My husband rocks

I'm slightly delirious from sickness but my husband does really rock.  My new job doesn't come with any sick day benefits.  Can you believe that employer?  I'm not flu sick or strep throat sick which is probably the only time I would have really called in sick to work anyway BUT it's not rainbows and butterflies trying to care for children all day while having a hacking cough, throbbing headache and hardly a voice.  My voice is better than yesterday but most times I say something the recipient asks me to repeat what I just said. Understandably since I sound like a drunk with a 50 year smoking history.  But it takes effort to talk.  So when I have to say it AGAIN I usually give up.  It's just not worth the exertion.

Back to why my husband rocks.  He has to work.  But he left work early to come home and help out.  And he ordered me straight to bed.  I wandered around for 5-10 minutes because I wasn't sure what to really do with myself.   I mean, there are 3 hungry kids around.  But he kept ordering me until I finally saw the light and  realized how great this action was going to be.

What mom has time to be sick anyways?  At Christmas time??  With hardly any shopping done???  

I'm holed up in my bedroom (if kids knew I was actually laying in bed no rest would be happening) but I can hear Randy cooking dinner.  And whistling.  Did I mention he rocks?

Side note: Harrison has a pretty bad habit of yelling "MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COME QUICK!!!!!!!" and my inner track star comes out but I'll find Henry sitting nicely on the rocking chair in his room.  Harrison is totally correct that I don't want Henry unsupervised on the chair; however, I've started encouraging him to describe the scene to me before completely freaking me out.  I mean, if I hear "MOM, COME QUICK!!!  IT'S HENRY" of course I imagine he crawled up the wall and is caught in the imaginary ceiling fan.   Instead of the boy who cried wolf, this has been the boy who freaked his mother out 10 times a day.  Since this mom was forced to lay in bed, guess what I just heard?  "DAD, COME QUICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and Randy's pounding footsteps as he ran down the hall.  Guess our lesson on describing the situation will continue.

Another thing I have to mention....he not only made dinner but he's also emptying and filling the dishwasher.  Love that man.

Brotherhood

The joys of brotherhood include Harrison teaching Henry new things.  Harrison teaches Henry new words almost daily, usually things like "truck" and "trains".  It always melts my heart when I hear it.

Today I overheard another language lesson while Harrison and Henry were in the bathroom.  Harrison was finishing up his bathroom duty while Henry was waiting for his bath.  Harrison said "Henry, say junk."

Yep, joys of having boys.

To note-we have always called our body parts the appropriate names.  "Junk" is a recent discovery and I believe it was learned from his father.

Sick kid. Elf with pointy legs. Fitting title.

Lily is home sick today.  I don't think she's really sick.  She has a constant runny nose and is mopey but no fever, thankfully.  She's had her fair share of fevers so it's nice (?) to just have a cold.  And apparently, having all 3 kids at home with one constantly demanding more toast (the sick one) is when I find time to blog.    Harrison is enjoying Lily's sickness since this means he can watch tv with her.  Henry is quiet too.  As I typed that I got scared and now I can confirm his quietness means he is watching Thomas the Tank Engine on the portable DVD player.

Other news around our house...our Elf on the Shelf, Will, arrived last Saturday.  This is his 2nd year with our family.  Last year was great.  This year started great.  Will's arrival included a fun breakfast of sugar- complete with doughnuts, marshmallows, chocolate milk and hot chocolate.  He even brought fun straw glasses where the chocolate milk swirled around the kids' eyes and ears.  And yes, they were made for kids. Not college students if you know what I mean.  And no, I never used one as a college student.  I was way more sophisticated than that.  I used Randy's 3 story beer bong.  Once.

Back to Will, our Elf.  Let's just say he lasted 3 days before he started scaring the you-know-what out of Harrison.  Apparently, his elf legs creeped him out.  They are sort of long and pointy-ish.  So Will took this to heart and started hiding in spots that hid his legs.  It didn't work.  Yesterday, Will was in a large vase on the highest book shelf in OUR room.  The day started fine with all 3 kids saying Hi to Will.  But things went down hill fast when Harrison was left alone while I rocked Henry to sleep for his nap.  Harrison would normally hang out in my room and either play a x-box game or watch a show.  When I came out of Henry's room I found Harrison lying on the living room floor.  Just lying there.  Bored but scared.  He didn't want to go into my room since that scary elf with the strange grin and even stranger elf legs was there.  Staring at him the minute he walked into my room.  So we decided I would move Will to the bathroom.  Well, you cannot touch the elfves.  Or they lose their magic.  Will needs his magic to fly to the North Pole nightly to report the good (and bad, imagine that!) behavior, fly back home and hide in a new spot (preferably one so we couldn't see his legs) and watch how the kids' behaved.  So I carefully moved the entire vase into my bathroom.  Harrison was happy.  He didn't use my bathroom again but that is fine with me (he is a 5 year old boy with a 5 year old aim).

