Sunday, May 29, 2005

Painting the day away.

Yesterday we painted the front porch, since it is covered we figured in case it rained like they are predicting then it wouldn't be so bad. Well, it never rained. Go figure. I am hoping to do the deck on Monday, when they are predicting no rain. Yes I know it will probably rain. I hate refinishing decks. It only seems to last so long then it is time to resurface them again. but the yard is really coming around. We are getting there.
Our neighbor is putting on a back porch. They were out there in the rain Friday. I came home and they were soaking wet, working. Our neighbors roommate brought over his little brother and sister. His roomate is 21. His sister was Reece's age and her little brother was about 4. They were so happy to have a playset to play on and kids there age to play with. Duner played Frisbee in the back with them while I painted the front porch, which worked out great. I didn't have a problem with Zeb trying to walk on the steps or through any fresh paint. Brock and Reece both at one point almost walked through the front door... Urrrrgggghhhh. It always seems to be the one you don't think you have to worry about.
Well we are heading up to the cabin. I must go get ready.
Later!

Thursday, May 26, 2005

A day in the park

Today I decided to take the kids to the park. I am hoping to make it a weekly thing. We brought the wagon and frisbees and played frisbee golf, then I let the kids play on the equipement. I thought what a great way to get some kind of a walk in, especially since we don't have a soccer game on Thursdays like we did last year.
This weekend we are going up to the cabin. Duners parents will be there Friday to Sunday and we will be going up Sunday to Monday. I don't know about anyone else, but Duners brother Cory and his wife will be moving back here in June. The boys just LOVE both Cory and Shannon. That will be great to have them so close.
On Tuesday, I will be starting to go back to Weight watchers. My sister-in-law, Carrie, asked me to do it. We have similar goals and I look forward to the competition/motivation of that. Before I had my last child I was able to lose over 30 lbs. I am thinking closer to not having anymore kids. We are very happy with our boys and we both don't want to start over. I think babies are great, I just have too busy of kids to have the adequate time to spend on the kids.
If fact I must go help Brock study spelling words for a test tomorrow.
Ta Ta for now.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Dr James O'Leary

All doctors show take notes from Dr James O' Leary. We were invited to an Open House today for him. Put on by him and his family. He is a humble, soft spoken and caring guy.
And this just proves it.
They were celebrating 10 years of magical moments. The theme was Irish.
First of all, It was at a country club. Very nice. Valet parking and shuttle buses to your car!
When we first walked in they had a HUGE grab bag for us. It contained a camera(personalized for the occasion, green foutune cookie, a poster of the ABC's of parenting, a personalized pen, and an itenaray for the day. We then walked up to a 'kiddie carnival' in the front yard. There were air jumpers, a caterpiller to walk through, ducks in a water trough to pick for prizes, bubbles with huge wands and sidewalk chalk. There were also coolers with water all over the place (which I loved). There must have been 50 or 60 people helping out with this day all wearing t-shirts that said "Irish by delievery" (No he didn't deliver them).
When we went inside they had clovers all over with babies names and dates of birth, face painters, a caricater artist, pinata's, strawberries, pretzels and nilla wafers to dip into liquid fountain of chocolate, filled personalized root beer bottles, ice cream and all the fixins for Sundae's, Papers of the year the kids were born, and so much else. I could go on and on. Even the kids said "That man must have a LOT of money!" As we left the kids were able to pick 2 toys each from this MOUND of toys! They had a BLAST! I wish more Doctors to the time to do something like this for their patients. We had the kids go up to him before we left and they said thank you. He said 'As long as the kids had fun, that is what matters.'
Definitely one diamond in the rough, as far as doctors go.

Friday, May 20, 2005

The count down begins....

