snacking can be dangerous

So we all know Sawyer is obsessed with getting into the snack cupboard, right?
It's like he can sense if we happen to leave it un(child)locked and he's in the kitchen as soon as we're not looking -who am I kidding, he does it when we're looking too- and raids the cupboard, pulling out whatever he can get his hands on wanting a little taste of everything. We try to keep it locked. We keep all of our snacks and cereals in this big corner lazy susan cupboard, which can't use a normal door/drawer lock; we have to use an outside lock on the handles. Which means it's attached to the cupboard next to it as well, which doesn't really line up, making it awkward, hard to lock and unlock, and just kind of a hassle. In other words, it doesn't always get locked correctly. And Sawyer takes full advantage of those opportunities.

Well, today he took the phrase "getting into the snack cupboard" a little too far.

I was downstairs putting some laundry into the washer and the dryer, and as I headed back upstairs, I heard Sawyer crying. Now, Savannah was gone at school, and Sawyer doesn't just cry for no reason, so assuming he was hurt, I hurried up the stairs, worried. For a moment a couldn't find him, but then I realized the cupboard door was open...

and I found him.














I know... I'm a bad mother... instead of immediately rescuing my child who's scared cuz he's stuck the corner of a cupboard (with a protein bar still in his hand may I point out), I snap pictures first... I'm horrible.






I don't quite know how he managed to get in there, cuz it was tricky getting him out!
















**********

We got to visit with Leslie and baby Reyna a bit yesterday, and here are a couple of shots of Savannah holding Reyna. She loved holding her! We haven't seen a tiny baby in quite awhile (Reyna is four weeks old) and Savannah was in love...
when we talked about our favorite parts of the day before bed, this was hers!

this little piggy went to market

Making a grocery list today. Trying to come up with some meal ideas for then next couple of weeks. Isn't it funny how it's so easy to get in a rut with the food in your house? At least for me it is. I feel like we always have the same things over and over.

And isn't it funny how we buy the same things every time? I mean, yeah, we want to buy the things we know our family likes and eats (especially with kids), but so much of it is just habit. It's nice to mix it up a little once in awhile.

So what's on your grocery list?
Do you shop for what's on sale or just get what you need?
Better yet, what are some brand names that you just can't live without... you know, yeah store brands are usually cheaper, but sometimes generic or whatever's on sale just doesn't do it for you.

For us, some of our only one brand items would be
Kraft Mac & Cheese (cuz it's the cheesiest you know),
Jif peanut butter (creamy only),
Mrs. Butterworths syrup (store brands can just be so watery or flat tasting),
and Pampers diapers (I found everything else just leaked -or didn't keep the load contained- too easily. By the time Sawyer came around I never even tried anything else anymore. Keep the coupons coming, cuz Pampers are it for my babies.).

What are the brands you splurge on (or hoard coupons for) just because you think they're worth the extra money?

just another manic monday

I'm having a hard time believing today is Monday.

Not only did it feel like the weekend went by way too fast and there's no way it can be Monday already, but for some reason all day today totally felt like it should be a Thursday or a Friday to me. That's depressing, being that it really is only Monday. Ugh!

Of course, my confusion and disbelief probably stems from having already been up for 17 hours today. It is only 7pm. But yes, I've been up since approximately 2am. Courtesy of the SawMan himself. You see, he decided a good time to be awake, talking and playing in his crib was from about 2 to 4 this morning. And of course he's right on the other side of the wall from our heads. So I got to lay there and listen to his blabbing and whining and thumping for almost 2 whole hours. I got up with him once and Ryan got up with him once. But it wasn't that he was unhappy or wanting anything; he just WAS NOT GOING BACK TO SLEEP. I felt like ever.
And then of course when he finally went silent at 4am, I was still wide awake. I could not get to sleep. And then I was getting really hungry. I ended up getting up and decided to have a snack and get out of bed for awhile since I was getting nowhere just laying there stressing about not sleeping. But when I came back to bed 20 minutes later, I was still wide awake. I think I finally fell asleep by 6 o'clock. And of course Ryan's alarm goes off at 6:30. Followed shortly by the arousal of both kids. So basically I was awake for the day at 2. Not my favorite way to start the morning.


Hmmm.... seems like there was something else I was going to write about today. Can't think now.
Porter's birthday party was yesterday by the way. Very cool party; we all had lots of fun. Nicole of course did a great job coming up with the cutest theme and so many great ideas along with it. If you're interested you can check out all the details and the pics over here.

Allrighty then..
I'm off to watch a movie with Ryan (we'll see how long I last LOL!) before bed.
Nighty-night.

sticky

Sawyer has been very into stickers lately....
I wonder where he gets it?

Game Night

or Girls Drink Too Much Night

whichever title you prefer.

I don't quite know what happened last night, but our Oscars/Movie Game Night somehow turned out to be a night of absolutely no games (unless you count pool) and a rare amount of alcohol consumed by the female halves of all the couples. We had a great time, don't get me wrong. I just think we were all shocked by how um... tipsy, yeah that's the word... all us girls (Katy, Nicole, Maria and I) happened to be by the end of the night. I honestly can't remember the last time I drank that much. I think we had all just had that kind of week and when we took a minute to relax and um... let's say unwind, we took full advantage. I don't think I've laughed so much in quite awhile. We all had our share of picking on each other, telling embarrassing stories, and laughing, laughing laughing.

