Meant to post....

PICTURES!!

Turkey #1 getting ready for a dip in the oil!

#1 almost submerged

#1 in the oil... bubble bubble!


Turkey #1 coming out

MMM MMM MMM gobbly goodness!


Oil bubbling in Turkey #2

Dominick wasn't suppose to go off the patio. He's pushing his limits!

David happy about his "cooking"!

My lame attempt at gardening!!

"Garden" from the side

Thanksgiving...

We had a good day! Started off with a HUGE thunderstorm about 6am! It thundered so loud I woke up thinking someone drove into our house! It stormed for a little bit but cleared up long enough for David to deep fry a few turkeys for our festivities. I got turkey frying pictures and a little diddy of the kids, I'll post. I brought the camera to the cousins for dinner but didn't take any pictures... BAD ME!!

Today was the day...

I decided to put up our tree, much to David's dismay! Here's a little ditty of the kids... Can you tell we got a new camera with a nice video function?! If you can't hear it because of the 'blog music' scroll down to my 'music box' and pause the function. You'll be able to hear the video sound then.

Our week has been good. Dalaynie took a written phonogram test and came home with 15/15 on the sounds and 10/10 on her handwriting. I was skeptical because this weeks test had 5 phonograms for the sound "er" (hER, nURse, EARly, WORks, fIRst). Fun times with the phonogram based learning...

I've decided "motivated mom" needs to step in and get Nick potty training. He's more then ready and has been for some time. I'm not quite as motivated as I play scenarios of using public bathrooms everywhere we go again. Hopefully he won't be terrified of automatic flush toilets like Laynie. He started the day wearing Elmo underwear and finished with his Thomas ones. I got him to wear the Elmo's by saying "Let's go show Elmo your underwear". Thankfully Sesame Street was on and he complied!

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the loss of my good friend, Murphy. =( I've been a little crabbier and out of sorts this week. If the afterlife is what I imagine it to be he's up there with my dad happy to have my mom around. I see them playing cards and remembering back to the good ole days. The only things they may be missing in my "perfect" world are cigarettes and alcohol.... Over the past couple years I've really opened my eyes to how toxic substance use/abuse really is and how many people are affected by it in ways they don't even realize.

I'm really missing my mom too. I made her spaghetti sauce for us for dinner last night. It turned out really well, I was proud of myself. We had leftovers tonight and it was even better. I'm thankful I picked up her love for cooking and baking. Hopefully with more practice I'll become as good as she was and Laynie and Nick will be able to pass it down more generations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTIE "KAFFY"

Here's a little 'diddy' from each of the kids. Sorry it's a few days late, we hope you had the BEST birthday ever and have the MOST wonderful year yet! (Of course, that would include a trip to spend time with our happy lil' clan!). (To shut the music on the blog "OFF" scroll down to the music player and click the "pause" button and you'll be able to hear the video without background music)

The Verdict is...

Nick is HEALTHY!

YIPPEE... no sign of pneumonia in his lung after 10 days on antibiotics. What a relief! We decided to go ahead and give him the "pneumonia shot" though, hopefully it will keep us from this again. David's going to take him for some blood work to see if he has a genetic predisposition to catching it. With my lung history I won't be surprised if it comes back positive. In the meantime we're going to continue with the "nebby" until spring. The bright side of that is he tolerates it a lot better then before.

I've started trying to get Christmas pictures... here's a little preview of some of the pictures... TURKEYS! or should I say "NICK is a turkey!"

I can't imagine what's going to happen when I try to add Molly into the picture! Maybe I'll take a class on Photoshop or something......

Both kids are doing great. Laynie got her "mid term" report from school and continues to excel. She's scored 99.6% for this quarter so far. It's really fun to hear her read and actually sound out words. She's also doing pretty well with piano lessons although they end up being the last thing we work on. She's LOVING religious education (who thought THAT would end up being her favorite?!). She just started "running club" at school this afternoon. I tried to get her to join a few weeks back but her response each time was "no thanks". Then she found out one of her BFF's was going to try it and she was all about it! I took her to Kohls for shoes (something I won't do again with both kids anytime soon!). She picked the ones she wanted and told the cashier "These are my new running shoes. I'm in the running club at school now". The cashier asked how she liked it and she said "I haven't started yet". That was Monday and we slept through the first meeting. She and Nick were both asleep when we should have left so I decided to let lying beasts lie!

Nick is "NICK". Funny as ever. I'm working on having him spell his name. He either says "N O P Q.. NICK" or "N I C K .. L M N O P Q ... NICK" He's as dramatic as ever. I'm working more on potty training also. I think if I just buckled down and did it we could be finished with diapers in a day or two. LAZY mom prevails and he ends up in diapers by mid morning. I got him Elmo and Thomas big boy underwear a couple months ago because he REFUSED to poop in his diaper. He'd chant POOP POOP POOP until he was put on the toilet. I thought "Easy STREET, just like Laynie, this kid will be potty trained by 2". HAHAHAHA The minute I pulled out the Elmo's or the Thomas's he decided the game was over. I'm not sure what the hang up is but he still isn't too keen on them and I'm still too lazy to push it. I've started giving him "NMN's" as he calls them when he goes on the toilet.

He's finished with Tiny Tot Sports and his preschool class now. Each time we drive by the school his class was at he says "Nick Peekool". He got a certificate of completion for his class after a class party at the local Baskin Robbins!

Hopefully we'll have something like it to entertain ourselves with after the new year.

Anyways, I had no intention of writing a book. I should be packing for a trip back to Minnesota. Nothing fun to report this time. I told my sisters I'd help with whatever they need in terms of taking care of my moms "life". I'm going this weekend to inventory the items she had. Hard times but it all needs to be taken care of.