I wish our story ended there but it doesn't.  Will was instructed to return to the North Pole and never come back.  Per Harrison.  We settled on asking Will to watch our family from the North Pole and not come back to the house for a while.  So this morning Will wasn't here.  Harrison was soooo happy and relieved.  Lily, on the other hand, was devastated.  She cried and cried.  So much that Harrison decided Will could come back tomorrow.  Oy!   Will, the scary Elf on the Shelf with pointy Elf legs, saga will continue I'm sure!

Guest blogger

I am going to introduce you to a guest blogger. She is very creative and loves to write. She is a darling and I'm happy to introduce her writing to you.

Stay tuned....

lilys post

this is lily. i love mommy and daddy and fandml too. daddy is backinn panckas. but i am not eatin tham. i am eatin eggs. Harrison is eatin them tho. nevrmid i eat tham.

it is litin out sid. it is ranin out sid rile hrd. the deck is rele wet. our deck is rile wet like a putl.

ckewes are gren.

Gymnastics

Lily started gymnastics about a month ago.  She is a tumbling bumbling gymnest.  She is loving it and she's good.  She has been practicing her back bends, forward rolls and cartwheels.  It's once a week for one hour.  Which also means keeping 2 boys entertained for 1 hour in a tight space with lots of people around.  After that first lesson, which was exciting for Lily but disastrous for the boys and I (I didn't bring 1 snack or 1 toy, what kind of mom does that???), I now bring along a huge purse full of toys, books and snacks.  Much better!

Today, however, Randy came home from work early and guess what?  He stayed home with the boys while I brought Lily!  Can you even imagine how exciting that is??  Not that I don't enjoy the boys coming along but it meant I could SIT and WATCH.  I enjoyed every minute.  Lily enjoyed it too since I caught her frequently looking for me in the parent gawking window.  I would wave and she would discreetly wave back.

Happy Birthday Randall!

In honor of my hubby's 37th birthday yesterday, I'm going to let the world know about 37 things I love about him.  In no particular order...

1.)  He's hot.  I innocently stalked him for months because he was the hot guy that worked a few stores away from me in the mall.  Hey, no judging.  Who didn't stalk when they were 17?

2.) He plays piano.  Really good.  On our 2nd "date" I picked him up at his house and when I rang the doorbell I heard piano music.  He was playing Open Arms by Journey.  Coincidence?  No, he knew what he was doing.

3.) He's smart.  Not just smart but smart.  He would roll his eyes about any bragging but it's true.  He's not just well educated about supernovas, soft x-rays and sub-orbital rocket payloads but he knows a lot about well, everything.  Someone could ask a random question and he will know the answer.  I frequently tell him he could just be making stuff up and everyone will believe him.  Maybe next time I should fact check him.  

4.) He's loved by my family.  I have deeply felt for many years he is more loved than I am.  By my own mother.  

5.) He's proud to be the baby of his family.  I'm not the baby so this concept is crazy to me but I've seen it with my own eyes.  He will say "I wish I had apple pie".  And it appears.  He will think (without saying a word) that he's hungry for his favorite pizza.  And it appears. One thing that always coincides with these strange occurrences is that they only happen when his mom is around. :)

6.) He's a good boy.  Tied closely to #5.  His mom does those things for him because he's a good boy.  She raised him to be a good boy and whatever she did, she did it right.  

7.) He's a good masseuse.  My neck and my back thank him.

8.) He's a funny guy.  He says "cool story" way too much but other than that I find him funny.

9.) He can cook a mean breakfast.  Eggs and pancakes are 2 specialties   Yum. 

10.) He's protective.  He always keeps me in his reach while getting through crowds.  

11.) He reads.  We don't usually read the same type of books (we gave Harry Potter a cute couple attempt but it only put me straight to sleep).  He recently recommended a book he read and I'm currently enthralled in it.  Maybe someday he'll read something I recommend.  Probably not but I don't blame him.  

12.) He calms me.  Like no other.  Just having him in my vicinity keeps me calm.  

13.) He's a dandy, handyman.  I showed him some pictures of a long shelf with hooks that I really wanted but couldn't find in stores.  Guess what he's been working on?  Yep, he's mine.

14.) He's my bedwarmer.  

15.)  He's likeable.  This guy has friends.  Friends from childhood, friends from college, friends from graduate school, friends from work, friends from all over the world.  He had 10 groomsmen in our wedding and if he could of had more he would have.  

16.) He loves his nieces and nephews.  He might punch them in the arm.  Hard. But he truly loves them. 

