Sick of Shopping?

We needed groceries today... in the worst way... the kind where you have no cheese and no bananas and no produce left.  Luckily, I was cognizant of that fact last night, so I made a meal plan and grocery list based off some awesome recipes I found on the Skinny Miss website.  My cousin had shared recipes from this website numerous times on Facebook, but I'd never really poked around on it much.  I am really excited to have found it because all the recipes I looked at were incredibly clean, healthy, well-balanced meals that also didn't cost an arm-and-a-leg to make.  I'll have to share what we think of the recipes.

So first thing this morning, we headed in to do our grocery shopping.  It was a relatively quick trip for us (only 4 stores, only gone from home for 4.5 hours.)  The kids were well behaved and helpful, and as usual, a riot.  (Ruby told the guy at the automotive desk that if the lift crashed down on them, they would get dead - which he found funny enough to go out and share with all the other techs working in the automotive bay.)  And then there's our buddy, Denise, at Aldi.  She always takes the time to talk to the kids.  And then she says to me, "You must drink a lot."  LOL.  I should laugh at that, right?

By the time we were almost home though, I was feeling worse than sick - like someone had stabbed me in the stomach.  Andy'd had the flu the Friday after Christmas, and I'm still not sure whether I have a light touch of that or whether I ate a bad banana (on the way home.)  The kids were dolls and took care of themselves when we got home.  Ira made he and Ruby scrambled eggs for lunch.  And he even came running with an emesis bag when he heard me get sick (we had some left from post-surgery in March that have come in handy...)  They would usually watch movies when I'm sick, but they lost that privilege the other day, so they read and played together quite peacefully until Andy got home.

Ira found a recipe in his Highlights Magazine (a Christmas gift from my parents) that he wanted to make for dinner, so he and Andy tackled it together.  It was delicious and very soothing to my unsettled stomach.  While Andy was finishing up dinner, I snuck out of our room to see what all the ruckus was.  Turns out boredom and a bunch of plastic shopping bags (why can I never remember my reusable ones at Walmart?) are highly entertaining.

Ira said to title this "Let it Snow!"

Then we got the treat of the year when Jimmy's new CD showed up in our email inbox to download as part of our Love Good Music patronage.  He is such a talented guy and a good friend!  We are so thrilled for him to be releasing this CD!  And... it's positively wonderful.  Pain, suffering, redemption, hope, joy... it's all in there, beautifully orchestrated.  For a very limited time, you can get $5 off of the $15 monthly patronage by signing up through our campaign here.  Obviously, I would highly recommend it!

Whew, two days in a row, surely I can't keep this up...

Journal: February 3

Outside my window: Whaddaya know, grey and cold again.  blah.

Clothing myself in: yoga pants, brown t-shirt - lazy Sunday hurrah!

Around the house: Finally finally scrubbed the kitchen floor, Cinderella style.  It is a pain, but it seems to be the only thing that really gets it clean.  The linoleum has grooves that get dirty and need to be really scrubbed, and the only way I've found to do it effectively is on my hands and knees - thus why I procrastinate doing it endlessly.  Andy got one wall in the bedroom downstairs built (studs, drywall hung)
Got garden plans tentatively made for this Spring.  We don't need to buy very many plants/seeds because of propagating them from last years crops, but I do think we'll be buying two grafted tomato varieties just b/c we haven't found roma or sandwich tomato varieties that we just love yet.  (For those who care, we're looking at a grafted San Marzano and a grafted Mortgage Lifter from Gardens Alive.)

Ira: 
-Got to go to the ER last Sunday night with a high fever and confusion/lethargy.  It was really scary to see him so incapable of understanding things (didn't know/understand how to take the tylenol tablets out of my hand and chew them, didn't know how to get his shirt on, had to be carried out of bed and to the car.)  I don't think I've ever been as fearful for my child's health as I was that night.  They checked him for pneumonia and meningitis at the ER and said that it must have just been the high fever possibly combined with dehydration causing it.  He missed the first two days of Catholic School's Week due to the fever.
-Is getting better at spontaneous jokes.  We were at the dinner table this past week and Andy was talking about someone he works with named Kevin and Ira chimed in "Henno!" (Like Kevin from 3-2-1 Penguins.)  It took Andy and I a second to catch it, but it was SO FUNNY!
-Had a particularly rough time with him Friday evening and Saturday morning as he's developed a "rude-dude-attitude."  He spent over an hour in our room (he just distracts himself with reading in his own room) adjusting his attitude and wow, the rest of the day was really nice.  Andy and I sat down with him after his "room time" and had a great talk with him about  pride, sin, having a contrite heart, etc.  It was good.
-Had his school's winter carnival last night.  Came home with a couple handfuls of junk treasures and the book "The Squire and the Scroll."  I was thrilled as I've wanted to buy the book for him each time I've visited the Catholic Bookstore, but haven't ever been able to justify the brand-new cost.  

