6 people in the family.
That means a minimum of 6 coats in the entry way.
12 shoes in the entry way.
12 boots in the entry way.
6 scarves, 12 mittens, 6 hats.
6 pairs of snowpants.
plus
spares.
And that is the minimum.
It is overwelming, to say the least.
So do you know what I want for Christmas?
A mud room
The room of my dreams.
A room with doors.
Closed doors.
A room with hooks for coats.
Lots of hooks.
A room with with bins for shoes.
And boots.
A room with drawers for mittens, scarves and hats.
And one for spares.
A room with a sink.
To rinse off boots.
A room with cupboards
For swimming stuff, and backpacks.
The room of my dreams.
Really, it is all I want for Christmas.
And it is clearly laid out in my addition plans.
Someday.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Snow In November (and other stories)
Since Noah was going to be off over the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided it would be a good chance for me to do some hard core shifting in the old ICU.
And it was busy. At one point, while we were helping with a task, one of my coworkers looked up at me, blew the bangs out of her eyes and said "this is the kind of thing you don't tell people that you do at work."
I said, "I know".
So I won't.
Instead I will show you what the rest of the family did while I was sleeping.
Yep, that is right. A little snowboard practice in the ditch by our house.
Here is Deacon. I am hoping his pants don't start saggin' anymore.
Yes, this is what we wake up to in the morning. She can peer at us over the side of her crib!Now that I am home, I am trying to get caught up.
There are a few important things on my list:
1.Must buy new jeans that fit
2. Must give old jeans to my mom as payment for childcare
3. Must go buy new running shoes
4. must run
5. Must put the new tabs on van (only one day of November left)
6. Must pay utilities (due tomorrow)
I suppose I should start thinking about Christmas soon, and Deacon's birthday. I suppose I should get my hair cut and go grocery shopping. I suppose I should go back to work tonight, since they sound desperate. But it is raining, and it supposed to turn to snow.
I think I will just stay home and fold laundry.
That needs to be done too, right?
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Taking 4 Kids 6 and Under to the Water Park Capital of the World
Last week we suddenly decided that it would be really fun to take the kids to Wisconsin Dells overnight. So we did.
We did a little research and on the recommendation of a neighbor, we booked a room at the Wilderness- home of multiple waterparks, both inside and outside. Of course the outdoor ones were closed.
Taking 4 young children anywhere (even the grocery store) requires at least a loosely thought out plan. Either that or a random aunt or grandma that can come along as an assistant. Alas, our aunts all had work or school and hmmm...I guess we never invited the grandmas.
They are our children afterall, so we decided to attempt this waterpark hopping feat by ourselves.
And do you know what? It went fine.
Turns out, waterparks are our kids things.
We had no "Roman fits"
We had no "Lincoln freakouts"
We did have one "Deacon panic attack" but that was only after we decided to add 96.5 miles to the trip to buy Noah new pants- a panic attack under those circumstances is to be expected, I think.
Here are some things we learned. Hope they will help you!
1. after a couple of hours of waterparking, ordering pizza to your room is a good thing. No one wants a bunch of wet, cold, tired kids at a restaurant (least of all me). Having pizza delivered to our room while the kids watched the Disney Channel was a good thing.
2. bringing life jackets with hoods and handles is important. Yes, they provide life jackets at the park, but we brought our own- ones with handles. This saved Roman's life more than once in the wave pool.
3. spelling out the life jacket rules prior to entering the water is helpful. We told Roman and Lincoln that they had to keep their jackets on unless they were in the 6 inch deep kiddie area. Deacon only had to wear his in the Wave Pool. They knew these rules beforehand and they didn't fight with us about them.
4. having a totally laid back baby who is content to be dragged around the waterpark wrapped in towels is handy. If you have a baby, I recommend only attempting this endeavor if your baby is super low maintenance.
5. if you are a nursing mama, wear a two piece. Nursing a baby in a one piece in the middle of a waterpark requires more skills than most have. It is definitely a 4th or 5th baby kind of manuver.
6. if your 3 year old loves the waterslide, be prepared to walk up all 88 steps, holding his hand, over and over and over and over again. Bonus: this will wear him out.
7. Come up with signs to use between you and your husband. You can use these when one of you is at the top of a waterslide with 2 children and you can see him on a bridge with one child. Obviously that makes one kid awol, and this must be communicated promptly. I suggest coming up with sign language for " child # blank is missing", " Child # blank is coming down slide, may need a rescue at the bottom" and "this is the last time I am taking this child down this slide. I am exhausted. It is your turn." Of course, it is more fun if you also have signs for "you look awesome in your swim wear".
