Continuing in the long tradition of Grandpa Timer and her daddy, Anna is quite the consumer of tortilla chips, or as she lovingly calls them, "chippies". I was packing her a lunch today and a teeny piece of chip fell to the ground. Within seconds she had swooped in and eaten it. Oh yeah, off the ground, no hesitation. She begs for them with (as) every meal and I won't admit how many times she has them for breakfast. Whatever I have to do to stop the screaming at that hour of the day... I have at least convinced her that Sun Chips are just as delicious and according to the bag, each serving contains 1/3 the recommended amount of whole grains. So by the end of the day that makes 100%.
It could be worse as her other favorite food is bacon. We fear for her cardiovascular health so we make her run laps around the outside of the house when it's not freezing out. Megan does it too; we time them and have convinced them that they aren't racing against each other (oh the crying when that happens), but they are racing against their best time. I learned that on Franklin, thank you very much TV. "Hey, it's Franklin. Coming over to pla--ay." Everybody sing!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Wolves not so scary anymore?
Well, thanks to some road condition tips from Jennifer Walker (the 2nd as we call her since we had a good friend with the same name in TX) we found out that it was safe to leave the bomb shelter. Yes, after driving one entire block in terrible snow conditions we discovered that the roads were 100% dry and clear. Felt like we had been duped by the weather guys. Oh well, just meant Sean got to procrastinate even longer on the oil changes that he was supposed to do before we left. (oh, so close to killing the volvo... good effort).
Anyway, we endured 1.5 hours of Megan complaining about how long the drive was, which confirmed that she would never survive the trip to Disney. (Ah, can't wait to relate this story to her when she is older so she can take the blame for that decision.) Started off with the dinosaur restaurant, thinking we would check that off the list quickly only to discover that they immediately start begging to come back again the next day. We compromise and sign the contract to come back just before we head home on Friday. Well, Sean signs it at least, I secretly plan to ditch them and go shopping around there, he heh.
Then we check into the Great Wolf Lodge and Megan finally notices all the wolf decor... she has obviously not made the connection before. I should mention that Megan is deathly afraid of wolves to the point where she will not go anywhere in our house by herself, always takes Anna, the bodyguard/wolf bait. This annoys me to no end because sometimes I need Megan to just go grab me something from another room and it turns into this big ordeal. I recently asked her if she really thought I was going to open the door and let a wolf in? She was horrified and said, "don't give me more ideas to be afraid of". Please... I won't let a housecat in, why would I let a dirty wolf in on my new carpet and furniture?? (as an aside, we will have to move if she ever sees the coyote that my parents saw howling right outside the guest room when they were here once. not sure coyote is any better than a wolf...)
Back to the original story, the girls had a great time at the water park and got really tired out, victory! Patrick did well sleeping for a few hours and then discovered that we wouldn't let him cry long in a hotel (not sure why I thought others would be bothered by this as it has been proven that I am the only one who can hear him cry at night), so he played that card frequently and got to sleep on one of us on the couch most the night.
I didn't let that slow me down the next day though as I took him shopping with me while Sean took the girls to the water park and to various other moneymaking activities that the hotel has figured out. Patrick tried hard to be really fussy while I tried on clothes, following instructions from Daddy no doubt. I still managed to spend what I call "Vegas" at a few stores down in Kansas City. Sean was suspicious of my purchases until I reminded him of how much he'd be spending just on the ticket alone for his guys' weekend in a few weeks. After I find out how much he loses at the poker table I will then resume shopping...
Anyway, all in all we decided that it was the perfect little vacation for us... 2 nights away was enough and 1.5 hours of driving was about all we could stand. Also great to get back on a Friday afternoon so we could have a few days to relax and catch up on laundry, aka my day job. Oh, I also realized that this was the first time I had left Manhattan in 3 months. I hadn't even noticed either so I guess that's a sign that we do enjoy life in the little Manhattan. A few great restaurants and a lot of great internet shopping and I'm good to go... Megan just told me tonight that she never wants to move so I think she loves it too. Or maybe she finally believes me when I tell her that there are no wolves in this part of the country...