After everyone finally made their way home, (all the husbands stayed nice and sober for us -and for the kids) I still wasn't ready for bed, even though it was late.
So what do I decide to to? Do a little blog surfing of course.
Everyone remember Drunk Dialing? And how useless and babbling and regretful that could be?
Well at this point in my life I need no longer fear getting into a drunk dialing situation.
Apparently I need to watch out for Drunk Blogging. Or Drunk Commenting to be precise. I need to keep my fingers off the keyboard when I've had a few too many.

Sorry Kim, for the rambling comment. At least I think I sounded sober. Longwinded, but sober. Until Nicole ratted me out!

Thanks for a fun night girls!

funny...

... how sometimes when you think you've got a good perspective on things for the moment, life likes to test you.
After reflecting yesterday morning on keeping my gratitude more in the forefront of my heart... I think God decided to really call me on that. From there on out, I feel like I had the type of day where you keep thinking what in the world could happen next? Our washing machine wouldn't work, I was trying to make caramel corn and I couldn't pop a good batch of popcorn to save my life, my computer and printer were not wanting to cooperate with me, the kids were crabby, Ryan was still sick (and whiney) -just a little jab for you hun- and so on and so on. I really had to check myself a number of times and stop and find the good parts in all the frustrations.
Good practice, that's for sure!

gratitude

I had a hard time kicking my blah mood the other day. Even with some nice sunny weather yesterday, I was just feeling... I don't even know the word for it... agitated.

The other night I visited the spot of one of my favorite bloggers, an amazing woman and artist, Ali Edwards, and I found some great, much needed words. Ali could have been speaking for me, exactly. She, as well had gotten encouragement from another amazing woman, Heidi Swapp, and as Ali said...
I needed to hear her message (I am continually amazed at how things flow in just this way).

Gratitude. Not taking things for granted, and taking the time to appreciate the blessings in our lives, no matter how small of insignificant they can seem at times; gratitude is huge. It really does amaze me how much of a difference our perspective makes in our happiness and contentment. And how easily we forget that.
Heidi wraps it up best... here's her entry touching on the topic.


gentle reminders

I’m up with a really sick stomach. I am not sure at what point along the way I am going to realize that I CAN’T do spicy! Didn’t’ seem to matter last pregnancy… this time, even the slightest bit of zip in any food, causes great regret a few hours down the road…tonight I felt immediately sick after I ate, and I decided to lay down. That was at 7:30…it’s now 1:30am and I am not really tired…but I don’t feel good. So it’s a good thing that I have tues, wed and thurs nights episodes of American Idol on my tivo… so I am just going to sit here under a quilt and veg.

I had an awesome productive day, and I am thankful for that. Today was the start of week 8 in my Big Picture ‘year to remember’ class. In preparation for March, I have challenged my class to focus on ‘counting blessings’… and truly being grateful. I am enjoying the process of this class, and I get the luxury of focusing on the things that I need to focus on in my life. Today was a perfect example…I had a little lesson in taking something for granted. It’s funny how, when I go through my days or my weeks, I tend to focus on the ‘unaccomplished’ side of my list, and not so much being happy or content and thankful for the parts of my life that are accomplished and running well. Rather than really being pleased about what is working… what I have covered…I get so broken down about the things that aren’t under control.
I think that joy and happiness in life comes from finding it; appreciating it.
There has to be a balance of finding satisfaction and enjoying… and then turning it on, knowing what has to get done, and doing it!
But there is no time for ingratitude. Definitely reminded of that today.
So, I took cory to basketball practice today, and instead of dropping off and picking up and squeezing phone calls and errands in between, I sat on the ground on the side of the court, at the park… in the sun (sorry if you don’t live in az, so nice today), and watched cory play…cheer for him a little. Regroup. while I was there, my girl scout cookies were delivered (didn’t know we ordered) nice surprise! It’s the little things!
Much to be thankful for, pleased with and appreciate the reminder.

I'm thankful for the gentle reminders that come our way just when we need them.

Part of the purpose for my I like today because page was to be intentional about recognizing the good things of the day and to be appreciative of my blessings. However, it's become really easy for me to just slap a picture on there and then skip finding the likable parts of my life each evening. And when I do do it, sometimes I feel as if I sit there forever with my hands over the keyboard struggling to find some noteworthy brightspots in my day. Especially evenings when I have one of my headaches... that tends to put a darkness on my day that's hard for me to shake.

But I need to remember that it doesn't matter how small or silly or insignificant something may be. We always have an infinite number of things to be thankful for. Whether it's something as trivial as a good hair day or a favorite snack, all the way up to the bigger things like my children being safe and warm in their beds or the fact that we have enough to provide ourselves with those favorite snacks. Heck, how about the fact that I have a computer and the ability to type and that I can write these things, share what's on my mind, and get encouragement from total strangers just when I need it.

