Naked Girl Running!

My plan was to take a couple minutes and check my e-mail. We had just finished making pepermint frosting for the brownies I will be taking to the PUG meeting later this evening. I get the computer on, click open Outlook and no sooner have I done this I hear screaming and feet stomping as the girls go running across our garpartment like a herd of hyenas. Do hyenas even travel in herds? Maybe a pack of hyenas. Either way, screaming, yelling, laughing, and yes one of them is naked. Why? I don't know. I think she was changing into a skirt. . . Yes, I am pretty sure that is what was happening. However, midway through she was distracted and the chase began. Every minute or so I get slammed into by bodies, almost falling off the exercise ball that we use as a chair for our desk.

I am sure that any minute now there will be crying, someone will have gotten hurt and my skills will be called into action. Until that time I suppose I just try to keep them away from things that will cause permanent physical damage, like the fireplace or stove and try to encourage calmer play.

At one point my oldest slams into me with her finger in her mouth and a smile on her face. I ask he why she is smiling and all she says is "That frosting is gooood!" Having cut sweets out pretty much altogether, the sight of frosting about sent them into overload and she just couldn't help herself.

Listening to them play brings a smile to my face. I can't help but enjoy listening to them interact with each other. The love they have for each other and the pure joy they have in just being kids. The simple things that make them laugh are warmth for my heart. I hope you all get to enjoy the sound of children playing because there truly is nothing like it.

The Long Awaited Trip To The Dentist.

I should start off this post by explaining that we have attempted to take Olyvia to the dentist twice in her life. Once when she was 3 years old and again about 6 months later. Both resulted in equally unpleasant experiences where we left with her over my shoulder screaming that she didn't want to be there. This said, you can imagine that the though of taking both her and Ellie to the dentist on the same day at the same time seemed a little daunting. All worries aside, I was ready for the challenge.

The first obstacle was getting Ellie from school, Olyvia picked up, both of them home, fed lunch and then turned around and back to town for our appt at 1:30pm. I was able to pull it off, arriving at the dentist office at 1:20pm. Who knew I had such skill. :)

Upon arriving at the dental office I noticed a note on the counter. They were out of the office until 1:30. Interesting. So I quickly steer the girls to the table with small chairs and toys so that they can play quietly while we wait. I pick up a magazine and being reading. I believe it was something on traveling. As we are sitting there an older woman comes in and has a seat next to me and at two different times comments on the girls beautiful hair and how well behaved they are being. I am just praying their behavior continues throughout the remainder of the visit. Then a younger woman comes in and has a seat. By this time it is 1:30 and the receptionist steps out and hands me a clipboard piled with papers that need filled out with Ellie's information. I quickly work my way through them and turn them back in hoping that the sooner they have them the sooner we can go back.

As I am sitting there attempting to quickly fill out the paperwork the girls begin bickering and grabbing toys from each other. I try to remain calm asking them to please stop fighting over the toys, there are plenty to share. The fighting continues until just as I look over a full cup of water is knocked to the ground spilling all over. I can feel the heat rising to the surface of my skin. I calmly but ever so quickly walk over to the table and sternly explain that they are not to have any more water and that they need to go and sit in the chairs, one on either side of me. I clean up the mess, put the toys away and have a seat, reading through my magazine and praying for the dental hygienist to come in and call our names.

A dental hygienist steps around the corner, it is now 1:35pm and I am hopeful, but no, she calls one of the other ladies. I don't think they realize that the longer they wait the harder this could be. It isn't until 10 minutes later and after both of the other ladies are already back there that a nice young woman comes to get the girls. Olyvia gets to go first and she seems pretty excited about this fact.

We head back. Xrays are taken. It only took 3-5 tries per side, but later we were glad she cooperated and let the hygienist keep trying. The teeth are cleaned, using cookie dough flavoured teeth paste, yuck, and after she gets flossed it is Ellie's turn. Ellie's teeth are so little that in the time it takes me to get Olyvia to the bathroom and back her turn is done. The dentist comes over, checks them both out and there is good and bad news. Ellie is in the clear. No cavities. Olyvia however, has two cavities. Her teeth looked good he said but her flossing on her back molars is going to need a little work since her teeth are so close together. She seemed in rather good spirits though and is even excited about going back and getting them fixed up.

