Our Easter weekend

We had a great weekend. On Saturday we went with my sister to her country club for an Easter brunch and hunt. The cousins had time playing with each other and the girls had a fun time hunting Easter eggs. I had a little delimma with Nathan that was funny and also very frustrating. I had to get him "dressed up" which entailed a short sleeve button down shirt and khaki pants. Forty minutes before we left I told him that we needed to get him dressed. He said he did not want to wear that outfit and I told him that I was sorry that he did not want to wear it but that we were going to put it on him. He said he did not want to wear it and I told him that he could spend time in his room until he was ready to put on his outfit. Five to ten minutes later he came back and asked me if he could get out of his room and I told him that he could not come out until he was ready to get dressed. He continued to be stubborn and would not allow me to get him dressed. So about 30 minutes later we had to leave so I told him that I was getting him dressed weather he liked it or not. Well I ended up forcing him to get dressed while he was screaming. He is one strong three year old. He was kicking and screaming and making a big deal out of nothing. Julianne was in our neighbors driveway and she said that she could hear Nathan screaming all the way to their house. I was so frustrated with him. He drove me nuts. We never make him get dressed and it just frustrated me that he did not understand that we were putting the clothes on weather he liked it or not and that he just needed to deal with it in a better way. Oh well that is my perspective. His stubborn perspective is that he did not want to wear the outfit that I picked out for him and he did not understand why I wanted him to wear it. So now I can laugh at his stubbornness and strong willed personality but at the time it was very frustrating. It took him awhile for him to relax and enjoy himself.

On Sunday D's mom and stepdad came over for brunch and egg hunting. We had a great time and we enjoyed their company on this holiday. The kids had fun hunting for the eggs. We grilled out that night and went to the park. So it was a nice family filled day. I love those days.


This is the doll I made for Lexee from my brother's baby lovey. It turned out really well. The blanket was so thin that I had to put fusible interfacing on all the fabric so that it would hold up to stitches and stuffing.

Here are all the cousins. Note that Nathan was not in this picture. He was still being stubborn from his outfit fiasco.

The girls had their face painted and the lady did an excellent job. We were sad that we had to take the face painting off at night.

This was our family picture. None of the kids were participating well. They were all off and not really looking at me all at once. So I never really got a great picture.



Julianne's competitive spirit came out as she ran to look for the most eggs.

Nathan was running all over the place and loving looking for Easter eggs.


D's cute butt.

I love Julianne's face in this picture.

Mallory was supper sweet and she gave Nathan a couple eggs since she had more than he did.

Here is Mallory skiing. I forgot my camera so my sister took these pictures.

Here is another one of Mallory and cousin Caitlyn.

Here is all the girls.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-great weather days
-family fun filled days
-Mallory (Julianne also shared later) sharing her Easter eggs with Nathan
-Spending quality time with D

We're back

Well we are officially back from spring break. We had a great time and it is good to be back. We arrived in Salt Lake City at 1:00 am. their time which was 3:00 a.m our time on Monday morning. We gave the kids a little melatonin for the plane ride so that they would get some sort of sleep. Mallory and Nathan went right to sleep but Julianne was a little reluctant to succumb to the additional melatonin in her body. We got up early the next morning to get the girls ski's and get them off to ski school. They actually did quite well with their sleep deprived bodies. We did not have too many breakdowns. They had a lot of fun at school and learned a lot. Mallory seemed to progress the most especially since last year. Last year she had a hard time with maintaining the pizza wedge. I think mostly because she did not have enough strength to stop suddenly. On Wednesday we skied with the girls all day. Mallory loved to ski straight down the hill in her wedge and then complain that her legs were sore. She finally did turns and it seemed to help her speed and her legs. However, she was not afraid of going fast and it did not seem to phase her on the winding green runs. It did phase me. I was afraid that she would not be able to stop and would fly over the edge of the mountain. Julianne had a great time and also progressed as well. She challenged herself to go on the blue slopes and had great form and control. It was great to ski with D and our family. We had time to ourselves and time with my family. It was great to be out of Ohio and be out of our house with the kids.

Mallory had strep throat at the beginning of the month and then she had it again on Saturday before we left. I was unsure if it was coming back so I was a little hesitant about taking her to the local pharmacy clinic but the test did come back positive. So I was glad that I did take her so that we would not recreate last years Spring Break strep throat incident with Julianne. They put her on a strong antibiotic (I think they call it a Z pack). So hopefully that will stop the bug from coming back.

Nathan escaped March without a strong asthma episode. Before we left for spring break he had a runny nose and lots of coughing but it never progressed further than that. So that is great.

