Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I'm a swimming guy


he has spiderman slippers on in case you can't see them - this was his own "costune" idea!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Movie Night and Monkey Mix

Well all of us in this house are Jon and Kate plus 8 fans...we tivo it. So the movie night and the monkey mix were not my ideas. We had our first official Family Movie Night and I made some Monkey Mix. Chris and I really enjoyed the Monkey Mix. I enjoyed my two beers after the snack even more. We watched The Clone Wars and it was pretty cool. I could see my dear husband's eyes lighting up thinking of when Harrison starts getting into all of the Star Wars toys. They each have their own light saber (the cheap ones) so I imagine the next time we watch this they will fight. Kadie enjoyed it after she had her booby fix. She sat in my lap while sucking her 2 favorite fingers and kept looking up and smiling at me. It really is a precious face too...a little upside down face looking up and smiling around her fingers. Ooh, I love that face. Did I mention that Chris built a fire so that we could enjoy a nice fire while watching our movie. I really think this will be a fun tradition to start. Harrison and I had to run to the store between dinner and the movie to get the stuff to make the Monkey Mix. I'm already looking forward to next Friday. I'm thinking we will end up with Kung Fu Panda or Wall-E. Maybe Chris will stay awake for the entire movie next time!

Monkey Mix
Prep Time:15 min
Start to Finish:15 min
Makes:18 servings (1/2 cup each)


Ingredients:
9 cups Chex® cereal (any variety)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar


Preparation Directions:
1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, stir together chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Stove-Top Directions: Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside. In 1-quart saucepan, heat chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

One funny little dude

I've compiled a list of all of the most recent funny things my son says or does. Here goes....

We tivoed Madagascar back in August for H-Dawg. It was on ABC (channel 9). There is a little promo/jingle thing at the beginning and the guys sings in a whiny annoying voice "On news channel 9 dot cooom"). So one day Harrison is sitting down to watching it and I'm sitting there enjoying my coffee and the peace that comes when he first gets engrossed in a movie and he sings in the whiniest, raspiest/growliest voice..."in news channel dot coooom") I'm fairly certain I spit out my coffee. Now it may not seem that funny while reading this but come to our house, watch the jingle I'm talking about and then listen to my son. You will laugh your butt off.

Every day I hear "The dog is looking at me". Up until like 2 days ago, Harrison's seat at our kitchen table had a direct view of where we keep Gracie's dog food. And being a bag of dog food, there is a picture of this perky golden retriever on the bag. Well this dog really bothers Harrison. Every day when he sits down for a meal he makes a comment about how he wants this dog to stop staring at him and asks me to make it go away. I'll distract him and he will start chomping down on his meal and then halfway into it he will freak out about this stupid dog again. And as I'm typing this out, I think I figured out why he suddenly took over his Daddy's chair. Ah yes, it all makes perfect sense now. Oh yeah and just in case you decide to offer advice about turning the bag of dog food around so the dog doesn't look at him - it has dogs on both sides. I bought a new brand tonight...I think we've got a dog less side now.

Harrison and Chris love to talk about cool guys (like robots, guys with swords, super heroes, etc). Well Harrison has coined a phrase and we all do it now. Whenever he sees one of these aforementioned cool things he will say in a really deep surfer dude voice "Check these guys out." and sometimes following will be "Cool huh?" He especially loves to find pictures in sales ads to show Chris so he can say it. Now with all of the Christmas toy ads in the papers he is going crazy. This past Sunday I think I heard "check this guy out" about 53 times. It brings a smile to my face every time he says it.

Harrison has somewhat of a photographic memory. The kid really is a genius but that is another blog in itself. He has memorized by the book "are you my mother?" only he says "are you my mudder?" Freakin' hilarious! Are you my mudder the baby bird said. No, I am not your mudder said the cow. The book says mother a lot. I'm thinking at least 20 times and each time he says "mudder"