Ruby:
-Was sick last weekend just like Ira, but her fever never got as high.  Pretty sure she inherited Andy's immune system & Ira inherited mine (lucky girl, poor guy.)   She still has the cough, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much.
-Still concerned about whose turn it is to talk, although not quite as intensely as last week.
-Has been successfully keeping her underwear dry at naptime (and bedtime most nights, although she wears a diaper then.)
-Had a very fun time at the Winter Carnival last night.  Got her hair sprayed red and orange, had quite the arm on the bean bag toss, and won the big prize (a giant pixie stick) at Plinko.
-Had to throw her last two binkies away this week because they were totally, totally torn up/disintegrating.  She threw the last one away today before her nap and no tears were shed and she slept great.  Could it really be that simple?  We shall see!

In the Kitchen:
Bobby's Goulash with Green Beans (this btw is an absolute favorite, easy, delicious, healthy - I can't wait!); Chicken Quesadillas with Black Beans; Hamburger Vegetable Stew with Foccacia

Hobbies:
Made some homemade mama cloth for my sister who should have her baby any day now.  It was the project I referred to in my post last week.  I think I'm finally pleased with my design.  I'm hoping to make some for my own stash before maybe setting up an Etsy shop to sell them.

Bringing me Joy:  This is the month!!!  We get to go to PPVI Institute this month.  I am so anxious/excited/nervous/thrilled/hopeful about finally getting some concrete answers about our difficulties.

Thinking about: Everything I have to get done/ready/packed/talked about in anticipation of aforementioned trip.  Feeling a little overwhelmed and like I just want to retreat to bed and not deal with it at all.  I'm sure that'll help.

Pictures to share:

Fun hair from Winter Carnival.

Sissy got her hair did too!
This is what she did when I said "Let's take a picture of you!" Such spunk!

Journal: January 24

Outside my window: grey and cold.  I hate winter.  Especially winter in January and February.

Clothing myself in: jeans, navy blue long sleeve shirt with turquoise camisole underneath.  It's pretty much my uniform: jeans, tank top, solid colored long sleeve shirt.

Around the house: Finally got all the Christmas stuff taken down last Friday (i think?)  Slowly but surely cleaning.  I made a "schedule" for myself for each month with cleaning goals - it seems to be a step in the right direction.  Life's been a little chaotic lately with sickness and family stuff, so things have had to slide a bit, but it's nice to have goals to work towards.  Finally replaced the water pad/filter in the whole house humidifier (just one of those things I never remember to pick up/look for) I can't believe how much more comfortable the house feels.

Ruby: Gosh she's growing.  There've been so many things in the past few weeks that I've wanted to blog about regarding her, but just haven't had the chance.  She is still into coloring (especially with her markers from Christmas) and cutting paper "candy" - tiny little pieces of colored paper (that she colors after she cuts out - like .25"x.5" pieces) and hanging them on doors (with 2 foot strings of tape - also a Christmas present.)  She's also moved from playing with babies mostly to stuffed animals mostly.  Her chimpanzee is named "Doo Doo"  her dog is named "Sam."  Another monkey is "Thomas" and a big red monkey is "Sir Handle."  She's wanted her hair "like a mama" lately - i.e. I wear my hair in a low ponytail pretty much every day and now that's how she wants her hair every day.  I'm honored and humbled by how much about me she notices.  She's really into whose turn it is to talk/not being interrupted.  For instance, Ira starts to say something as Ruby is finishing what she's saying, so she exclaims, "Ira, I was talking FIRST!"  Hopefully she will learn the ebb and flow of natural conversation soon - it's mildly annoying.  Still has the binkies - although they're like really cracked and beat up.  She says she's giving them to Mandy's baby when he/she is born - we'll see!  She's also been into who/what does and does not poop right now too.  Like, in the car, "does a tree poop?" "does a bird poop?.... why?"  and on, and on, and on.  Fascinating stuff I know...