When you think about it that way, it's overwhelming all we have to be grateful for. And it makes my grumpiness and complaining seem awfully ridiculous.


p.s.
If you clicked on over to Ali's blog, did you check out her sidebar? Most importantly, her Autism Speaks Badge.

It's an awesome charity as well as an awesome network set up for some great causes. Ali's badge is in honor of her son Simon who was diagnosed with Autism two years ago. The six badges that have most donations (the highest number of donations, not the $ amount) by March 31st will receive a matching grant of $10,000 from Kevin Bacon. Here are more of the details, or you can go to sixdegrees.org. But please, click on the badge a make a donation. You can make a donation of as little as $10. Ali's badge is in the top 10, so let's keep it there. For Autism.

kind of a blah day...

I really do love the winter weather in the midwest. It just makes winter so much more bearable for me to have snow on the ground. Without it, it's just four long months of blah; just cold and bare and dreary and I feel like I'm just spending the whole winter waiting for spring.
Something about snow falling is so peaceful; it quiets everything. I feel the snow brightens things up, blankets everything and makes it feel like an actual season instead of just four longs months of waiting for spring. The kids can play in it, sled and build in it.
What do you do when it's just cold and rainy? Stay inside and wish it were spring.

Our snow is starting to melt some this week with our warmer temperatures. I look out the window and I'm seeing the dullness of the bare trees instead of white snowcovered branches. I see the muddy not-so-green grass peeking out at the edges of the yards and under trees. Rooftops are bare and the gutters are releasing the last of their ice and snow. The snow at the sides of the roads is slushy and dirty. Today is just mild and windy and melty and slushy and dreary. Days like this are what make me wish it was spring already.

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
I felt like I had zero patience with my kids right from the start this morning.
And it wasn't even like they were being hard... I just wasn't feeling very friendly. And blah...

Ryan's not feeling so hot either. He woke me up this morning to ask me if he had a fever. I don't think he does... and he went in to work today, but he was pretty miserable all night; stuffy and coughy.
He doesn't get sick often, but boy when he does he's a whiner. Why is it that men are such babies when they get sick?

******

Okay, let's cheer this post up a little bit.

Yesterday was Porter's birthday. He's a big one year old now! Savannah was very excited that he and Sawyer "are the same age now"!
He wasn't a very happy birthday boy at our house all morning (he's in that tough spot between 1 and 2 naps a day), but after a good nap he was in a better mood for the rest of his big day and then Ryan, the kids and I joined the Barczaks out for dinner last night to celebrate.

Savannah had a field trip today with her class to Red Lobster. Yes, the restaurant. I wondered what on earth we would do at Red Lobster for two hours, but it was fun. The kids learned a lot about lobsters and other ocean dwelling creatures, they got to touch and even hold a lobster and then we all got to sit down and enjoy a little snack of yummy popcorn shrimp and, Savannah's favorite, Sprite. It was also Miss Kristy's birthday today and the other teachers surprised her with a little cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. Savannah was super excited about that too; that was probably the highlight of the field trip for her! She's a little birthday freak... I guess give that kid any reason to celebrate and she takes it all the way! Christmas, Valentine's, birthdays, doesn't matter how big or small, it's something to celebrate!
Anyway, the whole trip made me hungry (especially with the teaser of the appetizer), and I really want dinner at Red Lobster tonight. Too bad we already went out last night...

Let's see what else....
Oh, we have our next game night coming up this weekend. We haven't really had one since November, so it's about time! We're doing a little Hollywood/Movies theme since we have the
Academy Awards coming up on Sunday. We'll probably play a little Scene It, along with some other movie/celebrity trivia games and of course gossip and snack on plenty of candy and popcorn throughout the night. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun to hang out with everyone again!

Okay, I feel like I'm just rambling aimlessly, so I'll wrap this up now.
I haven't picked up my camera yet today, so I'm off to hunt for something or someone for today's photo.
And hey-- Yay, the weekend's almost here!

the day started out productive...

I had a long mental to-do list today.
And I was on a great roll this morning.
I managed to

• do a whole load of dishes
• fold all of our laundry except for one small basket
• put all the kids clothes away, reorganizing the kid's closets and going through to weed out too smalls and such
• shower and dry my hair (which is a feat in and of itself while the Sawman is awake to have free reign of the house)
• clean both the kid's bedrooms and the playroom

And that was all before 10:30.

Then Nicole brought Porter over to hang out, bringing a few loads of laundry of her own because their washer broke down last week. So of course I spent the rest of the day basically sitting on my butt, lazily chatting the day away, getting not one other single thing done. Not even the dinner I had planned for this evening. I ended up throwing corn dogs and french fries in the oven as Nicole left at almost 5:30 this evening... about 5 minutes before Ryan got home from work! Welcome home honey, I slaved over a hot stove all day just for you!

Not that I mind just sitting around on my butt: and at least I had a good friend over to give me the excuse to do so. I'm just saying it was a good thing I was as motivated as I was this morning, so I had at least something to show for my day!