Today Reece had a lovely shade of bumpy pink skin today when I got to my parents house to pick him up. Reece is a boardline hypochondriac. He automatically thinks he will die with the slightest illness. Brock likes to act like band aids have magical powers that once applied the pain instantly disappers. And he also believes that they must be changed hourly. Ok, maybe not that much but I bet he does at least 3 times a day. Zeb has discovered how much attention you can get if you make a HUGE deal out of the slightest injury. Two nights ago he cried most of 2 hrs after he took a digger outside. (He scraped his knee and toe, one of which actually required a band-aid). He is learning from the Brothers, but he just can't get the potty concept from them yet. He now knows the difference (finally) from poop and pee. Yeah!!!
It is less then 10 more days of school left. Now as I remember we NEVER had off the in the month of May, except for Memorial day. Now my kids were off today and Monday, Memorial Day. That is not right! Oh well.
I have this 'chore chart' for the kids this summer. Will also have a 'Reward Chart'. Some of the rewards are staying up late, an hour of TV or Electronic games, Bake something, get a soda or candy. Things that are inexpensive. Last year I tried to have the kids mark on paper like a 'time clock. That lasted all of two weeks, I believe. This year with the rewards I am hoping will be different. At the very least maybe it will be easier with the 'system' I bought it will be different. The kids have to move cards from morning, noon, evening,and extra pegs to the I DID IT holder on the board. For every card moved the get a token (included in the system). They could earn up to 50 tokens per day. The rewards work on a tier system. For 50 tokens they can watch one hour of TV, for 100 tokens they can buy a soda or candy, ect. You get the system... Reece has been Very Interested in it. Brock has been somewhat interested. I had bought one for Zeb, but I am not going to open it unless they seem to take to it. We will see.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Back from Adventure

This weekend I went to Illinois with my sister, Sara. It was Great! We had driven to Schaumberg first. We went to the hotel to check in. First, water features in a hotel lobby are not a great Idea. Before you are able to check in you have to go to the bathroom. Most people are staying at a hotel because they have traveled a from a far. You dont spend 4 hrs traveling and not have to use the bathroom! Why do they tourture their guest that way!
Anyway, Next we went in search of IKEA. How anyone could miss it is beyond me. It is a HUGE blue building with bright yellow letters!!!! Once we found it we also found a prime parking spot!! Great parking Karma, as my sister said. When we entered the place, which is like a 3 floor department store warehouse, we immediately went up to the second floor. I bought a huge picture frame for a cross stitch I did for Brock, a 10 pack of batteries for 2 bucks! (Better then liquidators, Dad!) I bought a clock for our new toy room for 2 bucks. We went up to the 3rd floor and they had kitchen items and living room items. I was kind of looking for a hanging pot rack, but they didn't have one that I was looking for. We also ate there on the 3rd floor. Yea, they had a full on buffet resturant complete with chefs waiting to prepare your plate. I had a Oreintal Chicken salad (I have learned I don't like cilantro, YUCK) and my sis had a bowl of Bean soup in a bread bowl, which looked great. Finished off with chocolate cheesecake, mmmmm.
After eating we ventured to the first floor and checked out.
After that we went to the hotel and decided to see a movie. We saw A Lot Like Love. We both liked that movie.
We then ventured to the Cheesecake Factory. Need I say more. YUM. YUM.YUM. Love Godiva chocolate cheesecake. I have a severe chocolate fix problem.
We had walked to the Cheesecake factory and back so I can justify the 2 cheesecakes for the day. : }
The next day we went to Six Flags Great America. Our high school that we graduated from was having their end of the year trip to Great America that day! It was cool to see all of the kids from our school there. We went on every coaster or ride possible. It was cool!
gotta go!

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Yadda Yadda Yadda

Reece has a friend over today he is a really good kid. His name is Jacob. He is in Reece's class at school. He lives just down the street from us. His mom is stripping paint on the out side of there front porch. She is letting him spend the night tonight. Yeah!! I really like how well he plays with not only Reece, but Brock and Zeb too! I am glad to see a kid in the neighborhood again. We had a few good ones but they had moved out. I got some chore boards for the boys. I am hoping to use them during the summer. It seems like a neat system. The idea is to have the kids do things without having to be told. The kids have a great attitude about it so far. I won't really enforce it til summer.
Duner and I finished putting the panelling on the walls down in the basement this weekend. Now we have to put in the moldings, carpet and false ceiling. Now that the better weather is here I dont know how much we will get done inside. Next weekend Duner wants to powerwash the deck and restain it. It could really used a good sanding too.
Tomorrow I leave for Madison or (technically) Verona. I am going to visit my sister, Sara. We are going to spend the night in Illinois at a hotel. We are going to check out IKEA store. In the morning we head out to Six Flags Great America. the hotel even serves HOT breakfast. Yum!
I must go prepare for my adventure.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