Anyway, we endured 1.5 hours of Megan complaining about how long the drive was, which confirmed that she would never survive the trip to Disney. (Ah, can't wait to relate this story to her when she is older so she can take the blame for that decision.) Started off with the dinosaur restaurant, thinking we would check that off the list quickly only to discover that they immediately start begging to come back again the next day. We compromise and sign the contract to come back just before we head home on Friday. Well, Sean signs it at least, I secretly plan to ditch them and go shopping around there, he heh.
Then we check into the Great Wolf Lodge and Megan finally notices all the wolf decor... she has obviously not made the connection before. I should mention that Megan is deathly afraid of wolves to the point where she will not go anywhere in our house by herself, always takes Anna, the bodyguard/wolf bait. This annoys me to no end because sometimes I need Megan to just go grab me something from another room and it turns into this big ordeal. I recently asked her if she really thought I was going to open the door and let a wolf in? She was horrified and said, "don't give me more ideas to be afraid of". Please... I won't let a housecat in, why would I let a dirty wolf in on my new carpet and furniture?? (as an aside, we will have to move if she ever sees the coyote that my parents saw howling right outside the guest room when they were here once. not sure coyote is any better than a wolf...)
Back to the original story, the girls had a great time at the water park and got really tired out, victory! Patrick did well sleeping for a few hours and then discovered that we wouldn't let him cry long in a hotel (not sure why I thought others would be bothered by this as it has been proven that I am the only one who can hear him cry at night), so he played that card frequently and got to sleep on one of us on the couch most the night.
I didn't let that slow me down the next day though as I took him shopping with me while Sean took the girls to the water park and to various other moneymaking activities that the hotel has figured out. Patrick tried hard to be really fussy while I tried on clothes, following instructions from Daddy no doubt. I still managed to spend what I call "Vegas" at a few stores down in Kansas City. Sean was suspicious of my purchases until I reminded him of how much he'd be spending just on the ticket alone for his guys' weekend in a few weeks. After I find out how much he loses at the poker table I will then resume shopping...
Anyway, all in all we decided that it was the perfect little vacation for us... 2 nights away was enough and 1.5 hours of driving was about all we could stand. Also great to get back on a Friday afternoon so we could have a few days to relax and catch up on laundry, aka my day job. Oh, I also realized that this was the first time I had left Manhattan in 3 months. I hadn't even noticed either so I guess that's a sign that we do enjoy life in the little Manhattan. A few great restaurants and a lot of great internet shopping and I'm good to go... Megan just told me tonight that she never wants to move so I think she loves it too. Or maybe she finally believes me when I tell her that there are no wolves in this part of the country...
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Snow Day
Why of course we have a snow day on the one day we were planning to drive to the Great Wolf Lodge. Still hoping the roads clear sometime today, if not at least by tomorrow morning. In the meantime I will be keeping the girls happy with a steady stream of M&M's. Another bad thing about the snow day is that we had just extended the school day by 12 minutes to make up for the days off during the ice storm, so I am wondering what they will do now. I can't keep adjusting my mental clock for pick up times. It took me a month to figure it all out last fall, I would set timers to remind me to leave the house. Now they change it on me (and rob me of 5 very very valuable minutes of yelling in the morning). Now will they change it again?? Or just make the kids go extra days in the summer? Fascinating stuff, I know.
Aunt Maureen is coming to stay with us for a few days to help Jay settle into his apartment here, so I have been cleaning so she won't trip down the stairs, etc. I found a lot of interesting stuff in the girls' bedroom, including Sean's Minnesota medical license paperwork in Anna's nightstand drawer. Well, at least she recognized that it was important enough to put in her secret drawer and not to be colored on. I'm not sure where the old chocolate Santa was hiding but the girls had that for breakfast. Of course they hated the Barefoot Contessa blueberry muffins I made... not sure why I bother except I do love to eat.
Well, I know they will never plow our street, but I need to go check and see how they're doing on the highways. Wish us luck! The hotel is already paid for!
Aunt Maureen is coming to stay with us for a few days to help Jay settle into his apartment here, so I have been cleaning so she won't trip down the stairs, etc. I found a lot of interesting stuff in the girls' bedroom, including Sean's Minnesota medical license paperwork in Anna's nightstand drawer. Well, at least she recognized that it was important enough to put in her secret drawer and not to be colored on. I'm not sure where the old chocolate Santa was hiding but the girls had that for breakfast. Of course they hated the Barefoot Contessa blueberry muffins I made... not sure why I bother except I do love to eat.
