Blooming Where Planted

Solitude

2012-02-08T14:28:00.004-05:00

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Frost

I snapped a picture of the woods of the neighbor across the street this morning while it was still snowy. I don't think he'd mind. So peaceful in the early morning light, with the empty swing, I'm putting in for the Poetic Winter Photo Challenge. The Subject this week is Solitude. A rare thing around here. ;)

Snow at last!

2012-02-08T10:33:00.011-05:00

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Today has been a weird one. After a week of 50 degree temps, we finally got some Snow. Starting off the day soft and silent, we curled up at home watching the snow fall. And we cherished the day. For the first time in a year, it was the second Wednesday of the month and we didn't have to go to Riley for a checkup or therapy.

Woohoo!

However, we also got an unusual call yesterday regarding Christopher. The Summer and Winter Special Needs Day Camp that he attended last year is doing an article in Kids First. They asked me a while if I wanted to say anything, which of course I did. I greatly attribute Christopher's speedy recovery from surgery this summer to the hands on care he got by those therapists. And they helped Potty Train him too! We were all able to work together to get the job done, and Chris progressed by leaps and bounds last year. Anything I can do to help them, I wanted to do. So when they called asking to borrow Christopher for a "photo shoot", I worked with them. Here's the thing, Christopher is a walking talking Miracle, and this whole experience just cemented it, he is a Gift to everyone that meets him or hears his story.

So I kidnapped Christopher from school lunch and recess today and took him to over to the park, to have a photo shoot done with a professional photographer. I wish I'd gotten a card or something, she was wonderful, and all I know of her was her name was Carly. Someday I want to have the wherewithall to do pictures like she did. I sat back and observed, taking my own few candids.

And Chris did a wonderful job. He enchants all. And today was no different. I'm so Proud of him.

They wanted him to do some puddle stomping. He happily obliged!

Though Sam was not their primary target, he was happy to join brother in some playground outdoor play.

Check out Miss Carly shooting her fancy Christopher pictures. No, I'm not quite the photographer who goes laying down in the snow covered mulch. Not yet.

Then the therapists broke out the bubbles. Oh yeah, Big Hit!

Both boys went bonkers for bubbles.

It was a really neat Photo Shoot. I haven't done anything like that with the boys before, since it's usually so expensive, but since it's for the article, all fees are waived, and in the end, I'll get free copies of the magazine, and free pictures. Great Deal for me, all for the bargain slight inconvenience of pulling Chris out of school for a bit. He didn't mind at all.

Actually, I think it was the high point of our day, especially since by the time school is going to be out, all the snow will be gone. It was fun while it lasted, and we made the most of it while we could.

Tee hee hee

2012-02-07T14:56:00.003-05:00

I love yarn. I love thread and yarn, and all the arts and crafts that go with them. I love to crochet, and I love to knit. And I love to make holiday gifts and baby blankets for my friends having babies. But I rarely set out to make something for myself.

As Christmas wrapped up, I bought myself a skein of pretty yarn, and made myself a scarf. It ended up requiring two skeins, of fancy girly yarn from this fabulous place up in Zionsville, my yarn mecca.

It's rare I set out, buy, and make something just for me. But this yarn called to me.

And today, I dropped Sam off at preschool, curled up at Starbucks, and finished my scarf. I had a knitting bag on the way in, and wore it out. I don't think words can adequately describe how good it felt to take some 'me' time, and make something just for me.

So gals, take a break from giving, and make something for yourself. It'll pump you up so much, that there will be even more amounts of Joy in the the Making, not just the Giving.

And all from a simple scarf. Sigh.

The New Musician

2012-02-06T23:16:00.005-05:00

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Super Super Bowl

2012-02-06T21:34:00.005-05:00

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How we spent our Super Bowl evening. Partying at the "Maxim Party". Our friends Dan and Nancy and their son Max (Maxim) hosted their traditional fabulous Fest, made all the more awesome by being here in town.

We tried to get the boys in bed at a reasonable hour, we left at halftime. We're such fuddy duddy party poopers, but we had boys to get to school this morning. Even still, everyone was very sleepy this morning. If we couldn't have rooted for Peyton and the Colts here in town, we had a great time pulling for his brother Eli and the Giants. And Indianapolis did a Fantabulous job spicing up the city... we popped downtown last week for a drive, and took a few pictures, these were some of my favorites.

The Dinos at the Children's Museum looked Festive.

The JW Marriott gave a really great Welcome.

The roman numerals downtown.

Eric let me out of the car to rush over a take a few pictures, but I had boys that weren't up to the trip so they stayed in the car, this was about as close as they got to the numbers. Can you see them?

See, every so often I get out in front of the camera. Once a year, or whenever the Super Bowl is in town. Great Job Indianapolis! I'm so Proud!

Relaxing

2012-02-06T09:26:00.002-05:00

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How refreshing for us. Since the Super Bowl was in town, we minimized our plans, deciding the best thing for us to do was to not leave the house. This was a very good plan. Chris and Sam had been overrun, I think the last couple months with busy-ness. And I think Chris in particular needed a day off.

So Saturday, we had an All Pajama Day. It was great. Chris and Sam wanted to watch episodes of Batman: Brave and Bold, which I have to tell you is the best Batman show out there. If you haven't watched it, you need to . It's less dark than a lot of the Batman stuff, and the humor really appeals to my generation. They made a musical episode that's now my favorite. But the boys like to sit around and watch episode after episode. It's Great.

And we were Blessed with a chance to do that on Saturday.

Then the boys decided to play some Legos. Chris broke out his Lego game Minotaurus that he picked up at GenCon last summer.

The boys were a little bit stinky cute sitting around playing.

After Sam and I napped, we had Family Movie Night. Chris made tickets for us during flush time, and after supper we piled into the livingroom, handing over our tickets to see the movie UP! and curled up on the couch, lights out, with bags of popcorn.

Then off to bed, ending a Fabulous high quality family time sort of day.

Sam's thoughts on the Super Bowl

2012-02-05T17:06:00.003-05:00

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Super Star

2012-02-04T12:33:00.002-05:00

33/366

Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-01T09:10:00.004-05:00

32/366

Super Hero Day at School.

The Snappiest

2012-01-31T23:11:00.004-05:00

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This week Christopher's school is celebration being voted a 4 star school. Combined with the Super Bowl Mania as Indianapolis is having the Super Bowl in town it's a Super week! Yesterday he dressed in his Bulldog gear, his purple bulldog t-shirt.

Today's theme was to dress as Dr. Snapp, the Superintendent of the School Corporation. They even showed a picture of him with glasses, suit and tie. Chris was convinced he needed to borrow my glasses. We were able to talk out of that, but he still got pretty dolled up by borrowing a tie from Daddy.
We tolk him he looked pretty Snappy. (Get it, Snappy? Dr. Snapp. Ha Ha!)
Anyway, Sam disagreed. He said he was Snappy.
No, yelled Chris. I am Snappier!

Finally, Eric screams, "Boys! BOYS! You're Both Snappy!"

And with that, they posed for a picture for me, Who's the Snappiest?!

Party On

2012-01-31T21:56:00.003-05:00

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Yesterday was a crazy busy day. Sam's new Monday session Kindermusik class. Then Sam and I met Amy P.for lunch as she was visiting in town, along with Elizabeth and Gabriel, then we joined Kathleen and the twins for frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf for dessert. I love that place, it's beginning to become a dangerous habit, almost as bad as my Starbucks habit.

I should've spent more time preparing for my Pampered Chef party, but I didn't, I spent my lunchtime socializing. And we had a Wonderful day.

Scrappy Times

2012-01-29T22:19:00.005-05:00

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Kind of a wacky hodge podge of weirdness type of day today. Sam woke me last night, and I was up half the night. My wonderful husband let me go back to bed after the boys got up, and he even got them dressed, and ran Chris over to church. He returned home to me, armed with Starbucks to help me get going for the day.
It was Great! We enjoyed church, the boys behaved. We got to visit with our friends Emilie and Brian and have lunch, very overdue. They recently set the date for their Wedding, they're getting married on New Year's Eve. WOOHOO! So we gabbed about wedding planning. How Exciting! Brings me back to my newly affianced days. Ahhh... Remember the Love?! True, it came in the form of an early nap and Starbucks this morning, but remember the mooshy squooshies days when we were first falling in love. We were gross, all sickeningly sweet, and together. I just love being around people like that again. And Emilie and Brian are so sweetly in fresh new love, it's Infectious! After lunch, we went to Orange Leaf for Frozen Yogurt dessert, and more gossiping about wedding and honeymoon plans. If only Orange Leaf could cater their wedding!

My wonderful husband has really let me get caught up on some much lost sleep this weekend. Bless Him. He even captured this great photo of me and Sam while we were at Orange Leaf earlier. I love it.

We came home, and did some quality time, well, the boys played Lego Batman the Video Game, while I watched, and the boredom gently lulled me to sleep. Perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Then I spent the evening digitally scrapbooking. :) I think I'm really enjoying my new hobby. The MyMemories SpeedScrap tonight was a hard one, my 'homework assignment' was to use 6 pictures, 12 embellishments, and 4 different papers. Can you spot them all? It's insane. And yet... kind of fun.

The Latest Character Meet and Greet

2012-01-28T21:40:00.009-05:00

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No, not another Disney picture. We didn't go back or anything crazy. We went to The Children's Museum, to meet Mr. Potato Head!

They just opened a new Adventures of Mr. Potato Head exhibit. And we snagged some members only free tickets to meet the big guy.

The exhibit replaces the Frogs thing they were doing there, which my little ones didn't like. This one, they like! There's tons of hands on stuff to play with, on, all over.

Mr. Potato Head in the jungle, underwater...

Chris's favorite was Potatoes In Space.

After Potato time, we grabbed a snack, and in the lobby they had a table where we could make flags for nonverbal communication. Chris thought it was pretty cool. See the Letter C!

And on to Dinosaurs!

Sam does a little digging for dinosaurs. But then he took his goggles off and had a tantrum.

Chris just flits and floats, dig a little, run a little, crazy crazy.

But they played together sweetly by the trains. For a minute or two.

Then we were on our merry way. Sam and Daddy raced up the ramp as we left. Sam Won! We were proud, but this was the first time we had gotten a chance to do something like this here in town in a while. And on a Saturday? When the Super Bowl is going to be here next week. Pure Madness!

Peekaboo

2012-01-27T21:21:00.005-05:00

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Oh Sunshine! How I've missed you.

I was so excited to see you peeping out of the clouds today, I took a picture!

Imagine my surprise when you really stuck around for a few happy fleeting hours. I drove with my window down. 40 is not so very cold. I was so excited that I took my car to the car wash, put on my sunglasses. Oh happy day. Then, I looked at the weather report, I'm sorry. I should've known it wouldn't last. And I jinxed it by washing my car.

But I'm not the only one that was fooled.

My flowers think spring is here too.

Orange Leaf

2012-01-26T14:19:00.001-05:00

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Sam + Frozen Yogurt + Naptime + Speed Scrap = A Good Day!

Java-n-Stitch

2012-01-26T09:52:00.004-05:00

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I had 3 friends and their kids over yesterday morning for our 'new' Java-n-Stitch group. (Aka Stitch and Bitch) We let the kids play crazy, we drink festive beverages, and then we break out the yarn. I made mint mochas. We all crochet or knit. And while the kids play we get some Quality Yarn time. Dogs and Cats! I popped in the Care Bears and all 6 kids froze on the couch for like 10 entire minutes. It was historic! So I made a Page for it. :)

Go Us!

2012-01-24T23:30:00.004-05:00

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OK. I haven't had a good run in over a month. Really. Our Disney Run wasn't a good run. It was Fun! But it was 2 weeks ago, we jerkily stopped and started, we didn't cool down properly, and then we ran ourselves into the ground. Or maybe we already had. It was still Awesome, but it wasn't a 'good run'.

Then we got sick.

Today was the first day that both Kathleen and I were healthy enough to run. Of course, we realized that we weren't up for a full 5K right from the getgo. So we backtracked a bit, and after discussing, we settled on starting back in Week 5, 5 minutes on, 3 minutes off. Then we got a really wild hair. We decided to run outside. It was a toasty 30 degrees, and not snowy or raining, so we went for it. Of course, as soon as we got moving, we saw little flurries. I couldn't call them snowflakes because they weren't big enough for that, just little falling crystals. Not a lot of them, just enough for us to realize it was Cold outside.

It was Cold.

But we did it!

Woohoo! Yeah, baby, we're Back!

And we have a goal. We're going to be running the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Race for the Cure.

OK, I know, I have joked and called it the Breast Cancer Mosey, since there are so many people, I won't be even walking at a good clip for most of it, but I don't care. If I can do something to make a difference to help folks like my friend Juli's Mom Ann, or my friend Amy, then you bet I will!

And you're going to love this...

Our Team name is the: Hakuna Ma-TaTas!

CLICK HERE to visit my personal page!

Little Tears

2012-01-24T22:05:00.004-05:00

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My heart and mind have been in other places the last few days. My body is falling apart, my endo is back, and its been stressing me out, besides being painful. Eric and I are looking at the possibilities of having surgery this year. Me for that. Him for these headaches, which is most likely caused by massive deep sinus infection.

The bravest woman I know, who I am honored to call friend, was having major surgery yesterday. I was literally praying without ceasing all day. She reports doing well. Please joining me in praying her recovery continues to go well.

But I had to get out of dodge. We're all so frazzled, sometimes having a plan is the best thing I can do. Sam and I drove up to visit my other friend Amy who moved out to the boonies last spring. I brought donuts and we drowned our sorrows in happy carbs, and we let the kids play. And it was good.

Amy has been borrowing a little baby, 8 weeks old for a while, and expecting her fourth. I thought it might be rough for me to be around itty bitties. But it really wasn't. So much cuteness made me feel good. I kept reaching out to hold her as she cried. She was just a wee slip of a thing, and she was getting a case of the snoochies, and couldn't get comfortable. It was so obvious she needed to sleep. Oh honey, don't I know that one. We've been rotating colds all winter long, and I could only sleep with drugs. At one point, she had been crying in spurts for a solid hour, she's cry herself to sleep, and as soon as her thumb shifted or a kid looked at her, she'd wake up and start crying. Finally she fell asleep on me.

With one little tear in her eye.

I didn't want to move. But you know, life has to continue. I was reminded how hard those days are, with the little itty bitty ones. On one hand, I don't want to move, want to freeze moments in time. Sam is so wonderful right now, I want him to stop getting older. I sit down to write about him, and I don't know where to begin.

On the other hand, all that screaming. I had a monster headache. I would have given anything to make it stop. Nope, don't miss that. But the bonus was I got to pack up and go home, I just got my sweet snuggle fix, and got to give her back. That was pretty good too.

Speed Scrap

2012-01-22T21:30:00.007-05:00

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Two years ago, Eric got me this digital scrapbooking software. I loaded it on the computer, and haven't done much with it. Until this year. We made our Christmas card with it, and I friended MyMemories on Facebook. Twice this week, I sat down and they were starting what they call a "Speed scrap". The first time was at naptime, so I decided to give it a whirl. They force me to think fast, to hurry up and make a decision, because they make me build the page in an hour. It's kind of cool. This was my first one, on Tuesday, taken of Christopher on MLK day when we went out for a snowball fight.

But today I was sitting down to upload the days photos when they were starting another Speed Scrap. I figured, OK! It gets me scrapping, and I have done pages. Maybe I'll do this once a month, and have myself a real album when done. Nah. That's just crazy talk. Well, maybe....

My Sams. Sure, he's enchanting. Until you notice the dried macaroni bits all over his sweater. But this was today. We'd come home from Brunch with the fam, and it was time for Sam's nap. But he was more interested in being adorable than going to sleep. Well, it worked, we had a little photo session.