Oooh, okay, I gotta go. I was multi-tasking; trying to blog while I watched 24. However due to an unforseen change of events, the show now requires my full attention. As old as this show gets in theory, I just can't help but love it every week! Good stuff.
(and I'm still convinced Josh could pass for Kim's twin!)

rise and shine

Since I've been all linky lately, I thought I might as well throw another one at you...
Ryan came across this today and we just thought it was the coolest thing we've seen in awhile. Know anyone who needs an extra nudge to get out of bed in the morning? They just might need this alarm clock. Very cute. I don't know that it would be that cute at 6 o'clock in the morning, but it's a great idea, nonetheless.

a sunny Sunday in the snow

It's so fun to see Savannah loving the snow so much. It's hard to believe, watching her crawl, roll and run around in all the white stuff out there today, that this is the same girl who spent her first year of life hating to touch grass. And who spent the second year of her life hating dirt or sand, and still didn't love feeling the grass beneath her toes.

The first few times out in the snow here, she was quite hesitant and at times a little freaked out by this cold, wet, white stuff. Like, that stuff's supposed to be fun?!?

But now it's as if she's lived in it her whole life. Everytime I looked outside this afternoon, she was out there crawling around, digging, laughing, falling, and having a ball with her Dad. I love it!

Sawyer didn't get a chance to get out and play todaybecause he took a nice long nap this afternoon, but we took our big "all terrain wagon" out for a walk later around the block. It's been awhile since we've been walking, and it was nice.





I added more pictures today to the snow day album if you care to check them out.


And also, I can't beleive I forgot since I think Ryan was even on the phone with her when I posted yesterday, but Happy Birthday to Jenn yesterday!! Hope you enjoyed your day and your special dinner out!

If you're a parent...

...especially of a toddler at the moment,
oh my gosh, you have got to go read these now.
Seriously, I haven't laughed so hard all week. I was in tears!

And after you read those, make sure you read these and these.
She needs to publish a book!

snow pictures

Some have been asking for pictures of the kids out in the snow. So I put together an online album to keep all our snow pictures from this year in one spot and not have to put them all on the blog.

I didn't use our normal Shutterfly albums because I've been having trouble uploading to them for some reason. So here's the new album. It's on Snapfish and you have to create an account real quick to view my pictures... it's easy, all you need is your email and make up a password and then you can view the slideshow or individual pictures and also order any prints if you want.

I hope I like Snapfish. It was a lot simpler to use than Shutterfly and I can store pictures on there for an unlimited amount of time. So anyway, I just uploaded the pictures real quick- I don't think I cropped any or even fixed any redeye. If there's a print that you want that needs to be touched up, let me know and I'll go back and fix it up.

Happy Friday

So not only am I busy trying to remain a gas pump virgin,
but it appears that now we are also trying to see how long we can go without folding laundry...

Reason #84 Why I Don't Like Ryan to Be Gone Overnight

which doubles as Reason #101 to Get Lasik Surgery


{I hate feeling so vulnerable sleeping alone when I'm blind}



More often than not when I'm alone in the house, I sleep with my contacts in (or even my glasses on if my eyes are really tired of the contacts).

Glad you're coming home tomorrow, honey.
I sleep so much better with you around :)

my oh-so-not-camera-friendly-kids and an evening of oh-so-not-romantic paperwork

So Ryan's off again, the house is once again trashed (and in the midst of said mess, someone decided to play a game of hide and seek with my cell phone three different times today), Savannah is truly bummed that Valentine's day is over, and I'm still loving the snow.
Does that work for an update for you?


Since trying to become better at taking more pictures of the everyday stuff and the whole lotta nothin that's always going on around here, (okay, since you asked....here are a few more everyday stuff pics from yesterday...










Ryan may find this questionable, but Sawyer seems to really like playing dress up and beauty parlor with his sister...)


Anyway, after looking through my millions of everyday shots I'm collecting, I decided it was time for a sit-down-and-let's-look-cute-photo-session. I wanted to try and get some pictures of the kids- both individually and together. It's been way too long (like since Sawyer was about six weeks old) and now I have about zero good pictures of them together without toys, books, wrestling, or food involved. So I decided to just take some time one-on-one and one-on-two to try and get a few simple shots. Simple. Yeah, right.

First I tried the new chair. No one would sit still for even a second. Note to self: don't use rockers for toddler props.
Then I tried the bigger poof rocker in our bedroom (that's where I took a lot of their pictures together when Sawyer was tiny). Nope. They didn't want to share that seat, and trying individually, Sawyer was just climbing it.
So I tried throwing them both on the bed. That was a big mistake, because that got Sawyer so wound up it was ridiculous! He just kept crawling to get me, or thinking it was funny to do head dives off the bed.
I don't know how many hundreds of pictures I snapped. But I do know how many keepers came out of it all. Take a guess.

Five.
Four of Savannah and One of Sawyer. Well, I'm pretending One for Sawyer. The only one I like of him is even still blurry. *sigh*
Glad I'm not trying to get better at this or anything...

So here are two outcomes of the really not so great photo session attempt for Valentine's Day 2007.
Enjoy.
I sure didn't. LOL!

