after Christmas was just goes to show our lack of family planning... If we were smart, we would have spaced them three months apart... Give our schedules and the checkbook some time to recover! :)

Daddy's Little Helpers

We used some of our Christmas money for a new bookcase. Our previous one was overflowing, and for Christmas everyone got new books. So we had to have some place to put them.

So yesterday we went to my favorite store on earth, Ikea! We found what we were looking for and it was on sale, so we snagged it. : )

Jim put it together last night. This time he had a couple of helpers, or should I say supervisors... Check it out.





Like most supervisors, when he saw the work was being done ok, he decided to take some time off and have some fun. It seems the empty box and tissue paper were just too much to pass up, and he went and called his sister to come play with him.





Both Cat and Finn tried their hardest to make the bottom shelf their own, after all, they felt that they helped put it together so they should get something out of it. However, their silent sit in did not work. They were evicted and the shelves rightful owners, the books have a new home.

Aren't cats fun???

It's done

The complete video of Christmas pictures is up and the link is to the left. Lots of pictures of the kids and all the family we spent our holidays with. :)

Enjoy


****UPDATE*****

I took the Christmas pictures down, I can't figure out how to erase this post, so you are not going insane if you are looking for a link and it is not there. :)