My Job

So.... my son thinks that I "work at the gym" since I telecommute and he only sees me leave the house to go to the gym. This morning he asked if we could go somewhere today and I told him that I had to work and he said "Mannnnnn - you go to the gym every day". It's funny how they see the world.

Let the cooking begin!

I woke up early today and made the cornbread for my cornbread stuffing.... it's starting to feel cozy around here. I also boiled the pasta for my mac & cheese - yum!

Anyone else making something yummy or new?

Ahhhh... Saturday

Life at work has been pretty stressful lately, but today is Saturday and this is my hardest decision. What signature style cocktail should I make to greet my guests on Thanksgiving? A sleek and festive cranberry or pomegranate cosmo or perhaps a bubbly champagne cocktail?

How to play Tickle The Children

For the benefit of my wife, on those nights I cannot be home early, I would like to describe how to play Tickle the Children.

First, announce the game is about to be played. This typically induces a great deal of screaming and running.

Next, raise one or both arms. No groaning; you're not a zombie. Wiggle your fingers in a tickling fashion. Slowly, calmly walk in the direction the children have fled.

When you have located the children, tickle them without mercy. Start with our son, then switch to our daughter. Our son will gallantly come to her aid by either jumping on you or smacking you on the butt. (Limited butt-smacking is perfectly legal, provided it contacts you on the fleshy part of your butt.)

When our son tries to rescue his sister, you are required to curl up into a ball and pretend you have been stunned. This will give your victims the opportunity to run away again.

The children will be hiding in one of the following places:

• Behind a couch.
• Inside the cushions of a couch. This is a terrible hiding place because their arms and legs poke out everywhere.
• In the coat closet.
• Under the dining room table. This is actually quite an effective hiding place because it's hard to reach them in there with all the table legs and chairs.
• Under our son's bed. This is a little tricky because they tend to kick each other when they attempt to flee.
• Behind our daughter's crib. This is my favorite spot because I can just move it out of the way and get them.
• Under the bed in the guest bedroom.
• Under the covers of our bed in the master bedroom. This is by far their favorite hiding spot.
• Inside our closet, hiding behind all my crummy weekend shirts that hang close to the floor.

Time outs are allowed for bathroom breaks and such. Our son will run up and smack you on the butt without declaring the game has begun again. That can be a little disturbing at first.

While they run away, in order to taunt you into a tickling rage, our son will yell funny things at you. This is normal. The things he yells, however, are only really funny to a five-year-old, so expect to be told you're a poopy head and something else about your underwear I can't follow.

The game can last a dozen turns or more, and usually ends with our daughter declaring she wants you to dance with her. Our son will shout some more things at you about your underwear for a while, before he gives up and wanders into the kitchen to find a snack.

I did it... I did it.. I did it - Hooray!

Yesterday was the last day of the weight loss challenge I started 12 weeks ago with a lot of great folks from a local church. It helped so much to have a team to work with a share ideas over the past 3 months. I'm excited to report back from my earlier post that I lost 15.8 pounds and was the Biggest Looser. The cool thing is that I set out to loose 15 pounds during the challenge and I was going to reward myself if I met this first goal with a new haircut from a nice salon. Well, I received a gift certificate from a nice salon for a haircut, blow dry and style - it was fate!

“Children and drunks always speak the truth.”

It's nice to see that our son views our family in such a great way.

P.S. We'll ignore the fact that Bella is nowhere to be found !

So wise

Today my son and I were standing at the bus stop and he turned around and looked at me with those bright blue eyes and said "Mommy it's a brand new day". He couldn't be more right and that was just what I needed to hear at this time.

Stay-At-Home Mom Day

Today our son woke-up with a temperature and a cough. If he was older I would have thought it was his own little Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I swear a miracle occurred once the bus headed off down the street - he was cured! He did still have a temperature, but that was about it! Grand mom is off visiting her friend in NC so Mommy got to stay home with the kids. First we had breakfast and then we took Bella to school. She was not very happy since she didn't get to play hookie too. We headed back 2 hours later to pick her up and to stop for Slurpies because suddenly the dear boy decided his "throat hurt" and that a Slurpee would make him feel better... yeah right.

Later in the day we made Friendship Bread which believe it or not is really yummy! I have to admit that I was a little skeptical when my friend handed me a Ziploc bag full of beige goo along with directions about stirring and adding stuff to this concoction for the next 10 days. The kids have eaten about half of it so far.
Next we headed outside because it was a beautiful day! You be the judge on how sick he REALLY was or how big of a sucker I REALLY am!










FedEx came which was very exciting to the kids, but it wasn't long lived since it was for Daddy.

Bella took a nap and Daddy came home. I headed to the gym right before I could hear Daddy growling "It's time to tickle the children" and saw him emerge from the kitchen with a blanket cape around his neck and was almost taken out by the kids running through the house as fast as they could. Have I mentioned what a cool Dad he really is????????

What????

This is what I spent 30 minutes running behind on the treadmill - what in the world?

Making our vote count

Today I took our son to vote. I first asked him why he was off school today and he said that it was Election Day. I asked him what we were voting for today and he said the president. Pretty good so far for a 5-year old. I then asked him if he knew what the President did and he said that he runs the city and that he decides who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. I'm so proud.

We headed to the polls at 10 and it was packed. We stood in line for about an hour and my dear son was great. He stood still and we talked about the room and when he could meet the President and if the President would be coming any time soon and we also talked about McDonalds.

I let him press the voting buttons and he thought that was pretty cool. Then we headed home and had chicken nuggets and french fries not from stinky old McDonalds. Good thing I had an old Happy Meal toy in the car - that is all he really cares about anyways.

If you haven't voted yet make sure you make the time!

Annual Bonfire

The day after Halloween we hosted our annual Bonfire. It was a great time and the kids had the most fun of all rolling down the hill. It takes a lot of preparation, but it's worth it in the end!

We bought 100 pounds of dried corn and the kids had lots of fun throwing it all over and the adults enjoyed good conversation around the fire.This is the only time our son sat down. He was the host for the 20'ish kids - now that's a job!

My not so little cousin (anymore) and her friend were the best activity directors for the kids. They kept them running for hours (literally)!

We are already planning for next year so we'll look forward to seeing you by the fire!

Twick-or-Tweet

Halloween was a lot of fun this year because both of the kids were totally into the whole thing. Of course with the exception of Bella and her costume, but hey we expected that one. So, like a good Mom..... I held her down why she was crying and put her into her costume with legs flailing! She hates dress-up, but it all turned around when she discovered that she would receive candy in return for wearing the stupid costume. The boy on the other hand is a pro and jumped right into his costume.
Our neighbor's teenage daughters started the night off with a bang. They made up pumpkins for the kids and filled them with crayons, pencils, coloring books, candy and all sorts of goodies. They brought them over after school. The coolest thing is their Dad said that they came up with the idea on their own and shopped for it all. Like a good Mom - they had dessert first.

Our friends came with us with their devilish daughters in tow......

Bella quickly caught onto the whole idea of Trick-or Treating and we mostly ran after her.

We picked up my nephew the Frogman along the way and the girls kicked back in wagon for a candy break. I think we walked about 2 miles!

We then went to a fall festival - lots of fun and boy were we tired!

Here's the loot - we could feed a small village on chocolate alone!