5 Miles

Will and James playing Memory.

Will: I have 12 cards, how many do you have?

James: I have 28.

Will: It appears…that I have won the game!

Now that we've had our first round of Christmas, it's time to write thank you notes. And I thought it'd be fun to make a craft time out of it (as well as something to do on a cold, windy morning). Inspired by this blogger, I decided to make potato stamps.  I was going for a simple look, so I made stars (ok, that's about all I could cut out of the potato). Then I discovered we didn't have yellow paint, so white would have to work. And it was craft paint–not washable paint. (I was trying to use what we have on hand.)

So I covered the table with paper, pulled off the sweater (I didn't mind of this shirt got ruined) and let them get started. Alex loved the "tato".  And the mess the paint made.  I think he made a few stamps on the colored paper, the rest was on the newspaper. And he had more fun smearing then stamping.

Will did a great job getting paint on the paper–but with me watching Alex, I didn't have time to help him blot it so he ended up with lots of blobs, not too many stars.

Alex decided he didn't like the feel of the paint on his fingers, so he was done.

In the end, we have a number of modern or impressionistic stars or snowflakes, it is open to the receivers interpretation. I am learning to let go my preconceived ideas and deal focus on the fun of making them (never mind the 20 minutes of prep for the 2 minutes of stamping).  And it will be obvious to everyone the kids made them–not me!

Alex hasn't been feeling well, and was fussing, so James went in to give him some more medicine.

James asked him, "Do you want more medicine?"

Alex replied, "Mmmm-hm."

James then asked, "Do you want your music on?"

Alex replied, "Mmmm-hm."

James then asked, "Are you going to be ok?"

Alex replied, "Mmmm-hm."

Ahhh…it's nice to be back!  While we had a good time, it is nice to be home.  I thought I'd share a few highlights of the week for those of you who weren't there (though I know half of you who read the blog were there!).

First, we had our Thansgiving Snow:

As I mentioned before, Will had a great time playing in the snow Sunday and Monday.  Tuesday, all the snow melted. I did a shopping trip and James' brother RD and his family came out to join the fun. Wednesday we got to go pick out a Christmas tree! We went out to a tree farm and picked one and then James' B-I-L chopped it down.  The kids had fun helping decorate it.

Wednesday and Thursday James' other two brothers and their fiances (or about to be fiance) came. It was fun to meet them. I hope we didn't overwhelm them too much–they claimed it wasn't too bad. Plus they did have the advantage to meeting us in small doses before this weekend. But I remember feeling overwhelmed when I first met the family at Christmas back in 2000.  And that was when there was only one grandchild! (Now there are 8, which do help add to the general chaos a bit!)  Anyway, the two are very nice and we're excited for their future addition to the family. 

Thursday we had a small Thansgiving lunch. James' sister had made a turkey earlier in the week, so I just made the sides and we had a Thanksgiving lunch.  Then his B-I-L enjoyed watching the Packers win (a Packers fan living in the Philly area enjoys every chance he can get to watch his team).  That evening, we had a great time watching the Colts win as well.

Friday we took the kids roller skating. Will made it around the rink once.  He did skate on the carpet some as well, but spent most of his time pretending to drive the different games they had at the rink.  Alex loved riding around with James and was sad he couldn't go on the rink. Maybe next year his feet will be big enough to fit into the skates they have.

Friday evening we had Christmas dinner and opened presents. Once again we let the kids open theirs, then took a break to put them down for bed and then the adults had a nice time talking and opening their gifts.  This year Alex fit into the sweater that matches James' sweater.

Saturday we had a shower for Teri and his fiance. It was a fun time and a nice chance for people to meet her who can't come out to the wedding this winter. I picked the one picture that has the three wives in it–we usually take the pictures and it's nice to see proof we all exist!

Everyone one who was visiting left Sunday, except for us. (Two years ago we discovered the Sunday after Thansgiving makes for busy travel on the road in the evening coming home, and since James had the vacation days we took one more off.) We enjoyed one last day to relax/recover from the crazy weekend.  Will had a great time playing with his cousins and exploring the farm. Below you see two eggs he collected from the hen house.  Both he and Alex were talking about their tractor ride today (two days later). 

Yesterday we spent the whole day driving back to our house.  It was wonderful to come back into a clean house–yet it was sad I spent SO much time cleaning it before we left. Between unloading everything last night and then boys rediscovering their toys this morning, it is pretty much a huge mess again. Today was spent getting food, unpacking and doing my FINAL volunteer shift for my MOPS group and the photography fundraiser we had a few weeks ago.  That done, we're looking forward to nothing that big happening until Friday. And now, it's late and I must head to bed. Please excuse spelling errors and grammatical mistakes!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

We are out in PA, visiting James' family. (But our very large guard dog is still at home, guarding our house for those who might be thinking of visiting.) 

I thought I was SO smart, I checked www.weather.com before we left. It told us this area would be in the 40s and 50s all week. We arrived Saturday night. Sunday morning we woke up to Will telling us it was snowing (we didn't believe him). He was right–and it snowed ALL DAY and that night. By the next morning there was about 5 inches of thick, wet snow on the trees–many of them still with leaves on them. It was a rather odd sight.  Will had a great time sledding with Grandpa and the cousins.

Monday we went to the airport and picked up James' mom. She's back for a month visit.  She enjoyed seeing the fall colors in Philly, and the change to all the snow as we got to the higher elevations.

So, posting will be rather sparse as we have fun eating, playing games, tending kids and catching up with James' family (and meeting a fiance & girl friend that his brothers are bringing).  We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This morning, in the car, taking Will to preschool.  Alex saw Will's hat and said "I want hat!"