But he was tired, so he kept moving around. I like this Speed Scrap picture Best.

Cherishing Miracles

2012-01-21T21:38:00.005-05:00

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I had most of today free, I got a massage this morning, and then went to the Baby Shower for a friend of mine from college. They don't let me out very often. But when they do it's a Good Day! She's adopting from Russia, and just recently found out she can go back in 2 weeks to bring him Home. Permanently. She gets her Gotcha Day in 2 weeks. I don't know if I'd be strong enough to wait any more, knowing my son is waiting thousands of miles away. But she's been amazingly strong, I admire her strength.

There was so much to celebrate, it was the Sweetest of occasions. I'm so Happy for her, I had to hold my tears back. It wasn't a crying sort of affair, this was a Happy Day. And this was the kind of Happy Shower that you would pray a friend who has been fighting and praying so hard for, would have, that she be showered literally in gifts and love.

And her friends were so generous, and enthusiastic, full of excitement and joy, as it should be. I really felt like Everyone there today was cherishing the Joy, not just the simple Joy of a new baby. There was Love, and words of wisdom, laughter as we played funny games, and sweet dreams of the days to come. Cherishing the Miracle. This one was a little older, 18 months, he hasn't had it easy. She had such trials in trying to have a family. And somehow God works wonders taking each of their pains and is weaving a new strand, a new family, a new love, a Miracle.

And to be able to see others cherish this miracle along with her was a Gift for me. She and I had lost touch, and recently found each other again. We bonded further over about our battles with Infertility. So Wonderful to be able to Praise the Lord for this wonderful match he has made.

A few years back, I had another friend who adopted, though I didn't see her for a few months after she brought her sweetboy Home, when I finally did get to meet him, I brought her a present. She was touched. She told me, No one had thrown her a shower. They'd had to get everything for their little one themselves. I was appalled. No one? That hurt my heart. For her. I would have wanted to shower her with love and spoiled that sweetboy like he hadn't been spoiled before. Maybe she was surrounded by people who didn't get it.

It's funny. Not that people that get pregnant naturally, or easily don't deserve it, I'm not saying that, and I'm not saying that they don't cherish the miracles they have. I don't doubt that there are plenty of folks out there that cherish their miracles, even if they came easy to them. But it seems that for those of us out there that it didn't come easy for, we really Cherish the Miracles. The miracles not cherished seem to go to families that don't care one way or the other, and that's part of the hideousness of infertility. I feel like we really 'Get It': the amazingness of God working through the science of creating new life, the tiny miracles as God conducts his Plan through the work of others, how wondrous it is when he lines up the perfect child to fit within the perfect family. I really Cherish the Miracles. There are so many associated with this whole process, I don't see how people don't Believe, but that's for another soapbox.

I believe my heart has been called to Adoption. I'm not sure of God's Timing of the subject, but since we had so much trouble trying to have our family, adoption has always been a possibility. One of the many Miracles associated with Christopher's birth was that we'd given up being able to conceive. I had started reading Adoption for Dummies. I was about halfway through it when I went for my annual exam, to request drugs for my 'wacky cycle' only to find out I was expecting. I kept the bookmark in that same page, which made my friends giggle when they were helping me move. But really, it's a Miracle. I had given up, moving forth to our other choice, and God said, "Not Yet." And He gave us Christopher. But he didn't say chuck the book out the window. Hold on. That time will come.
Is it coming now? I don't know. My Endo has been giving me fierce fits the last few weeks, and obviously I'm not pregnant, though we've been attempting for #3 for just over a year. Right now, I'm feeling the call to help others. I feel like we've been so Blessed with a wonderful family, and wonderful home, I just need to share it. In the mean time, I'm Holding On. I'm waiting for God. I just need to stop and listen. He's not always in the crazy, but the whispers. But today wasn't a day to discern God's Will for me in the whispers of my heart, today was a day to Shout for Joy about the wondrous Love of God, and Praise Him for this match between Annie and Luke!

WOOHOO!!!!!!

Conclusions from Rainbow Poos

2012-01-21T09:24:00.006-05:00

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Have you ever heard of the Feingold diet? Interesting thing, my friend Amy posted a link to a blog she stalks, the woman has 8 children and people call her crazy. She homeschools and does the Feingold diet, but it has worked wonderfully with her ADHD son's behavior. Huh? A crazy boy's behavior improving with diet? I've heard of this miraculous rumor before. So I hopped online and started doing a little research. Turns out kids with sensitivities to artificial colors have behavioral issues or rashy bottoms. Well, I have been prayerfully considering it, and trying to make mental notes while I consider if this is the right way to go for us.

So, Thursday Chris came home with 100 fruity o's that he wanted to pound down for a snack. That made Sam want some too. I had been refraining giving them to him for a while since I'd read that link, I was testing I guess. Not consciously, but kind of. So then Sam wanted some, we had a half a bag, of the generics. So I let them have them. Well, Chris was a hot mess for me for the next two hours, I got called "BAD MOMMY!" And we had to have some come-to-Jesus kinds of discussions. But I was actually proud of myself I didn't beat him senseless.

Sam was fine, just his normal bitchy self when he needs to eat more fat and protein. I've come to expect that from Sam. When his sugar nose dives it gets Ugly. Gets that from me and my mother I guess. We don't do well when we're hungry.

But then yesterday he was Fine.

Until we went to the library, and he'd had some juice as a snack. Well, it went Right through him, filling his diaper three times with foulness whose like I have not seen since Chris's ostomy days. And the color: Green. Bright green. oh my word, I'm gagging just writing about it.

By the time we got home, the pantless wonder's bottom was bright red, rashy, and starting to a little bloody.

OK. There's my sign, as I threw him in the tub. No more Fruity O's for Sam.

(picture Not taken by me)

And I threw them away.

Sam in the meantime enjoyed a wonderful bath, in the middle of the day, All By Himself.

Good Times.

His bottom looks much better today since we slathered him up with Desitin. :)

Backyard pines

2012-01-19T23:44:00.004-05:00

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I think it's going to be a while before I tire of the gorgeous trees at the new house. This is the view from our back porch of the empty lot next door. Gorgeous!

We have a row of pines along the back lot, and with the gentle dusting of snow that fell today, they just looked phenomenal. I still can't believe this is my backyard!

Ready for this closeup Mr. DeMille? Yeah Baby!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-18T17:30:00.001-05:00

Gold Card

2012-01-18T17:28:00.004-05:00

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Oh Boy Oh Boy! My new Gold Card is here, my new Gold Card is here! I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk this week, "The New Phonebooks are here, the new Phonebooks are here." Yesterday I got a, much coveted ;) Invitation to join Pinterest. And Today my Starbucks Gold Card arrived!

Seriously, I'm totally Stoked!

17/366

2012-01-18T17:19:00.006-05:00

I know it's a bit blurry, but it was raining horizontally and the bus was coming as I sent the boys off to school yesterday. In their Matching Raincoats and Rainboots! Thanks Santa!

It seems Santa is just a big a sucker for matching clothes as Mommy is. ;)

Not too late to get Resolved

2012-01-16T22:13:00.039-05:00

With everything that was going on, I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions.

So I'll make a little one. I'm going to get better with all the stuff that I was striving to do last year. I really fully intended to back track and fill in all the monthly updates that I didn't continue throughout the year. Alas. It's midway through January, I don't think all three of you that read care about what I did in June. Though this blog also doubles as my journal and photo albums, so I really should get cracking.

My goal this year will be to take one picture a day, and hopefully post a blog to either here or the boys' blogs at least once a week. I also want to get healthy, get my family healthy, boys get bigger, me get smaller. And finish a 5K in less than 45 minutes. Reasonable, right? Right.

I have been taking pictures, so here you go. Let's get caught up!

1/366

Happy New Year! We started the new year right, taking my sweetboys to Orange Leaf, the scrumdidlyumptious frozen yogurt shop that just opened up on the corner.

These were all our goodies. Best choice goes to Eric! Fruity Pebbles, who knew?!

2/366

The Big Surprise! We surprised the kids with a trip to Walt Disney World! Best Surprise Ever! And Chris's dance of joy made it all worth it, well, the trouble of keeping the secret, not everything we'd been through the last year or so.

3/366

There are only about a thousand pictures that could symbolize this day. I took a ton, but I'm going to try to post pictures I haven't already posted when I blogged about our trip to Disney World. Going to try anyway. ;)

4/366

Since we did two different things on this day, going to Hollywood Studios as a group during the day, then going on our hot date at California Grill and hopping over to Magic Kingdom, I opted to chose one picture from each.

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And the kids had so much energy, they pushed on. Above, the Julius girls all three making a mad dash for the Magic Kingdom. Below, the boys find this days theme is Hurry up and Wait. We did so much, we conquered a good chunk of Magic Kingdom and knocked out Hollywood Studios. It was Awesomely Exhausting.

6/366

Our Goal Accomplished! Kathleen and I run in a 5K. Not just any 5K, but the Walt Disney Fiesta Family Fun Run! When the running was rough, we pictured running under this giant ball.

And we did it!

7/366

Another amazing day in Disney World, spending time with each other, seeking new stars, experiencing new worlds.

And Finding Joy.

8/366

Suspicions confirmed, that I married a Goofy man.

9/366

Recovering. We stayed in our jammies all day. We thought this was going to be a unique and novel thing.

10/366

This is Sam.

This is Sam sick. He came home with the snoochies. Tuesday morning he puked. We stayed home in our Jammies all day, and he watched a lot of tv. He fell asleep on the couch later that morning. And he was watching here about lunchtime, and just drooling a puddle. He seemed to feel better by evening, though, Good enough to get a little annoying. Tuesday evening, however, I started getting a tickle in my throat and a runny nose....

11/366

Cheating a little here. I started to get sick Wednesday too, a bad cold, lots of sneezing, snots and watery eyesso we only went to Chris's doctor's appointments at Riley and came home. The kids were the only ones with energy. Eric found this in Fina's crate.

12/366

I didn't take any pictures, just this one video, which is too big apparently to put on here, because I felt terrible. Thank you Walt Disney World for all your fabulous cooties.

Eric on the other hand took these photos of Christopher's first Dance Class.

He gets two kinds: tap AND ballet! And he loves it!

13/366

By Friday, I was a hot mess. I couldn't think a clear thought. Except that my head was exploding when I coughed. So I called the doctor. We also had to take Fina to the vet. So between these errands, I found the need to stop for a drink, hot cocoa at Bob Evans sounded good, because it had snowed all night, and it was Cold outside.
Turns out Bob Evans has a couple of pretty little blue spruces right out front, and Sam was happy to play in the freshly shoveled snow.

I had bronchitis, and got started on drugs right away. And Eric came home feeling terrible.

14/366

One of the errands I ran on Friday was popping by Kathleen's, (We hadn't seen each other in a whole 5 days!) to pick up the Christmas ornament we ordered in Disney World. Luckily (?) since Eric was feeling terrible too, neither of us had taken any of the Christmas things down, except the outdoor lights over New Years weekend, when it was 50 outside. So I got the chance to put our new ornament on the tree!

We got it personalized with 2012 painted on with pixie dust, and it turned out so pretty!

15/366

I have a guard boxer. This is her new favorite spot. Fina can see anyone that comes and goes here.

I am glad she prefers this spot to my bed, she kept peeing in it. She hasn't done that here, yet. She's got some nasty rashies on her feet, and we've begun ruling out a food allergy, a fancy new food and a new antibiotic. She's becoming a little expensive boxer in her old age.

16/366

Finally feeling better and the weather not as bitter cold, Chris requested that we go outside and play for a bit this morning.

Great idea!

The snow was melting, so it was great for making snowballs. I taught Chris how to make them. Then we practiced throwing them.

Some hot cocoa and we feel much better now.

"I Love a Story with Food in it"

2012-01-16T20:12:00.016-05:00

Name That Disney Movie.

I know, you all thought I was all done Blogging about Disney. Nope. I left out a very large important piece.

The Food.

It also deserved it's own post. And as Einstein says, I love a story with Food in it. So here you go, some 'bare necessities' of some of the great foods of Disney World.

Whenever I think of the best food that I've had in Disney World, the same place comes to mind every time. The California Grill.

Located on top of the Contemporary hotel, they have a walkabout with a fantastic view of the Magic Kingdom. On our honeymoon, we made our reservations for about sunset, and ended up sampling foods of every possible course, including a souffle which took half an hour to make. So we found ourselves seated when the fireworks show went off at Epcot, and we could see them. It was lovely, as we went home, we were on the water when the Magic Kingdom fireworks went off. It was all dreadfully romantic, so when we had friends that went, we recommended the place. Mike and Kathleen went on their honeymoon, and they were there when the Magic Kingdom fireworks show went off, and they dimmed the restaurant lights, and pumped in the music, so if you opted not to go outside, you still had a great view of the fireworks.
Last time we visited, we hired a sitter for the 3 kids, and went to a grownup date night dinner ourselves. It was Fabulous. There were no souffles, but there was sushi that was so good, Eric literally cried. I'm telling you, that's how good this food is! It's not cheap though.

This trip, my amazing fabulous Mother in law came over and watched all 5 kids! Alone. God Bless Her! And we 4 grownups got a date night. Once again, the California Grill did not disappoint. I took about 80 pictures of the castle at night, and the fireworks, and some of the food too.

Eric and I ordered a sushi sampler, and one roll. This one has scallops cooked and chilled with some sort of magic spicy sauce buried under crunchies in the corner of the plate. It was scrumptious. But it didn't make Eric cry. We must've had something different last time. Or maybe we're getting used to the phenomenal food here.

What really stole the show were our meals. Eric got Duck 2 ways. And they were both wonderful. I got a squash lasagna, with cheesy goodness and cranberries, it was like dessert for dinner! Mike got a wonderful whitefish, self-sustaining that I'd never heard of, on stir fried veggies tossed in miso broth that was quite yummy. Kathleen's meal, in my opinion was the best. Scallops. On a bed of au gratin potatoes. We didn't cry, but we were probably close.

We went outside for the fireworks show, and when we came in we got dessert. I got a wicked chocolate lava cake, that was not your everyday lava cake. And Eric and I got sushi. You think, what? Sushi for dessert. Well, our sushi pockets weren't full. And if you're going to be crazy and order more of something, then it should be something really good. We saw this roll, the dragon roll, as we were walking to the fireworks. So we got one for dessert. And it was Good.

After dinner, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom, without the kids (GASP!), and do a little shopping. Kathleen and I just thought this was hilarious.

Now that I'm home, there are some Non-California Grill foods, I wish we'd gotten a hold of recipes for. For one, 1900 Park Fare had a strawberry soup on their buffet, that was so good I had 2 bowls. One I shared with others (who went and got their own too) and the other, I didn't. ;)

Also, Mike picked this place for lunch the last day, Liberty Tavern, family style home cooking, wonderful. But they had these rolls, bread and honey butter that had Chris and I stuffing our faces with entire baskets full. I could go for a couple of those. Let me know if you know what's in them.

I don't know if I've mentioned this but DisneyWorld makes Great Hot Cocoa! And it's only like nescafe packets or something. But even when it wasn't freezing it was good. I'd go up to the Hospitality house and get a couple packets with hot water, and I was drinking it Every day. On one particularly cold night, as we were looking at the Christmas Light show at Hollywood studios, Mike got us cookies to eat with my cocoa. Super Cute!

We stopped for snacks in China at Epcot. We had the brilliant idea rather than have a proper lunch, we'd just get snacks all around the world. Well, left alone, Kathleen and I thought we could all split an alcohilated beverage while we were at it. 1 drink 4 ways, that's not going to get us rip roaring drunk in front of the kids.