Ira: Is in 2nd grade math right now.  Before Christmas break, his teacher called to ask if Andy and I would think about him moving up to 2nd grade math because the 1st grade stuff was just way too easy for him.  I was so impressed with her concern for Ira getting the best education and that she took the initiative to clear the logistics of it  (even as his school years continue.)  We decided that it would be good for him and sure enough, it is.  He's said a few times "Second grade math is a little harder than first grade math!" as he's doing his homework.  He was pretty thrilled that he didn't have any homework last week because the second graders were finishing first confession preparations and therefore weren't being given homework.  Score!  He's reading 5.1-5.5 level AR books.  Still loving non-fiction but also really into Magic Treehouse and Flat Stanley Worldwide Adventures as well.  We seem to have come to the other side of the "angrily resisting chores" thing - he's doing better with getting them done and accepting the consequence if he doesn't.  Although, the other night he did yell quite angrily, "Dare I say it, that's the most ridiculous rule I've ever heard!" (When I told him he could eat dinner when his toys were cleaned up.)  Now he's been trying to "engage" me in arguments with inflammatory statements like above, or "you're just a liar, that wasn't really five minutes."  It works best if I can keep calm and respond lovingly "I'm sure you feel that way" or "I love you too much to argue."  It takes a few times of saying it (and sometimes more than a few times), but when he realizes I'm not going to get involved in the power struggle, he comes to terms with whatever he's being asked to do.  Now if I can just consistently do my job and not get in my "I'm going to win this argument" mode.  Still enjoying piano lessons - we're about 15 pages from being done with the Level 1A book.  After our piano lesson yesterday, he was talking to me about something and then said, "you know, like when Father holds up the Eucharist and it turns into Jesus' body and there's that shiny light behind the host."  I was astounded.  Speechless.  What a gift he's been given!  I am so excited for him to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and communion next year!

In the kitchen: Easy Cheesy Chicken Bake, Quick Pasta Carbonara, Cavatini, and Cheese & Black Bean Enchiladas.  The theme for this week is: keepin' it simple.

Hobbies: working on a sewing project right now.  Not 100% thrilled with my design/execution, so I'll continue to tweak it before "going public."

Bringing me joy: Our impending visit to Pope Paul VI Institute.  Test results coming in abnormal (as funny as that sounds, it's a start and an indication that things are definitely not working like they're supposed to.)  My kids.  They've just been pretty good and easy to deal with lately.  Our new treadmill.  It is amazing!  We've put over a marathon's worth of miles on it already (in the less than two weeks we've had it.)  I've run in Hawaii, Rome, Japan, Texas, and New York already.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  See here.  Funny tangential story:  The night we got the treadmill, I decided to do this mountain run in Hawaii.  I ran some of it but walked a lot it because it was just really hard and then felt awful when I finished it.  I told Andy, "wow the incline thing really makes a difference!  That or I've gotten really out of shape in the last month, because I feel like I could barf."  I continued to feel horrible and when he got done running I said, "wasn't it awful" and he was like, "well, it didn't seem that bad, really."  So I thought, "man I am SO out of SHAPE.  I feel like CRAP!"  Well, I finally drug myself upstairs to bed and woke up about an hour later with the stomach flu.  And then proceeded to wake up every 60 minutes for the rest of the night.  Fun times, that stomach flu.

Thinking about: Family.

Pictures to share:

Ira ready for his first day of "Basketball Camp"  He got a shirt last week for being the best at "Chest Passes"  He was so proud!

Ruby's Sesame Street Manicure I gave her.  From left (thumb) to right: Telly, Grover, Elmo, Oscar, and Cookie Monster.

What can I say, I was bored...

Keepin' it Real

No folks, you're not looking at the latest "My home is better than yours" Home from Better Homes and Gardens.  This is what my house looks like today.  Ruby is puking from the overabundance of mucus that has accompanied her bout with "Flu B."  So I'm letting go of the house to take care of what matters most: the people in my life.

Thankfully, Ruby is napping peacefully right now, and in the time it's taken me to upload the pictures, I've gotten the kitchen cleaned up and a load of laundry started.  Nonetheless, I wanted to share a glimpse of raw, unedited "life"  Real life.