I told him, "We forgot your hat, sorry buddy!"

He replied by saying "WHAT?!?"–I never thought I'd hear my two year old respond like that!

Later, we were talking about Will's Thanksgiving feast today.  He was telling me how they were going to sing their Turkey Song. I told him "I can't wait to hear you sing that!"

He replised "But you have to wait, Mommy."

Will said tonight, "Mommy, tomorrow after preschool we'll go pick up Daddy and and leave for the farm!"

Guess who's eager to go?  But we won't leave until Saturday, promise Tessa!

Well, I knew it'd been a while since I updated the site. Then I got an email from my MIL asking if we were ok…whoops! Yes, we are all alive out here.  Here's a list of all that's been keeping us busy (and why I haven't blogged, b/c I didn't think would be that  interesting…and it probably isn't, but it'll give you an idea of what we're up to).

• Thursday, Friday & Saturday–I worked a fund raiser for our MOPS group (we had pictures done by Antiquities, I only worked 2 hours each day…but the days when I took the kids was a bit more stressful than the one I didn't).  Friday I also got to go scrapbooking.  That was a nice treat.
• Saturday we got our family picture taken. Then James started to feel sick. He took a nap and woke up feeling much sicker (he had flu). So I took the kids to the fund raiser and then to our Sunday School social by myself & to give him a chance to rest without the kids in the house.
• Sunday–my turn to work in the toddler room for the 9 am service.  It was a challenge to get the kids ready and get there early & made me appreciate James' help on more normal Sundays, but we made it! At the end of the weekend I was thankful for the Friday night out & have a new empathy for single moms. I also realized without a weekend "off" (with the joint help from James), I was really confused as to what day it was. Monday did NOT seem like Monday. It's resulted in what feels to be a long week!
• Monday–I created, printed and copied the directories for our MOPS group. We had a Steering Team Meeting that night and they helped put them together. After pre-MOPS publicity & registration, that was my final "big" thing and I'm done with that! Now I'll just keep updating the MOPS Blog and send out bi-monthly email updates.  Easy!
• Tuesday–Work Date Night. It was our turn to be couple in charge.  We have one out of the three we have to work done!
• Wednesday–We got to go get our first round of shots for the Kenya trip.  Yellow Fever, Typhoid and a Polio booster are all taken care of! (And cost $400 for the two of us!!! HOLY COW!). Now we just need Hep A & B, and Tetanus.  Oh and our malaria pills. We went to a Doctor from our church (who actually gave us a discount) but he lived on the opposite side of town, so it took several hours to do this adventure.  That night Will had his Friends Club. While he was at that, I was able to get some errands done, kid free!
• Thursday–Today we went up to Upland.  I had an appointment with the Prof. I'm working with (where I got the book, power points and notes of what I'll be teaching next spring).  Then we went to Grandma's house, where I baked cookies for the Miles Family Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration and the boys got to play with Grandma.  And I got to get a hair cut (yes, AFTER the family pictures…oh well). Now, I'm having fun looking at the book I'll be teaching from & looking at the incredible power points that have already been made for me! YES! (And yes, I am having fun, no sarcasm there!)

Tomorrow Will has his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool (we get to join him in that) and then we get to pack. We're going to hit the road Saturday for our big trip to the family farm.  There we'll celebrate Thanksgiving & Christmas and have a bridal shower for James' brother & his fiance in one big weekend. We'll try to share pictures and keep you updated from there!

Yesterday at 10 AM, Will said "Mommy, I'm hungry!"

"What? How can you be hungry, you had THREE pancakes for breakfast!"

"No Mommy, I didn't have three. I had FOUR!"

* * *

Typically, a drive in the car includes Alex pointing out various cars/trucks and me saying "Yes, Alex, you're right".

The other day I heard him saying "Mail! Mail! Mail truk!" 
I apperantly didn't respond to him fast enough because the next thing I heard was "I rite! I rite!" 

Yes, all you NFP people can read this post!!!!

Last night The Tort wanted me to read him a story out of his "red" bible story book.  We have a red one and a white one.  The red one came with a cd that Tina has been allowing him to listen to while "resting" at nap time. 

When he went to get the story book he sat on the futon and was searching through the pages.  He said "Daddy, I want you to read me the story about the 'rubbers.'" Not quite sure what he meant I took the book and him into the living room where there was more light. (Note to future guests, the light in our guest/play room has replaced the light in our bed room which was used to replace the light in the living room which decided to break in half.) So, we went to the living room and I started flipping through the pages. 

Again he says "I want the story about the rubbers."  I begin to figure out what he is asking for and I ask, "You mean the story about the robbers?"

"No, the story about the rubbers."  I flip to the Good Samaritan story and he says, "Yeah that one.  The one about the rubbers."  I of course reply, "No, this is about Robbers." He says, "No Daddy, it is about rubbers." Okay, I am a little confused.  I don't recall contraceptives being a part of the story and since he hasn't been to his Catholic Aunt's for 2 weeks yet, I was quite sure she hasn't taught him that the Jew was beat up because the Robbers where Catholic and the Jew used contraceptives. 

So, I asked him, "Where did you hear them called Rubbers?"  He said, "The man on the CD."  

It clicked!

The book is an Usborne book.  It is written and published in the UK.  Therefore, when the record the cd they use a UKainian, or sometimes they are called Brits, or the British, or people from Great Britian.  That is why they are "Rubbers." The Jew was beat up by a band of "rubbers."  Not a "rubber" band mind you, that would just be silly.

So, after I learned that I attempted to read the story in a British accent which I determined was probably more Irish then British and probably not that Irish anyway.  But, I called them rubbers and that is all he cared about.