Merry Christmas to me........

We had to postpone our Christmas with dh's family Saturday due to my having the flu. The kids were so disappointed about it that they begged daddy to let them open presents here anyways. Dad can't say no, he's a big kid, too. So, late that night, when I am just well enough to make it to the couch, we start opening presents. Trinity got a lovely plastic tea set, and was so thrilled she had to have it opened immediately. I helped her open the box as the other kids took turns opening presents. I handed her a tea cup from the set and she promptly started puking into it. Yep. Merry Christmas! Sunday night sees Devon puking, too. Dh is sick. Sam is crying a lot, so he must not feel well. Drew's gone through the runs. Monday morning Devon is still ill, Kaytlin is now sick, and so is Hope-Anne. Cody was sick a while ago, so who knows if he will get it or not.
On the most wonderful note........ I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer!!!! (read that in a sing-song voice, and pretend I sing on key)
Devon is beyond thrilled with his new cell phone, which we got for free as beta testers for a new company for kids.

PLEASE DON'T!

I saw this candy in the store recently and bought a few of them for the kids to try having never seen them before. Drew tried one and said something about it being kind of spicy. Kaytlin saw one and asked who they were for and I let her have one, but haven't heard a word about it.

So, I see one left in the fridge. It doesn't go there. I let it thaw out out some so it would come out and then squeezed up the weird looking brown goo. Smells weird. What is this stuff? I offered some to dh, but he wisely would NOT try it. So I tried it, its candy after all. Oh. My. Goodness. I could not let my tongue touch the roof of my mouth where the brown goo had set up residence. "Oh my goth, I though thith wath cany? Whaaa ith thith?????!!!!!"

I scraped my mouth out the best I could with paper towels and spitting. You can't get that stuff out of your mouth fast enough! What the heck??? Its CANDY! Its supposed to be good! Even if it isn't something you love, it should still taste good, right? I don't care for grape or watermellon candy, but hey, it still tastes like candy!

Don't ever, ever, ever put this stuff in your mouth! You would thank me for the advice if you had any idea how bad that stuff tastes. I'd rather eat liver and onions. Or Kimchee. Yeah, its that bad.

You Are Cupid

A total romantic, you're always crushing on a new reindeer. Why You're Naughty: You've caused so much drama, all the reindeers aren't speaking to each other. Why You're Nice: You have a knack for playing matchmaker. You even hooked Rudolph up!

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

You Are a Bow

You don't think of it as the holiday season - you think of it as the present season!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money

You've either been really really good this year...Or Santa is trying to pay you off!

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatwillbeinyourchristmasstockingquiz/">What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

An Essay

Why Computer Time Should be Limited
By Lisa Pederson
I learned a valuable lesson last night. I cannot comprehend the reason I have not learned this lesson before last night. It is an obvious lesson that I have been being taught for several years now. Time on the computer needs to be limited, not just in the amount of time, but the time of day, also.
I love to be on the computer. I have done a year of college online. I play games online and offline. I enjoy email and blogging. I like finding answers to questions with the touch of a few buttons instead of dragging little ones to the library and keeping track of them while searching for answers. But I have a problem with how much I enjoy those things. I can't stop until a beat a new game. I can't quit reading those blogs. I get caught up in all the links to new information I am researching. Then the problems begin.
Just last night, as I sat nursing the baby and playing a new game I just had to beat, the problem hit me upside the head. I spent 3 hours on the computer, thinking other people would keep track of my three year old daughter. No, they will not do that. So, between the hours of 6pm and 9pm she trashed the house.
Trinity started by coloring nicely with markers with her big sister on the couch. When her sister got tired of coloring, she took off with the markers and colored all over my big overstuffed chair! Thankfully it is washable marker and the fabric is under a warranty if it doesn't come off. From there she went into the kitchen and decided to help cook. She took a few spice jars out and dumped them all into the pan of chicken and all over the counter. Then took the cans for a food drive and dropped them in the chicken drippings. Next she opened a hamburger helper type meal and poured the noodles all over the stove. From there she went to my bedroom where she dug in my jewelry chest and took out lotions and gels and smeared some all over my sheets and the padding on the side of my bed, and all over the door handle to the bathroom where she went to apparently clean herself off. Her plate of food ended up upside down on my white carpet and she peed her pants while sitting on some clean, folded clothes. Apparently she also fed the fish. A LOT.
Alright, this is obviously my problem, not hers. I wouldn't be cleaning all that stuff up if I had not been ignoring her. I need to limit checking email to only while nursing the baby, before she wakes up, and after she goes to bed. I definately cannot play games while she us awake unless she is next to me playing on the other computer.
The benefits of changing this behavior will be far reaching. All the children will get more attention. I will remember more of what they say to me! My house will be cleaner because I will have more time for cleaning and Trinity will have less free time to make messes. And Samuel won't grow up thinking we worship the computer instead of God. Also, the timing of this lesson couldn't be better as my oldest two children are starting online high school and college in January, so they won't have to fight me to get their school work done.
Now if only my husband would come to the same conclusion. We could get so much more time together.