But we didn't think of starting this grand idea until we were sitting down eating the Chinese snacks. By the time we thought of it, the food was gone. No pictures there. :) Only a little plum wine left.

Then on to Norway.

There's a problem of taking food pictures when children actually want to Eat the food.

So, since Kathleen and I picked out the Plum Wine in China, we let Eric and Mike go get the food in Norway. They forgot the Booze! So we let Eric go back. He picked this. It's called Aqvavit (aquavit) and it's a distilled spice beverage. Pretty sure it's made with anise and ass, because that's all we could taste. I like jagermeister, and that licorice drink the greeks drink, but this put hair on my chest. And I don't want hair on my chest. I pass it on. THEN Eric tells us he's not drinking, because of the Marathons, he's off alcohol the day before. Oh no! Kathleen and I took it upon ourselves to finish it.

Sure, it tasted a little better the more we drank of it, but it was still bad. But the grub was Good in Norway. Lox on bread, always a hit, and their "pretzels" were a cross between a danish and baklava. There was this rollup, almost like a tortilla with a cinnamon butter flavor. Quite yummy!

OK. Here's the problem of the goal of eating and drinking around the World. Particularly when you're Hungry. People want to actually Eat the food. That makes it less than pretty for photos. Then if I'm the photographer, I want to eat it too.The Mexican Nachos didn't last long, and the kids kept bugging us for the mango magarita. Again... China. Pictures didn't occur to us, until we were eating. Ay Carumba!

One of my favorite pictures of Eric from this trip. He's silly for the mexican mango soda. He enjoyed it thoroughly.

Mouse Mousse. Oreo cookies and whipped cream wickedness.

Let's call it a before and after.

Our last Official Day in the Magic Kingdom it was finally warm enough for Ice Cream. Mickey Chocolate Ice Cream Bars for All!

Hey, that bite was all chocolate!

OK, not really for all. We all shared the same bar. ;)

So Yummy So Yummy!

On our for real last day, our last stop was the ice cream stand. No trip complete with the Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Sandwich.

This time Mommy was a sucker, and got each boy his own sandwich.

And yet Mommy and Daddy ended up eating most of them. Amazingly enough, I had no net weight gain on the trip. Miracle!

The Flora, the Fauna, and the Merry Weather

2012-01-16T11:45:00.025-05:00

When we lived in California, right after I got my degree in Biology, I thought up this title for my book. I was going to write a book about the animal and plant life of California. But do you have any idea how insanely large an undertaking that would be? So I never got around to it.

However, while we were in Disney World I couldn't help but get sucked into all the gorgeous plants, flowers, birds, everything. Love.

So I snapped some goodies that I thought I'd share with you.

We found these guys just outside our patio. I think it's an egret and a black duck. Absolutely gorgeous at sunset.

These little fellas were trying to pick up our snacks. No way Jose!

As we walked to our place we found this pretty little blue flowers.

Based on my research, I'm going to call them blue plumbago.

But pretty little blue flowers works too. ;) Blue flowers are Eric's favorite, our eyes are immediately drawn to any blue flowers.

I just loved that Poinsettias were growing right outside. That never happens in Indiana.

You know I'm a sucker for orchids.

The California Grill had a large bouquet of them.

Gorgeous!

I loved this flowering cactus that we found ourselves sitting near when we were waiting to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad. So pretty. So I did a little research when we got home, and found out it's a Prickly Pear Cactus.

So words of advice: "Now when you pick a pawpaw
Or a prickly pear
And you prick a raw paw
Next time beware
Don't pick the prickly pear by the paw
When you pick a pear
Try to use the claw
But you don't need to use the claw
When you pick a pear of the big pawpaw
Have I given you a clue?"

No. Sorry.

World Showcase at sunrise.

And some more flowers from Epcot. I tell you someday I'd love to go to their Flower show in the spring.

A little chinese water lily. OK, not really sure if it's Chinese, but it was in China in the World Showcase. ;)

From the genus Osteospermum. No, I had to look that up. But Emily and I just loved their blue centers.

This is Emily's hand holding this one.

It was still warm enough for geraniums to still be in bloom.

"Bright, bright sunshiney day."

Check out the little water droplets!

Violas and petunias.

Violas in the diminishing sunlight.

I just loved that shade of blue.

On the Land ride, vanilla on the vine!

And dragon fruit. Who knew?!

I love the hydroponics. And actually this shows a bit of the aquaponic garden, fish under and plants above. Brilliant!

The evening we caught the fireworks show at Epcot, I couldn't help but be hypnotized by the palm trees in the firelight. How they don't burn up I don't know.

And the ball with the trees. Not to shabby for not having a tripod.

Lo, a rose ere bloomin'!

Because you know up here in Indiana, there are no roses ere blooming. Ah, wild roses.

Those flowers at the base of the castle just really took my breath away.

Spanish Moss.

A few of the flowers in Rapunzel's Garden. Impatiens and phlox.

And the last natural shot I got, Mickey and Minnie by the Castle.

How I love the works of the Disney Horticulturists.

Maybe I can be one when I grow up.

Disney World, Day 7, January 8th

2012-01-16T09:21:00.011-05:00

Eric amazes me. He did it. He completed the Goofy Challenge. 39.3 miles in 2 days. Oh and he walked through a few parks too. That is Goofy. On this morning, he got up again at dark thirty and walked over to start the Mickey Marathon in the Epcot Parking lot. It's a 10 minute walk or 30 something minute bus ride, he chose the walk, but rode home. ;)

Hot Dog!!!

A little bit later, he runs under the Epcot ball, just like we did!

Then he ran through Cinderella's Castle during dawn's early light.

He ran through the Animal Kingdom too. Funny thing about Animal Kingdom, when we first went there the year it opened, our honeymoon, it was easy to spot the entrance, and the Rainforest cafee, but now the bushes and trees have grown up so much, you can hardly spot the entrance. Check out this video Eric got running through the entrance.

Eric "follow Old Rafiki, he knows dee way!"

He did a Wonderful job, running the whole thing in 5 hours and 19 minutes. That's Much better than the Monumental race he did in November was 6 hours. And he stopped for Pictures. He's so brave. And Incredible!

And more than a little bit Goofy!

Mike and I found Eric at the Hospitality House as we were bringing up our luggage, we had gotten everything packed up, and brought it up front for check out. It's true. I packed us up. I hurt my back. That made Eric and I a pair of pretty nothings gimping around all day. We walked back with Eric so he could snag an ice bath before we left for the day. Technically, he was in there a bit illegally, it was noon, and we should've been gone by 11. But no one busted us, and Eric really needed to bathe. ;)

We surprised the kids, after we packed up, by telling them they could Each pick one thing they wanted to do today, something again, something we missed, One Thing. Emily picked Meet Rapunzel and the Magic Carpets. Chris chose The People Mover...and the Magic Carpets, as soon as Emily said Magic Carpets. Then the Littles all wanted Magic Carpets. What's right for 1 is right for 5. So we headed for Magic Kingdom while Eric bathed.

The line for Rapunzel was rather long, so while we waited, I got a little crazy (Again). I grabbed Chris and Emily and made a mad dash for the Teacups. Truthfully, the Teacups was probably my One Last Thing. :)

Then we got to go back and meet Rapunzel. But by the time we got up there Sam was in a Snip.

So he missed most of the pictures.

He still got to meet the Princess. I'll be glad for these pics from the photopass people later. I must say, it's quite possible she's my favorite princess. Come on, she battles with Frying Pans and Knits!

Mike made a call while we were in line and got us reservations at the Liberty Tavern, right around the corner from the Christmas shop who does personalized ornaments, which Kathleen and I picked out and bought as our big souvenirs. And this place we had lunch, So Yummy! Home cooking, family style, and we all got to sit at a big round table where we could all talk to each other. As usual, Sam ate his weight in macaroni. Fabulous. Just before lunch we picked up Eric, clean and fresh from his run. So we ate, then ran off to ride the Magic Carpets.

Watch out for the Camels, they spit!

It occurred to me that Eric was all bedecked in his Goofy garb, goofy medal and shirt, that a picture with Goofy would be most appropriate. We had yet to see him in person this trip. I found him by Pirates of the Caribbean, but he was on a break because he was in a parade. (All characters in the parade are not found anywhere else in the park.) So we hopped on Pirates of the Caribbean real quick while we waited, Mike had wanted to see it, and Eric and Chris wanted to go again. It's always a good one. Afterwards though, Goofy was not back yet. So we had to surrendure on Goofy, it was time to get on the People Mover. We thought that would be a great note to end the trip on.

Christopher really felt it was. The views were great, until the ride got stuck in the dark pits of despair in Space Mountain.

And it was all relaxing until I realized I lost my backpack. I stood at the ride, waiting for all the booths to go around again, to no avail. I was near tears when I saw Eric hold up my bag, I had set it down by a tree at the base of the ramp up to the ride. Bless Him. I cried. We decided that was our sign, it was time to grab some ice cream and hit the road.

Bye bye Magic Kingdom! Bye Bye Old Key West.

See ya' Real Soon!

Of course, then once we got to the Airport. THEN we find Goofy. Who's the Goofiest?

Yup. Eric is.

Blessedly, the kids all did quite well on the flight home, we didn't get in until 11:30, the kids had only dozed on the plane, but conked out on the way home. The boys and I crashed and stayed home the next day, it was a good day for napping. We needed a day of vacation to recover from our vacation. Though Sam had brought home cooties, that he very kindly shared with Eric and I, and we've been sick most of the last week, and finally, the sun is out, the snot is clearing out of all our heads, and we can start plotting the next big vacation. ;)

Disney World, Day 6, January 7th

2012-01-15T18:10:00.018-05:00

This day started as an early one for Eric. He got up at dark thirty to run the Donald Half Marathon. A brisk 13.1 miles beginning at 5:30.

It's a little jittery, but he got this video while he was running through Cinderella's Castle. Little Bumpy, Lots of Awesome!

Eric had a good run. He ran his mini-marathon in 2 hours 14 minutes. Not his best, but not his worst, in fact, better than the last one he did. And he wasn't even pushing himself. Now, Eric didn't stop and take pictures of himself with all the characters like we did, so he made it back to the hotel about the same time that we had, so he was able to hop on the bandwagon and join us for the days' festivities.

We started the day by heading to Magic Kingdom. There was some Important unfinished business there. First of all, we had reservations for 11:30 at the Crystal Palace. We arrived at the park, just before 11.

I had learned of a nifty little secret for parents of girly girls. If you go to the Main Street Barber shop and ask for "a little sparkle", they will spray your head with confetti and hair spray to make it stick. FOR FREE. No Bibbidi Bobbidi Bucks spent here, a free sparkly do. I got the tip from a sparkled Mom in line, I was admiring. So Mike took Emily on their day of Quality Time. But I noticed when we got to the park on Saturday, the Barber shop was empty, so Emily and I dashed in there, promising to meet the family up the street. There was a dance party parade, and it was going to take them a while with the strollers.
Emily and I Got Sparkle!

Then we met our family at the Crystal Palace. It would have been lovely, but as seems custom, they make you wait for half an hour before getting seated once you check in for any given reservation. So this time, I wanted to cross something off my list, well my list for Christopher and I. The Teacups. Eric gets queasy, and hates them, but Mike and Emily were our cohorts in Teacupping crime last year, and I really wanted to go again. Blessedly the line was short, and we ran off and rode the Teacups before our family even got called into lunch. I Love The Teacups!!!

Meanwhile, something happened to my new beast camera either while I was prancing, or during brunch, because all my pictures over the next couple hours are blown out or blurry. During naptime Eric took it apart, and put it back together, and made it all better, but in the mean time all my Crystal Palace pictures look a bit, well, Goofy.

See? Anyway, you can still see that my boys are enthralled with Tigger.

I tell you what Piglet stole my heart on this day. Christopher was so enthusiastic about seeing Piglet, who in my opinion is the Bravest of all the characters. He's small, and scared of so much, yet when he feels something must be done, he goes forth, in spite of all fears, into all sorts of anticipated dangers. He really is the Bravest. Thinking of this, how he's the smallest, feistiest, bravest, well, it started reminding me of Christopher, and made me tear up. So it didn't matter that my camera wasn't focused, or blurry, because this is what I was seeing anyway.

I know, I'm a sap. Hello, my name is Cathy Willman. Disney World makes me cry. Every day. And I love it.

Luckily, Mike and Kathleen got some good pictures of the girls at the Crystal Palace with Pooh and Eeyore. Gotta love all that fluff and stuff on Pooh!

They even had a Parade for all the kids through the restaurant. On our side, we got Piglet and Eeyore, and the other side of the Palace got the others. Rock on Piglet!

Then we had to get going. So much to do, so little time.
Did I mention on the way to the Teacups we had to dodge the Dance Parade? Well, we did. However Christopher slowed down so he could dance as he went. It was rather adorable.

Adorable until we left the Crystal Palace, and the twins saw The Dance Party going on, now I don't think it was STILL going (that'd be some Crazy dancing characters) but rather it was going on Again. This time the twins pulled up some fence, and just watched. So Adorable.

On our way across the Park, we bumped into that Boy who never grew up: Peter Pan!

The kids were Thrilled. They actually watched Peter Pan this week, and the girls have been going on and on about Fairies. How Spiffy to see Pan in person! All 5 yahoos climbed out of their strollers and sat down by him. He did "Roll Call", to learn their names, just like he would have with the lost boys.

The kids were so happy to meet Peter. Christopher told me that Peter told him to be careful and not step on Tinkerbell, to watch out because she's tiny. He Promised. (This comes up again later.)

Then we took the kids on Dumbo. However, it was sunny, hot, and they were tired. They were losing it already. They needed naps, and the line was long. I didn't know, but I decided to ask if Chris's pass would work on this ride. It doesn't have a Fastpass line like the others. So I found a castmember by the exit, and I told him, my kid has this pass because he's on the autism spectrum, and he's starting to lose it in the line. (Really it was Chris and Sarah and Sam losing it) and he told me to grab the family and come, and I could get in the next round. And we did. Awesome! And the little kids Loved Dumbo. They are moving the Dumbo ride next week, so we really got in while the getting was good. And it really was Good.

On our way back through the castle, we spotted the Fairy Godmother. She was the only member of Cinderella's family, we had yet to meet. So we got her autograph too.

Then we took a peaceful walk back. What a lovely day!

The Julius's Needed to see Finding Nemo: The Musical at Animal Kingdom. Last time, they didn't get to Animal Kingdom at all, and we spent the majority of a day there. So we got up from naps and hightailed to Animal Kingdom. The natural birds of the marshes were happy to give us a welcome. This photo of the birds was a little sketchy, but there was a gazillion of them. And the sun set while we were in the show, but when we came out, they were still sleeping by the swampy river.

We saw the Finding Nemo: The Musical, the last show of the day. And we got great seats, right up close. The kids were thrilled. Chris only got a little nervous and hid between my legs during the shark scene, because they came right down a catwalk next to him. We were close! It was great! The music is wonderful, the characters enchanting, and there were bubbles!

I swear, if they ever made this a Broadway Musical, I would go! It's THAT good!

Then we dashed, well as much as one can with buses, and strollers, and monorails, oh my, to Magic Kingdom. We arrived there Just in time to catch the majority of the Main Street Electrical Parade.

There was no crowd on the Town Hall steps, which is where we stood to watch it last time, where our friend Jason told us there were great seats, still true. The kids were happy to see from there. Even though we missed the beginning, it was still pretty Awesome!

I will always equate Pete's Dragon with this Parade, I don't know why. So it made my heart leap a little when I saw the dragon.

And this float, "To Honor America" was the last one. Little fiberoptic fireworks lit it as it went, I managed to capture a couple lit up. Very Cool.