I miss her terribly but don't think I've yet fully accepted that she's "crossed over". I think I was lucky in talking to her as often as I did. I was able to hear her pain when I talked to her. She'd cough something fierce and moan without even realizing it. I'd comment that she didn't sound good and she'd say "I'm fine". I'm happy to have had the relationship I did with her. I know she respected me as a mother and was proud of the adult I grew to be.

Dalaynie has broken down at the strangest times and when I ask what's wrong she says "I'm thinking of Grandma Marilyn and I really miss her". I ask what made her think of her and her answer is usually "I remember when she held me when I was a baby" or "She sent Nick and I nice presents for our birthdays". I wish I'd have lived close enough for her to develop a 'physical' relationship with my mom but am thankful for the insight to have her on the phone a couple times/week, just to say hello. I know Nick won't remember anything of her but I'm glad my mom heard him sing his "ABC's", "TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR", "AMEN" and mostly "ALLELUIA" (just because it was SOOO bad it was good!). Laynie asks about sending her pictures and cards and often draws pictures of "grandma Marilyn with angel wings". The last one she drew she had a boy looking figure in the corner. She explained to me "That's God, he's taking care of Grandma Marilyn now". She suggests we mail pictures to heaven. I never really know what to say... I've thought about taking them, letting her address as she wishes then putting them into a memory box for her. I figure if she doesn't remember my mom down the line at least when she grows up and looks back at the stuff we saved she'll remember she once knew.

She's also been asking a lot of questions about my dad. She can't grasp the concept that both my parents have left this world. She keeps saying "PaPa Paul" can be your dad. We pray for both of them a couple times a day by her request. She likes to say the "Lords Prayer" but once asked to say the "dinner prayer" for my dad. I laughed and thought.. yeah, she knows him!

Anyways, I didn't mean to take this tangent.

TTFN

10/24 - 11/2

I meant to update this a few days ago but time just keeps getting away from me. Uncle Jim has been here this week for a visit. We had lots of fun things planned to see and do. Unfortunately, Nick got sick again so we didn't do much but hang out here. We did make it to the Desert Botanic Gardens the day before I took him to the MD.

Turns out the poor little thing has pneumonia again. Thankfully it's in his lower RIGHT lobe this time or I'd have had an anxiety attack. This is the fourth time in his two short years of life. The first three were in his lower left lobe. Anyways, he's on antibiotics for 10 days and we go back for a follow up x-ray and appointment with his pediatrician. If the x-ray shows the spot still there we'll probably just schedule an appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist. I'm not sure how we'll proceed if it's cleared up. We're so early in the season for this to be happening. It gave me a really good glimpse of what my parents had to deal with and the sacrifices they made for us. It's hard with one "wheezy" kid, I can't imagine having three! I'll post again next week to update what the situation is. Until then I refuse to stress over something that is beyond my control.

SO... I posted another slide. It's after this long post.

Our neighbors and close friends, Chris and Dutch have a little grand-daughter who is fighting a form of brain cancer. My good friend and neighbor, Tisha, and I decided to see if they wanted to come hang out with us in the street and watch Laynie & Kyle ride bikes in the afternoon. It ended up turning into an all evening thing with pizza ordered and margarita's and beer consumed. It was really laid back and steam and stress was released by us all.

David went and spent some much needed time with his friends in Dallas the next day. Kids and I went to a pumpkin patch & apple orchard with my friend Joanna and her family. It was a BLAST although a long drive (3 hours each way!). The kids seemed to like being in the 'country'. We decided to do a corn maze and hay ride. Laynie was so excited for the hay ride she could hardly contain herself. We went in the maze first though, the worker told us the rules; no touching the corn, no pulling the corn, no breaking the corn, stay on the path. She said she was a "corn cop" and there were other corn cops in the maze. If we were caught breaking the rules they might have us leave the maze. Of course, we stressed this so the kids would be respectful and we wouldn't need to spend the time reminding them. The workers stern warning and Laynie's lack of nap was the perfect combination to push my poor child right over the edge. We got about 100 feet into the maze and she lost her poor little mind and started screaming she was scared and wanted out RIGHT NOW. It took a little prodding to get her to say she was afraid the corn cops would get us so we reassured her (so we thought) that all would be fine. A couple minutes later she started screaming because Ben brushed against some corn, then Dominick, then Laine. If memory serves me she finally settled down when we ran across the woman who told her it was okay.

After the corn maze we went on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. ALL the kids really liked this. Little Ezra (Joanna & Ben's 20 month old) kept walking from side to side of the trailer as the tractor was moving. He's so cute!

We also went to an apple orchard and had a picnic. It was fun. The kids played in the orchard a little and we had a little homemade ice cream. I'm going to try to make some with my kitchen-aid ice cream attachment. YUM YUM. They had apple crumb cake and pumpkin pie ice cream!

This week we took it easy. Uncle Jim and David went to a Coyotes hockey game and had fun. Kids dressed up as an Ice Skating Princess and a Hockey Player for halloween. They were both sooo cute. We went to a Halloween Festival sponsored by one of our local churches Friday night for a few hours. It was fun! They had games for the kids and a few bouncy things. Members of their church were gracious enough to park their cars and pass candy from the trunks. We live in a great community with so many generous people! As the festival got busy we decided to head home so we came back and trick or treated a few blocks. Even though we were home late and only out for about an hour we went through 4 bags of candy! Not too shabby!

I'm tired and need to get sleep.

OH.. one more thing! I've been doing apple stuff this weekend! I made homemade applesauce (YUM), carmel apple jam and now I'm making some apple butter! I have a bunch of apples left so I need to decide what to do with them. Probably I'll make some cinnamon apple jam.

TTFN,
JP

Pictures 10/24 - 10/31