The rest of Valentine's Day was nice. Ryan got home a little early and took the kids out to play in the snow. Savannah had a blast making little mini sled hills in our yard next to the driveway and patio where the shoveled snow might be up to three feet high now. Sawyer thought it was hilarious to fall down in the snow, or to watch Ryan or Savannah throw themselves down. It was all pretty cute. Savannah was out there for more than an hour... I thought she was going to freeze her little tooshie off, but she didn't want to come in. There's just nothing like kids playing in the snow...

After the kids went to bed Ryan and I spent a nice romantic evening putting together Scholastic book orders for Savannah's whole school. I'm in charge of their book orders and Ryan so kindly helped me out a ton last night. Yeah, are we romantic or what?!? We actually almost had real plans to really go out. Ryan had a babysitter and everything. And then it sort of just fizzled out. Woulda been nice, but it was a good evening at home too.
We caught up on this week's 24 (*** please tell me, could they have picked a boy to play Josh who looks any more like Kim than he does??? Is that not obvious to anyone else?***), and then watched one of the most boring episodes (although definitely weird) of LOST I've seen in awhile. Oh well.

Anyone else out there have exciting, romantic Valentine evenings?

Hope everyone had a sweet Valentine's Day

How much snow, you ask?

**Edited in the AM**

Six inches today and still falling.

This was taken about 6pm.







I took this picture because I thought it was funny that our front walk to the steps was clear this morning (I shoveled it late yesterday), and it had disappeared by this evening.
Where did our sidewalk go?






Four hours later...

Forget the sidewalk--
where did our front steps go?

Ryan put it nicely...
We no longer have front steps, we have a front slope.









** here's the latest for you...
this morning we have a mini-sledding hill in front of our door instead of three front steps**

So what is today.... the BEST day of the whole year?

Savannah finally got her long- awaited Valentine's Day. A day early.
Two days of Valentine's Day... this girl is on cloud nine. Not sure why she *loves* this holiday so. I wasn't even aware of this until the other day, and since then she could. not. wait. for it to be Valentine's. This morning she was so excited to have her party at school today and bring her valentines for her friends and teachers.

I forgot to get pictures of her and her valentines this morning. We made made heart shaped crayons for her friends and she was especially excited to bring the strawberry "flowers" for her teachers today. I forgot to take a picture of her with the bouquet this morning, but here's a picture I found in the magazine where I got the idea...
I think it turned out great and it was pretty easy... I painted wooden skewers with green food coloring, we dipped our strawberries in white chocolate, added a little greenery, and used a cute white ribbon with red hearts on it wrapped around a little vase. Savannah made a great card and they loved it! I'm going to have to remember that idea for showers and stuff!


When I picked Savannah up from school after her party, she was all excited and couldn't wait to tell me, "Mom! Tomorrow is the real Valentine's Day!"

She would have been just fine with one day of valentines. I'm afraid my few treats tomorrow are just no match for the party at school today, her bag full of cards from her friends, and then her "goodies" from her grandparents that she got to open when we got home today.
Here you go; I actually got a couple of pictures of her -and what is this? Did she actually look at the camera?!?
























And to be fair, after all the pictures and blabbing about the little brother, I did manage to get a few shots of Savannah yesterday. She sat decently for me in her new chair. This is her first purchase with her own money! It was quite exciting, and I was very proud of her.
See, she has the habit that most three year olds do, of standing way too close to the tv. Like basically with her nose touching the screen. So being tired of nagging her about it, I sat down with her and had a discussion about how to solve this problem. We decided she needed a "spot" to sit.
Well, then a few days later we saw that Target had these neat little chairs on sale so we went and looked at them and talked about it and Savannah decided she wanted to buy one with the money she got in the mail for V-day (thanks Great-Grandma and Grandpa!). She picked pink, of course. So now she pulls that out when she watches tv and has her own spot to sit. It looks pretty stinkin cute in her room too! Take a look...





















We've been working with Savannah to make a few other changes around here too. Her whining and crying and not so nice behavior was becoming more the norm than a rarity anymore, so we came up with some "plans" for her. She is all about charts and lists and the routine and consistency those types of things provide. I guess she probably gets that from me. And it's a good thing I think like that, because apparently that kind stuff may be all it takes to get a jumpstart on getting her straightened out.

We've had a lot of talks lately. And this past weekend we made up some plans and some charts...

#1 was a So-mommy-and-daddy-can stop-nagging-everytime-I use-the-bathroom Chart (remember to wipe, flush, wash, turn off light).

#2 was a No Whining Chart. She has to put an x in a box every time she whines or throws a fit. Three strikes, and no tv or movie the next day. So far, since putting up this up, there has been zero whining. She went from whining all day long about anything, to none. Honest.

#3 is for her hair. Anyone who is close to us knows Savannah's hair has been a sore spot for all of us lately. She has just increasingly over the past year hated more and more to have anything to do with taking care of her hair. Washing, drying, brushing, braiding, touching; she HATES it. While attempting to brush her hair before school, one could expect anything from whining and complaining, to full-on screaming bloody murder. Not fun.
We were waiting on her first haircut, growing it out to be able to donate it to make children's wigs. Now that it's been long enough for months, Savannah has decided she doesn't want to cut it until she turns four. Don't know why, but she is adamant about that. But the struggle to keep her hair cleaned and out of the way is becoming too much for me. Out of anger and frustration about her carrying on, I threaten often to cut it off, but then I feel so bad. I don't want a haircut to be a punishment... she loves her long hair. But I can't deal with us both getting so upset about doing her hair anymore.