The extra snuggling time I've had today has given me time to think about just how grateful I am for my life today:  That I am married to a man who is my world, my love, my best friend, my better half.  That he works hard so that I can live my dream of staying home with our kids.  That I have been blessed twice with new souls to love and nurture here on earth.  That I have a warm home with beautiful Christmas decorations that make my heart glad.  That my family has enough clothes to make that mountain of laundry above.  That we have dishes and food and helping hands to create a dirty kitchen with.  That even on the messiest, most unproductive days I am SO ABUNDANTLY BLESSED.

Sometimes life is so messy and so beautiful all at the same time.

Catch-up

So it's been 3+ weeks since I posted... funny how life happens.  I was stressing about how exactly to update, then I decided I'm just going to jump in and do it without regards to formatting.  I didn't figure you'd mind.

-Ira's school had an adorable Christmas program on 12-12-12.  It was titled "In A Galilee Far, Far Away."  It was so cute and you could tell how VERY hard all the kids had worked on it.  I teared up during the program thinking about how grateful I am that Ira gets to go to a Catholic School where he can learn and sing about the true meaning of Christmas.

-Thursday before Christmas Break, Pope Paul VI Institute called to schedule my surgery date.  I am so ecstatic to finally have a date in my head to look forward to!

-Got an early Christmas present from Andy - a Deluxe Lightscoop for my camera.  Here is a great example of before and after the Lightscoop.  I'm totally thrilled with it.  These pictures were taken seconds apart from each other.  Not the greatest picture (artistically or technically) but a good example of the Lightscoop's capabilities:

-Spent the weekend before Christmas celebrating with 3 different family groups.  It was good to see everyone and we (the kids and us) were spoiled immensely by good food, good company, and thoughtful presents.  Got some AWESOME pictures with the lightscoop!

-Christmas "Break" was scarcely a break (other than from routines) because Ira (& Ruby eventually) was SICK with the Flu.  He looked over at me as 4:00 Christmas Eve Mass was ending and asked "Why is it so ccccccold in here?!"  At which point I knew he had a fever.  We missed Christmas at my parents' the next day which was one of the most difficult things I've ever subjected myself to (and I've had morning sickness and delivered 2 babies.)  Because essentially after the kids opened their presents, Christmas celebrating was "over" for us.  No second Christmas Mass, no presents and meals and games with family... just us. in our jammies. all day.  I'd like to say I was a champ about it, but I moped around a lot of the day and cried a lot too.

-We thought Ira's fever was gone (it was for almost a day) and went ahead with plans to host my friends from High School whom we got re-connected with after my 10 year reunion.  Ira & Ruby went to Andy's parents and we had a wonderful time talking, eating, and playing games with some of my closest friends from High School. I am so happy for these re-kindled friendships!

-Ira was NOT all better.  When we picked him up from Andy's folks' he felt warm and sure enough, had a fever.  We took him to my doctor's Immediate Care clinic (a WONDERFUL resource) where they diagnosed him with the Flu.  At that point, it was past the time that Tamiflu would work, so we were told to push fluids and rest.  His fever got up to 103.6 that night before finally breaking.  He slept that entire day and night and acted like he felt better.  His fever never did come back, although he still seems to be physically drained from the sickness.

-We did get to host my family on Saturday for Christmas.  Everyone came and boy was it nice to see them!  I finally got to give my mom the calendar that I'd spent dozens of hours working that included this little gem at the end (thanks to my sibs for going along with my crazy idea!):

-Ruby came down with a fever Sunday night.  Knowing that the only place she could've gotten it from was Ira, I took her to Immediate Care on Monday morning so that maybe she could get started on Tamiflu.  Her swab came back negative, but they did an RV Panel that had to culture for 48 hours and said if it came back by Wednesday, they would still give her the Tamiflu.  Her fever broke Monday night, but now she has the cruddiest sounding cough and runny nose.  They called today to say that the panel came back positive for "Flu B."  Push the fluids and rest.  Blurgh...

-Andy and I spent a lot of time playing "The Farming Game."  It's part Monopoly, part Stock Market game and a LOT of fun.  In fact, I like it better than Monopoly (this coming from a person with Christmas ornaments and books about Monopoly.)  We played one game with my sister and brother-in-law and then two games by ourselves.  It has yet to get old.

-Finished my hormone series for Dr. Hilgers.  Eleven blood draws later, I'm still alive and curious about what all that blood work is going to say about me.

