News Flash: Christina Grows Up and Goes to the Dentist!

Yes, the time had come where I knew I had to put on my big girl pants and actually go to the dentist...because I had a tooth that just didn't feel right. It didn't hurt, per se, just felt weird when I would chew.

And so I went. I had no childcare until today, but all the Saturday appointments were taken, so I waited as a "walk-in" from about 10:30 until 1:00 or so.

I am now sporting a replaced/repaired/augmented filling (the old one was 20+ years old) and a brand spanking new filling because I have "very groovy teeth" which really means that I am horribly prone to cavities in my molars. I'm also sporting a very numb cheek, tongue and lip.

Fun stuff. But I survived. And I even made another appointment to do a full evaluation and cleaning in February. Shocking....I know. I'm sure I'll come to regret that.....

Fun in the Snow

I don't think these pictures need much explanation! (Enjoy Mom...and anyone else who still reads this!)

Trying to train them young!

UPDATED: Snowed In...and Sick

Quick update:

So far, no more puking. Still not feeling great here. And the snowfall totals since Thursday? Drumroll please: 38.6 inches! It shatters the even the 1978 blizzard record.

And they still haven't cancelled school.

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We've had some snow recently. Yesterday morning, the roads were mostly clear and there was a dusting of snow, with the grass still visible. Emily had school. Sometime shortly after I dropped her off, it started snowing...and it hasn't reall stopped, save for a brief break as I'm typing.

This was the view from the front door about two hours ago. It's what they call "Lake Effect" snow. And we are getting hammered.

Apparently we've set a record and we're not done yet.

According to the local news, we've had 23.6 inches of snow since MIDNIGHT! That sets a record for the highest one-day snowfall total ever, and that's only doesn't count anything that's fallen or will fall (more is predicted) since 1 pm.

That's on top of the six inches or so that we got during the day yesterday. I'm so glad I bothered to shovel the driveway last night....

Thankfully, it appears that a neighbor has snow-blowed our driveway for us....but we're not sure who because on top of the massive snow storm, we've also been dealing with sickness.

I've been feeling very sick, complete lack of appetite (not even wanting to drink, which is very out of the norm for me) and nauseated off and on through the day all week. I've eaten precious little this week and Ethan hasn't been himself either. Last night, I felt REALLY sick and around 3 am...well, let's just say it wasn't pretty.

I stayed in bed and let Andrew handle the kids and tried to rest and drink a little ginger ale, and even eventually got brave enough to try some dry cereal. I was beginning to think I was feeling better, when Andrew came to the door and informed me that Ethan had just vomited twice while eating his lunch. Oh joy! Poor little guy has never had a tummy bug before and I suspect that he's been feeling a lot like I have, which is to say...completely lousy.

I hope this is the worst of it, but this has been a very unusual virus, with no fever and rather long-lasting, so we'll see. Ethan is currently sleeping and I hope that when he wakes up, he'll feel much, much better. As for me, I hope the worst is over too....and that no one else catches this bug, but I fully recognize that that would be nothing short of a miracle.

I guess it's just as well that we aren't allowed to go anywhere due to the weather...we're in no shape for that!

Christmas 2010 - Santa's Gift

Emily asked Santa for a dollhouse for her Barbies this year. Since she didn't really specify the actual Pepto Bismol pink plastic (junky but expensive) Barbie house, Santa brought her this one for Christmas.

Word has it that Santa had his eye on a different model from Amazon, but Amazon decided to play games with Santa and jack the price up from $99 one day to almost $300 the next....to an eventual all-time high of $1200.

Santa doesn't like Amazon all that much...or so I hear. He opted for the more affordable mortgage option from Walmart.

Santa's elves are pretty good at assembly. We figure they might actually be geniuses. All the estimates said it would take 2-3 hours and a power screwdriver for assembly. Santa's Indiana elves only needed one and half hours and a plain non-electric screwdriver. Geniuses, I say!

Barbie's house is not small. She needs space to live...to thrive...to party!

She also needs a fully furnished model, with elevator, baby grand piano, canopy bed, chandelier and a balcony. A girl's gotta live!

And Emily was quite happy. Perhaps a little overwhelmed. Her reaction was great...it was non-existent. But since she's played with it every day since, I'm pretty sure she likes it.

And this is after a long day of partying in Barbie's house. On the first floor, Babs is ready to ride up in her elevator to visit Kelly, who is regaling Cinderella and Snow White with a little ditty on the baby grand.