Not that anything could follow the awesomeness of that, but this view came close. I love Cinderella's Castle at night. I could just sit and watch and watch. It's even niftier during the holidays because of the twinkling lights, and the color changes. Gorgeous!

The girls were desperate to see the Fairies. So since Animal Kingdom closed at 7, and Magic Kingdom was open until 10, AND all the kids got good naps, we decided to go make the most of our 'last day' and cross a few more items off our Must Do lists. And we went to visit the Fairies.

The kids got a big kick out of the special "fairy dust tunnel" that shrinks us all down so that we can visit the fairies, and be their size. The first Fairy we saw was Rosetta, from the Tinkerbell movies, her talent is Flowers. She also spoke with the slightest southern accent. She was great!

And Tinkerbell, she was adorable too, the girls went gaga for her. Christopher made very sure that he didn't step on her, and was very careful around her, per Peter Pan's orders. He wanted to be able to report to Pan that he took care. Too bad we didn't see Peter again to be able to report Mission Accomplished.

The girls were probably so distracted by Tinkerbell, they didn't hear the Firework show begin, but I did. So as soon as we were done, we dashed outside. Chris put on his headphones, but he really didn't need them, he was over his fears. He did great, and it was a beautiful show in person, even better than being atop the Contemporary. (Except for people's heads being in my way.)

What a Grand Finale!!!

Christopher really wanted to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride. I had never ridden it, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but in Chris's book, if it's Buzz, it's got to be good. So after the Fireworks, we went to circle around back of the castle, because the crowd was so big. Only, we didn't get very far. We bumped into Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. It's rare that the Princes are out, so I stopped. The Castmember told us that the line was closed, no more people were allowed in, although we could see the people last in line. Just at that moment, a family (whose toddler was DONE) was skipping out the back of the line. I just glanced at them, glanced at the castmember, and asked, can we take their place? He let us!

So we got to meet Prince Naveen... and Princess Tiana. But really Prince Naveen stole the show. He was dancing to the music playing, Chris even joined him for a little dance. He was cracking jokes, funny, oh, and pretty cute too. We asked where he was from, it's a little sketchy in the movie. He says, "It's called Moldonia, but I'm usually being stepped on or something when I say it. Some people say it's not real, but of course it is, I should know, I'm from there!"

After that fun visit, we realized the crowd had broken up in front of the castle, and moved to the back, so it ended up making more sense to cut across the front. They were doing a show, some Memories of You, or something, like a photo session, with photos that had been taking throughout the day. We didn't feel we needed to stop to watch it. But as we were walking, I looked up, and saw Mr. Incredible ON the castle, and right underneath, a picture of Mike! Apparently, the photopass guys had gotten various members of our group in Incredible! poses. By getting photopass pictures, you are saying it's ok for Disney to use them. I had no idea. I didn't object though, it was actually very cool. By the time we all halted, the picture was gone, however, we had to stop to admire the photomosaics on the castle. It's amazing!

We stopped for some hot dogs and fries for dinner, somehow it had gotten to 9 oclock before we remembered to eat, we'd just been snacking all day. Then we headed over over to Chris's Buzz ride. He loved it. It involved shooting lasers, and frankly had so many flashing lights, it gave me a bit of a headache. I wonder if people can get seizures from riding flashy rides too often. This would be that kind of ride. But the kids got captured along with Emperor Zurg afterwards.

When that was all done, we took one last ride up to the Astro Orbiter. It was like Dumbo on Steroids. This one got a little fast for me too, a little late in the evening, and my tummy full for that sort of spinning. Chris loved it Of Course. As you can imagine, IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Then we tried to hop on the People Mover, a nice relaxing ride to end the evening on, but they were shutting it down too. Chris burst into tears. He wanted to do it so badly. Unfortunately, it was our Last official day in Magic Kingdom. And it was time to go.

The End.

But not really.

Little did he know, Mike had done some scheming earlier that morning. He'd researched adding a 6th day in the park. I know, MADNESS! And for only 8$ a person, we could an extra day in the parks. That would be a great time spent since we had to be out of the villa early, and not leave for our flight until late afternoon. And cheaper than $$ spent in Downtown Disney. So we did it. But Chris didn't know that, he didn't find out until we surprised him the next morning. But that is a story for another day.

Disney World, Day 5, January 6th 5K RACE

2012-01-15T14:10:00.013-05:00

Happy Epiphany! This was pretty much an epiphany for us too. We couldn't believe we were really here! 6 months ago, would you have thought that I would have been capable of running a 5K? Nope. I spent over half my life thinking I was unfit for running, until my friend Karin schnookered me into it. Now, crazy of crazies, I enjoy it! Who would have thought of that? Let alone that we would be getting up ass early on a Saturday morning to do it. On Purpose! It was Early.

So Early that I couldn't deduce between the video and picture taking buttons on my little point and shoot camera. Kathleen and I got up about dark thirty to catch a bus to the race. We 'warmed up' walking to the Hospitality House before hopping a bus to Epcot. Although our race started in the Epcot Parking Lot. There was actually a fair bit of walking before our run actually began, that was good. It kept us warm.

I'm particularly Thankful to my husband who picked us up some disposable 'tear-away' jackets and pants to keep us warm. It was 40 degrees. Standing around was Cold. But we had music to pep us up, and we bumped into a gal that went to school with Kathleen and I, younger than I, who was going to do the Goofy Challenge. These young wipper-snappers today.

We heard the Three Caballeros singing and announcing the start. There was a moment, when a wave of silence came over the crowd. We were way in the back, when we heard it, a lone voice singing the National Anthem. 8000 people silenced in a moment, it was pretty Awesome. Tears came to my eyes. Then Snap, the crowd started moving. should have had fireworks, but they didn't go off until we were a quarter mile away. I think we may have inadvertantly gotten started in the first wave of runners, because we got Passed. A lot. But that was ok, we found a pace that worked for us, for a while. Until we had to pee. ;) All that standing around you know, you'd think we would've gone before. We did. We just had to go again right after we crossed the start line.

Once back in the race, we circled through the parking lot, to an area around back of Future World, you know, secret back doors, delivery trucks, trashcans. Yeah. Not so exciting to look at. But then we went through an alley, and Bam, we popped out in Mexico of World Showcase.

Then we circled around the lake. We even stopped outright to get our picture taken with Mulan and Shang. Frankly, I found this stop appropriate, since his song "I'll make a man out of you" could be an exercise Anthem! (Be a man)...We must be swift as the coursing river.... With all the force of a great typhoon... With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!

Yeah, that's us all over! Maybe I'm more of Abu sort of gal.

I was feeling good and strong for a while, but stopping and starting with crowds I just wasn't used to was taking it's toll. And since we'd all been sick the week between Christmas and new years, we hadn't had a good run since before Christmas. This wasn't really a Good Run. It was too much fun to be a good run.

What this was wasn't our goal, we'd met our Goal. We'd done 5K at home, we'd made it the 3.1 miles. This was our Reward too! We could enjoy the view, and take a little pride in all that we'd accomplished.

It was a Fun Run. We ended up slowing to walking, or jogging in most places. So about halfway around I realized that I needed to just jog about, relax, and enjoy the scenery.

Mickey was even out to cheer us on! So we had to stop again for a picture with Mickey too, of course.

Kathleen and I ran underneath the Epcot ball, Spaceship Earth. This served as our Vision while we were training. It was better in reality!

We weren't fast. There was running, walking, moseying, stopping, and of course photo sessions, and lines. But it was so Cool!

I can't even say that the best part was Crossing the Finish Line!

The whole thing was just so cool. Well, a little less so once we stopped moving. We had to truck around to the Start line to find The Three Caballeros. It's hard to tell by our shirts read, Las Dos Caballeras. The two cowgirls. More like the two crazy runner girls, but I didn't have the shirts say that. Maybe next time. We found the characters for our race, and Jose was pretty stoked about our shirts, he pointed it out wordlessly to Panchito, and everyone was happy. Us included.

One last cheesy photo op. It's a good thing Kathleen loves me and tolerates me stopping to take pictures all the time. I think we probably could've done our race in less than an hour without all the photo stopping. Oh well. I'd rather have the photos. :)

Happy and Exhausted, we literally caught the last bus home. Literally. We had to show the guy where we were staying, they'd brought in other bus drivers, and this guy had been doing a different route. We had an entire charter bus to ourselves, and we're leaning over giving the guy directions. Blind leading the blinder. With a spanish accent. The rest of our crew was still in their jammies when we got home, which allowed us time to get cleaned up.

Eric was making fun of me for my post-race bath, soaking in our fancy villa bathtub, bubbles overflowing, all lined with Pixar tub toys. Ahh...

Now to just Sit Back and Relax. And wonder....

What will we do next?

Disney World, Day 5, January 6th

2012-01-15T08:54:00.017-05:00

I sit here reminiscing about this entire day, and the accomplishments that Kathleen and I have made to get here. We were able to run 5K, that's 3.1 miles, friends. That's pretty awesome! So it deserves it's own Blog entry.
To sum up, We did it! We survived the Family Fiesta Fun Run 5K.

And then we were really Crazy.

Then we spent an entire day at Epcot.

Christopher picked this first ride when he made his list days before. At the time, few wanted to ride it, but when the time came, Everyone was excited to go on Spaceship Earth, aka The Epcot Ball!

Even Sam!

Afterwards, the guys ran for Fastpasses for Test Track, and we played games under Spaceship Earth. The kids all got a big kick out of this modern magnetic shuffleboard.

When we all hooked up again, we headed to the World Showcase. Our first stop was to meet Duffy bear. If you're unfamiliar with Duffy, his story just came about in 2010, when Minnie made a stuffie for Mickey to travel with on a boat ride and take pictures on their travels. Then all their friends wanted their own Duffies, so Minnie made it so everyone can get one. We cashed in some Disney Movie Rewards points to get our own My First Duffie bear. They sell outfits for him all over the parks, and there are hidden mickeys all stitched into his patterning, like around his eyes, on his pawprints. We wanted to see how the kids responded to Duffy before investing in bears and clothes for all. We lucked out one evening, and got to watch the Duffy Story book read on tv at bedtime. He was a Big Hit!

In person he was even sweeter. We took our Duffy to meet Duffy, and Duffy got a big kick out of our little duffy doll, he rocked it like a baby, and insisted that little Duffy be in the picture with Big Duffy.

Our first stop was to the Kim Possible mission station. The big kids were all given phones, and given a mission in China. These missions are great, even the littles wanted in on the action. But you can take the cell phone to the designated area, and something will happen, like a statue will rise out of the water of a decorative pond, or a hologram appears on a statue.

This Mission sent Chris and Emily to the Temple in China, where we were saving the world from evil monkeys or something like that.

We stopped for snacks in China, and we came up with the idea to eat and drink ourselves around the world. However, we only made it through three countries: China, Norway, and Mexico, before we needed to get back to Test Track for our FastPass times. I may have to blog about our scrumptious food and drinks separately too. ;)

So Good!

I had never spent any time in Mexico, and now I'm completely shocked as to why not. First of all, we found Donald!

Hooray for Donald! He was the first stuffed character that Kristin would go for. It was his 15th anniversary for the half marathon, that Eric was going to be running on Saturday. He helped sponser our race. Really, he was quite enchanting to all of us on this day. Last visit I went crazy for Minnie Mouse, this year it was all about Donald! Mickey Mouse. DONALD DUCK!

Inside Mexico, we found an adorable bazaar full of great shopping. I could've spent half the day in there. Imagine my Joy at finding a ride in the belly of that aztec temple. It's was like It's a Small World meets Mexico starring Donald Duck. Heavenly!

We loved visiting Mexico, but had to get back to serious matters, like Rides! I did learn, that my child has no fear. I didn't really have any desire to go on Test Track, but Emily did, and Kathleen was talking it up. OK, Fine. So we fast passed and riderswapped, while the menfolk took the big kids, we curled up in the Baby Station changing diapers and watching cartoons. By the time they found us, Emily wanted rather to watch tv, so Chris and Kathleen and I took to the Test Track.

Did I mention my child has no fear? He was simply screaming, "THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!"

The one and only time we had trouble with any Castmembers was right after Test Track. As we were leaving that ride, we encountered our crew just off the Gift shop surrounded by half a dozen new cars. Apparently, GM has set up a show room for cars, just as the ride ends. Free advertising, I guess. We learned later that the kids had been playing happily amongst the new cars. They were being Followed by a Castmember. At one point, all 4 of them were happy and quiet inside one of the big ones, they even closed themselves inside, happily sitting on the seats pretending to drive. Grateful for a moment's quiet, one of the Dad's joked with the Castmember, well, good thing they don't hurt anything. The Castmember rather rudely told him to get the kids out of the car, they weren't allowed to touch them. Seriously? It's a RIDE!?! In DISNEY WORLD?!! What kind of ride at Disney World doesn't allow kids to climb on stuff. And if you don't want kids on your stuff, don't bring it to bloody Disney World! Heck, if you don't like kids, don't come anywhere near Disney World, that one is for the curmudgeon on the bus that got shitty with Eric when we weren't moving fast enough on the bus. However, we got even in both instances. As the curmudgeon had to stand, and had to spend the ride getting kicked by Sarah who was having a full bodied tantrum from being separated from her mother. And the employee? Well, with all 5 kids out of the cars, he had to mad dash all over the place to observe them all. Ha!
It was actually better when they were contained and quiet, huh smarta$$?!

So we went and drowned our sorrows sampling in the Coke cool room, it's a Coke gift shop, with some sample of international coca cola flavors. All the kids went bonkers, trying every flavor.

From our soda buzz to the Land, where we got to ride through the Biotech garden. It's an entire hydroponic garden, some veggies growing upside down, or through hanging tubes, and no dirt. One cool one was the garden built on top of an aquarium: the fish nibble the roots, and get their nutrition through the plants, and the plants get water and 'fertilizers' from the fish. This is one of the coolest rides for me, as I used to work doing this sort of thing. I wonder if I could get a job there? I must say though it was a little above Christopher.

However, we hammed it up, by saying see all these fruits and vegetables that are growing here? We're going to go eat them upstairs for dinner! So we did! We had a bit of a wait for dinner, but the kids made the best of it.

We had dinner at the Garden Grill, a rotating restaurant over the land ride, served Family style (aka all you can eat) with visits from Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale.

The Chipmunks definitely stole the show! Chip is the one with the little black nose, the more serious one, and Dale is the goofy one. My boys were thrilled to see both of them.

Pluto doesn't ever have to say a word, and he's always a hit. All he has to do is show up and he makes Christopher laugh. Getting him to once again sign our books on his nose cracks them up. Last time Chris kept wanting to tough the whiskers, this time it was the ears. We love Pluto.

It's Farmer Mickey! Don't you just LOVE the suspenders?! Since it's the Garden grill, and the farm from the land ride is right there, it's a whole farming theme we got going on. Mickey spent a lot of time bumping noses with the littles to get them smiling. So this was our last shot before we hit the road.

We realized that the rides were going to close down before we were done with dinner. Both boys had been requesting the Nemo ride for a couple days, they love all things Nemo. So our little group of four made a Mad dash to Nemo and Friends, formerly known as The Seas ride. Just in time for them to shut it down right behind us. Whew! And we got a little photo session in with the Nemo statues in the evening.