Well, I know they will never plow our street, but I need to go check and see how they're doing on the highways. Wish us luck! The hotel is already paid for!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Bribery 101 & You Should Be a Doctor!
We are way into bribery with our kids because it actually works. So during Christmas break I came up with a plan to give them 3 tickets each day for TV shows and if they didn't spend them all I would give them points on a chart which they could use for fun outings (things we were planning to do anyway, shhhh). Well, it actually worked and I don't have to listen to those annoying shows nearly as much now. We are taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge for a couple nights this week for 200 tickets (sorry kids, Disney is 20,000 tickets- good luck!) and Megan also gets to miss some school. Up until this past Friday she was always begging to skip school, but then her teacher announced that they were so good they would have pajama day this coming Friday, yes a day we are gone. Megan finally figured that one out last night, oh the sobbing. I just can't win.
We do give the girls a free pass for movie night on Fridays when a new kid movie arrives from Netflix. The adults desperately need 92 minutes and 15 seconds of peace and quiet by the time Friday night rolls around. Sean is so burned out from all the bad attitude he gets from the GS employees at the hospital. There is a misconception among them that the doctors get paid too much and so I am making a flyer for him to hand out at work that will look something like this:
4 years of med school:
---acquire great debt either in years of service to the military or in student loans while everyone else you know is making money
---study every waking moment you aren't in the hospital
---stitch up the heads of prisoners who are chained in a back hallway at the training hospital (watch where you leave your scapel!)
--- 2 final words: rectal exams
Internship:
---finally get paid, less than you did as a bagger in high school (qualify for WIC if you have a baby!)
---work 126 hour weeks and when you do go home to sleep briefly, worry about which patients may die while you're gone because you may have made a mistake during your 18 hour work day
---3 final words: MORE rectal exams
Residency:
---get paid a tiny bit more but those student loans are earning interest every day
---work 119 hours a week, come in one hour later than your intern slave
---try to have a family like your non-medical friends, see your children only while they sleep
---4 years and 3 huge exams to get board certified
Staff doctor:
---after NINE years of training you finally get a real salary
---must start paying back those loans or years of service to the military (make a fraction of what the civilian docs do!)
---be responsible for the mistakes your staff make and if you try to discipline them for said mistakes, be prepared to deal with their union
---deal with bitter staff who resent that you get paid more than they do and thus they enjoy making your job harder
Good times! Fill out your med school application now! Hope you worked your butt off for four years in undergrad!
We do give the girls a free pass for movie night on Fridays when a new kid movie arrives from Netflix. The adults desperately need 92 minutes and 15 seconds of peace and quiet by the time Friday night rolls around. Sean is so burned out from all the bad attitude he gets from the GS employees at the hospital. There is a misconception among them that the doctors get paid too much and so I am making a flyer for him to hand out at work that will look something like this:
So You Wanna be a Doctor?
---acquire great debt either in years of service to the military or in student loans while everyone else you know is making money
---study every waking moment you aren't in the hospital
---stitch up the heads of prisoners who are chained in a back hallway at the training hospital (watch where you leave your scapel!)
--- 2 final words: rectal exams
Internship:
---finally get paid, less than you did as a bagger in high school (qualify for WIC if you have a baby!)
---work 126 hour weeks and when you do go home to sleep briefly, worry about which patients may die while you're gone because you may have made a mistake during your 18 hour work day
---3 final words: MORE rectal exams
Residency:
---get paid a tiny bit more but those student loans are earning interest every day
---work 119 hours a week, come in one hour later than your intern slave
---try to have a family like your non-medical friends, see your children only while they sleep
---4 years and 3 huge exams to get board certified
Staff doctor:
---after NINE years of training you finally get a real salary
---must start paying back those loans or years of service to the military (make a fraction of what the civilian docs do!)
---be responsible for the mistakes your staff make and if you try to discipline them for said mistakes, be prepared to deal with their union
---deal with bitter staff who resent that you get paid more than they do and thus they enjoy making your job harder
Good times! Fill out your med school application now! Hope you worked your butt off for four years in undergrad!