All together the trip to the dentist went rather well. I think the toughest part was the anticipation of how the cleaning would go and the waiting in the lobby for our turn. Patience is not a top priority with 3 and 5 year olds. :)

A trip to Sequim in the snow.

We spent a day with my parents and went up to Sequim to see how their property up there was in the snow and then went on a walk up above where we used to live. It allowed for reminiscing as we walked by some of the places I used to go as a small kid. We had a great time and although the girls got a little cold, I think they had a great time also. Here are some pics of our day.

Our Not So Teen Teens!

Over the last ten years I have been blessed with some awesome opportunities. One of those was getting to know a diverse group of teenagers. They were the very first group of teenagers to go through the youth group I was leading (some 7 plus years ago) and I have continued to be blessed by watching them grow in to amazing adults. This year Robb and I decided to have a gathering at our garpartment a couple days after Christmas to eat some good food, visit, watch a movie and play games. It was great to see them. Here are some of the pictures from our night.

Andrea!

Emily & Kerr


Emery Tallon.
We are going to miss him when he leaves for the Coast Guard.


Eric
Just a couple short hours before everyone was set to come over, Robb chopped through his leg with a very sharp ax. It was a topic of discussion for part of the evening.


We sure love you guys and can't wait to get together next year.

Pickled Herring. . . Yum?

When I was dating Robb I was introduced to many new things. One of the most unpleasant of these was pickled herring. The sound of it alone was horrible enough to know that I never wanted to try it, but to smell it. Goodness, I was pretty sure there wasn't any food that smelled quite so bad. The only time we ever have to be around this appetizer was during the holidays when at his family's Christmas gatherings. Robb himself does not partake thankfully so I don't have to worry about kissing pickled herring mouth. Yuck!

You might ask, where does this story take me? This year we spent Christmas evening at Robb's mother's house with his mom, grandparents, aunt, cousin, dad and his dad's wife. His dad and Dee were invited last minute when they had to cancel coming to Poulsbo at the last minute because of the snow. Robb thought it would be a great idea to bring some pickled herring with us and I agreed. Little did I know that later in the evening some might actually touch the inside of my mouth. If I had known, I never would have agreed.

Long story short, later in the evening Lindsey, Robb's cousin, was being coerced into trying some. In a last chance to get free from it she exclaimed, "If Jessica does it, I will." She figured she was pretty safe since the chance of me doing it was right up there with the possibility of the moon falling out of the sky. We all watched as her mother tried it.






Now Robb couldn't be shown up by his aunt so he ate one.

A little less harsh of a reaction almost made me wonder if he actually liked it. Thankfully, he assured me he did not.

His grandfather was very proud and was still trying to convince Lindsey to partake. She was still holding strong to her statement that if I did it she would, but they were still trying to convince her to do it.

I just couldn't take it anymore and said "Lindsey, you just can't think about it, you have to do it" and I stabbed a piece with a toothpick and popped it into my mouth, swallowing it whole. There was definitely not going to be any chewing. Now she was stuck. There was no option but eating a piece now that I had. and so she did only she chewed it. Brave girl!

January Question of the Month

This is my fourth attempt to get this post up. Each time I sit down to write a post something distracts me or pulls my attention away. It is usually my beautiful girls and because of that, I don't mind being pulled away. They are so precious and growing so fast. The little things they say or the expressions they have.

That said, lately we have waging a war against the whines. We have discovered that our youngest has quite the sweet tooth that was made worse over the holidays. Because of this we have decided that there will be no more sweets. No candy, no cookies, no cake. She was to the point where she wouldn't want anything and wouldn't eat anything and then begged and begged for the goodies. Not gonna have it. We are slowly pulling her out of the abyss of addiction that she was finding herself in, poor little thing. She isn't too happy with us when she wants a goodie, but she is quickly realizing that the fits don't get her what she wants. That is a hard thing to do though, to be the parent. To hear your child being upset but still standing firm in what you know to be the best for them. They don't always like it and a lot of the times truely hate it, but making the decision to stick to it is one of the best decisions a parent can make. The following through of punishments is tough, but in the long run very worth it.

I remember a couple books that were really helpful for me when Olyvia was young were the What to Expect and The Girlfriends Guide books. I definitely suggest them to anyone pregnant or with young children.

This month I want you to think of one of the times it was really hard to "be the parent" and what helped you get through. You don't necessarily have to have children for this to apply to you. If you have babysat children before or have grandchildren, nieces and/or nephews then this applies to you as well. I look forward to hearing.