Please ignore the fact that Sam is covered in macaroni. "RONI" was his favorite meal, anywhere we ate he wanted Roni. And Roni ended up Everywhere. Since Eric was going to have an early morning for his race the next day, the half marathons started at 5:30, but he had to be on a bus at 4, at least. So he wanted to go to bed early. So he took the Roni child back to the villa for an early night.
Meanwhile, the rest of us all got separated for a bit because everyone needed to go to the restroom. After coming back from changing Chris (his flushes weren't 100% effective, we blame the water and a failed new catheter brand) I realized that I had sent Eric back with the backpack with Chris's fancy pass in it. The Julius's and I had been thinking of Hopping over to Magic Kingdom and riding Buzz Lightyear, Chris really wanted to do that one. I thought we might need our Special Pass. When I realized I'd sent it on, I went up to the nearest castmember and told them, a. that I had the special pass but sent it on with the hubs and baby, b. could I get another one here?, c. where do I go? When he told me where Guest Services was, I guess my poker face revealed I was less than enthusiastic about that walk. I was thinking OK, I'll just head there, when he said, Hang On, let me talk to someone. Sweet! He comes back and says, OK, go to the lady XXX downstairs at the fastpass desk for Soarin' she'll give you a pass to get on that ride. Huh? Soarin'? I wasn't planning on doing that. But... Chris is now 40 inches, and he can ride it. We had discussed doing that, but decided we didn't have time. Now I was getting a free ride in for just Chris and I. OK. So we went in, and we rode Soarin'! And surprise surprise, Chris thought IT WAS AWESOME!! He started to get a little nervous when we buckled in, but once we really were soaring, he couldn't tell the difference between ride and reality. What a Blessing for me to be able to share it with him.

When I found the Julius Family, they'd been shopping, and thinking, and we thought we might try the IllumiNations Fireworks show a go. Emily had been very nervous about fireworks, but we'd seen partial the night before from our hotel, and all the kids had these awesome headphones that Mike picked out, so we figured, what the hey, let's try it! So Mike scoped out a great view for us to watch the fireworks, and we camped out for about 20 minutes before it started, just long enough to snag some desserts. ;)

What a neat show! I thought the kids might get scared with the fire and light, but they did great, and handled everything very well.

And IlluminNations was Beautiful!

Next time we'll really go around the world.

And then we went home and Crashed. But it was this night, when our bodies started to give out, and our minds started going that we realized it might have been a good idea to take a day off somewhere in the middle. Oh well, too late. Eric's big races were to come, and tomorrow was to be our last day in the parks.

Disney World, Day 4, January 5th

2012-01-14T12:42:00.018-05:00

We had to stop at the front desk on our way out of the parks on Thursday morning, to print off some paperwork for the races. Eric, Kathleen, and I all were sending Eric off to ESPN to pick up our packets, much easier for 1 person to go than for all 9 of us. But to send an ambassador we had to have our driver's licenses copies and some affidavit filled out, etc. While we did paperwork, the kids had a great time watching Mickey cartoons in at the Hospitality House. What a perk!

After that it was off to Magic Kingdom once again. Still didn't make Opening, but we didn't care. We had some things on our list today, that we Needed to cross off, things neglected from other days' visits. First up on the list, was for the girls, they wanted to meet the Princesses. The line was particularly nasty, like an hour, when we came by. Chris's pass doesn't work on meet and greets, and the kids need to be in great moods for an hour long wait. As it was only a half an hour, we were happy. Sam got a little punchy in the line though.

By the time we got up to the Princesses, Sam only cared about getting signatures for his book, not really into spending quality time with the ladies.

Chris and the girls were in hog heaven though. Amazingly enough, Kristin wasn't afraid of the princesses. She had been terrified off all the big headed characters, like Mickey. So she was happy to join us with a little cheese with Princess Aurora.

Chris told me his favorite princess was Belle, because she has a Yellow dress.

The twins were very interested in Cinderella's shoes. They really wanted to see her glass slippers. She told us they were in her castle, she wore the silver ones instead.

One of the rides that Emily really wanted to do was Thunder Mountain Railroad. It's a Train roller coaster, and last time we came Christopher was too small. It's in the back of the park, and this time Chris was tall enough to ride. Since the Littles wouldn't be allowed to do the train coaster, we thought they'd love to ride the Train that circles the park. There's a Station at the very front, on Main Street, and a stop in the back of the park by Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. So the menfolk dragged the strollers up the stairs and up onto the train, so the kids could ride the train. And they Loved it!

Once we got into Frontierland, it ended up being hog heaven for the kids. The boys ran for Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain Railroad, and we found a little playground by the restrooms, called The Laughing Place. Perfect considering Splash Mountain, a ride for the movie Song of the South was right around the corner. But even better because all 5 yahoos played happily and crazily in the laughing place.

On a run to the restroom, I found Jesse. Emily had been Jesse for Halloween last year, and she was her favorite character.

After we met Jesse, and the Littles were happily playing, Mike, Chris and I hopped on Splash Mountain. The line was short, and the weather was getting warmer, so we figured, let's do it!

We did, and it was Great! We only got slightly wet, so we continued on down the path to check off one of Kathleen's Must-Do's: The Jungle Cruise. I don't think I'd ever ridden it. And that was a shame, because it was Lovely. Granted, there was a certain element of Cheese, but it was cool, relaxing, painless, and the kids were interested enough in the goings on, that it was kind of Quiet. Something we'll repeat!

Then it was back to Thunder Mountain Railroad. Emily and Christopher got to ride it twice with the Rider swap and Fastpass. And it turns out I'm old. It was fun, but wowza. That's about all the roller coaster my back can handle anymore.

And wouldn't you know it, my son is Fearless. He thought these roller coaster rides were "AWESOME!!!" We're going to be in trouble. On that note, we hopped on the train, and back to the front for naps. While we napped, Eric ran for our bibs etc. Mike and Emily had some Quality Time. And we took the yahoos back for naps. But they got a little crazy on the bus, showing us their bellies. Silly but sweet!

After naps we packed up the yahoos and took them over to Hollywood Studios. (Hooray for Park Hopper!) Chris made sure we brought Duffy with us.

Our first stop was to hit the Playhouse Disney show. We were doing it mostly for the Littles: Sam, Sarah, and Kristin, because they watch the Disney morning lineups. However when we got all the kids in there, they all loved the show.

After that, we dashed around the corner to meet The Incredibles! Mike had picked out our Incredibles shirts for this trip, which we all loved. We got a lot of comments about what an Incredible Family we were. They had no idea. But we got in to meet Mr. Incredible with 15 minutes to spare. And Mr. Incredible loved our shirts too!

We are a pretty Incredible Family!

We got to visit Fantasia Mickey too.

As usual Sam was snitsy when we visited with Mickey, but Mickey took it upon himself to cheer up Sam. He did so with nose bumps and fist bumps. Fantasia Mickey does a very cool fist bump. He bumped fists with Sam, then opened his hand in a firework. Very Cool. And of course, it made Sam smile. Even cooler. Good job Mickey.

I just loved this picture of Best Buds.

After our meet and greets when popped on over to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. For Kathleen. We had thought they were going to shut it down on Tuesday night, so we planned on taking Kathleen and Mom down to see it on our first night before our dinner reservations. Blessedly, they extended it a bit, so we got to go through with the kids, and enjoy it. They make it snow, by sprinkling soapy bubbles down upon us. So Beautiful!

After that Chris was requesting one more ride on Toy Story Mania! So Mike and I took Chris and Emily on Chris's Pass, while the others got started waiting in line to meet Buzz and Woody across the street. We had a great run! Being in that line with Chris, and seeing him so happy, really made me cherish him all the more. He's such a Joy.

The others held us a spot for us, which ended up being very good, because we ended up being the last family in line to meet Buzz and Woody. This line isn't so bad to wait in, because they have lots of things to keep the kids entertained. Buzz and Woody are hands down, my children's favorite Disney Characters.

5 yahoos in a Buzz Box.

And the sweetest little alien you ever saw.

Oh no! Emily got herself strapped to a rocket.

And a box full of yahoos with Stinky Pete.

Who you callin' Stinky?

Meeting Buzz and Woody ended up being being a perfect end to our evening. It was going to be an early morning for Kathleen and I the next day, so we went home and crashed with the kiddos. And it was Good.

Disney World, Day 3, January 4th

2012-01-12T16:59:00.018-05:00

Well, since we'd been out and about until pretty late after our fancy dinner at the Grand Flo, we opted to let the kids sleep in the next morning. This was Wednesday, and we'd decided to go visit Hollywood Studios.

But first a leisurely morning. Girls lounging about in bed.

Though come to think of it, some boys I know were lounging a bit too. But watching tv allowed all the parents to bathe, and that was a very good thing.

Off we went to Hollywood Studios. And of course, I had to stop in front of the tree for a picture. We did the same thing last time we went. Actually, anytime there's a photopass guy or a neat photo opportunity, I made everybody stop. I think they may have gotten a little annoyed with me. Only slightly. Eventually, everyone may be glad I took 1300 pictures. Not including the photopass ones. ;)

As we had prepared for Magic Kingdom the day before, Christopher had made a list (he comes by it honestly) of the rides he really really wanted to do. His list was: It's a Small World, Toy Story Mania, Buzz Lightyear, and Epcot Ball (spaceship Earth). Well, we'd crossed off It's a Small World on the first day. So as we headed to Hollywood Studios we went dashing off for the fastpass line, but it was too far ahead of us. So we decided to try and see if Chris's Special Pass would get us all in. According to the gal at Guest Relations, it is only good for a maximum of 6 people. Luckily, the 9 of us included 6 paying guests, and 3 littles, aka 3 two year olds that were too tiny to register as paying guests. Well, that was another reason we went now, before Sam and the twins turned three. When we used Chris's Pass on Peter Pan the day before, not everyone wanted to ride, so it wasn't an issue to get us all on. The fastpass line returnees were low enough and the Castmembers were kind enough to let us all on at the same time. Bless Them! So all 9 of us piled on to Toy Story Mania! which I must say is Christopher's favorite ride.

I must confess I have a great time on that ride too. That whole street is one of Chris's favorites, there's the Toy Story ride, and a meet and greet with Buzz and Woody, and once again we got lucky finding Green Army Man walking down the street. Last time, he made me cry, having the green army man pick up on how strong my sweetboy is, so I screamed when we saw him again. Weird, maybe, but also Very Cool.

From there we headed off to Star Tours. The boys had made mad dashes and gotten photopasses for us. So we took some awesomely cheesy photos of the kids on the Speeder Bike. My boys have grown so much since the last time we went.

The big kids were pretty sweet all together too. We did Rider swap with Eric and Mike taking Chris on the newly revamped Star Tours, then Chris got to ride again with Kathleen and I. He was totally stoked, walking us through it, telling us exactly what to do. And when it was done, he gave us a "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!"

Initially the twins didn't want to get on. But Kristin talked herself free, and got on, all by herself. She was so proud that she could drive the bike. Enchanting!

Mike was quite the proud papa of his little princess, who looks quite the young lady on the speeder bike now.

But even more fun, we took the big kids into the Star Tours gift shop after the rides, and they got to build their own Light Sabers. Emily chose a purple one.

Christopher chose a Blue one.

And Sam chose a Green one.

It was clear pretty quickly many fights were going to break out, so we opted to sent the Light Sabers back to Old Key West, where Mike picked them up later in the week. Since we've arrived home, Sam has been a stitch with them. This morning Christopher told us he was Luke Skywalker, and he told Sam he was Yoda. Sam said, Yeah, I'm Yoda! Chris immmediately asked him, Yoda where's Darth Vader? Sam said, in all seriousness, "I don't know." This evening he was chasing brother around the room, both of them armed with their Light Sabers, yelling, "Yeah, we've got our light sabors, Let's go get the Light Saber guys!" And off they ran. I think Daddy's a little proud around here too.

After filling our cups full of all the geeky star wars cuteness that we could, we went and filled our bellies at Pizza Planet, the Toy Story pizza shop. I think I have bad kharma there, because we got a tiny table, but the wait for food, and the crowd had everyone losing their minds by the time we ate, and it was 2. We purposely ate late to avoid the crowds, and failed miserably.

However, the day was redeemed, as we were at Pizza Planet, we noticed that Phineas and Ferb had a meet and greet right around the corner. So we hit that, even though we had to wait in line for and additional 15 minutes while they took a break, it was worth it.

While they were on break, they had a 'director' come out and prepare some of the kids to help them film “We’re Making a Movie - The Movie”. Of course, our adorable older kids got roles on 'the film'.

Christopher was the "GNOME OF TERROR". His job was to lift his gnome whenever the director said Gnome of Terror, and all of us were to shriek with fear.

Emily got the coveted job of holder of the letter G in the word Aglet. Do you know what an aglet is? The little plastic thing at the end of your shoelaces. If you didn't know, you need to brush up on your Phineas and Ferb songs.

Then came the time we were all waiting for. To meet Phineas and Ferb! The kids were thrilled and they ran right into their arms. Another big hit for this was that we were all wearing our Perry shirts on this day. And Chris got to dance with Phineas.

Hey Where's Perry?

Oh, there you are Perry. Sam was tired by the time of the meet and greet. Sometimes I wonder if he was playing the samtrum boy and burying his head in our shoulders when the characters came around, because anytime a character showed him some love, he's smile and ham up, cheer up immediately. It happened here too. Ferb was enchanting to Sam.

As we were headed out of the park, we stopped one last time to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars. The photopass guys got the big group photos, but I snapped a couple of the kids poking at Lightning. They were thrilled because the Lightning McQueen didn't have stickers anymore, he had real headlights. That made up for the fact that they couldn't sign our books because they don't have hands. ;)

As the moon rose, we headed back to the villa because Grandma was coming a babysitting. We opted to not nap the kids, so she could get them down to bed early if she needed too. We were afraid if they napped, and we didn't have to get them up they'd have been hard to get down to sleep later. As it turned out, they did wonderfully for Grandma.

Meanwhile, the Mommies and Daddies got a hot date at the California Grill on the top of the Contemporary. We got there a smidgeon early, so we popped out on the veranda to check out the view. I had packed my entire camera bag, because all I wanted was really good sushi, and some good pictures of Cinderella castle. I got both.

Last time we went, the sushi was so good it made Eric cry. Well, since we'd all teared up with Prince Charming the night before, the sushi was downgraded to just plain awesome. The food was so good, and the ambience so nice. We had a wonderful time. Our dinner was timed just right so that between dinner and dessert the Magic Kingdom fireworks show came on. So we stepped outside once again to the top of the Contemporary to watch the Wishes show. I went a little bonkers taking pictures of the fireworks.

But I just thought they were so beautiful. And I love my new camera. I took 80 pictures of the castle and fireworks shows that night, all without a tripod, and some of them turned out darn good.

We'd had some mighty yummy cocktails with our dinner, and we got a wild hair to go back over to Magic Kingdom and do a little shopping. Love that Park Hopper Option! Imagine the madness, Shopping WITHOUT the kids! Crazy. It was peaceful, and fun, and once again, I got carried away taking picture of the everchanging Castle. I love the lights they put on it during the holidays.

After it got cold enough to freeze my bare toes, we headed back home to our villa, for tomorrow was another busy wonderful day. And as they say Let the Memories Begin...

And Continue!

Disney World, Day 2, January 3rd

2012-01-11T20:52:00.013-05:00

Our first day inside the parks was one we couldn't wait to start. Though we were all up and at'em early, it takes a lot to get 10 people moving in the morning. Mom W. was wonderful and showed up at 8 with groceries so we didn't have to pack as much, and so we could have breakfast in the villa. Bless her. And we were so excited that she was going to stay and play with us in the Magic Kingdom all day.

We didn't make it quite in time for the opening show, but we got there just after 9 and in time to catch an early visit to Mickey and Minnie.

After waiting in the line a while (25 minutes) Sam was about done, so he wasn't very interested in being social to Mickey and Minnie. But Mickey wouldn't have that. So he started poking towards Sam, making gestures, and getting smiles. But what really got Sam laughing was when the two of them (Mickey and Sam) bumped noses. Adorable.

