A Date Worth Remembering

Today is the anniversary of my first date with PTB (but back then I only knew him as Patrick Mitchell from church).  So these babies are now 5 years old:

Truthfully, when we painted them, I expected that the poor things would have to be split up so that Patrick could take his salt shaker and I could have my pepper shaker and the two of us could go on our merry, but separate ways.  Little did I know that 5 years later they would still be serving the both of us in the kitchen we share.

Thanks for a great first date, PTB.  I thought you were something special then.  Now I know it for sure.

This is What We Do

To the reader:

 This is an account of what we do while PTB is away.

In the morning, we wrestle with pillows.

Gerret takes off his socks.

Nolan does too. 

Someone typically poops and I clean it up. 

We read books.  

We go outside and dig in the dirt and ride bikes (until it gets unbearably cold next week.  I'm sure it will.)

Gerret takes a nap while Nolan watches Handy Manny and I get some exercise.

We eat lunch.

We play with toys.  We have a lot of toys, but some favorites at the moment are:

1. All Woo-Wee Trucks

2. The Spaceship

3. Handy Manny Tool Box

4. Pretend Food and Kitchenware

5.  A Stuffed Cat that used to be mine.  I don't think it's the most attractive thing, but he recently decided it needs to follow him around the house.  

6.  Wooden Blocks.  Classic.  Never fails us.

Then all brown eyed boys take a nap.

This time is precious and sacred.

And then it's over.

We eat a snack.

Someone else typically poops at this time and I clean it up.

We go outside again. 

Or those boys take a bath.

Or we play inside.

Or we read books.

It's definitely not very structured.

Then it's time to make dinner. 

I start counting down until the phone rings and I hear PTB say "I love you.  I'm coming home.  Can I get anything for you?"

I always hope there is nothing I need for him to get, so that he can just come home.

Please Boy, just come home.

And that is my day.

Usually.

But someday soon, Mommy School will really start to happen and things will be quite different.   In a good way.

The end.

Makes My Day

Maybe he can make yours too.

Two Boys and a Cat in a Corner

with a truck and a plastic fork and a lot of drool.

What were they doing?

I really couldn't tell.  

Whatever they were trying to do made a lot of noise.

And the cat was looking a little perturbed.

He really is a patient cat.

Maybe he knows he would no longer be welcome if he did anything too terrible to my children.  

Even though they do probably deserve it sometimes.

Friday Night Adventure

Friday night was a little adventure.  There was a youth conference in Syracuse and one of my young women was going.  After lots of phone calling and e-mailing and not much luck, I decided it would be best for me to take her to Syracuse myself and make sure she would be watched over.  I didn't make this decision until Friday afternoon and she was supposed to get there by 7pm.  Syracuse is 75 miles away.  I knew that PTB wouldn't let me drive alone and I knew I couldn't take Nolan and Gerret on such a long trip.  So, I left (numerous) messages on PTB's phone letting him know that he could expect a long excursion immediately following his arrival home from work.  I didn't yet know that this excursion would be an adventure.  

Side Note:  In the back of my mind there was a little voice repeating "Coraline.  Coraline.  Coraline."  You see, the movie Coraline came out recently and I knew Syracuse was the closest place to see it 3D and I also knew that PTB was interested.  I didn't take much more thought about it than that though.  

Anyway, we did leave the house shortly after 6pm, picked up my young woman, and drove off in the north-east direction, bee-bopping to some tunes, small talking, and otherwise thinking we were on a fairly inconsequential journey.  It was kind of windy.  Then it started to lightly snow. Barely.  We  made it to the north end of Cayuga before I'd really call it snowing.  But then it was really snowing and then it was nearly white-outing and we were suddenly traveling   r  e  a  l  l  y     s  l  o  w  l  y.  And Lola was telling us to take some obscure routes.  I kept watching the cars on the plowed interstate (as we passed over it or rode along next to it) and wondered what the GPS had against main roads.  It was pretty late when we finally slid (literally) into our parking spot.  Another half hour or so and my young woman was happy and situated and looked out for and I felt comfortable leaving her, but not comfortable about returning to the slimy roads, so we made the quick decision that we would prolong our stay in Syracuse in an effort to shake the tension of the previous 3 hours.  We trusted our car to a dingy underground parking lot and paid $24 to see a pretty awesome 3d movie.  The show started at 10pm.  I felt like a teenager.  Generally I like to be in bed before midnight.  Last night I was staring at unplowed roads for a long time past midnight.  And that's how my Friday night threw down.  