So now she has a chart. She has two colums; happy faces for cooperative hair days, sad faces for not. If she fills the one column, she gets a treat. If she fills the other column, that tells us it's too hard to take care of all that hair and we're going to get a haircut. So then it's just a consequence and not so much a punishment, right?
Anyway, so far... three happy faces.
Much nicer mornings and bathtimes, thank you very much!





Alright.
This is looking like a record for the most consecutive super long posts ever.
Wow. Thanks for hangin in there with me!
I'll cut down and keep em' short and sweet for awhile, I promise!

let's take a break from all the rambling with some pictures

remember you can click on any of these pics to see full size image

Sawyer had his 15 month check-up last Friday.
Turns out he had a lot of fluid in his ears and they looked a bit red. The Dr. said he probably either had had an ear infection or was about to develop one, so she sent us out to get him antibiotics. Poor kid... wish I would have known his ears were bothering him. I had a feeling it was more than his teeth keeping him from sleeping, but he never gave me any real reason to do anything about it. His grumpy days are still pretty darn good.

She only gave him two of the four shots he was due, because of his ears. Here he's playing with his band-aids before his bath. First he just wanted them off, but then he decided they needed repositioning.










He didn't really put on any weight or any height. I wasn't really surprised about the weight... he's cut back so drastically on his eating starting with cutting all those molars at once right after his birthday. And then just when his appetite was picking up again last month, that's when he got sick. If he had his way, he would live on just crackers and fruit at this point. He refuses to eat pretty much everything else. Even all his old fail safe favorites are a no-go.

Here's a rare shot of a happy eater these days...







I just love those blue eyes!







Sawyer has a new favorite word. Woo-Hoo!
Yes, that's the word, not just my excitement over his astounding vocabulary. Well, maybe it's not even a real word, I guess it's more of a sound really. But it's pretty cute.
I was giving him his bath and he was playing Bathketball in the tub and I had the camera out and was trying to snap some pictures of him. Everytime he would put the ball through the hoop, I would cheer or make some silly noise to get him to smile big for me.

He started copying me and it turned into a full-on Woo-Hoo! fest.

Then that's all he would do the whole rest of the bath. I soon realized that in all the pictures I was snapping after that, his lips were pursed making the little "oh" mouth saying "Woo-hoo!". I couldn't get him to smile anymore because he was just on constant repeat: "woo-hoo, woo-hoo, woo-hoo".
Funny kid!

woo-hoo!

*Sorry about the difference in color in some of these shots. You'll have to excuse my playing with the flash and lighting in the bathroom.

**Don't think just because here are a dozen pictures of Sawyer, I favor this child over my other... the other child will just simply not sit for pictures anymore. And when she does, which is rare, she just makes silly scary faces and after about 3 minutes she says, okay mom that's enough pictures... put the camera away!
How I wish she would just "sit pretty" for once!

sitting alone on a friday night...

ahhh, reminds me of the good old single days. haha!

Just sitting here watching the boob tube.
I found My Best Friend's Wedding on TBS. Love that movie.
Best part: Julia and what's-his-name on the tour boat.

someday, when I'm awfully low,

I will feel a glow

just thinking of you...

and the way you look tonight

Love that song

Anyway.

Ryan wanted to clean up the kitchen for me and do all the dishes before he left this afternoon.
I told him not to. That I just wanted us all to hang out, that he could just play with the kids, just relax with us before he was gone for four days, and that I could take care of it later.

Now I'm sitting here avoiding that mess in the kitchen. It's bad. I don't know how it gets so bad so quickly, but I'm regretting turning down Ryan's offer to get rid of it for me. Not that I'd wish it on him. I just wish that dishes would clean themselves.

*********

So I guess I should elaborate for some of you where exactly it is that my husband took off to for the weekend.
He has an interview in back home in Beaverton on Monday.
Interview?!?, you say. Maybe I should back up a little.

First let me apologize to any of our friends or family to whom this is new news. Not so exciting to spread bad news, if you know what I mean, so I'm sorry if you were left out of the loop.
A few weeks ago, you may have heard that Pfizer was "restructuring" and ended up cutting about 10,000 jobs; 2400 or so of them here in Michigan. That does include Ryan's job and in fact, his whole lab.
He got the news while the kids and I were gone, while we were in Oregon. Not good. We were just getting settled here after picking up and moving across the country, and were set to be here for at least two years, and most likely longer, before having to make any more decisions in that area of our life. It was such a relief for Ryan to finally have a great job with all these great benefits and to finally be able to have our house and not have to worry about any more of these job or moving decisions that we've dealt with our whole marriage.
Anyway. So it was kind of a shock to say the least. And it was hard that we were apart while he got that news and we had to process it all and figure out what our options were and it wasn't so easy to communicate or be there for each other over the phone and three time zones apart. The good news was that it wasn't an immediate thing... nobody's going anywhere until at least May and probably into the summer. But that still leaves us with a lot of unknowns. Like what the heck are we going to do?
I, for one, didn't want to talk about it much while I was gone both because I was tired of thinking about it and I was tired of trying to answer questions that I had no idea how to answer. What will we do? Will we move back home? Stay? Who knows.