And on the third floor, Susie is waving to all her adoring fans from the balcony while her horse sleeps in the bed. And to all....a good night!

Some Christmas Pictures

We attempted Christmas pictures yesterday afternoon. The only time that we could get in was right after school, so I picked up Emily and off we went. Ethan had just awaked from his nap and Emily was worn out after a long day at school, so I knew that I was quite possibly playing with fire. But we still went.

And the following are some of the better shots.

Ethan stays still for approximately .02 seconds after we position him.

This one just makes me laugh.

Ethan is one ornery kid. You can just tell by looking at him!

Miss Em is sweet and posed as always.

Ethan in his "Old Man" pajamas.

If you can drum on it...he will drum.

A boy and his (fake) cookie are not easily parted. (And yes, he did try to eat it.)

Sweet and innocent?

Pure adorable orneriness!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

So, hopefully I'll get my Christmas cards addressed and in the mail sometime soon. I think we got some cute pictures.

This is Wrong!

This is wrong...on so many levels.

We left home to get some dinner and two hours later, this is what we found.

I'm not ready for this.

The Bumblebee and the "Hunny"

Not too much to say tonight, just a few halloween-ish pictures to share with friends and family.

Above: Em and Ethan sitting beside their pumpkins. I can't believe how big Emily looks.

Above: Emily as the Bumblebee and Ethan as the "Hunny" Pot. I figure this is the only year I'll be able to get away with dressing him like this.

Above: Ethan next to "his" pumpkin.

Above: Emily, posing for the camera

Ethan enjoyed his costume...he also enjoyed carrying around his sister's pink princess trick or treating bucket. Dad wasn't impressed!

Our Rented Ride

Well folks, grab a drink, find a comfy seat and settle in for a little (long) tale:

Pictured below is our "new" (rental) car. Allow me to explain, if you will, just how we arrived at this point.

Last Thursday, it was a bright and sunny day (I think) when I walked out to the mailbox. I took out the various letters and junk mail and political fliers and there, innocently mixed in, was a letter from Ford. The front of the envelope said something to the effect of "Important information regarding a recall of your Ford vehicle". Oh joy.

So, with some minor annoyance, I opened up the envelope and quickly realized that this was a bigger deal than any other recall notice we'd received before. The short version was that our Windstar minivan was being recalled, along with many others, due to a design flaw that caused the rear axle to, in areas where there is heavy road salt useage, collect the salt. The corrosive salt sitting on the metal axle over the course of years apparently results in a corroded (who would have guessed?) rear axle that can crack or completely break in half, with no warning, and cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. This has the potential to be very dangerous. Sounds like a good time, right?

Apparently, Ford and the NHTSA have been investigating claims that this was happening for some time, but I had no idea. So I've just been driving my handy minivan, with my two young children strapped into their safe (but huge) carseats, like it was a perfectly safe vehicle, which in fact, it was most definitely not.

Well, I wasn't thrilled with this news, but I decided to go ahead and take the van in to the dealership (but not our convenient normal one because after my last encounter there, I now know I cannot trust them at all) because I know enough about cars to know that I don't want the rear axle to break. So Friday morning, I very carefully drove Emily to school and then Ethan and I headed off to find a Ford dealership.

We dropped the van off at the service department, where we were told that it would only take about 30-45 minutes, and headed into the waiting area (just a bunch of chairs) in the showroom, armed with only a diaper bag, a sippy cup of water and a bag full of Cheerios.

It took longer.

Ethan and I sat for a while, then it became apparent that the boy, who doesn't love to be held still anyhow, was not going to be happy with that arrangement any longer. So we walked. He wandered all around a very small area at first...then got a little bolder....and eventually we wandered the entire showroom. He was especially fascinated by the fall displays of straw bales and pumpkins that were scattered around. I think he thought the straw was a chair, and since he's recently mastered the idea of backing up and sitting down in a chair, he kept trying over and over, but he's not nearly tall enough to sit on the bale...he'd just plop down in front of it.

After about 2 hours of waiting, the service guy that initially took our van came back in and informed us that we couldn't have our van back. It was not safe to drive. The rear axle was indeed already cracked. We were one pothole away from disaster. So he told us that Ford would arrange a rental car for us until the axle could be replaced, which according to the recall letter would be....sometime in the first quarter of 2011!!! The other option, at Ford's discretion, would be a possible buy-back offer, which of course will not be for anything close to what it will cost to replace the van.