Funnel Cake Good
Funnel cakes plural, not so good. I decided to finally use up the funnel cake mix I bought on a whim last year when I was apparently weak with hunger at the grocery store. I thought it would go with the Superbowl theme of eating really unhealthy food, so I made them after the kids went to bed last night. That first one was delicious but I am still sick just thinking about the 2nd one.
Back to the Superbowl for a moment, can you imagine socializing with the Mannings? You couldn't even mention anything your kids had accomplished, without them trumping you. Oh, so your son got promoted to assistant manager at Chuck E. Cheese? Well, maybe you heard our sons won back-to-back superbowls? Snap.
Back to the Superbowl for a moment, can you imagine socializing with the Mannings? You couldn't even mention anything your kids had accomplished, without them trumping you. Oh, so your son got promoted to assistant manager at Chuck E. Cheese? Well, maybe you heard our sons won back-to-back superbowls? Snap.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Get Your Nomination Forms Ready!
I know, I know, you've all been trying to hone your essays on why I should be Mother of the Year, so let me help you out with some recent material. Patrick has been rather fussy lately, I figure it's just the months and months of teething before an actual tooth breaks through so if he won't calm down at night after I've tried everything else we just top him off with a dose of Tylenol. Well, let me tell you what Tylenol doesn't fix: a messy diaper. I guess I have a bit of a cold and didn't notice he was so stinky and didn't realize that was the problem.... poor 3rd child.
I also call him "baby girl" sometimes, which is a step beyond messing up the kid's names like so many of us do. (George Foreman was on to something when he named all his kids George). At least I have resisted the urge to dress Patrick in some of the cute girl clothes I bought before we knew he was a boy. My grandma didn't succeed in that department. As my dad was her 3rd boy she finally gave up and just dressed him in dresses. Oh and not just as an infant, we have home movies showing him in a dress throwing rocks at birds.
In other nomination news, Megan had a sock hop for Daisy scouts last night with Sean. Her scout leader (who is also her CCD teacher, clearly someone you might actually nominate) told me a lot of the girls wear poodle skirts to the dance. She had me at "it's really easy" and lost me with "first you get out your sewing machine". Sorry but really easy is ordering online from a place that already has my login info so I can get it done in about 3 clicks and a knock on my door from my trusty UPS man. How I love my men in brown uniforms.
I also call him "baby girl" sometimes, which is a step beyond messing up the kid's names like so many of us do. (George Foreman was on to something when he named all his kids George). At least I have resisted the urge to dress Patrick in some of the cute girl clothes I bought before we knew he was a boy. My grandma didn't succeed in that department. As my dad was her 3rd boy she finally gave up and just dressed him in dresses. Oh and not just as an infant, we have home movies showing him in a dress throwing rocks at birds.
In other nomination news, Megan had a sock hop for Daisy scouts last night with Sean. Her scout leader (who is also her CCD teacher, clearly someone you might actually nominate) told me a lot of the girls wear poodle skirts to the dance. She had me at "it's really easy" and lost me with "first you get out your sewing machine". Sorry but really easy is ordering online from a place that already has my login info so I can get it done in about 3 clicks and a knock on my door from my trusty UPS man. How I love my men in brown uniforms.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Date Night, Feelin' Fly
Hitting the streets of Manhattan is a little different in this Manhattan, but we have still found a way to feel hip. We go to Harry's. I know, those of you who have been there are thinking of all the old people there. Well, last week when we sat in the bar area and had appetizers, we were the youngest by a good 30 years. I even got carded. Seriously. I think the waitress was just being nosy though. Anyway, I felt so stylish, so young, so hip compared to everyone around us. Plus, the food is good, old people know how to eat.
Going to Aggieville, the other option, reminds us that it's not just the minivan... we have never been cool and being surrounded by teeny college girls with pre-childbearing hips does not encourage one to enjoy dessert. And if you live here in town, hurry to Harry's so you can enjoy their chocolate dessert selection right now, oh my. Good stuff. Now I need to hit the streets of Manhattan for a long long walk.
Going to Aggieville, the other option, reminds us that it's not just the minivan... we have never been cool and being surrounded by teeny college girls with pre-childbearing hips does not encourage one to enjoy dessert. And if you live here in town, hurry to Harry's so you can enjoy their chocolate dessert selection right now, oh my. Good stuff. Now I need to hit the streets of Manhattan for a long long walk.
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