And that's kind of where we still sit now. We love our house and Savannah's school and the few friends we've made and were looking forward to getting more settled here. So Ryan's applied for a couple of other random positions at the part of Pfizer that will remain in Kalamazoo. But there aren't a lot of other options here for him.

There's a possibility he can go to a different Pfizer site- St. Louis is pretty much the only place we're considering. Which in our minds is the easiest solution (after staying put) because of the simple fact that everything would be taken care of. They are offering a nice bonus to any of the employees that move to another facility, plus the great relocation they provide is awesome. We wouldn't have to worry about selling our house or packing or anything. And we already have friends in the St. Louis area.

So back to the interview in Beaverton. It's for a position with ZRT Laboratories, which is a hormone testing facility. I'd have to let Ryan fill you in on the details because obviously I don't have a clue what I'm talking about when it comes to that stuff, but it sounds like a very good opportunity. But we have no clue if they would be able to pay enough for us to move back and be able to afford a home in that area. They seem very excited about Ryan and so who knows...
It would be nice to be back in the area. It's just so depressing to look at house prices there!

Also on the radar (and for those of you who know our history -when has it not been?) is a Shimadzu Field Service postion. They are in desperate need of someone in the Seattle/Tacoma area right now and they've talked Ryan into a interview slated for next week already. Pros and cons for this one: pros- great job, great job security, work from home, company provides car, gas, car insurance, phone, internet and anything else related to his home office, and they also provide a great relocation package. We'd be looking to live in the Tacoma/Olympia area, which would be just over two hours or so from "home". Cons- Ryan would be traveling a lot, not thrilled about moving to Washington (it just seems so gloomy up there to me all the time. I mean, yeah, Portland's known for it's rainyness -is that a word?-, but it's just always so gray and gloomy up in Seattle. Portland gets actually more rainfall per year, but Seattle has more cloudy gray days. Don't know if I'm okay with that.), and that area is almost as expensive as where we would be looking in the Portland area.
Anyway, that interview is set for Thursday. So he gets home from Portland late on Monday and then flies back to California early Thursday. Fun, fun.
Paul (Ryan's "in" with the company and who he'd be working under) says the interview is just a formality, (it should be- how many times has he been through these interviews with them?!) and it's basically up to Ryan whether he's got the job or not.

So we may have a couple of big decisions to make coming up sooner than we thought.
Please keep us in your prayers regarding all of this. I just hate not knowing where God wants us and having to make decisions like this. I just pray it'll be spelled out for us, that He really just obviously points to which job Ryan should take (and when) in the next six months. I feel like the past 10 months have really stretched us in our faith and in trying make sure we're making decisions inline with the Lord's will. I hate to say that I feel really drained from that. I feel like complete faith and a real desire to be open and honest to God's will, while it can be so full of peace and joy and anticipation of the good things to come, it can also take a lot out of you (especially without close friends and a church family to share prayer and encouragement with). And I'm afraid that we haven't found the end of that road yet.
I feel so selfish saying this, but it'd be nice to see a little fruit of that faith before having to start all over again, you know?

And I also hate saying this outloud (well, type outloud), but you know how when you think you just can't be stretched any more, that your faith isn't strong enough, that you are so clueless as to what the heck is really going on... that that's when the Lord says oh yes you can- I'm going to show you how you CAN continue to lean on ME.
Um, yeah.
Kinda scary.
In a good way I guess.

So.
That's what's up with us, and what Ryan's up to this weekend.
Thoughts, anyone?
Comments? *read: easy answers for us?*

the worst day of the whole year

That's what Savannah said to me shortly after we left the airport today.

In a very dramatic voice, "Mom, this is the worst day of the whole year."

"The worst day? Of the whole year? Why is that, honey?"
I'm thinking she's upset about missing her daddy for another four days; we had just dropped him off at the airport and she'd been dreading him leaving all day. So I'm prepared for the umpteenth pep talk of the day... you can talk to him on the phone, he'll be back after three more days, etc.
But no...

In just as dramatic of a voice, "It's the worst day because it's not Valentine's Day yet."


Silly me.

My Husband Gives Me Gas

I mean as in gasoline. Or petrol, as some like to call it.
Although he has plenty of that other gas to spread around too...