This week is busy with taxes to do and a plan to finish for work. I have been working non-stop on both of those tasks, as well as unpacking and doing the usual housekeeping/child raising tasks. I am blaming those extra things for my lack of blog entries. Sometimes when I don't write for awhile I become overwhelmed and do not know where to begin. So I guess I have also put it off. I know other noteworthy occasions occurred but I cannot think of them right now.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-taking a spring break vacation
-seeing my girls ski
-spending quality time with D and my family
-having great trustworthy neighbors take care of our house and dogs

Lovely Spring Weather

Due to the warmer spring like weather, we took the dogs for a walk on Tuesday and Thursday. That is the most they have been walked all winter. So they were tired but I think they were glad to be out of the house and out of the snow.


We played Elefun outside and it was great to play it in a larger space then our playroom.




While on our walk Mallory picked up every struggling worm off of driveways and put them in the grass. Needless to say it was a long walk.


"Girls! Here's another worm."

"Oh I am tired after that walk."

I am propagating seeds this year for my first real official garden. I planted basil and rosemary last year but this year I hope to actually grow veggies. So I took a seed propagation class a few weeks ago and then last night I took a organic veggie garden class. Both were very informative especially for a newbie like myself. I learned a lot and I hope it will help me in my gardening endeavors. So I started my seed propagation last week and I have a great turnout. Most of my plants, except for the cilantro , has popped up. My greatest fear is getting the plants started and then having them die once they get outside. So we will see what success I have. I propagated basil, cilantro, heirloom big mouth tomatoes, heirloom Al Kuffa tomatoes and heirloom Quadrato d'Asti Rosso red peppers. I am still participating in our local CSA with my good friend but I thought that the red peppers and tomatoes were lacking so I wanted to produce them myself. So I am hopeful that my brown thumb will become green this spring and summer. So wish me luck.




My friend Katie is starting a garden in TN and she hired someone to make her a 4X8 raised garden bed. I think that was a great idea and I wish there was someone in Columbus that did that. I guess there probably is I just don't know. But I thought that was a great idea. You go Katie.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-warmer weather.
-Hearing the birds chirp and seeing animals in my backyard (we had two ducks in our mud pond on Thursday) after a long winter
-Nathan saying "Mommy, I like your shoes" (my fancy shoes I wore to work)
-Julianne questioning how Santa flies from north pole to our house and back to other houses in one night.

My poor Mallory

Mallory was not feeling well on Wednesday and it just got worse on Thursday. So I took her in and she did not test positive for strep throat but she put her on antibiotics because her eyes were really red. We had to go to Julianne's open house on Thursday night and poor little Mallory looked like we punched her in the eyes. Her eyes were also secreting yellow stuff and she was just miserable. By Friday she was doing a lot better and her red eyes went away. The doctor sent her strep test to another lab and it did end up being strep. So that darn strep bug went havoc on her eyes. She is much better and is back to her usual self.

This was Mallory on Wednesday night when only one eye was red.

This was Thursday night and the picture made it look better then it actually was.

Julianne had a school production and open house on Thursday night and it was really good. The class has been studying the continents so the songs centered around different cultures. She was really into it and seemed to enjoy herself without becoming self conscience or unhappy.


This one is for you honey.


She is showing us her work in her classroom.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-seeing my deer family again on a morning run.
-Running some older routes since the snow is melting (I could not run on busy streets since the sidewalks were covered in heavy snow)
-warmer weather

Complain

OK I am just going to complain about the weather for a second. We received another round of heaving snow last week. I am tired of the cold weather, not necessarily the snow, but of always being cold. My car is cold, my house is cold, my bed is freezing, and when I get out of the shower it is cold. It is cold when I am walking Mallory into school and Nathan just wants to stay outside and kick the snow. The cold weather exacerbates the ice dams that are clogging my gutters and the mound of snow that I have to drive over everyday to get into my driveway. The mounds of snow prohibit the dogs from pooping in the grass so they poop on the sidewalk, the driveway and in our garage. That means that we are constantly stepping in it. I can deal with the cloudy dreary days, those do not get me down it is the constant below freezing days that get to me. I have to wear three layers of shirts in my house and my husband keeps asking me why I keep wearing my favorite sweatshirt around the house. I tell him that it is because it is too cold to not wear it. What I do love about the cold is that it produces snow, lots and lots of snow. I love that it is banked up around my drive way and along the sidewalk because of shoveling. I love seeing how the snow falls and the interesting creations it makes. I love that when I look at the window I see white snow covered ground. I like when our week gets disturbed because of snow days or that we are told we should not drive on the roads. I love that it is only temporary. I also like the icicles that form because of our clogged ice dammed gutters. So just now talking about what I like about the cold I am feeling better. I actually feel kind of warm sitting in my dining room.