17.) He's up for adventure.  He's a snowboarder.  Loves roller coasters.  Really loves ultimate frisbee.  Really loves ultimate frisbee.  Yes, I meant to report that twice.  

18.) He's not afraid to admit any grouchiness is 100% related to hunger.  If he was Edward his dark eyes would warn me.  Not that I want him to be Edward.  Not at all.  

19.)  Speaking of Edward, he takes me to see Twilight movies. And doesn't complain.  

20.) He has great taste in music.  He has a knack for finding talent before the radio stations start playing them over and over.  

21.) He goes to the kids' school to teach them about rockets and meteorites.  How cool is it to have your daddy teach your class?  And be his helper when he launches rockets for your friends. 

22.)  He's a good dresser.  He might get a lot of grief from Ted, but he can dress.  And #1 is a reflection of this.

23.) He's a good daddy.  He's good with every part of parenthood.  He's good with the baby stage, toddler stage, older kid stage.  He's good running the house and kids when I'm away.  He can take all 3 kids to the mall (on a cold, rainy Saturday)  without a second thought.

24.) He is 100% fine when I take girl trips.  Yay me!

25.) He's a good teacher.  He frequently gets fantastic comments from students on their teacher reviews.

26.) He's a good saver and a spender.  He has helped us become financially stable so I could quit working but he is balanced so we can enjoy an occasional dinner out/movie, etc.

27.) He helps me to organize my mental thoughts.  If something it taking up too much thought and causing stress he helps me see this which in turn, helps me focus my energy on more important things.

28.) He helps me prioritize my projects.  Even before Pinterest I had multiple, grand crafty ideas; however, it frequently led to stress, spending too much money, taking too much time and not always getting the result I hoped for.  I've been presenting my ideas to him since he provides a truthful answer to which projects are worth my time and effort.

29.) He's supportive.  The main thing is that he supported the decision for me to quit work to stay home with the kids.  But he's also supportive when I recently joined a new gym (again).  He supports the kids in their hobbies and sports and doesn't push anyone to do anything they don't want to.

30.) He can bake.  He's made his mom's apple pie, sauerkraut soup, etc.

31.) He cleans!  He got home from work early a few days ago, before I got home with the kids, and we found him vacuuming.  With a smile on his face.

32.) He plays with the kids.  Everyday.  He plays legos, trains, he draws and colors, he wrestles, plays hide and seek, etc.  If the kids say "play with me, daddy" he always does.

33.) He has manners.  And uses them.

34.) He bought me a diamond ring last Valentine's Day.  I don't want to sound way too materialistic, I only included it here because of the way he did it.  He took Harrison shopping with him to buy it, kept it secret for 3 days before giving it to me in the exact same way he proposed to me.  Awwww.

35.) Speaking of keeping my ring a secret for 3 days, I love that he CANNOT keep present secrets.  He has shaken his gifts before to find out what they are (how does one shake a coffee grinder and KNOW it's a coffee grinder?).  Typically he will give me a present before my b-day because he cannot wait.  I can, he can't.

36.) If asked to keep a real (not present related) secret he will.  Even from his wife.  I normally feel the significant other can be excluded from the don't tell anyone else rule.  But I was impressed when a friend asked him to keep a secret and he did it.  Granted, I've learned of what the secret was at some point (not from Randy but from the friend that mentioned something,  thinking I knew the secret).  The friend and myself were very surprised.

37.) He loves me.  He first said "I love you" 3 weeks after we started dating and says it multiple times everyday since.  Even better is that his actions speak louder than words.

One doesn't always get the opportunity to tell the world but I have it via my blog so I want the world to know how much I love my husband. I love you baby.  You're awesome.   And I know your 37th year will be filled with a lot of fun, a lot of laughs and a lot of love from your family.  

New House

I mentioned a blog post or two ago that I would write about our new house. So I will. It's fabulous. We love it. Since we decided to build rather quickly we didn't have a long list of must-haves. But thanks to pinterest we managed to incorporate a dining room bench and mud room/laundry room lockers. The overall process was very smooth and lasted about 3.5 months. Like I mentioned before the house is smaller than our old one but it's a lot more functional. We have plenty of space. We have some empty cupboards even. Most everything has a place. Just wished it magically ended up there daily.

 Even though we have space we decided to move forward with the basement finishing. Mostly so the kids can have their own bedrooms. Even though Lily and Harrison had their own rooms in our old house they shared a bunk bed in Lily's room (Harrison had a bed just never chose to sleep in it). I didn't think they would mind if we continued this process but I was wrong. Not long after moving in Lily was requesting her own room. I thought some fun, neutral decor would help. It didn't. I thought giving her choice of top bunk or bottom bunk would help. It didn't. I can say I'm beyond excited about decorating a very girlie room for her. Again, thanks to Pinterest it's gonna rock!