Oh, and have I mentioned that the van is finally paid off this month?

So, we waited some more and finally the Enterprise rental car guy came to pick me up. Now understand, when the Ford service guy told me we would be leaving in a rental for at least a few months, I specifically requested a vehicle large enough to accomodate two large carseats (Emily's is the largest carseat made, literally) and a big stroller (which coincidentally was also recalled the day before). So what did the first rental car look like? Well, let me put it this way. There was no trunk. The stroller BARELY fit in the back of the vehicle-that-wasn't-a-car-or-SUV-or-van. The carseats technically fit in the car, but there was absolutely no legroom in either front seat. I mean, the guy and I could get in, but it was in no way safe to drive or ride like that...yet we had no option, we had to take it back to the rental car place to even exchange it.

I have no idea how the guy drove like that.

Anyhow....this Kia Optima was a better option, but we're still feeling like sardines in it. It would fine for a couple of days, or if we didn't need to lug around a stroller and carseats and diaper bag, but it's NOT fine for months on end. Nor is there any extra room to pack, for say, Thanksgiving or a trip anywhere. Yes, plenty of families with two kids make do with a car, but they don't have carseats built to fit in a van or huge strollers. They have things that fit in a car. We don't.

The above picture is from today. Ethan doesn't really care either way, though he will when I finally (and it WILL happen) hit his head on the door frame while putting him in his carseat. Emily has little legroom, but she'll have to deal, just like the rest of us.

I really want Ford to step up and either go ahead and buy back the van ASAP so we can move on, or at least provide a larger rental. I need to take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill/consignment stores, but realized that I can't just put a big Rubbermaid tub into the car. Instead, I'll be making many, many trips. We've had to purchase another garage door opener because I used something built into the van called "Homelink" that opened the door...and then when my paid for van was basically repossessed, I had no way to get in.

Pray for our sanity. I know it's not a big deal. I'm very VERY thankful that the problem was discovered before we were placed in a highly dangerous situation. But it still stinks.

And that, my friends, is why for the foreseeable future we'll be driving a red Kia rental car with Michigan license plates. Wave if you see me!

Long Time, No See

I know, it's been a while since I've posted anything. But real life gets busy, what can I say?

Here's the little guy. He's not much of a ham, huh?

This is the face he makes whenever a camera comes out these days.

These are Ethan's first stitches. Nice. Poor little guy tried to climb into his toy basket and when it tipped over, he hit his head on something hard enough to make a walnut-sized lump and cut an inch-long gash in his head. So, off to the ER we went, at 6:15 on Saturday evening. We got home around 10 pm, and what was the first thing Mr. Ethan did? Climbed into his booster seat (it sits on the floor) and waited for his dinner to be served! (He hit his head just as I was taking dinner out of the oven.) You don't mess with the boy's dinner plans. He WILL eat.


Here are both kiddos. Miss Em is doing very well in school. Her behavior has been nearly perfect. She's learning tons and she seems to like it. She is not currently eating at school, however, so we're trying to get to the bottom of that issue. She's growing by leaps and bounds and is about 50" tall at 6 years old. She's almost a head taller than all the kids in her class.

This is the morning after Ethan got his stitches. Emily, Ethan and I stayed home from church because I had to rouse up Mr. E every couple of hours over night to make sure he didn't have a concussion, plus, he's sporting some pretty nasty hair right now. We have to keep antiobiotic ointment on his cut 4-6 times a day for 6 days and we can't get his hair wet. It's going to be icky by Friday!

Ethan LOVES to wear glasses. These are his current favorites. They belong to Emily and are girl's sunglasses with little fish on either side. He will walk over to me, hand me the sunglasses and wait for me to put them on him. Then he walks around the living room grinning like a crazy man.

And finally, a picture from today. What a sweet little guy.

Life in the Fast Lane

It's been a while since I last posted, so I thought I'd catch you all up on what we've been doing.

Miss Emily is just about to turn six (on Wednesday, to be precise). She's doing extraordinarily well in Kindergarten so far. In fact, we've been pleasantly surprised with how well she's adapted. She still has a few teary moments now and then, but I think she really enjoys her class and recess and all that she's learning.

She did have a bit of mishap about two weeks ago. When I picked her up from school, the teacher handed me a note. I drove off (we were in the pick-up line, had to keep moving!) and read the note as I drove through the parking lot. It said that she had had a rough day and that she'd fallen off the monkey bars at recess and hurt her foot. She'd cried a lot and kept asking for me. So I asked Em about it and she confirmed that she had fallen and cried and wanted me and then she kept trying to show me her foot, which I kept telling her to wait and do at home. She was still kind of teary the whole way home.