If you only came here to see a picture of something cute, here it is:

If you want to hear some more, here it is:

Realizations ... (thanks to an adventure with PTB)

1.  We live in the Sticks.  You'd think that because I spent the first 18 years of my life here, I would have realized this before, but I guess it took moving away and moving back and making a long slow drive on obscure roads for it to really sink in.  I think I made a comment to the effect of "this place really is The Boonies" upon looking out the window in the town of Montezuma.  As soon as I said it out loud, I realized "this place" was really just like the place I live.  And yes, it is the sticks.  Coraline is 3D only in select theaters.  For most of you, this means finding one of those theaters in your city.  For us that means finding a city with one of those theaters.  It was 75 miles away.

2. The title Family Film means absolutely nothing.  Nobody should trust that.  Don't get me wrong, I thought Coraline was a really great movie (see #3), but I would never take a child to see it.  I'm talking nightmares for 10 years.  I'm also never sure who decides to throw a few inappropriate things into an otherwise clean movie and then who decides to label it Family Film and rate it PG.  Sheesh.  This was not a family film, folks.

3.  Did I say awesome already?  Because it was an awesome movie.  Coraline was like nothing I have ever seen.  It was quite the adventure just to sit there and watch things popping out of the screen at me.  And the characters and story were creative and good.  It was good.  I liked it.

4.  PTB kindly and quietly does so much for me and rarely complains.  This trip could have been an occasion to complain.  We didn't make it home until 2 something in the morning and he worked Saturday.  He amazes me with his patience.

5.  Having a discussion about living in Arizona while driving in white out conditions is like grocery shopping while hungry.  We did it anyway, but I know that it was all silly talk.  Even so, driving in snow is no fun and sometimes down right harrowing and does really make somewhere snow-free sound nice.  I also know there are prices to pay.  Either way. 

6.  Under the right circumstances, I can still be mistaken for a 16 year old.  Those circumstances include standing next to other 16 year olds and standing there minus children or husband.  Upon arriving at this youth conference, I was asked numerous times to register/which unit I was from/who was my leader.  Ahem.... I am the leader!  Perhaps when I'm 40 people will finally assume I'm old enough to vote.

My Life with Toys

I love being the mom of boys.  I know I would like to be the mom of girls too, but boys and girls are definitely different (though people in Ithaca tend to get confused about this fact) and right now, I really just like being the mom of boys.  It gets my adrenaline pumping.  Like an extreme sport.

It's constant adventure 'round here folks.  --Never a dull meal, or diaper change, or cuddle, or anything in between.  Never a quiet any of that either.  

And they have so many fun toys.  My favorite this week was this little pretty:

Isn't is pretty?

Now don't you want one too? (the space ship, not the boy -he's all mine)

Sunshine and Snow

Sunshine eventually melts snow, if there's enough of it.  In the interim, when sunshine and snow get together and shake hands, you'd better bring sunglasses for the event.  Unfortunately, when the event took place in Upstate NY, the only thing on my mind was, "No frostbite today!"  

2 hats.

6 boots.

4 mittens.

3 coats.

out the door.

bask in the glory of not being cooped up inside.

Ahhh yeah.

We lasted about 30 minutes.  And we were blinded.  But there was still enough glory in not being cooped up inside that we were willing to endure the sunshine.  You would to if you hadn't purposely gone outside in 3 or 4 months.  We had fun.  Nolan rediscovered his bulldozer, right where he left it back in November.  He was more than pleased to move some snow with it while I pulled an excited little drool face around in this:

One Year Old Stats

Gerret weighed in at the doctor's this week.

19 lbs. 12 oz.,  29.25 inches long   19.25 in. in original post...oops... pretty impossible as he was 21 in. at birth -thanks, Desta, for bringing this blunder to my attention

1 year, 3 weeks old

A little guy.

Just like his brother.