-Andy and I "partied hard" New Years Eve playing The Farming Game, writing birthdays on the calendar for 2013, doing double shots of Tequila at Midnight, and staying up until 2:30 in the morning talking and writing up goals for the year.  Neither of us are really "resolution" type people, but it was a good opportunity to re-align our priorities with our values and make sure we're working towards them.

-Spent New Years day cleaning out closets and cabinets, getting rid of junk and rearranging the remaining items.  It was a nice start to the New Year.

-Pulled Ira's other top front tooth out.  It was like "pulling teeth" replete with Andy holding him and me pulling.  It had to come out, that's all I have to say.

-Spent the last day of Christmas Vacation going to lunch and eating sushi, then going to the mall and letting the kids do the "Bungee Bungee" and play Glo-Golf.  It was enjoyable to actually spend some time together doing something fun.

I am filled with hope for 2013.  Blessings to you and yours this year!

What I Loved About Last Week 10th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (May 21-27)

1. Monopoly.  I have mentioned before that Monopoly is like my very most favorite game to play.  Ira must have inherited my affinity because we've played it 4 times since school got out.  I am impressed with his math skillz while we play.  He does a great job adding up the dice, paying for properties/paying rent (took him a couple games to learn that one - he loves to get change - so he would pay $18 rent with a 500 dollar bill if I let him), and giving change.   He's still not the greatest at bidding in an auction (like, the bid is at $50 and he bids $200, but that's a pretty advanced concept I guess...)

2. Piano Lessons.  Back in the day, I taught piano to a handful of students.  I haven't taught for 3 years, but Ira mentioned something before school was over about learning to play the piano.  I told him that I would teach him if he really wanted to learn, which he said he did.  I ordered this set through Amazon.  It is what I taught with previously and really liked a lot.  It starts very simply and builds piano knowledge in a very methodical manner.  I also liked how it tied other subjects (math, history, reading,) into learning the piano.  We had our first lesson on Wednesday and I'm not sure who is more excited about him learning piano, me or him!

3. Old MacDonald.  That silly Old MacDonald.  Or at least according to Ruby.  These are the things that Old Mac' has had on his farm this week: a goosy pig, a stinky diaper, and a "gerk."  Who knew?

Now, we will proceed with things that I did NOT love about last week.

1. Hand. Foot. and Mouth. Disease.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.  Ruby came down with it on Tuesday after her nap (started with a 101 Fever.)  Wednesday morning, I noticed the sores in her mouth and by Wednesday night we had determined that it was Hand, Foot, and Mouth.  Let me tell you, it. was. horrible!  Thursday was probably one of the worst days I have EVER had as a mother.  Grumpy does not even come CLOSE to describing Ruby that day.  Miserable would have been a cakewalk compared to what she was.  ALL DAY she screamed (yes, truly, angrily, screamed) at Ira and I.  She wanted Gatorade, so I gave her Gatorade.  She took a drink, spit it out (because it burned her mouth) and screamed that she wanted milk.  So I gave her milk.  She took a drink, spit it out (burned her mouth as well.) And screamed that she wanted Gatorade... rinse... repeat...  It was like that the WHOLE day.  Every time Ira said anything, she yelled at him.  Every time I tried to help her, she yelled at me. It was awful.  And truly, I really do understand where she was coming from.  She had about 5 huge red canker sores on her tongue and probably a dozen or more sores on the roof of her mouth/back of her throat.  I cannot imagine how badly they hurt.  However, just because I understood where she was coming from did not make it easy to deal with.  Andy had to work late, so by the time he got home (after the kids were in bed) I collapsed into a puddle of nervous breakdown.  I was seriously fearful of waking up the next morning because I couldn't imagine living another day like that.  Words truly cannot describe it.

Thank heavens Friday was a lot better.  She never did get sores on her feet.  Had a few red spots on her hands and quite a few on her bottom, but none of them ever turned into gaping sores like the ones in her mouth.

Since HFMD is highly contagious, we quarantined ourselves in our house for the entire week.  Definitely hard.  Definitely not an ideal first week of summer vacation for Ira, but we survived and I did LOVE that fact!

So what did you love about last week?

What I Loved About Last Week (3rd Edition)

Happy Easter Season to all!!  We're on a roll here - 3 weeks in a row!
Here's what I loved about last week (April 2-8, 2012):

1.Miracle of miracles.  After my rant last week, the bike riding w/ training wheels reached a fever pitch on Tuesday when it took us FORTY-FIVE minutes to ride home (it's like a 5 minute ride.)  Two blocks from home, I said, "that's it, the training wheels are coming off at home!"  We took them off, and what do you know, Ira can ride on two wheels without training wheels!