When we got home, she took off her shoes and showed me her foot...and her big toe was all bruised and swollen. She didn't want to put any weight on her foot and was just very upset in general. However any suggestion that I made that we might need to go get it checked at the doctor made things 500 times worse. Andrew and I went back and forth on whether to take her for x-rays at the urgent care clinic, and finally decided that we should. So by this time it was around 7 pm and so off to the urgent care place we went. (Andrew stayed home and put the E-man to bed, while I took Miss Em.)

As you might imagine if you know Emily, it wasn't a pleasant trip. It didn't help that she was exhausted and terrified. Not a good combo even at home...but add the doctor's office and the possibility of x-rays...well, let's just say that it got a bit ugly. By the time we got x-rays, we'd already been waiting about 2 hours, maybe more. I had to physically place Em on the x-ray table (after grabbing her when she tried to run...but thankfully the toe injury slowed her down!). When I did, you would have thought someone was sawing her in half. Oh the drama! However, once she realized that what we had ALL told her was true (that nothing would touch her and that it was just going to be a picture of her toe), she was chattering away with so much relief. It's always eventful at the doctor's office, to say the least.

The x-rays were read by the urgent care doc, and he declared her toe just really bruised and sent us on our way. Em walked around for 2 more days, and then late Friday afternoon, we got a phone call from the urgent care clinic that the radiologist had read her x-rays and that her toe was indeed broken. So there we were, late on a Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend, scrambling to find a post-op shoe for the poor girl to wear to keep her foot protected until we could see the pediatrician. I ended up going back to the urgent care clinic and asking if they had one we could use. They did, but the smallest size they had was a women's small, that was at least 3-4 inches too long and way to big to really imobilize her foot. But she wore it like a trooper...until her orthopedic appt. this past Thursday, where she finally got a shoe that fit. Now she just has to wear that shoe for about two weeks (at least until the 23rd) and then we'll go back to the orthopedic doc, get another set of x-rays and go from there. All because of the dang monkey bars! Who knew recess could cause so much trouble?

In Ethan news....guess who's walking? I tried my best to post a cute little video of the E-man walking around like a miniature Frankenstein, but despite my efforts, it won't load, so you'll just have to take my word for it. He walks all over the place now, falling down every few feet with a little thud, and then gets back up and goes again. His current loves: Beach balls, balloons and anything electronic or with wheels. He's already figured out how to turn on the tv with the remote and he's managed to break my computer. We might rename him "Destructo-boy"! He will be 14 months old this Friday and he's still a little squirt. He barely tips the scale at 20 lbs. and all the fall pants I bought him in size 12 months (thinking they would surely fit) still fall off him. He's got 6 teeth fully in and two more that are working their way in this week. All in all, he's just a happy, easy-going little fellow...just don't try to wake him up from his nap before he's ready. That's all he really asks in life...a little food and lots of sleep!

So there you have it....a quick update on our fast-paced life!

First Day Of Kindergarten

Today was Emily's first day of Kindergarten! She is going to a Christian school with a class of 11 children: 8 girls and 3 boys. Last year, she was one of only 4 girls and a bunch of boys, so we'll see how things go.

Below, a picture from this morning. She's sporting her fancy new school uniform (one of several style options) and looks pretty excited.

The picture below is from the first day of school last year. She just keeps getting taller!

Em and her new backpack. She has her own little hook for her coat and backpack outside the classroom door. She also has her own cubby hole for her extra tennis shoes and supplies. She sits at one of 4 tables with two other kids, a boy and a girl.

Emily will be going to full-day Kindergarten (from 8-3) this year. She was fine as we left home this morning, but by the time we reached her school, she was getting a bit worried. She got into the school building and said that her tummy hurt and that she felt sick, which is common when she gets anxious, but she managed to put her things away and pick out a picture to color. There were some tears, and Ethan helped me stroke her hair and hug her and tell her that we loved her. When I left, she was sitting at her table, trying to color. What a brave, sweet little girl! I made it out of the school before my tears started. Hopefully by the end of the day, she'll have learned the joy of recess and lunch with new friends.

The cupcake "cake" that Miss Em will be having to celebrate her very first day of Kindergarten. We are so proud.

Here's hoping for a great first day!