Indecent Exposure. My son is still mastering the fine art of going to the potty. A couple of weeks ago we were at the library and he tells me that he needs to pee. Well we are in the children's section of the Cleveland Public Library which is in the front left of the building and the bathrooms are in the back right side of the building. Now at home when he needs to potty, he will whip "it" out in whatever room he is standing and start walking to the potty all aimed and ready to go. And believe me...that is an improvement. He used to pull down his pants to his ankles wherever he was standing and waddle to the bathroom with his pants around his knees. So back to the library...we are hurrying as fast as we can. I have Kadie hanging in front of me in my Moby Wrap and we are doing that fast walk/run thing and it really isn't any faster than walking but it makes you feel like you are hurrying. I look down as we are passing the front desk and he has "it" whipped out. I'm mortified. I tell him to pull up his pants. He argues with me, "No, I have to use the potty". I advise him that he can't pull his pants down until we get into the stall as I'm trying to cover his "thing" and I'm looking around to see how many people have noticed. Of course there are about 4 people looking at us. I finally get him covered and we make a mad dash for the potty and the whole time he is trying to whip "it" back out. *sigh*

Monday, November 10, 2008

Expletives!

Admittedly I have the mouth of a sailor. And yes, I know it is not the nicest trait for a lady to have, especially a Christian lady. It all started about 11 years ago when I tried to play golf. During the summer of 1997 I attempted to play golf. I was horrible...absolutely horrible. I do not have the patience for that game. My last time playing golf, I took it as a sign from God I was not supposed to play because as I was standing somewhere on the green someone forgot to yell "Fore" and I got pelted in the shoulder with a golf ball. Then as I sat down in the golf cart to recover I sat on a bee and it stung my butt. Needless to say, I stopped playing. During the process of learning this game I became a potty mouth. The potty mouth thing continued beyond my golfing days.

So when I'm pregnant with my first baby I know that I have to improve but thankfully they don't notice the words you say for a while. And believe me when I say that I have come a REALLY long way since my babies have entered this world. I still catch myself and when I get mad (usually at poor Chris) they still tend to roll out. But God has given me a cure for this - a 3 1/2 year old sponge that repeats absolutely everything that I say at the most inappropriate times. And some words that don't seem so bad when I say them just don't sound the same when they come out of his mouth.



Harrison's current list of banned words - stupid (compliments of most Disney/Pixar movies), crap (probably both of us), damn (Daddy), dump (Daddy), kill (not sure), frigging (my sister), freakin' (me), dad gum (me), dumb (not sure), butt, pissin' off/tickin' off


The face of innocence

During our first month visiting our current church home (OUMC) Harrison tried out one of his words - damn. He was sitting with us on the pew and the pastor was coming to the close of his message - you know where he gets quiet to make a point - and Harrison dropped his crayon - out it pours - "DAMN". I was mortified! My best friend and her husband were sitting next to us and she is about to fall out of the pew laughing. Only my son....

And you are probably thinking "kill" shouldn't be on the list. Well when your son says that he is going to kill his baby sister or kill the dog you start to understand why this word was added to the list. And I tried not to add it to the list but here's how the conversation went.
Harrison - "I'm going to kill Kadie"
Mommy - "Harrison don't say that word it isn't nice and you really don't understand what it means"
Harrison - "But it is and I do"
Mommy - "Just please stop saying it"
Harrison - "But I want to"
Mommy - "Harrison, it makes God sad when people kill"
Harrison - "But David killed Goliath and that didn't make God sad"
Mommy - (thinking, OK good point) "It is a bad word. Don't say it anymore"

When it comes to this subject, I'm a work in progress. Obviously my son is a constant reminder that others and most importantly my young children see everything I do and hear everything I say. So as funny as it is...and it is funny it - is also a lesson that what we say and do really does matter!

