4 Miles

Around lunch time James brought in the mail. In it was a letter from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that said "Open Immediately: Important Notice". Inside the letter began "Your driving privileges are eligible for reinstatement on 02/17/2008".

WHAT?!? 

I honestly didn't even know they'd been taken away! A call to the department revealed after my accident in September they had never gotten my proof of insurance. I needed to provide a Certificate of Compliance. I could bring it in to the main branch in downtown Indy and it would be reinstated right away. Or, I could have it faxed in and wait up to a week. 

After a few phone calls, lots of time on hold and talking with various people we got it worked out. It took two attempts for the insurance company to fax a copy to James' office then he came and all of us went downtown (since I wasn't supposed to drive!).  Thankfully he was there to watch the boys. When I walked in, I was given number D-95 (once they get to 99 they went to E-01, etc.). They were calling number 66 at that point. It went rather quickly, considering all the people there. But they didn't give you much time to respond. If you didn't stand up at the first yelling of your number, they were on to the next one! When they called 95, I almost ran over to the empty chair, I DID not want to miss my turn.  Then this kid (well…young man who seemed sleepy or stoned) came over saying he had 95 as well. Turns out he had C-95. Meaning he had sat through a whole 100 numbers! He wasn't too happy to hear he'd have to get another number. But we all felt (me, the clerk and the clerk next to her) he should have pointed out he'd been missed a bit earlier! Then she took my form, did a few things and I was reinstated! 

It was an interesting time. I'm realizing how much of a bubble we're in our suburb. Just the smoky nature of the waiting room alone (there is no smoking in this county pretty much), let alone the interesting people made for an afternoon I had never planned!

We got home at 5 and both boys were SO hungry, so the planned dinner (needing about 30 minutes to prepare and cook) was set aside and we had cheese tortillas. 

Now, we're awaiting our Winter Storm.  We were supposed to get 6-9 inches of snow tonight/tomorrow!  This evening at 10 they started to lower the amount to 3-6.  Oh well, as long is there is enough to cover the grass & make a snowman, Will will be happy.

In case you can't tell, that's Jesus watching over the trains.

Edited to add: When I asked Will about it this morning, he told me Jesus was telling the trains to stop and go. 

Will told us yesterday when he grows up he wants to be a NASCAR driver.  (This changes from that to construction worker to truck driver depending on the day). Alex then said "I fire fighter". Considering his tendency to just mimic what ever he hears, I was impressed with his statement that was so different from his brother! And if you ask him today what he wants to be when he grows up, he repeats it (though it really sounds like "pire-pighter", he tends to not say the first sound of most words.) I just had to record that for the "baby blog".

Also, last night I got woken up mid-dream and realized I'd been dreaming about John McCain and Tom Brady competing in a recipe contest on line. I have GOT to stop reading about politics/sports/cooking before I go to bed!

What did we do this weekend?  Clean up! James caulked the windows in our room and the boys rooms (I thought since they were put in two years ago they'd be fine…but things change! You need to redo that! Feeling the wind coming in through a suddenly noticed crack in the boys room made me realize we needed to do it again). While James was doing that, he rearranged our room!

Here's Before: 
Here's After:  

Ok, so you can't see much in either picture…sorry. We changed the curtains last year, but the picture of the before is before we did that too…we didn't change those yesterday. I did wash them and forgot about them in the dryer so I'm glad you can't see how wrinkled the curtains are!  And the windows look dirty (I'm hoping) because the sun is shining directly in–they're really not that bad!  Mainly, the bed is in the corner, and all the stuff around it that you can't see (dressers, book shelf, night stands, etc.) have been shuffled around. Odd how putting the bed in the corner makes the room seem bigger.  And now we have some open spots on the wall I'd like to put a decoration or two on, and we know really need to repaint (there was a boarder in the room. When we took it down we didn't treat the area before painting started so you can see the glue coming through), but before we repaint I'd like to get a new bedspread (that one has stains that won't come out from our iron-tinted water) and we need to paint the ceiling, and–it never ends, does it? :) So for now we'll enjoy what rearranging and decluttering did.