Speaking of snow here are some pictures

Here is our fence in front of the house

And our almost covered mailbox

These are the snow banks that are taller than the kids.


That says 16 inches.



Nathan was sick again this weekend. He was coughing on Friday and on Sunday he was in full blown heaving breathing mode. It was not as bad as the last time but not minor like they were before the last time. He again asked for treatments and did not want one of them to be over. So I guess that is good that at least they are working, even if they are temporary and a band aid for what is really going on.

I have gobs and gobs of girl scout cookies sitting in front of me. Julianne sold 161 this year which was great for her. Her Mimi sold about half of that but she did sell the rest. We went to my work and she asked people and we went around the neighborhood. So now comes the hard task of actually getting them off my dining room table.

I attended an Energy conference on Tuesday and Wednesday which was pretty interesting. It was your typical good ole energy district boys in attendance and a few women. The guest lunch speaker was quiet interesting. He talked the whole time about Climategate, which is a conspiracy theory between scientist who track historical temperature data and who report on global warming. The theory is that the scientists who collected this data and said that the world is warming eliminated more than half of the temperature tracking monitors from the study, did not participate in peer to peer review and are missing other relevant information. Because of these flaws in the study and data scientist on the other side claim that the world is not warming and the ice caps are not melting. I have already heard about Climategate but what I did not know is that Climategate discussions are not occurring within the US. Dampening the validity or even discussing Climategate may be because of political and media pressures. If we learn that the earth is not warming then do we need environmental policy like Cap-n-Trade? Doesn't our entire alternative fuels push collapse if we don't have to worry about global warming? Regardless of this theory and what is true or not true we should still be finding alternative sources of energy, conserving our existing natural resources, and living within our capacity.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-weather seasons (I think it would be boring to only have two seasons)
-Seeing 4 deer while on my morning run (I was actually a little nervous thinking that they could turn on me and attack me and no one would know)
-watching Mallory read a story in school.

Snow pictures

Well I have finally been motivated to post our snow pictures. With two large snowstorms we have plenty of snowy pictures. I think the total was around 10 inches of snow and most if it is still here. So it has been fun. Julianne is in winter wonderland heaven.



It is great because they plow all the cul-de-sac snow in front of our house so we get extra large snow banks.



Julianne had her grandparent day at school last week. They did their interviews during Christmas break and Nana was in town then so she interviewed her. However, I did not know that the grandparents actually came into the classroom until a couple weeks before the event. So anyway, she did her one grandparent that lives our of town. Oh well, I figure if the other kids have her same teacher we can rotate grandparents for the event. Additionally, most of the grandparents were not at the event so she was not the only child. Well she prepared a slideshow (three slides) and all the kids stood up and presented their grandparent in front of all the viewers. I took the kids and we watched her presentation. She did a great job and we will send Nana her portrait and the paper that Julianne wrote.




Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-lots of snow (I am getting a little tired of the cold weather, but I guess we need it for the snow)

Weekly post

Well Nathan is feeling better. He came into our bedroom that Thursday night after having a rough breathing day. We knew that he was not feeling well when he came without his lovely or pacy. He just laid in the middle of us, with his hot labored breathing body and went to sleep. It is always hard hearing him breathe so hard when he is sleeping. He is not running, playing or doing any other activity except sleeping and he is still breathing hard. On Friday he was back to normal breathing and just had his usual coughing. So he still has a lot of junk in his lungs but is acting like regular Nathan.

He had his 3 year doctor check up last Monday and weighed 31 pounds and was 36.5 inches tall. I think that puts him in almost to the 50 percentile for weight and almost to the 25 percentile for height. So that is good. I also told her that I thought his asthma episodes were getting better and like I said in my last post I spoke too soon.

Julianne started sign language class last week and has another one today. She loves it and she loves to practice it. I can't get her to do her homework or reading without having a crying/whining episode but she will practice her sign language without any reminders. So I am glad that she really enjoys it and we will see where it takes her.

I finished with my gigantic purse and hopefully soon I will take pictures of it. I actually have two more steps to complete it but those are minor steps. It is really big and I really have no idea what I will use it for. It was not that difficult but it was nice to have someone tell us what to do instead of having to read the directions and figure it out. It has pipping on it so it was nice to work with that again since I have not used pipping for a long time. I really wanted to use the zipper for the bag but she said that the zipper is really difficult so I decided against it even though I felt more pressure not to try it then to try it. So anyway, it is completed and I like the construction of it and the class was fun.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-having the time to sew
-running in freshly fallen show this morning.