2. Getting over Strep Throat.  Yes, that means that we all (with the exception of Ira) had Strep Throat last week.  Andy's had it about a million times, but I'd never had it (thought maybe I was immune to it or something.)  Alas, I am not, nor is Ruby apparently.  Props to the antibiotics for working FAST.  And props to people who deal with Strep regularly - it is NO FUN!

3. Good Friday.  Ira was off school.  While Ruby napped (from noon until three o'clock oddly enough) Ira and I both decorated one of his Birthday cakes together and prayed the Stations of the Cross with a Stations Booklet that I'd made from materials from Holy Heroes' Lenten Adventure.  He was also FULL of questions (had to have been the Holy Spirit) about other faiths, masculinity and femininity, authority of the Catholic Church/the Pope, and martyrs.  Thanks to the Holy Spirit's help, I feel very good about the answers I was able to give him.  It made me hopeful that he will always feel comfortable asking me questions that he has about our beautiful faith.

4. Like I said, we decorated a cake for Ira's birthday party together.  Ira refers to himself as the ace of cakes now.  I would say he did a pretty bang up job (with some help), wouldn't you?

5. Rubyisms.  She has been full of good ones lately.  She calls green olives "blue grapes" and has recently started saying "Goo grief," "What in the Lord (world)" and "Eeee my dooness (goodness)"  She is just too funny!

6. Ira's Birthday Cake.  One of my proudest yet.  I did a gel transfer (1st time) and although I messed it up a little transfering it, I was able to fix my mistakes for the most part, and ended up with one of my "proudest" cakes.  I was really, really excited with how it turned out.

7. We hosted about 30 people at our house on Saturday morning/afternoon for Ira's birthday party (aliens from Toy Story theme).  The weather was beautiful, the company was great, and the party was a blast.  I just can't believe that our little boy is SIX!

The sandwiches we served "alien style"

Playing with his new kite from my parents

8. We had a beautiful Easter (albeit busy.)  We went to Easter Mass in the morning, then to Andy's folks' house, then to my parents' house.  Ruby didn't take a nap all Easter weekend, and *spoiler alert for next week* she took a FOUR hour nap on Monday.  Can I get a WOOT!  And the Easter Bunny did not disappoint as far as the "Sacrifice Jar."  Look at what our table looked like on Easter Morning!

I love how Ruby looks like she's getting ready to punch someone.  And Ira, well, the sun was in his eyes, what can I say?

Whew!

Wow, a whole month since I've blogged. Yeesh!  There is so much to catch up on.  Rather than trying to write all our updates in paragraph form, you're going to get bullets. because they're easier. and faster. and who doesn't love bullets?!

-We are the proud owners of a new Canon Rebel T3i.  I sat up (literally) all night the night before Thanksgiving waiting for the deals to go live on Best Buy.com.  They were supposed to go live at midnight, or so everyone thought.  They really didn't go live until 5:03am.  However, between camera, lens, and accessories, we saved several hundred dollars buying it this way.  Totally worth it if you ask me!  I am learning a lot, but boy do I have a lot to learn!  Since it came on Nov. 30th, We've taken over 1,000 pictures.  Practice, practice, practice!

One of the first photos with our new camera.

Who doesn't love that effect?

-We decorated for Christmas on Dec. 3rd (early for us) and have been thoroughly enjoying the decorations.  Ruby has done amazingly well with the ornaments on the tree.  Today was actually the first day that she got one off the tree, and it just slipped off of the branch as she was pushing the button to play the music.  The same day we were decorating for Christmas, we heard an ambulance and thinking it was just Ira playing with his GeoTrax one, didn't think much of it.  About 10 minutes later, Andy went outside to grab something and saw the ambulance in front of our neighbor's house.  He'd had a heart attack and they were never able to resuscitate him.  If you would, pray for his soul and for his sons and daughter.  He was only 54.  Andy and I were both in shock for awhile afterwards.  Really made us realize how you never know when your time on Earth will come to an end.