On our way out of Mickey's Magic Hall, we stopped to say hello to Pluto. The boys got the biggest kick out of Pluto having to sign their books on his giant nose. But I don't think he could see around it otherwise. You can't see very well, that Chris is laughing hysterically here, except for the crooked angle of his head, trust me he was.

This was my favorite picture of the day. It's Kathleen and Sarah as we waited in the line for It's a Small World. They were checking out the giant clock, that we were standing underneath while we waited.

Mike made me laugh when he lifted his arms and Woo'd as we started It's a Small World. I know it's cheesy, but it's one of our favorite rides, really a favorite for the whole family. Something so Peaceful about it. Last time we were here, we hid the little ones away from the fireworks by going to this ride, it's underground, you can't hear the fireworks, totally safe for the yahoos. However this time, it was the middle of the day, super crowded, and yet there was still something peaceful about it. I read Going Bovine a while back, and this kid nearly dies on the ride because he thought it was Heaven. I can see that. There's just Something about it.

Aft lunch at Pinocchio's house, all of us took spins in the honey pot on the Winnie the Pooh ride. There was a time a few months back, when Sam didn't recognize who Tigger was. Thankfully, all that video watching paid off, Sam knew exactly who the characters were.

We used Christopher's Special pass for the first time on Peter Pan. Oh, I didn't tell you about the Special Assistance Card. I read that there was a special pass that Special Needs kids could get if they had a prescription for behavioral issues. So before we left town I had Dr. Z write on a script that Chris had PDD-NOS, ADHD, ODD, hearing loss in his right ear, and Imperferate Anus. I figured that would cover all our bases. It did. I took our script to the Guest Services desk just inside the gate at Magic Kingdom, in the Town Hall (though you can do this at any park) They thanked me for getting the script and gave me a little piece of paper, that said Special Guest pass. It's the handicapped pass, or Autism pass, they use the same thing whatever your disability. The great thing about this pass is that it enables you to get into the shorter line, or to go through the exit if you're in a wheelchair. We just showed it to any castmember, and they would help us. We didn't want to use it much, because we don't want to take advantage of the system. And at first I was against it, if only because I didn't want others to think we were milking the system, then I read this letter of a parent of an ADHD kid. They were using the pass, and going in the handicapped line. They got glared and mumbled at by another parent. She opened her mouth and said, I tell you what, I'll gladly trade for a healthy child and I'll wait in Disney's longest line and be Grateful. If you have a Special Needs child, get the pass, even if you don't use it, it's worth the bit of extra work at the beginning to have it, Just in Case. Oh and headphones. Mike bought the boys some headphones for Christmas on line, they were also a godsend. When we got to the Peter Pan ride earlier, they were all sold out of Fastpasses, and we couldn't wait 120 minutes. It got us right into the FastPass line, and we were riding Peter Pan in 20 minutes. Not to mooch the system, but Thank You DisneyWorld! My kid loved Peter Pan!

After Peter Pan, the big kids and I hopped on the Carousel. Eric and Mom turned away, anything that spins makes them both queasy.

The kids found the Sword in the Stone! Look at their collective strength. They reported that they even got it to wiggle a bit!

Grandma joined us for Pirates of the Carribbean. It turns out Chris is fearless. The things that scare Emily, Chris finds AWESOME!!!

After Pirates, we tootled down Main St. heading back to the hotel for naps... though it took us an hour to leave the park. So many temptations. ;)

We got distracted by characters, the kids favorite thing to do was get autographs, so the kids got their pictures taken with Pinocchio and Daisy Duck.

On our way back to the hotel for naptime, we got caught in the midst of a parade. There were two bands: the Naperville high school band and the Disney Band, followed by the Celebrations Parade. Since 60% of the adults in our group had marched in Disney with Parades, we stopped, and watched, and teared up. And what better to watch a parade than with some hot fresh popcorn. The kids were Thrilled. Just when we thought they were exhausted and couldn't take anymore they pulled out extra sweetness for a parade.

Emily was thrilled when a float came by that had Wendy AND Alice on it. Unfortunately, it was the only time we got to see Wendy.

Chris got up close and personal with Mr. Incredible.

For real this time, we went home for a nap.

The kids were so worn out that when we felt like we needed to leave at 5, they were still all unconscious. So Mom and I got a wild hair, we decided to make a mad dash to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, just the two of us, and we'd meet everyone else at the Grand Floridian. We had two hours, and bus transportation was sketchy at best. However, since we stayed on site, Mom had a parking pass, and a rental car, so we drove. We got great parking, got in, saw the lights, watched them to a show for Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad. Still Awesome!

And it was the first time Mom had been in this park, and we'd gotten the park hopper for her, so we Hopped. And we just HAD to stop at the Hat for the traditional picture.

We dashed back like maniacs to the Grand Flo, even though public parking is way down in bfe, we got lucky hooking up with an employee in a golf cart, giving a fellow castmember a ride. We arrived with 1 minute to spare. The rest of our family however was 30 minutes late, because they had to wait for 45 minutes for a Magic Kingdom bus. God Bless the kids for handling it wonderfully.
We had dinner at 1900 Park Fare, which had a scrumptious buffet, and where we got to meet Cinderella and her whole family including, Prince Charming. As it turns out Prince Charming is really, well, quite Charming. :)

I was taking pictures when Prince Charming came around. There was so much ambient noise I couldn't hear much. But Kathleen got this video of them, and though it's hard to hear.

They had a very powerful moment. The prince asked what Chris was Celebrating, since he was wearing an I'm Celebrating pin. It's a long story, not easy to answer, but we abbreviated to being All Done with surgeries for a while. The MACE procedure should be his last surgery for a while. This impressed the prince, he said, well, the fairy godmother tells me Celebration times is a great time to make your wishes come true, so make lots of Wishes, and that he was so glad he had joined them on this evening. Then as they posed for pictures, he told Chris to stand tall like a brave knight, since he heard he conquered so much so Bravely in your day. (It amazes me how people quickly can pick right up on Christopher's bravery and strength as soon as they meet him and learn his story.) Then before he left he stepped down to talk to him. He told him, "You know, Courage helped me make my dreams come true. I was able to find my beautiful princess; I din't even have her name I had the Courage to look for her just with her shoe, and it worked out well for me. I'm glad to see you have so much Courage too."

Yeah, it made Eric cry. And me too, every time I watch the video; I didn't cry at the time, just was impressed when he took a moment with him, but when I heard what I said, I can't help tear up every time.

The Stepmother was very prim and proper showing the kids just how ladies and gentleman should stand. The prince showed Christopher too, so when she started to prime Chris, Chris stood us just like the Prince showed him. My Handsome Sweet Prince!

Chris and Emily with Anastasia. Can you believe they hire these pretty girls to portray the wicked stepsisters? Can you imagine getting hired, only to find out you are a stepsistyugler? Well, these ladies did the role so Wonderfully, I was thoroughly impressed, and made the characters so loveable that frankly I wondered why these gals were still single.

Sam and Drizella had a moment. It was lovely.

The whole family at our table at 1900 Park Fare. Awesome!

What an Amazing end to an Awesome day!

Disney World, Day 1, January 2nd

2012-01-09T12:50:00.020-05:00

We couldn't sleep. We were too excited, and there was so much to do. New Year's Day was spent mostly in preparation for our big surprise, a trip to Walt Disney World. We'd stayed up until 2 packing, once the luggage was in the car, we still couldn't sleep. The boys were up at 7. I can't imagine how early they'd have gotten up if they knew what we were up to.

Eric's parents met us at our house at 8:30. We told them we were going to take Grandma to the airport, and maybe have brunch there. Then Grandpa dropped us off.
;)
We only waited a moment when our friends arrived!

Christopher was absolutely enchanting with his Dance of Joy.

Christopher and Emily understood completely what our surprise meant. But the little ones had yet to discover. They were simply happy with their sweatshirts! Speaking of which, I had made matching sweatshirts for all of us.

We're a hard group to miss! Thanks to Auntie Bohl for her photodocumenting and transportations services of the Juli'i. Even from the back, we're pretty Festive. Can you see Sam peeking through?

The kids were thrilled to get on the plane. Sam, Grandma, and I took up one row.

Sam was not initially content to settle down. He wanted to be up and around peeking at friends, snuggling with family, and looking out the window.

Luckily (?) the weather provided the opportunity. It was 20 degrees in Indy, slushing, so the planes needed to be deiced. Sam and the other kids thought watching the truck spray its 'special sauce' was quite cool!

Chris and Emily sat with Eric, being sweet, and watching movies.

We thought the twins might have a bumpy ride, but we plied everyone with treats and movies, and they did wonderfully.

Kristin and Mike were snuggled up together, playing sweetly, while Sarah sat with Kathleen. God Bless Direct Flights!

I thought this photo was extremely cool, as we flew in if you look closely, you can see the Epcot ball, Spaceship Earth, in the center. This is especially cool, I learned, since 9/11, planes aren't allowed to fly directly over WDW, so we can't get much closer. Still very cool.

Once we arrived at our resort, Old Key West, we needed snacks, and to run off some of the kids' pent up energy. My boys wanted to look at the water, almost a marina, little ferryboats could tootle up and down river to Downtown Disney. We never opted to take one, as that evening a chill set in, that didn't leave until our last days.

Chris and Emily were running races to Eric up and down the boardwalk.

Eric was the source of much fun for boys and girls to climb and cuddle. It's the most relaxing he's done in months.

Once we were in our room, the kids continued their runaround.

Sam and Sarah literally ran circles around the villa, through our room, out to the patio, through the kitchen and back around.

After we settled in somewhat, we decided to take the bus to Downtown Disney for dinner and some shopping. We picked up much needed Autograph books for the boys and had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's. Their pizzas were So Good! Eric got a little silly in his sweatshirt, not sure if he's being a monk or a jawa, but he was funny.

After supper, we took the boys to the Lego Store. It was hugely crowded, but so nifty, they had a table with Duplos for the Little ones to play on. They had a table where you could make a little car and race it, Sam wanted to do that one very badly, but it was for the bigger kids.

They had some amazing lego sculptures. This one of Maleficent the dragon fighting Prince Philip was so cool. Even in the dark.

Sam spotted this dragon in the lagoon. I'm not sure if he was Pete's Dragon or not, but he showed up again later in a water parade we saw later in the week.

Chris and Daddy found some Lego Batman goodies, which Chris just HAD to have. Lego Batman hasn't made it to Indy yet. And both boys took a moment to pose with Lego Buzz Lightyear.

After the lego store, we had some hot cocoas from the Ghiradelli cafe. So Good! Especially since the weather was getting chilly. In addition I couldn't resist these little light up ears I saw at a stand for the mommies. "If you've got Ears, Say Cheers!"

Getting the kids to do much together was like herding cats. But they were thrilled to ride the bus.

They were so happy, and they weren't even entirely aware of all the fun that was to come. This was only day 1!

Peace on Earth

2011-12-25T01:00:00.001-05:00

and Goodwill to men (and boys).

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Popping by The Children's Museum

2011-12-18T10:24:00.005-05:00

Wednesday was a Riley day for Christopher, and he did great, one of the best therapy appointments in a while, I'll write about that more on his blog, but since we happened to be downtown, and it didn't look like we were going to be able to do so again, I decided to 'Real Quick' pop in to visit Santa.
After all, Santa has a lot to do this time of year, and he might not be in, the next time we visited the museum, IF we got down there again. One of the things I love about the Children's Museum Santa, is that they'll let me take my own pictures, and not pay for theirs, though I could if I wanted to. We did that once, and had a giant Screaming Fusspot Chris to show for it. So I stopped buying, hoping that we'd get lucky.

We got lucky seeing a lot of seasonal Festivity. The boys were so thrilled to see Bumblebee the Transformer all decked out for the season with his own snowballs and snowhat.

We headed directly to the Jolly Days where we had about 15 minutes to wait in line before Santa arrived. There were toys for the boys to look at.

The could even sit and see Santa while they waited.

They were even sweet on the wooden sled, as we were second to next to go. We were all so Excited.

Then it came, our turn, the time for Chris and Sam to go and sit on Santa's lap. And Sam would have None of it. Chris on the other hand, had a great time, asking Santa for socks, a sled, and a ski mask. Easy to please.

Compared to This. Sam flopped down at Santa's feet, and would not have anything to do with him. Hope this irrational fear of characters doesn't last. But at least we didn't spend boatloads of money to get our 'Santa picture' this year.

We were able to redeem the day. I told Christopher that he could only have 10 minutes to play, if he wanted to climb the ice castle, skate, slide, whatever. He wanted to go down the giant slide. Supposed to be an ice slide, that takes over the staircase in the lobby. Chris was very good, so we did it.

Christopher won the race, and was so adorable. Sam won my heart again with his joy of sliding. After all that tantruming, the slide was what won him over.

Merry Christmas, and Thank You Children's Museum for a fresh dose of Christmas Spirit!

**Addendum, I suspect that all Sam's flopping on the floor gave him a case of the stomach flu, as he is taking the day off, after puking all night... the telltale three days later.

Cookie Decorating

2011-12-16T08:09:00.006-05:00

It's a sign that my boys are getting old when they enjoy making cookies with me during Christmas time. So I wrote my stepmom to let her know, because she's the best cookie maker I know, and I recall many hours spent helping her decorating cookies during the holidays.

All the Grandkids were having a Wonderful time making cookies!

Annie was the best at giving a little Cheese with her sugar.

Christopher was very focused on the job at hand.

At first we put Charlie to work eating apples. But she wanted to join the festivities too. Note that she's shaking the red sugar just like the big kids... except it still has the lid on. Precious.

Sam did a bit more eating than creating.

They were so adorable. Crazy, but adorable.

After the sugar buzz started to wear off, we decided we needed to eat a real lunch, so Chris and Oma piled into the Opa's Rocket car, to go to Brozzini's, which has the best wings outside of Buffalo. Opa's car has a special seat in the back that youngsters can sit in Without Booster seats. (Gasp!) Chris loves it. He gets so upset

Chris found a new pony, Aunt Lisa, who shows him the ways around a pizza place. Too Fun!

After lunch, we went back to decorate a couple more cookies, and clean up. We tried napping the kids, but they wanted to play instead.

So we forced Sam to nap, while the boys and I went down to Opa's little theatre (aka tv room) and watched Frosty. So Fun. And they were cute.

I'm predicting a start of new traditions, by going to Oma's to 'make cookies'. It was a Blast!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T10:22:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-07T23:59:00.001-05:00

Time for Getting Festive

2011-11-30T23:31:00.006-05:00

Sorry friends that I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been trying to handmake a lot of our Christmas presents this year. And I just don't have much time to be crafty, cook, and blog. But we've been getting ourselves together ready for Christmas.

So I haven't taken much time to share the good news. We finally sold our house!!!

Monday November 28th, our old house finally Closed.

On the day in question, Sam and I popped by to do one last walk through. Eric has worked so hard on the New House, he didn't feel near as sappy about leaving the old one as I did/do. I blubbered all through the house. I kept thinking about how I had brought my babies home here. This house had kept me safe, kept us all safe.

It has been weird to see it getting more and more empty. For so long, I would pop by and grab a couple things to take with me. I didn't need to do that this time. All that was left was breaking down the crib (we'd kept it there to maintain Sam when we'd been there for any length of time, but he didn't need it much anymore) and grabbing the last pumps of Soap. But it was really empty now. The only things left were the Eric's grandparents' couches that they wanted to keep.