8. Be on the lookout for sudden maniacal looks in your children's eyes. This may indicate that they are about to jump off their tube in the wave pool. This may mean that they have developed a sudden grand delusion of being a famous body surfer who is much taller than 40 inches.
9. I am not usually real organized and I don't plan ahead for any disaster (I don't even carry a diaper bag). I thought about the areas that were most important to me and planned for them. The 3 things I made sure I had were these 1. life jackets 2. bandaids 3. 2 swim suits for me so I wouldn't have to put on a wet one. Ewww.
10. Watch for maniacal looks in your children's eyes before they go down a waterslide. This may communicate that they are planning a dramatic somersault at the end of the slide and will indeed be chastised by the lifeguard.
11. Don't let your 6 year old stay up late watching Hannah Montana- even if he is running in tight circles around the room. Sit on him or pat his head until he falls asleep instead.
12. Let each other have fun! It doesn't all have to be about the kids. If you have a chance, gather the children around to watch one of you go down a more adult slide. Of course it is rather disappointing when the slide you want to go down requires at least 2 people over 48 inches tall...
13. Figure out before hand how tall your children are and ask the park what slides etc they will be allowed on. Then you can warn your kids beforehand and they won't end up as disappointed.
14. You will have your hands full with 4 kids. If your camera is more expensive than the birth of your children, leave it home. You don't need to be focusing on picture taking and having to make decisions like "do I jump in to save my child and destroy my camera or do I set my camera down and risk it being stolen before I jump in?" I am a little sad that we have no pictures of our trip, but I think it was less stressful and we do have our memories :)
I am not the only one up anymore, so those are all the tips I have time for today! We will certainly go back- it was an active vacation, and that is what my boys do best!
We did a little research and on the recommendation of a neighbor, we booked a room at the Wilderness- home of multiple waterparks, both inside and outside. Of course the outdoor ones were closed.
Taking 4 young children anywhere (even the grocery store) requires at least a loosely thought out plan. Either that or a random aunt or grandma that can come along as an assistant. Alas, our aunts all had work or school and hmmm...I guess we never invited the grandmas.
They are our children afterall, so we decided to attempt this waterpark hopping feat by ourselves.
And do you know what? It went fine.
Turns out, waterparks are our kids things.
We had no "Roman fits"
We had no "Lincoln freakouts"
We did have one "Deacon panic attack" but that was only after we decided to add 96.5 miles to the trip to buy Noah new pants- a panic attack under those circumstances is to be expected, I think.
Here are some things we learned. Hope they will help you!
1. after a couple of hours of waterparking, ordering pizza to your room is a good thing. No one wants a bunch of wet, cold, tired kids at a restaurant (least of all me). Having pizza delivered to our room while the kids watched the Disney Channel was a good thing.
2. bringing life jackets with hoods and handles is important. Yes, they provide life jackets at the park, but we brought our own- ones with handles. This saved Roman's life more than once in the wave pool.
3. spelling out the life jacket rules prior to entering the water is helpful. We told Roman and Lincoln that they had to keep their jackets on unless they were in the 6 inch deep kiddie area. Deacon only had to wear his in the Wave Pool. They knew these rules beforehand and they didn't fight with us about them.
4. having a totally laid back baby who is content to be dragged around the waterpark wrapped in towels is handy. If you have a baby, I recommend only attempting this endeavor if your baby is super low maintenance.
5. if you are a nursing mama, wear a two piece. Nursing a baby in a one piece in the middle of a waterpark requires more skills than most have. It is definitely a 4th or 5th baby kind of manuver.
6. if your 3 year old loves the waterslide, be prepared to walk up all 88 steps, holding his hand, over and over and over and over again. Bonus: this will wear him out.
7. Come up with signs to use between you and your husband. You can use these when one of you is at the top of a waterslide with 2 children and you can see him on a bridge with one child. Obviously that makes one kid awol, and this must be communicated promptly. I suggest coming up with sign language for " child # blank is missing", " Child # blank is coming down slide, may need a rescue at the bottom" and "this is the last time I am taking this child down this slide. I am exhausted. It is your turn." Of course, it is more fun if you also have signs for "you look awesome in your swim wear".