Devon, the fish.

I have one goal with swimming and my kids; that they know enough not to drown. So I bring them to lessons so they will know enough not to drown, and then we swim in the summer a bunch. So typically my kids have a couple of classes. Devon is no exception. He's been to enough lessons to not drown, but not to learn strokes. He does love to swim, though.
So when he joined the swim team at school, I thought it was weird, but figured he'd drop out like all the other sports that bore him. But he didn't. He got up at 6am for swim practice every day. This is the weirdest part of all. Devon does not get up before noon without several prods, sometimes a glass of cold water on the ol' head.
Then we started hearing things. People started talking. He's good. He's a natural. He's a born swimmer.
WHAT????? No, really, WHAT????
He's in 8th grade. He's swimming against Varsity. And beating some of them. His coach even said he'll probably be on Varsity by the end of the season.
We had to see this. He is good! I cried. Oh, yes I did. I cried.
Last nights meet he won second in the JV 100 meter freestyle! One meet his relay team came in third against Varsity, but they were disqualified. I was mad, they were WAY ahead of the 4th place team. I guess it was a false start or someone not touching the wall with both hands or something. I haven't figured out how it all works yet. But I'm going to home meets and screaming his name with the rest of the parents!
Devon doesn't talk much. He never just tells us what he's thinking. He just doesn't work that way. Its almost painful to get anything out of his mouth. But he fessed up that he has always dreamed of being an olymic swimmer! Whoa! So now he's working on those grades,and brought home his first report card ever with no F's. You have to have a 2.o to play sports, and he has a 2.o6, lol. He was so excited! Now we have leverage to get the homework done and the chores done. Its a great life over here.

What a week!

We've had an exciting 7 days! Last Tuesday my sister in law had her first baby, the first grandchild on my husband's side that didn't come from us! She had a little boy, he is the same length as Samuel, 2lbs smaller, but he looks SO much shorter!!! They are 6 1/2 weeks apart. Today, a week later, my sister had her baby girl! She is a little pumpkin, but bruised up from coming out too fast. I can't wait to get to see her, but she lives a long way away and I was just there this weekend. :-(
We had Christmas with my family over the weekend, too. And swim meets, but thats another post!
We went to see our new nephew on Sunday, and his first-time parents are doing a wonderful job, but its really funny to watch. New daddy is very high-strung, so we knew this would be fun to watch! For 7 years we've never gone to their home in the winter and been warm, lol, but it is broiling now! The new baby was warm in a onsie and thin sweetpea gown, no socks! Its a riot! But an even bigger riot is that my husband has been that way with our 7th child, too! And hiccups, oh man, BOTH of those daddy's are in a panic "is he ok? is it ok to have so many hiccups? isn't his body jerking too much?" And our house is hot too, 71-75 degrees!
But I love it. Its very, very sweet to see my husband worry so much about his little munchkin. I do get annoyed when he tells me how to drive when I take the baby, but not the other kids, he doesn't care about how I drive when I have them, hehe.
Oh, the baby joy! I'm in heaven!

Look who's 6 weeks old!

Here is our future Minnesota Vikings player!
Samuel is growing up too fast! I love that he's still a newborn, and I love that he is starting to smile at everyone. But I just know its going to be a blink and he'll be crawling all over.
I've tried and tried to get a shot of him smiling big enough to show his cute dimples, but with a digital cam it is almost impossible. By the time you see the dimples and aim and snap and the camera focuses and then blinks against red-eye and then decides to take the shot, its gone. I've only gotten one smile on film, but no dimples.

Too much of a good thing?

Trinity is my little soda snatcher. She constantly asks me for a drink of my "pop." But then she guzzles it, lol. Thats my day, sharing my "pop" and cleaning up her peepee pants, cleaning up her writing on the wall, cleaning up her other messes, cleaning up the make-up she gets into, changing her peepee pants, sharing my "pop."
The other day she comes up to me while I'm on the computer and says "Can I have drink a your pop?" I told her no. She says "Yes, drink a you pop!" "No, honey, no SODA." And that goes on for a few minutes.
I went to get the baby and change his diaper. I hear Trinity crying "Momma! Momma!" so I run to her. She's standing there with a towel in front of her face looking really distressed. She says "I puke. I drink too fast your pop." I said "You drank all my soda?" She said yes. Then she lets out this loud, long, deep belch! It was like ALL the carbonation had been in her throat coming up at once, lol. She felt so much better, but I was in hysterics! Thats what you get for trying to guzzle as much of my soda as you can get while I'm out of the room!