Bringing 2008 to a slicing close.

It was December 27th and I was busy in the house getting ready for a party we would be having that evening. Ellie was napping in our bedroom and Olyvia was helping me in the kitchen while also watching a movie. It was around 3pm. I had just sliced open a bag of greenbeens to get them washed and ready to cook up to go with dinner. We were expecting about 6 people over to the house around 5:30 for dinner, games and movies. I hear Robb coming up the stairs. He opens the door and says "I think we should probably head to Urgent Care."

Thinking he is joking or overexagerating I say "What?" and when there is no change of facial expression I ask "You are kidding, right?" He replies, "No. We should go to Urgent Care like, RIGHT NOW!" Still in shock and not knowing really what to do. Standing there in my slippers with a knife in my hand and beans in the other I ask "What did you do?" He replies, rather urgently, "I cut my leg and we need to go to Urgent Care right now!

I spin around in a few circles in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do. Do I clean up the beans and turn off the stove? What about the oven? The slow cooker is on? I need to get Ellie but she is napping. After I spin a few times, I run into the bedroom throwing off my slippers and putting shoes on. I grab Ellie, grab her some shoes while telling Olyvia to get her shoes on quick because we have to take daddy to the doctor. Luckily we had already packed the girls because they were going to be going over to their grandma and papa's house to spend the night. I grab all their stuff and we run down the stairs. I throw the girls into the jeep, pretty sure that I buckled them although I can't actually remember much of those few minutes.

We all got into the jeep and drove out. I tossed the cell phone at Robb who is sitting in the passenger seat, blood dripping out of the bottom of his pants leg , and tell him to call my dad and let him know that we are on our way to Urgent Care. I had called him quickly before leaving the house but being in such a quick hurry hadn't had time to really explain anything and I think I actually might have hung up on him.

It took us record time to get to Urgent Care and we pulled into the parking lot and I ran in to let them know that we were there. My dad had already filled them in on the situation. Robb got out of the car while my dad helped the girls out. We were led straight back.

The nurse took a look up the pant leg to see what we were looking at and all she said was "WOW!" and then proceeded to let us know she was just going to leave it until the doctor came in. When the doctor came in what we saw was none to pretty.

Below are some of the pictures we took with our phones while the girls attentively watched the doctor stitch up their daddy.

After we were back home and the party was over. . . yes, we made it home in time for me to finish getting things ready for the party and we had an awesome time (pics of that to come) . . . I was able to figure out what happened that caused this horrible wound. He was chopping wood with a very sharp Swiss ax he had gotten a couple years ago as a Christmas gift. He was being safe, leaving his leggs apart should the ax swing between his legs he wouldn't hit them with the ax. The problem was, the ax went all the way through the wood and bounced off the chopping block, coming up at an angle off to the left and slicing through his leg. If only he had been less carefull I guess . . . One of those things that just happened I suppose. I think I will just put him on sharp object restriction for a little while.

The Traveler by Daren and Daniel Simkin

I had stopped in Starbucks a couple days before Christmas to grab a gift certificate for someone and while waiting in line was caught by a book sitting on the shelf. For those of you who have frequented Starbucks, you know that they often have books on their shelves that they are promoting. This book for some reason grabbed my attention. Possibly it was the simple cover of grays and whites or maybe it was the little child carrying such a large suitcase. Either way, I picked it up, flipped open to the cover flap and read what it was about. Upond reading this short paragraph I knew this book was for me. A simple fable about a little boy's search for the best way to use his time.

This is something I have been doing a lot lately. I have been wondering how to best use my time or how to best spend it. Not wanting to waste time on the stuff that isn't as important and to make sure I am giving plenty of time to the things that are. So I set the book on the counter and decided I would take it home and read it; I would see what this fable could teach me or what light it could bring to my quest.

After bringing it home it sat on my coffee stand for almost a week before I finally picked it up. The book took me only about 15 minutes to read, but the message it tells is clear. I encourage you all to pick up this book and read what it has to tell you. Put yourself in the fable and see what it tells you about your time.

For me I learned that I need to cherish every minute with my family. My girls are growing and growing and I will never get these minutes back. I have to not take time for granted, but enjoy each second. I look forward to putting to practice the vision this book has shown me as we embarq upon a new year.