8. Be on the lookout for sudden maniacal looks in your children's eyes. This may indicate that they are about to jump off their tube in the wave pool. This may mean that they have developed a sudden grand delusion of being a famous body surfer who is much taller than 40 inches.
9. I am not usually real organized and I don't plan ahead for any disaster (I don't even carry a diaper bag). I thought about the areas that were most important to me and planned for them. The 3 things I made sure I had were these 1. life jackets 2. bandaids 3. 2 swim suits for me so I wouldn't have to put on a wet one. Ewww.
10. Watch for maniacal looks in your children's eyes before they go down a waterslide. This may communicate that they are planning a dramatic somersault at the end of the slide and will indeed be chastised by the lifeguard.
11. Don't let your 6 year old stay up late watching Hannah Montana- even if he is running in tight circles around the room. Sit on him or pat his head until he falls asleep instead.
12. Let each other have fun! It doesn't all have to be about the kids. If you have a chance, gather the children around to watch one of you go down a more adult slide. Of course it is rather disappointing when the slide you want to go down requires at least 2 people over 48 inches tall...
13. Figure out before hand how tall your children are and ask the park what slides etc they will be allowed on. Then you can warn your kids beforehand and they won't end up as disappointed.
14. You will have your hands full with 4 kids. If your camera is more expensive than the birth of your children, leave it home. You don't need to be focusing on picture taking and having to make decisions like "do I jump in to save my child and destroy my camera or do I set my camera down and risk it being stolen before I jump in?" I am a little sad that we have no pictures of our trip, but I think it was less stressful and we do have our memories :)
I am not the only one up anymore, so those are all the tips I have time for today! We will certainly go back- it was an active vacation, and that is what my boys do best!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Controversial Monday: Blinking Eyes in the NFL
I may have mentioned this on here before, but the "living" head shots on the televised broadcasts of NFL games creep me out.
Do you know which ones I mean?
They want to talk about Peyton Manning, so they throw a picture of him up on the screen. And for a second, you think it is just a nice head shot. And then you see his shoulder twitch. And he blinks.
Creepy.
Or maybe they put Tom Brady up there on the screen. And once again, you think it just a mug shot. But then you notice his hair blowing slightly in the wind.
Creepy.
Every time I see one of those "living" mug shots I can only think of one thing:
Hogwarts.
You know, where Harry Potter goes to school.
And the portraits.
You know, the ones that are living.
The people at Hogwarts don't have to stay still in their portraits, just like the NFL guys.
And it disturbs me.
How about you? Have you noticed the correlation?
Do you know which ones I mean?
They want to talk about Peyton Manning, so they throw a picture of him up on the screen. And for a second, you think it is just a nice head shot. And then you see his shoulder twitch. And he blinks.
Creepy.
Or maybe they put Tom Brady up there on the screen. And once again, you think it just a mug shot. But then you notice his hair blowing slightly in the wind.
Creepy.
Every time I see one of those "living" mug shots I can only think of one thing:
Hogwarts.
You know, where Harry Potter goes to school.
And the portraits.
You know, the ones that are living.
The people at Hogwarts don't have to stay still in their portraits, just like the NFL guys.
And it disturbs me.
How about you? Have you noticed the correlation?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Sunny Day!
I have some great posts mulling around in my brain. The imagined posts have some great titles too, things like "The One In Which Noah and Julie Take 4 kids 6 and Under to the Water Park Capital of the World", "What happens When you Take a 97 mile Detour to Buy Pants in Wisconsin" and my personal favorite, "How to Manage a 6 Year Old Having a Panic Attack in the Back of the Van". They sound thrilling, don't they?
But the post of today takes us back 8 days to a beautiful, sunny November afternoon. I drove the kids down to Noah's work, picked him up and we went to the park for a couple of hours. It was exceptionally wonderful because it is November and we were wearing short sleeves. 5 short days later we were shoveling the driveway, but we won't dwell on that anymore.
There are not too many pictures of me on my blog. Well, there you go!
Deacon loves shiny "sports shorts" and they really helped him on the slide! He kept flying off the end and landing on his rear. He tried to be cool about it, but I think it kinda hurt :)
Even Berean got in on the slide action. And yes, that gray stuff on her outfit is dirt. Don't judge.
Lincoln took over the camera for awhile. We were waving at him, not looking dorky at all...
But the post of today takes us back 8 days to a beautiful, sunny November afternoon. I drove the kids down to Noah's work, picked him up and we went to the park for a couple of hours. It was exceptionally wonderful because it is November and we were wearing short sleeves. 5 short days later we were shoveling the driveway, but we won't dwell on that anymore.