-We made our own advent candles this year.  Well, sort of.  I bought fat short white candles and we painted them with melted crayons.  It worked wonderfully and they are beautiful.  They will also last us quite awhile it seems!  While on the advent theme, we had a great advent, probably our best ever, in part thanks to Holy Heroes' Jesse Tree DVD.  I'd tried paraphrasing the Jesse Tree scriptures before for each day, but only got about 10 days in before I got too busy and just gave up.  This DVD had 2-5 minute clips to watch each day.  Some days children "acted" the scriptures out, and sometimes it was "illustrated" with felt board.  It was a little "homemade" looking, but the content was spot on.  And Ira really seemed interested by them.  We also tried doing Holy Heroes' Advent Adventure online.  There was a lot to keep up with on that though, and Ira isn't totally functional on the computer by himself, so we did them when we could and skipped them when we couldn't.  I think we ended up doing about 12 days of it.  I was very impressed with the quantity of information presented as well as the amount of activities (coloring pages, crossword puzzles, and word finds for each day.)  Again, a little "homemadeish" but very good nonetheless.  Maybe next year we'll be able to catch more of the Advent Adventure.  (Oh, and heads up, they also have a Lenten Adventure!)

-Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!  Yeesh.  After reading plenty of disparaging articles on the amount of BPA in canned food, but most especially canned tomatoes, I was feeling like I needed to do something.  Cause we eat a lot of canned tomatoes around here.  And we have plenty of fertility/pregnancy problems around here.  So when I saw Roma tomatoes on sale for 73 cents a pound at Wal-Mart, we bought 50+ pounds and I set to work blanching, dicing, and canning/freezing them all.  We ended up with 21 pints, and 6 quarts canned and 13 pints frozen.  That should hold us until Julyish when we'll hopefully be getting tomatoes from our garden.

-Our Wise Men continue to traverse from afar.  It never ceases to crack me up the places I find them as Ira "travels" them throughout the house.

 

-Ira had his first Music Program on December 14th.  It was precious and very professional.  His class sang and signed/did actions for 3 songs as well as a finale with the whole school.  I am so impressed with the job his music teacher does.  After being in concerts much of my school career, playing for concerts for my sister's music classes, and Andy doing lighting for concerts (in the very same auditorium Ira's concert was in) it was quite surreal to sit in the audience as a parent.  We were so proud!

-Ira helped make the cupcakes for his class party.  They were an idea that my mom had sent me.  I was so impressed because they were super easy.  All I had to do was frost the top and Ira assemble them the rest of the way.  I think they turned out pretty cute eh?

-Andy surprised me with a new lens for our new camera.  We had agreed that the camera/accessories would be our Christmas present to each other and from both of our parents.  However, no one held up that bargain as we got presents from both sets of parents and for each other... hmm...  The lens he got me is a 50mm prime lens that I'd been drooling over that is incredible for taking portraits.  I'm excited to have some down time coming up here to learn more about our camera/photography.

 -Ira had to miss the annual Caroling Party at my parents' this year due to a fever that spiked mid-day the day of the party.  You could tell just how sick he was because he wasn't even too broken up about missing the party that he'd been talking about going to since last years was over.  Andy was a sweetie and stayed home with him so that Ruby and I could still go.  Ruby loved it.  The weather was beautiful and she learned to sing "Gingle Bells" (as she says it.)

Ruby and her "not twin", my sister's little girl, Anna.

-We had a wonderful Christmas.  Or should I say Christmases.  We spent Friday evening with Andy's mom's side of the family, Saturday evening with just Andy's family, got up, dressed, hair done, and ready to walk out the door for Midnight Mass (our Christmas tradition) only to decide not to go because the kids were both messes.  (Oh well, traditions are made to be broken right?)  We ended up going to 9:00 am mass.  All Ira wanted to do before mass was open his Hot Wheels track from Andy's parents the night before.  So Hot Wheels we did until it was time for mass.  After mass, the kids played with Hot wheels again until I finally suggested we open presents (because I couldn't wait) around 11.  Ira was a doll.  After opening 2 presents, he said, "Wow mom and dad, you are really generous.  Thank you."  It was incredible.  This from the kid who circled every boy present in the Toys R Us catalog because that's what all he wanted for Christmas.  Santa brought Ira tools, wood, and a kit to build a tool box.  He brought Ruby an old-fashioned handmade swinging doll cradle.  We spent Christmas afternoon at my parents' and had a blast opening presents, watching Ira and Gemma take hundreds of pictures with their new Fisher Price digital cameras, and playing games.  Although we went a lot of places in a short amount of times, Christmas was actually very restful and relaxing.  Oh, and we saw 2 foxes in our yard on Christmas Eve morning.