The only other thing happening is both boys are both sick with colds. Last night Will woke up coughing and crying for Mommy. I ran in, thinking by the way he was coughing he had (or was about to) throw up. I went in, trying to see if he had done so. He wailed "I can't!"

I struggled to figure out what he was meaning…"I can't throw up?" Wha-? Then I realized, Will had a stuffy nose. He couldn't breath through it, and while sucking his thumb he couldn't breath.  So the next half hour was dealing with his crying, filling up and plugging in the vaporizer, Alex waking up and crying, etc.  I tried to point out to him that God gave him a nose AND a mouth to breath with…and if you can't breath through your nose, you can breath through your mouth. If your thumb is in the way, you'll just have to move it to the side!  It helped for a minute or so…then he was back to crying again saying, "I can't sniff!" Finally he calmed down and fell asleep! I was glad it happened just as we were going to bed, not at 3 am or something because I'm a lot less understanding then. But it was still hard to have the already too late bed time get pushed back even more.  So naps were a must this afternoon.

Wednesday Alex and I were driving home from taking Will to preschool. Alex asked (as he often does) "Where Will?". I told him Will was at preschool and then he asked about Daddy. Daddy was at the office. I asked him "Where's Alex?" In a "Silly Mommy!" tone he answer "In da CAR!"

* * *

Yesterday I accidently called Alex "Will" (I do that pretty often lately).  Then I said "You're not Will, you're Alex!" He replied, "No, I BABY Alex!" I tried to tell him he's a big boy now, he's not my baby, but he insisted that he is BABY Alex.  

* * *

This morning, on the way to preschool, Will said "I can't stop yawning, Mommy!" I asked him if he was tired. He said quickly, "No, these aren't tired yawns, they're morning yawns."

Yesterday it was really cold again, and while it was sunny and kind of snowy, I just did not want to bundle the kids up to go out when it is only 8 outside. They didn't quite understand that nor agree with my decision. I am trying to find a balance between doing fun activies with them and teaching them to play on their own.  I felt yesterday was a day I was needed to help out a bit more!  One of the activies I had tucked away for a "rainy" day was a kit I'd bought on clearance at Target, one with a cookie dough mix and decorations to make Gingerbread bears.

I have to give the Crayloa kits a big Thumbs Down.  The mix was just not workable! But, considering I only paid about $0.75 for it, and I got it after the holidays, I'm not so sure that's something that surpised me.  Also,  I'd say that was worth it for the decorations it included! After the mix wasn't working out, I decided to go with cupcakes. THOSE, I can do!  And those went over well. We had a great time decorating them! I didn't have enough powder sugar to make more frosting, so we used the included tubes in the kit and various candy–the boys enjoyed them a great deal and they were sweet enough!

The best part was doing this just in time for snack, so the boys could eat as they went.  Alex's had a bite taken out of it before he even started, and I do think he ate more decorations then he put on his cupcake.  Will had fun making silly faces and then eating them.  The aftermath (the last picture to the right) wasn't quite as pretty.  And the boys went right to a bath as well. 

(Can you tell  of the faces on the left which one I made and which one Will did? :-D)

Other things I tried: Making bowling "pins" out of Mega Blocks–kept them busy for 30 seconds.  Makins a race track out of masking tape on the carpet–still being played with on and off today. 

I'm concerned that one or both of the boys may be getting sick, they both seem to more clingy/needy that normal. The last two days Will has complained about a sore throat but once he gets a dose of medicine, he's fine for the rest of the day. So we'll see. I'm sure all the candy REALLY helped their immune systems! (They eat healthy the rest of the day, I promise!)

I wish I could say I haven't written much in the last few weeks because we have been so busy doing exciting and fulfilling things. Or because I've been working on writing an AMAZING blog post that would win me lots of "blog awards".  Sadly (as you're about to see) that is not the case. But, because I use this to remember what happened, and because I am SO SICK of seeing that redneck thing, it's time for me to write something. So, here it comes (cue introduction music of your choice) Random Tidbits of Information!