There are not too many pictures of me on my blog. Well, there you go!
Deacon loves shiny "sports shorts" and they really helped him on the slide! He kept flying off the end and landing on his rear. He tried to be cool about it, but I think it kinda hurt :)
Even Berean got in on the slide action. And yes, that gray stuff on her outfit is dirt. Don't judge.
Lincoln took over the camera for awhile. We were waving at him, not looking dorky at all...Oops...there goes Berean, trying to escape into the play structure!
Lincoln getting artistic.
Yes, I know, he is as cute as they come.
Yup, this rule follower immediately instructed Deacon to get off the ledge- as soon as I read the sign.
The cargo nets were a hit!
And what was Berean doing during all the fun? Well, she was doing a little exploring, a little climbing and a little soul searching.
She is such a trooper.
Lincoln getting artistic.
Yes, I know, he is as cute as they come.
Yup, this rule follower immediately instructed Deacon to get off the ledge- as soon as I read the sign.
The cargo nets were a hit!
And what was Berean doing during all the fun? Well, she was doing a little exploring, a little climbing and a little soul searching.
She is such a trooper.Friday, November 12, 2010
Thanksgiving!
Wow, it has been a long week. We spent last weekend with the stomach flu, moved on to juggling our work, kid activities and intensive broomball schedules and now end the week with a visit to urgent care and an ear infection diagnosis.
As of tonight I have slept a total of 8 hours since I got up Wednesday am.
But, I can't help thinking of things I am thankful for through it all. Here they are in no particular order:
1. Unseasonably warm November Weather
2. In laws who took the baby from our stomach flu infested household and cared for her all day so we wouldn't have to.
3. In laws who are hosting a grandson sleepover this weekend
4. Urgent cares, antibiodics and ibuprofen
5. Being able to see a small glimmer of humor in a 6 year old's drama when sickness takes over
6. Having a son who is totally dramatic when he is sick, but bounces back quickly and loves to help in a crisis.
7. Having another son who prefers to vomit alone and suffers in silence
8. Having parents who took care of the other boys while we visited urgent care.
9. A mother and sister who spent all evening helping me clean my house
10. A job for Noah and a job for me
11. Garbage collection!
12. A proud baby girl who can stand up
13. Homeschooling
14. Deacon loving Awana and finishing his book this week
15. Seeing the joy on Roman's face during "preschool"
16. Hearing Lincoln count and sing his alphabet
17. A Grandma who brought over 2 Christmas dresses for Berean Joyce
18. Coworkers who make me laugh and who support each other
19. That all my jeans are falling off! (dropped that last 5 pounds!)
20. A new furnace for the coming winter weather
21. NOT hitting the deer that ran in front of my van
22. Getting ready to celebrate Noah's birthday
23. CD player in the van- I love listening to books, adventures in Odyssey etc with my boys!
As of tonight I have slept a total of 8 hours since I got up Wednesday am.
But, I can't help thinking of things I am thankful for through it all. Here they are in no particular order:
1. Unseasonably warm November Weather
2. In laws who took the baby from our stomach flu infested household and cared for her all day so we wouldn't have to.
3. In laws who are hosting a grandson sleepover this weekend
4. Urgent cares, antibiodics and ibuprofen
5. Being able to see a small glimmer of humor in a 6 year old's drama when sickness takes over
6. Having a son who is totally dramatic when he is sick, but bounces back quickly and loves to help in a crisis.
7. Having another son who prefers to vomit alone and suffers in silence
8. Having parents who took care of the other boys while we visited urgent care.
9. A mother and sister who spent all evening helping me clean my house
10. A job for Noah and a job for me
11. Garbage collection!
12. A proud baby girl who can stand up
13. Homeschooling
14. Deacon loving Awana and finishing his book this week
15. Seeing the joy on Roman's face during "preschool"
16. Hearing Lincoln count and sing his alphabet
17. A Grandma who brought over 2 Christmas dresses for Berean Joyce
18. Coworkers who make me laugh and who support each other
19. That all my jeans are falling off! (dropped that last 5 pounds!)
20. A new furnace for the coming winter weather
21. NOT hitting the deer that ran in front of my van
22. Getting ready to celebrate Noah's birthday
23. CD player in the van- I love listening to books, adventures in Odyssey etc with my boys!
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