The confessional

Today Brock confessed to me about something. We got home and he wanted to go to his friend Tim's house. Tim has a trampoline. He wanted to play on it. I said no. The weather is too cold. He tried to do something else but he came up to me later and said, "Mom, I have to confess something." He went on to say how he cheated on his math homework. I asked why he did it and he said it was too hard. Math doesn't come easy for him. I asked him how he should be punished and he almost cried when he said that he should tell his teacher. He is really a very good kid. I didn't feel that I should punish him so I told him that I really don't need to punish him, since his concious was doing a good job of it. I told him that life always works that way. When we do bad things we will get punished one way or another. I believe Oprah said it best when she recently had Tracy Gold on the show. They were talking about how everything happens for a reason. She went on to say how we are to learn from the bad. Those are signals from God, first it might be just one brick, then a few more, and then a brick wall but in the end we will get what we deserve one way or another. I couldn't agree more.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Just a quick note.

I don't have much time, it is very nice and Zeb wants to play out side. The boys went up north this weekend for the annual open of Trout fishing. Duner and his dad caught 2 Brooke trout and 1 Brown. Reece caught a nice Brooke trout out of a stocked pond for kids under 12. He didn't even realize he had a fish. He was playing with his line and lifted it up; Duner told him he had a fish on.
Reece wanted to let it go, about 5 minutes after we kept it, so we tried to put it back. The fish struggled at first but then swam away. I told Reece that he cant be doing that in the future.
Zeb and I went for a nice bike ride yesterday. From our house we went up to bluemound, south to Prospect and North on Story and then home. I hate the hills when you are on your bike but I love them just to make it that much harder. Burn a few more calories. Saturday while the older boys were up north Zeb and I went for a Walk down to Lutz Park. Talk about hills, but I just tell myself think of how great you feel when it is done. I bought some new shoes just for my walks, I am hoping to get in to jogging (if Duner is ever home so I can be without Zeb). Gotta Run!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Exercise Tourture Test

I thought it would be a good idea to get some exercise in today by going to a bike ride with Zeb. I have a mountain bike with a kids seat on it that he can still fit into. I had to go to Shopko to drop off my glasses for new lenses. The old ones were "Zebbed" as my mother likes to say. He got a hold of them before I woke up one day and tried his darnest to break them. He did a very good job of it. He came close. I had a chip on one lense and the other had a scratch; since it hasn't been a year that I had them yet I get new lenses for free. Yeah!
So anyway, I got out the bike from our storage area behind the garage. AKA 'Mice and Mole Mall'. I got out the air compressor and filled up the tires with air and dusted off the seat. After getting a lock and putting Zeb securely in with helmet and safety belts we were on our way.
Well I peddled down the block and one block up to a street light. It felt great. I had to stop for the light, so I waited. When it changed I proceded another 2 blocks or so to the next light. And waited again. While I was waited I had realized just how hard I was breathing. I really don't get to exercise like I should, I do realize but It really didn't seem that far. As I started out I realized just how many muscles I haven't used for a while in my butt. Holy COW! By now they were screaming to go back home and rest but I just kept thinking, Dr Al does 40 or 50 miles regularly! I doubt it was even 5 miles that I biked but the last strides on the way to the store were killers! It is up hill. When I got off the bike I almost fell over. (not really but it felt like I was). I started going to a Triathalon Club this last sunday hoping it would motivate me to get out more. It really does. It makes you think. These people run 5 miles in the time I can do 1. It is nothing to bike 70 miles. For me it is a year long commitment of 5 days a week steady training EASY! You might wonder why I decided to put my self through so much pain? Easy, for my kids. I want to take them on long rides with me, or be able to jog 5 miles with me. I don't want them have issues with themselves for extra weight or lack of energy. They have SO much energy right now. I want to keep it up. I walked in a 4 mile walk this weekend. To kids thats impressive. I want to be able to race them. I used to think "WOW, I did so much today. I need to rest for at least a week!" No more! Dr Al just ran 26 miles in the Boston Marathon! I bet he was back running 3 days later. I know he was a little stiff for a few days but he then goes in August to the Canada Ironman to run for 15, Swim 2 miles and Bike for 110 (Yes, one hundred and ten miles no mistype!). I think I can make 18 miles on a bike by July, at least I hope so. There is a Bike ride at Paperfest that I am hoping to do. I need those for motivation or else I will never survive the "training".