I cried all the way home. I cried off and on through the closing. I was laughed at, and I couldn't place why the tears kept falling. Was I sad? Maybe. Was I going to miss the place? Some. I think what it really was, was hearing that my Prayers over the last months had finally been answered. God had finally brought the perfect family to our home. And now it was going to be someone else's Blessing. Our buyers were a pair of nice parents (the grandparent sort) getting the home for their daughter, who was in the midst of a rather icky divorce. We learned that a couple of teenagers will be there, and they'll be making Eric's basement into the theatre/game room that he had always intended. And they were excited about it. And I was excited for them.

Good bye home sweet home. You have been so very good to us: keeping us warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and keeping us safe from all manner of floods and tornados that caused trouble in our neighbors homes, but not ours. Most importantly, it kept my sweetboys safe, comfortable, and dry during some really tough years.

In the immediate days since the sale, we went to the grocery store AND Costco in the same week. We hadn't been able to afford to do that in ages. And we're getting all set up for a big Surprise for the kids - a trip to Disney World. You know how when Chris had his feeding tube and it was Awful and we kept saying, "when all is said and done, we're going to Disney World." Remember? Well, we went. And Goodness knows that this last year has been so rough on my loved ones, that we have earned it again, with Eric building the house, while working full time, and Chris and his surgery. We just had to wait until next year because Eric's vacation time got all zapped out with the house building. But now we're all set up in the New House, and the old one is finally sold. Thank the Lord. We couldn't handle the double mortgages any longer.

So now is the time to get Festive. Time to start new traditions in the new house. We're celebrating the end of a hard year, and readying to celebrate the Birth of him who made it all possible. How Blessed we are!

Now is the time to Cuddle up and watch Rudolph, or to decorate the tree. We found a teeny tree in storage, one that used to sit on a small table in our room, before kids, so we unpacked it, put it on the boys' train table (also recently unpacked) and covered it in blue lights (Eric's favorite) and our Sterling Silver Snowflakes (my favorite). And we have this tree up in the loft. The kids enjoy it, and it gives off such a homey pretty blue light. Now is the time to ready ourselves to say Merry Christmas!

These are a few of my favorite things. :)

How we spent our Break

2011-11-29T21:45:00.005-05:00

I could call this entry, "What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation... besides Eat."

First and foremost, we were blessed with 2 gorgeous days worth of weather this past weekend. On Thursday, we traveled to Marion, took a walk, ate, ate, and ate some more. Friday was pretty casual for us, we had a nice breakfast, and Eric got up on the roof. I couldn't watch, it was too scary high for me. But the good news is, our porch roof is 23 feet off the ground, and our extension ladder goes exactly 23 feet. Oy.

So Eric put up our blue Christmas lights, across the house.

But since Sam needed a nap, and Eric was working, Chris and I got a wild hair and went out on Black Friday to Pottery By You, where you can paint/glaze pottery. I thought it would be perfect for Chris to make a Christmas gift for his teacher. I am really enjoying going on one on one dates with Christopher. He even opens my car door for me. He's going to make some lady a great husband. We had some great Quality Time, and stopped for burritos and cupcakes for a late lunch.

We came home and watched Family movie nights every night. Thursday we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Friday we watched Gnomeo and Juliet, which was quite cute. Saturday though, we stooped to Spiderman. So Sunday to do the weekend justice, we took the boys to The Muppets. It was a Wonderful movie. I'd Highly recommend taking the kids. My boys loved it, and I really loved the shoutouts to all the classic stuff, guest stars, old songs, and everything. I enjoyed it thoroughly, I can't wait to own it. :)

We did begin the process of decorating the house for Christmas. Though we got a little distracted about halfway through, so for a while, the house was playing it's own dueling banjos version, Dueling Holidays.

Part of the reasons for interruption was my fault. A big part. I got a wild hair and bought Eric a Tree, the story of which is another story, but as you can see, we bought Eric a tree, and Eric's dad came running when I asked for his help to come plant it.

After working in the yard, and taking a small rest, we went to Oma and Opa's for dinner. It's my favorite meal, my stepmom's Thanksgiving leftover turkey pie. I know it's crazy to like the turkey pie more than the main meal, but she's such a great cook, that everything all piled together in a pie is pure heaven: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, all in a scratch pie crust, smothered in gravy with butternut squash on the side. My Fav. And they had their tree up and ready for Christmas festivity on Friday, so by Saturday when we were there, the kids were thrilled.

Chris is getting very pumped up about decorating for Christmas. So this year he's been helping me. It's going a lot slower than last year, because everything now needs to find a new home, it was hard enough putting up the stuff when we knew where it went, this is tougher. It is going to be gorgeous and fabulous when all is said and done though.

We came home and watched Family movie nights every night. Thursday we watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Friday we watched Gnomeo and Juliet, which was quite cute. Saturday though, we were tired after playing at Oma and Opa's, so we stooped to an episode of Spiderman. So Sunday to do the weekend justice, we took the boys to The Muppets. It was a Wonderful movie. I'd Highly recommend taking the kids. My boys loved it, and I really loved the shoutouts to all the classic stuff, guest stars, old songs, and everything. I enjoyed it thoroughly, I can't wait to own it. :) But I think we started some new traditions this weekend. Especially our focus on Family Time together. This was the most relaxing holiday weekend we've had since the whole house thing started, and it was still full of work. But it is finally feeling like Home.

Plenty to be Thankful For

2011-11-26T00:04:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all Friends and Family.

We have been so Thankful for the support of friends and family through the last year. This holiday was actually relaxing. We watched a bit of the Parade before driving up to Marion. Just in time for Turkey with all the Trimmings.

Eric and I got to sit at the Grownup table. And Chris ate with all the big kids. ;)

After lunch, we took a walk, watched the kids play frisbee, and we sat around practicing our yarn arts. I got to practice my teaching skills teaching crochet to Erica, then Alexis, and even Kaylee. It was a lot of fun.

The boys held on for a while, Chris ran wild playing with dominoes, and crayons, and having fun with all the cousins. Sam just chased everyone, until his pants were around his ankles. So we debriefed him, and he held on until 4. Then he walked up to Daddy and said, "Daddy I want you." He was exhausted, blithering. Eric asked him if he was tired. He said NO, I want you. Then Eric picked him up, and put him on his shoulder, where he promptly passed out, and slept on Daddy's shoulder for 2 hours. It was so sweet.

I am so Blessed.

2011-11-20T09:57:00.002-05:00

It is Done. We have emptied out the old house. It's taken a while. We stopped and walked through Sunday after church. We thought we'd be Closing on Friday, but the possible owners' mortgage company didn't get the info to the title company on time. So we bumped it to Monday, but the other people said the one and only time the title company had available for the week didn't work for them. And that they'd get back to the house.
Well, we thought we'd be selling the house this weekend, so we had it all ready, Eric brought out the last of the goodies, so I wanted to take the kids to say Goodbye.

So here's a walkthru video (that took forever to load) if you want to see the Old House empty. Pretty weird.

Bittersweet. But this house was very good to us.

I spy

2011-11-18T23:02:00.004-05:00

We have a new visitor. I saw something strange yesterday, I was watching out the back window as Chris was having his snack and we were doing homework. Chris calls out, "SQUIRREL!" No he wasn't doing just a quote from UP!
There really was a squirrel. I watched as she pulled a pair of dying leaves off one tree, and hopped to another tree, a mostly dead tree, and disappeared.

Do you see what I see?

So sweet, little Squirrely Squirrelson making herself at home in our mostly dead tree. I hate to tell her I was thinking on cutting it down in February.

Our old new baby

2011-11-16T16:43:00.009-05:00

This week a dream came true for our family.
It started long long ago, when a young girl named Marie Grady and her sister played the piano. Marie married my Great Grandpa, Homer Bagg in 1910. As a wedding present from her family, they were given a 1909 Steinway Baby Grand. They were transferred to Ft. Multrie, KS where they had a little boy, Homer Jr. He retired to La Jolla, CA. When Homer Jr. was 18 he joined the Army, and changed his name, on purpose mind you, to James Bagg. (Yup, Jim Bagg before there was a Gym bag.) Upon Grandma Marie's death, Grandpa Jim and Meb gave the piano to my Dad, who though he didn't play, my Mom did, and she played well. My sister and I took piano lessons on it, but more often than not, just listened to my Mom play.

Long ago, my sister and I were duking it out as to who would get the piano. But of our generation, only Eric still plays; he double majored in music and computers, so it certainly will get a lot of use here, so Lisa graciously let us have dibs. When we were in New York, my Dad asked if I'd like the piano for Christmas since we now have room for it. I cried. And so it was delivered on Wednesday. We should have it all set and tuned in time for Christmas tunes!

It terrified us to see it moved. My Dad couldn't watch. I was intrigued, from a scientific standpoint. But I had to hold one of the kids, under the guise of keeping them away from getting trampled by a piano, but mostly to remain calm myself. Somehow 'having to be calm for the kids' keeps me more calm. The movers were wonderful, so thorough, they didn't move until they were doing, where they were going, set. They even parked on the street, because they didn't want to mess up our new driveway. Apparently concrete and giant trucks don't do well.

They had a wood plank they put down on any step so they could roll right over it. That's how they got it up our steps.

Up into the house through the doorway, this was where I was the most nervous. But I am Extremely thankful to my husband who made sure we have very wide doors and doorways. :)

Each leg was disconnected, but labeled ages ago, since when this piano was made, each leg was a bit different, very custom you know since it wasn't done on an assembly line.

They put two of the legs in, hammered them in place with a rubber mallet, then tipped it over, and got the third leg in. Oh, I was so nervous, but as you can see it was padded and secured the whole time. Now it is in place. And it's not moving for a while.

Both boys watched as they brought it in. Chris was more interested in the big move, and Sam wanted to play it as soon as it was vertical. So I let him. I have no problem letting the kids play the piano. Our rule with this piano will be the same as our old one, "Only Clean Hands on the piano" So no dirty hands, and no toys in or on the piano. So far, so good, but it's only been 3 days. :)

Sam wanted me to tickle the ivories too. But I didn't stick with it long enough like Eric did, so all I can really play is part of Heart and Soul, or Chopsticks.

I did play them! I did tickle these ivories. They are genuine ivory too. It was made before they put an outlaw on ivory keys. But the piano hasn't been tuned in somewhere around 15 years. So it's going to take us a while, time and tunings, to get her into concert shape.

In the mean time, it doesn't matter if it's tune or not, when the boys give us their own concert. They make Beautiful Music!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

Whirlwind Weekend

2011-11-15T23:04:00.005-05:00

What a Crazy Awesome weekend!

Friday night, our friends the Meyaard Pfanschmidts came over. Some friend were getting married, and Amy was in the wedding. So they came down for slumber parties after the rehearsal dinner. Too bad the kids were exhausted, the little ones were out cold, but the big ones were still too thrilled to have a slumber party. Woohoo! Jamma Jamma Jamma Jamma! P! J!

Story time was great. It's refreshing to have girls who really sit quietly and listen to bedtime stories instead of behaving like Sam climbing all over me like a jungle gym as I try to read.

The kids weren't inclined to sleep in much Saturday morning either. They held out until 7, which isn't too bad... unless you're exhausted from the night before. We may need some curtains in the Butler bedroom. And they were adorable curling up watching cartoons.

Baby Liam (who is 1 1/2, but I'm still going to call him Baby) was a boy on the Go, all over the place, which is why there aren't any pictures of him until this one. He finally collapsed in the living room to watch cartoons, and Fina curled up to Guard him. The two of them (Fina and Liam) chased each other all ove the house this weekend. So Adorable.

The wedding of Jill and Craig!

This was not just your every day wedding, but the joining of two friends from Butler. They were a few years apart in school, both in the marching bad, both in TBS and KKPsi but only had vague knowledge of each other. And then 13 years later E-harmony brought them together again, so they gave it a go and they fell in love, and they just got married to go live Happily Ever After.

It was a Beautiful ceremony, lots of Love, actually really reminded me of my own wedding. Sigh. And Wowza by the way, Everybody cleans up so nicely!

We hit the reception, but turns out I'm not as young and crazy as I used to be. I danced a bit, but the heat and the noise were getting to me. I was quite Thankful we didn't bring the kids, but I missed them, they would've had a great time dancing with friends too. I swear as the evening progressed, I think the staff cleared the water glasses away and turned up the music at the same time, in some sort of cahootz to get us out. Well, it worked on me. The next morning, Amy and I did a spot of shopping before they had to hit the road and we had brunch with some friends who were in town visiting for the wedding. I wish this weekend could've lasted weeks instead of mere days. Exhausting as it was, it was so refreshing to visit with my friends who have moved far away. I miss them. So Much. This may have been the last double Butler wedding. I don't know of any Butler band couples headed for the aisle, so we're just going to have to find alternatives of getting the 'band back together'.

Harvest Time

2011-11-15T22:10:00.007-05:00

There's something simply beautiful about Indiana in the fall.

Maybe it's the Amber waves of grain, specifically field after field of corn. I guess I missed it too much when we lived in California for that few years, because one of my favorite things about fall is the neverending fields of beautiful browning corn. Around here the last week or so the farmers have been harvesting. The corn is nice and dry and great for Feed or grinding. We were lucky to sample some sweet corn in the summer, but this time of year isn't the time for fresh corn. I worked doing QA at a corn mill, for a few years and beginning of October was our new crop.

I was lucky to snag a few before and after pics on the country roads this last week near our place.

Love the drying corn before harvesting. "Them's gonna be some happy pigs, get to eat that."

Row after row after row.

After harvesting.

Check out all the schmultz left behind.

My favorite.

Purple State of Mind

2011-11-07T22:43:00.005-05:00

So, Live and Love out Loud is having a Purple contest. I popped over to the old neighborhood to see if I could find anything. I lucked out. Pretty Purple Cabbage!

I will say this. I love my old neighborhood.

Whoever gets this house will be lucky to live there. I had nice neighbors. No one ever shot bebes at our house, or report us to the town or county. I can't say that for the new house. We have nice neighbors here, but we also have some Not Nice ones. But I loved this old house. I loved living here. A friend of mine told me it would be our Bethlehem, because it was the house where I brought my babies Home. So many memories, such abundant blessings. And she's right. I dream about there. And even the thought of this house selling and being gone from our lives forever makes me so sad.

I'm in a state of confusion; Happy, Sad, Stressed, Crazy, yeah that's about it. We've had a nibble on the old house. OK, more than a nibble. But I hesitate to shout too loudly. Shhh.. An offer has been accepted.

I drove by there this weekend, just to take a look around, and left in tears. After the potential buyers agreed to a price last week, they insisted upon an Inspection. And that was fine, that didn't make me cry, just the finality. And the Reality.
The Inspector was super nit-picky, and gave us a long list of 'problems'. Eric thinned the herd a bit, narrowing it down to three groups, 1. ones we could afford to fix, 2. we could do, but it would take a nice chunk of time and money, and 3. potential to be quite expensive...the potential deal breakers, if you will. They countered with the request that we do all group one and one item from group 3, the biggie was a request to get a HVAC Certified Technician out to look at the furnace because the inspector thought our gas flame was not the proper height. We were worried that something might be wrong. First, some Good News: The flame height and gas pressure are within "normal operating limits". Then the Bad News: The Heat Exchanger was cracked. More Good News: The Heat Exchanger is still under its 19-year parts warranty. WOOHOO! But the Bad News: The labor cost of replacement is nearly $800.
Good News: They completed the work this afternoon.
Ugh. There's a big part of us all stressed out because we don't know if we can afford to sell the house, but we can't afford to hang on to it any more. This double mortgages business is for the birds. Eric tells me it's time. And sure it is. We're Blessed to be living in our Dream House. How few people of our age get the privilege of building and living in their dream home. We are so Lucky. On the other hand, this old house kept me pretty safe for 13 years. And we were happy. And God gave us not just one, but two miracle babies. And this house kept us all safe. And we were happy.
I pray that the people that build this house are happy there too. I pray that they are as Blessed by this home as we have been. There are many wonderful things about this place, like this.