Can you spot the foxes?

-Andy had to work the week between Christmas and New Years because his company cashed out his vacation for him when he was furloughed last year.  It was sad not to have him around, but we survived and are hoping he'll get to be off next year.  We're just grateful for employment!

-We spent New Years Eve at the wedding of a beautiful couple.  One of my little sister's best friends from high school got married and was kind enough to invite us to her wedding.  The kids loved it and had a blast dancing the night away.  Ira had a slight incident with 3,000 pounds of guys during the garter toss but he lived to tell about it (and believe me, we'll probably never hear the end of that one.)

Okay, I think you're pretty much caught up on our lives at this point.  I'm going to try posting more regularly as I do not love mammoth posts like this.  In the meantime, blessings for a wonderful New Year!

100th Post!!

Booyah! After 2 years of blogging, I finally hit my hundredth post! Hooray for me!!

Although I said I wasn't going to retro-post. I did want to share some pictures from Christmas. Would you believe that we didn't even get a picture of the two kiddos together - well at least not all dressed up... or one of our family. Boo to that. That's one of the reasons I wanted to started blogging again though, I am much better about taking pictures when I know I'm going to be blogging.

The week leading up to Christmas was absolutely nuts. On Monday night, Andy got sick with the flu that's been going around. Although he was quarantined to our bedroom (and I slept on the floor in the living room) Ira and I both got sick on Wednesday. I tell you what, it was the sickest I've EVER been. I was sick for about 7 hours straight and by the end of it, I really didn't know how much longer I would live if I kept getting sick. I lost 10 pounds in about 20 hours. NOT FUN!!! It wasn't until Christmas day that I felt back to normal and had any kind of appetite really. Needless to say, not a lot got done at our house the week leading up to Christmas. But that's ok, that's not what Christmas is about anyway!

We celebrated Christmas with Andy's family on Christmas Eve. The kids wore their dress up clothes so we could take pictures (thank goodness we took some then!) We had a fun time with the kids and their presents. Ira and Hayden got RC cars from Toy Story. And Bill and Marilyn got Mario Kart for their Wii, so we had lots of fun playing that.

Ira & his cousin Hayden

Ruby in her pretty dress

Another take

I'd say that's a pretty good picture for having 4 kids four and under in it!

Ruby & I

We came home and put the kids to bed, but then got them back up a few hours later to go to Midnight Mass. Ira was SO tired, but stayed awake all through Mass and Ruby was hilariously awake and alert. Going to midnight mass is kind of a tradition for our family. In fact I think we've done it every year since Ira was born. To me, it is one of the most beautiful masses of the year (it and Holy Saturday are probably my two favorites.) I always have trouble holding back the tears while we sing "O Come All Ye Faithful."

Christmas morning dawned pleasantly later for us than most mornings (8:30!) Santa brought Ira and Ruby both some fun presents. We gave Ira & Ruby the EZ-Fort that I won (thanks to many of you!) on Facebook. Ira is pretty enthralled with it, but I must say, I'm glad that we didn't pay a lot of money for it. I am underwhelmed with how the pipes stay in the connectors. And it bothers Ira too when he builds an elaborate fort/house/boat/space shuttle and he's simply sitting inside it and it collapses (without even being bumped.) Still, he does love to play with it and has probably said no less than 20 times since Christmas, "This sure is a nice
EZ-Fort! Thank you mom & dad!" Does my heart good!

Building with the EZ-Fort

Ruby thinks the poles are fun to wave around

Ira can build triangles

Ira also got a tent and tunnel from Santa that Ruby thinks is pretty fun to crawl around in.

I just LOVE this picture!

Ruby got an adorable Seahorse from my brother and his wife. (Monica, if Gemma's looking at this, you better stop here!) (She told Andy that she wanted him to cut the seahorse in half with a saw.) Ruby loves her (the seahorse that is) and sleeps with her every night now. I'm pretty fond of her myself too! I walked in Ira & Ruby's room one night to see this and couldn't resist taking a picture!
Like I said, life is so very good. Christmas was wonderful and simple and truly beautiful. I still can't motivate myself to take our decorations down. I'm just enjoying them TOO much this year! Maybe I'll have to do a post of our decorations next...