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Random thoughts in my head

First of all I think technologically stupid when I got married. Actually I think it was a gradual progression and 7 1/2 years later, I am officially stupid when it comes to technology. That also applies to putting things together. For example, in my pre-marriage days I could put together any boxed furniture piece, hook up any computer or electronic appliance, mainly T.V. ones. I'm not really sure how it happened. As I sit here and ponder on it, I guess I just let my hubby do those things because he was good at it. Now that he has done it all, I don't have a flippin' clue how to do it anymore. Example - Harrison needs his weekly Disney/Pixar fix so I'm trying to play Monsters Inc. Well of course my dear husband does not think it is a priority during our recent move to hook up our DVD player. Now let me back up, it took me at least 6 months to be able to play the stupid DVD player without calling him and getting detailed instructions (because it was hooked up through the surround sound and something else). So Harrison is whining about wanting to watch his movie and I'm at the breaking point of a mental break down. Normally I'm laid back but when I get to this point I tend to get a bit irrational. So I pop the DVD in and put the TV on "input 2" and the surround sound on "DVD" and nothing..just a black screen. Are you freakin' kidding me? I go through every possible combination and nothing. Meanwhile Harrison is growing more impatient with every grumble under my breath. Finally the call to my husband while he is at work and lucky for him that he answers. So he tells me that it isn't even hooked up...what?!? UGH, so now I have to hook the stupid thing up. I'm fairly certain I just hung up on him and hooked it up in the most elementary way possible. 25 minutes later, he is watching Monsters Inc...come to think of it I believe it was The Incredibles. So back to the point, half the time I can't figure out how to use this new laptop or my camera. I find that incredibly irritating about myself, but not irritating enough that I will actually do something about it.

OK, so my next train of thought...my weight. Anyone that knows me well, knows how badly I've struggled with my weight pretty much my whole life but especially after college. So much so that I had the lap-band surgery in May 2006. I did great with the surgery and lost almost 90 lbs and actually starting getting into some size 10s and then I got pregnant. My horribly cruel lap-band surgeon made me get my band unfilled when I got pregnant and something like 55 disgusting pounds later, out comes a 10 lb baby. Now with my first 10 lb baby, I was back to pre-prego weight and then some by the time he was 6 weeks old. Granted I was 90ish lbs heavier but nonetheless I lost the weight fast. I assumed it was because I breastfed him. So I'm expecting to lose it just as fast this time around because I had another 10 pounder that I was breastfeeding plus I have the lap-band. Fast forward 6 months later, I still have 20 lbs left. But here is the crazy thing, I lost like 30 of it within the first 2 weeks and then gained 10 of it back. I've been struggling losing it despite my efforts of eating in moderation, starving, continuously breastfeeding, one lap-band fill and walking. Ok so for the past 2 weeks I've been consuming my body weight in Brach's pumpkins and other assorted Halloween candy and I've lost 7 lbs. What the heck? So evidently the Halloween candy diet works for me. What really irks me is that I have to weigh in on Friday for my husband's insurance physical and our weight determines our deductible. Unless they use my pre-prego weight I'm up a creek without a paddle. GRR! Why couldn't I have discovered this Halloween candy diet prior to the end of October? Seriously....

So we took a spiritual gifts class today..well yesterday. I was quite surprised by my results. I scored highest in mercy (so poo on you Chris and Rachel). My second highest was words of wisdom (huh?) And I tied on third place with helps, hospitality, intercession, and discernment. By definition they are as follows:
Mercy - empathizes with hurting people; patiently and compassionately walks with people through painful experiences; helps those generally regarded as undeserving or beyond help. (OK, so I can see that one)
Words of Wisdom - Sees simple, practical solutions in the midst of conflict or confusion; gives helpful advice to others facing complicated life situations; helps people take practical action to solve real problems.
Helps - works behind the scenes to support the work of others; finds small things that need to be done and does them without being asked; helps wherever needed, even with routine or mundane tasks.
Hospitality - Meets new people and helps them to feel welcome; entertains guests; opens his or her home to others who need a safe, supportive environment; puts people at ease in unfamiliar surroundings.
Intercession - Continually offers to pray for others; has confidence in the Lord's protection; spends a lot of time praying; is convinced that God moves in direct response to prayer.
Discernment - distinguishes between truth and error, good and evil; accurately judges character; sees through phoniness and deceit; helps others to see rightness or wrongness in life situations.

Now I'm not really sure what I am supposed to do with these gifts yet but there you have them.

I really need to go to bed, but one last group of thoughts. I do believe I have the funniest son on earth. The kid cracks me up. He says and does the most hilarious things without even trying. Of course I can't think of any specific examples right now but I'll try to write about them. Also, I do believe I have the most dramatic children on earth. I mean really - they have secured a future in the performing arts. I'm so NOT a dramatic person and I have not just one, but two of them. *sigh*

The epitomy of parenthood


Enjoy. This is what it is all about.