For any or all of you who are not within the immediate vicinity of the state of Oregon, you may or may not know that within that state you will find no self-service gas stations. It is, in fact, illegal to pump your own gas, even into a gas can or other container (with the exception of motorcyclists... go figure?). Oregon and New Jersey are the only two states to ban self-serve stations.
So growing up and becoming a driver, I had the pleasure of full-service fill-ups; never had to pump my own gas and rarely even had to get out of the car.
Now being as close to the Washington border as we were, and the many road trips my friends and I took up to Seattle, Canada, down to California, and even venturing eastward once in awhile with the family for a much longer car trip, most everybody has at one time or another had the *priveledge* to self-serve. Most everyone except moi. For some reason, I just never have. Not that I couldn't or wouldn't, I just never did. I always had a parent or a friend or a boyfriend or a husband who did it instead.
And I never really thought about it. Until my husband noticed this, and started kind of making fun of me... that I had never had to and probably never would, and maybe he'd have to "teach" me how (like I'm an idiot), just in case I got stranded across the border. Of our state.
So then it kind of became a running joke. We'd drive up to Seattle and Ryan would ask me if I would stop and get gas and then answer for me that nevermind- he wouldn't want to ruin my streak.

And then we MOVED OUT OF OREGON.
Whatever are you going to do? is what Ryan wanted to know... 30 years of never touching a gas nozzle down the drain.
He was quite worried about it. So on our final plane trip out here it was decided. I was going to live in the state of Michigan and see how long I could go without pumping my own gas.
So far I have made it 8 months and 26 days.
And it has not been easy, let me tell you. (Well, I guess it has been easy for me... since I don't ever have to get out and do it.)
Not too long after we first moved here, I took the Jetta to make a quick run to the grocery store late one night. Noticing the gas light had come on, I thought I would be nice and put gas in the car while I was out so that Ryan didn't have to worry about it early the next morning on his way to work. I actually pulled into the gas station, up to the pump, and turned off the car before I realized, what am I doing-- this would break my streak! So I left without getting gas. And went home and told Ryan how funny that was. Only he didn't think it was so funny.
Sometimes though, I think Ryan is more into this game, or goal, or streak, or roll, or whatever you want to call it, than I am. It's like if I fail, it means he failed. HAHA! He fills our car up whenever it's anywhere near being low. He will sometimes go out just to put gas in the 4runner at night if he knows I don't have enough to get SJ to school and back the next day.
Oh, and don't think that I haven't dragged other people into this pointless game as well. Sure, Nic and I drove my car for our Chicago trip last fall, but who do you think actually got out and filled the gas tank? And when I took my parents to the airport at the end of their last visit, and had to stop for gas on the way out of town, if you had to choose between myself in the driver's seat and my dad in the passenger seat, which one of us do you think payed and which one pumped?

Speaking of airports, this is the one that trumps them all.
I took Ryan to the airport for his trip today. (sidenote: I always take him myself, whenever I can. Unless it is pretty much impossible, no matter if it's a 20 min drive or over an hour, I have to take him myself. There's just something about taking him there and saying goodbye that I have to do. It's like some farewell obsession I have or something. I don't know, it's like if anything ever happened, and I hadn't been there to say good bye at the last possible moment, I would always regret it. I know, it's weird.)
Anyway, the airport is sixty-some miles away, so it's quite difficult for me to take Ryan to the airport, go home, do any driving I have to do in town while he's away, and then go back to Detroit to get him however many days later, on just one tank of gas. (It's been close before!)
Well, this fact didn't even cross my mind this afternoon on the way out there. We were running a little bit late and still, just before we got to the airport exit, he pulls off the highway and into a gas station. Where he proceeds to fill up my gas tank at that very last chance, so that I don't have to pump my own gas while he's gone. (hopefully). Keeping my streak alive!
Awwww... isn't that sweet?

So there you have my story for the day on why I have the best husband in the world, and why I appreciate him so.
He gives me gas.

behind the scenes

I just had to add that Ryan was cracking me up last night with his "reenactment" of his little fender bender.

First he had just wanted to grab a couple of Sawyer's cars to show me what happened. But then he got all into it, and before I knew it, he was outside, dressed like this, getting shovel-fulls of snow to "set up the scene of the accident". He was like a little kid playing with the cars (look at that grin on his face), "crashing" them into the snow and each other. And then when I suggested we take pictures to illustrate the story on the blog, that made it even more serious! Too funny.
p.s.
Yes, the big truck was a true element of the story. A semi had come around that same curve sliding toward them in that kind of you-know what's-going-to-happen-next-slow motion. They all quickly moved themselves out of the way and were prepared to watch all their vehicles get really crunched. Thankfully, it ended up missing all the cars by just a few feet.

So I was a little late to work yesterday...

So here is what happened...

I, along with two other cars, slipped on some ice when trying to stop for a red light and found ourselves stuck in the snow along the side of the road. I ended up pretty much facing the wrong direction, but luckly we were all able to avoid each other. So I was stuck but I was probably going to be able to get myself out. I was putting on my boots to go out and survey the scene and see if the other two cars needed any help when...

...here comes a red jeep cherokee....

...slipping on the same ice...

...and right when I got my second boot on...

...ouch...

...and then here comes a big truck...watch out!!!

Whoa, that was close.
(The other two cars left after that close call)

The lady that hit me called the police, who came and took the accident report,
and her husband, who was able to pull me out...

...and then I went to work, just in time for break,
and had some coffee.
(See yesterday's post for a picture of the aftermath)