Spontaneous Snapdragons!

I planted snapdragons a couple summers back, and in the fall, they just pop up. I was thrilled to find this fuschia one blooming. So pretty. Almost purple. But beautiful. I hope they find wonderful suprises like Spontaneous Snapdragons.

A Frosty Morn

2011-11-02T08:34:00.002-04:00

How Perfect for the day after Halloween, the first of November, to the be epitome of a chilly fall morning, frost lying gently on the ground.

I found all these on the edge of my driveway. Wow! I tell you, I'm not used to having giant trees give off beautiful leaves. I'm really enjoying it this season.

Not necessarily enjoying the return of the cold. Though the boys were thrilled to break out their winter coats, but by afternoon, of course, they didn't need them. It was a beautiful day.

I love Fall. Is it my favorite season? I don't know. I love them all. It is Beautiful the way God makes cold death so lovely.

Trick or Treat!

2011-10-31T23:10:00.007-04:00

Trick or Treat! Happy Halloween, Love Chris and Sam...aka Batman and Robin.

Our friends the Julius girls came over to Trick or Treat with us. We had mass hysteria kind of crazy going on, with Thing 1 and Thing 2, and the Superheros who try to save them. But there was a lot of Cuteness at the same time.

Watch Out Bad Guys, Supergirl and Batman are on the loose!

And we learned why Edna says, "No Capes". Robin's cape got locked up in the wheels of the wagon, aka The Batmobile, and wrapped around it so fast, it pulled right off the velcro. Daddy and Batman were able to retrieve it for Robin, but it was touch and go there for a bit. Good plan, No Capes.

We got to stop at our friends houses in the neighborhood: The Sinkovics, The Welsh's, and The Steinke's. Emilie S. had quite the haul for our little crew. And her fiance Brian helped Batman use his 'powers' to turn on the car. It was so cute, Chris didn't even know he had it in him.

But the powers of Cuteness are strong with these, I tell you, even with only hitting a few houses, they had quite a good haul. I love that Chris enjoys handing out candy with me just as much as going door to door. Days like this make me think Halloween is my favorite holiday, not just for all the chocolate I live on, but because of how much Joy it brings my boys, brings me a lot too.

Say Cheese!

2011-10-31T16:16:00.008-04:00

This weekend we met our friends, The Julius's, at Fair Oaks Farms, about halfway between Chicago and Indy. They were returning from their Fall Break, and well, while it was no longer our fall break, we were just looking for an excuse for good cheese. And the World's Best Grilled Cheese sandwich. But first, I finished the boys' other set of costumes.

I made Christopher a Cat in the Hat sweatshirt, and we found a Hat amongst our things, I think we got it from Uncle Karl. I think he was more interested in Sam I Am's Green Eggs and Ham than Sam was.

I had the lofty goal of making Sam a hat. The one we found was big for his head. He had trouble balancing it. It would stay, but then he'd move his head one way or the other and down it would fall.

And have you ever noticed how hard it is to make a 2 1/2 year old pose for a picture?! Hard. Sam I Am did not want to pose for me at all. As it was, this shot was right before he flopped on the ground.

Well, better to go and feed them Cheese. Fair Oaks Farms makes some really good cheese. That selection is like heaven for Eric.

For us, it's the Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, though!

My boys thought it was a Dairy Good day to go to the farm.

We met our friends the Julius family at the entrance, and the big kids started playing jump off a rock, while everyone took their turns powdering noses.

These two younger ones were having lots of laughs, "dumping" (jumping) off this cone.

And running wild.

We decided to get bracelets for the big kids, and just play outside. We bypassed the indoor play area and tour bus completely. But it's probably the last time we will be up there while the little ones are 2 and free. Not much longer.

There was plenty of park for them to play on. They all had fun playing on the playground equipment. Sure, it's a little strange to drive an hour and a half to slide, but actually it was for Grilled Cheese, AND a slide!

And a Train. All 5 kids squeezed into this little train car. It had a bell, and the kids rang it all the way around the track. It was like a little clown car, small people just going in and in and in, and coming out and out and out.

There was also a little game called the Cow-abunga. It was bungee jumping for sweetboys. Chris had a great time jumping. Emily managed to do a backward flip. Chris was content to bounce on his bottom and knees, alternatively. So Much Fun to watch!

After that we sent the kids on the tank car ride. It was tanks, just big enough for a small child to ride in, attached to a tractor zipping around the parking lot. And the big kids had a great time. The little ones had to hold on for dear life.

The one in the middle is not ours.

The last playing for the kids were the boys and Emily taking turns riding on the tractors. They were so cute.

We had grilled cheese sandwiches when we first got there. I got a sweet swiss and Eric got a cheddar. After some play time we were all hungry again. We couldn't choose a cheese, so we ordered a sandwich with all three. It was so rich and cheesy, but with so much cheese, not all of it could be melted all the way through. Still mighty tasty with pepper havarti, sweet swiss, and cheddar. So Good.

Really?! It's the best grilled cheese sandwich, and I like mine Sweet Swiss. When I was pregnant, they brought me one, uncooked, and Eric cooked it up for me. And on my birthday I've been known to request a trip to this grilled cheese mecca. Oh yeah, it's that good. Exhausting trip though. Probably why we don't do it more than once a year or so.

It really was a "Dairy Good Day!"

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T10:13:00.001-04:00

Garden Walk

2011-10-27T09:37:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I got outside for what will probably be my last Garden walk of the season.

Tell you what, I love our new backyard. We have Trees! Trees I love. And it's GORGEOUS!

How cool is that?! There were ladybugs crawling on our pillars. The Halloween kind, scrambling up and down, hard to chase the little guys, they move fast.

Then to kick it up a notch, the sun came out!

One of the blogs I stalk was having a Colors of Autumn photo contest, the theme was orange. I didn't think I was going to have any luck, so much rain and blech on our road trip last week, but the last couple days, our luck improved.

Just in time to be too late for the contest. But now I have some autum glow to enjoy as the rainy days kick back in again.

The Long Road Home, Day 5

2011-10-26T22:11:00.008-04:00

As great as it would be to just sit in a hotel room and watch cartoons all morning, we had to get back to reality. We wanted to try to take the trip home for a bit more fun and a little less sadness. We stayed in the 'family suite' at La Quinta about an hour outside Columbus. We joked it was the penthouse since we were on the top floor. What that really meant was 2 rooms, one with a foldout queen for the kids (and Eric) and the other a king, for Lisa and I. But after we put the kids down the grownups watched a Chopped marathon and drank a lot of wine. It was nice. Quite nice! In the morning, we took the big kids for a swim before we hit the road. Again, a casual start in the morning makes for much happier children, AND parents.

We didn't hit the road until almost 11. And we called my Dad and MB, they were about 20 miles behind us. :) So we decided to break together for lunch. We stopped after about 20 minutes for gas, Starbucks, and McDonald's. A road trip bare necessities. The McDonald's had picnic tables around back, and a grassy area for kids and pooches to play.

So Daddy let Schnitzel, their 2 year old german shepherd puppy out to play. She was barky, but loved the kids, and they loved her too. Schnitz thought Charlie particularly tasty!

It was refreshing, and a lot less sad to have a better change of venue for the kids to play with Oma and Opa.

Chris was playing peekaboo with Opa, which morphed into tag, and they were just so sweet, I couldn't help but laugh.

Posing by the Ronald McDonald statue.

Oma and Opa weren't able to stay with us as long, they didn't need the play time. ;) So they hit the road, and the kids ran around the grassy knoll for a bit.

Before we hit the road, we wandered down to the lake for a peek at the geese.

Not quite sure which ones are the silly geese.

The kids did really well not getting too close, and I was able to hold my camera out to to the holes in the fence and get cool pics.

Pretty cool.

When the geese got up to go for drinks in the pond, we took that as our cue to hit the road.

Our next and last stop was the Amish Cheese shop at the Connersville exit, about 20 minutes inside the Indy border. Oh my word. We picked up some scrumpdiddlyumptious cheeses, but the Cheddar Jalepeno Bread that had just come out of the oven Rocked my world! So Good, we were eating it by the fistful, and it was only through conscious effort it made it home. However, even with scrumptious snacks, that last leg of the journey was the roughest. The kids were done.

There was a lot of trying to find good music, switching movies, and fighting over books and the magna doodle. I did think it was pretty adorable that Chris wrote down the names of everyone in the car.

The players were: Charlie, Annie, Lisa, Daddy, Mommy, Chris, Sam. I'm grateful for their joining us on this adventure, it was a Blessing to have them along. And a bright sunshine in a sad trip.

The Long Road Home, Day 4

2011-10-26T12:31:00.006-04:00

After the funeral, we stayed that night, and decided to head home the next day, being Saturday. But we weren't in a big rush, we wanted happy children more than we wanted an early start on the road. So we started off the day with a family swim to at the Holiday Inn pool. Did I mention it was warm like bathwater? Too bad the halls weren't that toasty, but the water was wondrous, and the kids were angelic. The kids had a wonderful time swimming.

They were actually just fine about hitting the road. We got all loaded up by 11, and then met Daddy and MB for lunch at Anderson's for Beef and Weck before we headed out of town. We didn't get on the road until about 12:15, and within in minutes the kids were asking to watch movies. We held out for about an hour before caving. I told them we'd wait until we could see Grape vines.

We saw Lake Erie too, but the kids really didn't care about that.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania we needed to get gas, we held out until the kids were giving us signs that they needed a break too. We exited for a town called Girard. Only Girard, and it's mythical gas stations were no where near the highway. We spent 20 minutes hunting, finally asking for directions, and when we were finally headed into 'town' we crossed this bridge, and saw near a dozen guys standing in the creek fly fishing in the bits of sunshine that were starting to peep out. Just lovely.

The photos don't do the day justice though. The kids weren't too happy we didn't let them out once we finally found gas, we wanted to get back on the highway, so the next rest area we came to, we stopped. And we couldn't have picked a prettier place and time to stop. The sun came out, but there was a nice wind.

We were surrounded by pretty trees and plants, and there was lots of room for the kids to run. We let them out, and I went exploring to see some of the pretties.

Burning bush with red berries.

I don't know what this plant is, but it sure was pretty in the wind.

Dandelions can really be pretty. Weed is in the eye of the beholder.

The kids loved finding a few sparse dandelions still alive. They thought they were great flowers. And they didn't mind running through the muddy field to pick a few.

Annie and Chris both found flowers to bring me. So sweet!

Then Charlie had to join the flower picking party!

It really was a very lovely rest stop. The kids were having a great time just running.

And the trees were in color. It's amazing how Beautiful God can make death.

Sam couldn't decide if he wanted to 'nuggle' Daddy, or to play with the other kids.

Who could resist playing Peekaboo with this one?

Or to see the Beauty of a running child?

The trees were simply lovely. It really was a perfect break in our day.

Annie wouldn't hold still for a moment, she was all over the place. She kept finding pretty leaves and stuffing them into Lisa's pockets.

As Eric was buckling in the kids for the last stretch through Cleveland and beyond, we cleared out Lisa's pocket. It was hysterical how many leaves that child stuffed in there.

But Beautiful too.

The Best and the Worst, Day 3

2011-10-25T23:59:00.003-04:00

There's rarely anything good to come of losing a loved one. But sometimes it's possible to find silver linings amongst the great grey clouds. For one, we had our adorable children with us. They bring light and life and smiles to all situations. I sat with Chris and Annie during the Service, and they were so good, they were amazingly well behaved. I was so proud. I was Blessed to be able to listen, to hear what others thought of Grandma.

Of course the church was a full house, full of people. Grandma was very active in the church, and this Mass showed that. Charlie and Sam may have futures in the Faith, because they seemed much more interested in debating with the priest during the service. I was grateful I knew every hymn sung, because I couldn't find a hymnal or program. Even Chris was singing along with me, not necesarily to the words, but just singing. And that made me smile. And a smile through all the tears is close to my favorite emotion.

After the service, there was a luncheon, all kinds of great grub made up by church ladies, the best kind. They even had beef on weck. The kids were pretty well behaved, but very distracting. We broke out the stroller for Charlie, which ended up being quite a fun prop for the kids to play with. And being able to laugh at them, with them, was refreshing.

After the luncheon, we went back to the hotel to change. The rest of the family was headed back to Grandma's to hang out. But once we got comfortable, we had to lay down. All 7 of us slept. And that was very necessary. Afterwards, we went to Grandma's house. It was really weird, not having her there. But there was lots of family, drinking wine, and telling stories, and Grandma would've loved that.

Cousin Gretchen I hadn't seen in years, and now she's engaged, and she loved loving on the kids. She's collecting wine corks for her wedding, and they had quite a stash going and the kids couldn't stay out of it. I suppose it's ok if that's the only wine exposure they get for a while.

After some visiting, we went out for Pizza and Wings. So Good. And we all sat at one table, which was a nice way to just talk with Daddy and MB, and pass around the cuteness. The kids behaved, which was amazing, considering the day. And they provided the happy distraction of Miraculous Cuteness, that was exactly what we all needed.

It didn't change the fact that we missed Grandma bitterly, or that having to say Goodbye sucks. But having the boys and girls with us, was a very good decision, a welcome distraction, and just wonderful to observe the full circle of life. Grandma loved these kids, and they loved her, Chris kept saying all day how much he missed Grandma. It brought tears to my eyes. No doubt he did. But he handles death so maturely, he understands that she's in heaven, 'with my kitties', and that she's very happy there with Jesus and Papa. But we are sad, and he understood how it helps to say goodbye and tell stories, and share hugs with other who loved her too. She'll always be with us, as long as we remember, and we'll make sure these kids always remember. Even though we are all so sad, life goes on, almost in fast forward with these kids around. I can't help but want to sit back and enjoy the show.

Wild trip to New York, Day 2

2011-10-25T16:03:00.003-04:00

Thursday was another drab and dreary travel day for us. It seemed appropriate though. However, even in the sad icky weather, it was still pretty. I don't think I'd ever seen the grape vines in the fall. They were really beautiful. Though it's hard to capture while driving. I tell you we certainly wanted to stop at many of the wineries we passed.

But we had plenty of whine in the car. The second day we broke out the DVD player the Julius's loaned us, much much earlier. The kids were a little crazy. We got to the hotel just in time to change and go to the Viewing at the Funeral Home. The girls were not up for it, so we split up, and we took the boys for a quick stop. It was nice to say hi to family members we hadn't seen in years. But our little distractions made conversations difficult. At one point, Sam darted under the chairs in rows that people were sitting in, and I had to go up to introduce myself to someone I'd never met, a cousin of my uncle I think....somebody's nephews uncles former roommate. just to pull Sam out from under her chair. She hadn't noticed he was there. Luckily, she had a good sense of humor.

But the kids weren't in to good behavior. They were a little on the crazy side. 10 seconds before this pic, these three were walking towards the window in the hotel, and we were trying to get them downstairs. It worked. Slowly. Lisa opted to do a drive by visit. We would all pack the yahoos in the car, drop off Lisa a the viewing, and circle around a bit while she mingled. She got there just in time for the Prayers. And we circled around North Tonawanda.

We discovered that on Oliver Street they have a bunch of carousel horses lining the street. Kind of neat.

After the viewing, we took stressed out selves to Ted's. They have the Best hot dogs, even the boys ate them. We ate quite well. Something about drowning our sorrows in good food distracted us enough. And when the kids were equally distracting, it was better. I love this place, and it saddens me so much that Grandma isn't going to be the center of our trips there anymore.