First, the Weather Edition:

• Two weeks ago we had a few days in the 60s! Beautiful warm days that we spent some time outside in. One day involved rain ALL day. But it was a warm rain! So I tried to push encourage the boys to play outside. Alex was game and out as soon as I got his jacket and shoes on. Will wouldn't go (even with the promise of being able to play in his fireman raincoat). Alex had a great time jumping in puddles, splashing in the sandbox (he had taken the lid off the day before) and came back in soaked. Pants, shoes, socks all completely soaked.  But it was warm!
• Now we're having record cold…but since this has hit most of the country, I think most people have heard about it. Yesterday at 10 am it was 8. Sunny but REALLY cold and windy which made it even worse. Last night we got down into the negatives (but not sure of the actual total right now).  This will be short lived though, we're supposed to get up to a balmy 33 tomorrow! At least there is no snow. While Will is sad ("we need to have enough snow to cover ALL the bits of grass!") I'm glad! I would hate to have them wanting to play out in the snow when it is this bitter cold out. We are supposed to get some snow Tuesday–we'll see if is enough to make Will happy and to play in.
• And, as we're in this ARTIC CHILL (as the weather guys are calling it) I can't help but think "I was supposed to be in sunny, warm Kenya right now!" 

Now, the Family Edition:

• I got to start working for James' company last week (the main reason for no blog posts).  It was for two projects that I finished today. I'm hoping for a few more, but not counting on it.
• Our front door has some decorative glass in it…with the sunshine we've had, we have several rainbows that move across the floor in the living room as the sun moves each day.  The first time Alex notice this, he started yelling "ma mow!" (Which sounded a lot like his cinnamon roll "Min-a-men wol") It took me a few moments to realized he was yelling "Rainbow!"  He has a great time rediscovering it and yelling/pointing it out for us.
• Will has been cracking us up with funny things, but for the life of me I can't remember any of them right now (and I told myself I needed to remember it so I could write it down! Two of them were going to and from church this morning–is the memory the first to go?).  And I don't want to leave him off. So here's a funny thing–we were told by one of his Sunday School teachers he may be an accountant. He LOVES to play with the money & toy cash register they have for free play in his class. I think part of it is his realization that money buys things. And bless his capitalistic little heart, he likes things! We're going to start working on a system where he can earn some money…I'm just not quite sure what yet.
• So, I have two weeks before I start teaching. I'm hoping to do some major organizing/sorting/getting things ready for a spring garage sale during that time. I'm writing it here thinking it's more likely to happen then if I just think it!

That's about it. We're trying to stay warm and I'm trying to come up with ways to keep us from getting cabin fever too much. We'll let you know how it goes! :-) 

Between the time outs and the racing, I think we are raising a redneck.

Yesterday we let will stay up from his nap to watch the Colts v. Chargers game. It was the first game back for Marvin Harrison so we were pointing him out to the Tort. We mentioned that he was the number 88.

In trying to determine where he was on the field the Tort asked, “Which car is the number 88?”

Good thing the Daytona 500 is only 34 days, 5hours and 52 minutes away.

Tomorrow is Alex’s 2nd Birthday. We decided to celebrate it tonight because of all the important things happening tomorrow–church, the Colt’s playoff game, etc. (Poor kid, it’s rough to have a birthday around playoff time!)

Because we decided to celebrate today this afternoon, we made cupcakes, iced them and had his birthday celebration today. There were some really cute pictures, so you can click on this one to see the whole set:

Alex's Birthday!

We had a nice, small, family celebration (why put work into it when he’s too young to know?) We took him out to dinner for his birthday celebration, we went to Fazoli’s (how nice to be able to decide FOR him!). He enjoyed the meatballs and bread sticks. When we got back it was time to open presents! Alex was quite excited to see those! He had a fun time opening them and playing with them right away. (I’m not telling you what he got so you’ll have an incentive to look at the pictures! :-D)

Will kept asking about when we’d eat the cupcakes, but he had to wait until Alex was ready. Once HE said “Cupcake!”, we got his out (you’ll see the one in the pictures) and put the candles in. He did a great job at blowing the candles out, for a two year old. He got one out on the first try and seem to find the smoke really interesting. Then he tried again, and didn’t get the second one out. “I missed!” he said. Third time was the charm and he got the second candle out. Cupcakes were enjoyed by all!