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!

Where to start?

I know exactly where I want to start with this blog post...my hot topic is that I'm now a stay at home mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!! Yay!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!! It took almost 7 years but I'm very happy the time finally arrived. It wasn't easy. It took some serious grown up choices. It took selling our "dream" house. Which took a kitchen and master bathroom remodel. It.took.time.

I do wish I had more frequent reminders just how difficult working at home with children was. I've conducted meetings while making mac and cheese. When it was my turn to talk I would hide in my pantry. I've listened to teleconferences while putting Henry down for his nap. That tells you how exciting my teleconferences are that my baby can fall easily asleep while listening on speakerphone. I've driven all over our city to find a location with cell phone service to hold yet another teleconference that was too close to early out time. That same time I had a smoothie ready to pop into Henry's mouth if he started to cry. Yeah, those are great reminders for me. I was very happy working from home (if I had to work) but I don't want to do that for sometime. :)

My current days are filled with my boys. So...that means my days are basically crazy. :) Lots of wrestling or yelling for the boys to be careful so neither gets hurt, specifically the little one. Lots of railroad building. Lots of books. Lots of snacks. Harrison turned 5 a few days after school started but ~3 weeks before the cut off. We opted to wait until next year to send him to kindergarten. We did our research. We know our child. We felt this was the right decision for him. We didn't base our decision on what was easier for us. But I have to say that it definitely affects me and I'm sooooo very happy we waited since I get to spend this year with him before sending him off to school and never having this opportunity again. He is officially attending "mommy school." We are still figuring out our routine and Henry adds an interesting mix to the school part. Today was a good day with a good mix of fun, errands, dr appt and learning. And a nap by BOTH boys (first time in years)! Yes, today was a good day!

Monthly posts are pretty good, right? I usually avoid blogging since I feel like I'm way behind on what I SHOULD be blogging about (that probably only makes complete sense to me). I have decided to blog about whatever and be okay with it. If I forget to blog about Lily's 4th tooth that fell out (haha, killed 2 birds with 1 stone there!) or Henry's new sound effect, I need to be okay with it and keep on going. My best friend, Kerry, recently told me that doing things good enough is okay. I don't have to do things perfectly or even great, if I do them good enough, than I should be happy. So I'm gonna, darn it. This weekend was mellow and that's how I like it. Friday night was our typical kid's movie night. Lily and Harrison get to pick out a kid movie, eat some ice cream (Lily's favorite) or popcorn (Harrison's pick this week) and stay up a little bit later than school nights. I also hosted a girl get together where some scrapbooked, some organized their cookbooks and some did other pinterest-like projects. Girl time is always a necessity. I worked on Harrison's scrapbook and only finished 2 pages but that was 2 more than I had already done. See. Good enough. Saturday was a traditional day celebrated in Korea, Children's Day. Besides the fabulous food Randy's mom makes, we haven't experienced much of the Korea culture. A few weeks ago I was searching for Korean crafts and games for Harrison's International Festival at his preschool. I came across Children's Day and decided we needed to start celebrating it. It's basically a day to spoil your kids. In Korea the children get the day off school, get presents from their parents and also get treated at stores and kid places throughout Korea. We did buy the kids a present but otherwise just telling them it was Children's Day was enough. Lily and Harrison LOVED it. They even used it against us! One time I asked Harrison to do something and he said it was Children's Day and he didn't have to. I can't remember what it was but I know it wasn't bad. It made me laugh and I quickly followed it up with reminding him tomorrow wasn't. :) The rest of the day included pancakes for breakfast (Harrison and Henry's favorite), trip to "Safe Day" which is fire trucks, ambulances, buses, etc for the kids to explore, trip to a Asian market to stock up on tasty treats, a family water fight (thanks to the Darth Vader mask I won until Randy and Harrison broke out the hose), side walk painting and ended with dinner at a Korean resturant. We also talked a lot about what it means to be part Korean. Lily drew a pretty picture about Korea. At the end of the night she said she was happy to be part "Korea." Today was filled with cleaning (kids even helped a decent amount), playing outside, I took Lily and Henry on a bike ride (them in trailer) while Harrison napped (rare), swim lessons (they are getting good!!), Randy got a jog in, Henry napped twice, met up with closet organizer lady at our new house (still being built), baths for older kids and an uneventful bedtime. I will post about the new house sometime soon!!

Childish but oh so fun!!

Kind of funny that I finally blogged on April Fool's Day. So I have to take a minute to report how childish I am and how I got Randy this April Fool's Day. It started when I was up really late since I took a late evening nap. I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. When I looked at the clock it was April Fool's Day so I got to work. I painted Randy's toe nails hot pink. This still makes me laugh since I had to expose his feet, hold my cell phone in my mouth for light and try to paint his toe nails so he wouldn't wake up and wouldn't smear nail polish all over our sheets. Mission accomplished! Onto the next fool...I decided Harrison needed matching hot pink toe nails. He actually woke up and asked me to cuddle with him. I was happy to do so but after he was conked back out I painted his pretty little toe nails. I kept my pranks for Lily pretty simple and put her huge, stuffed animal on the potty. She got a kick out of it when she went to use the toilet. But I'm not done yet! The grand finale was when I cut up confetti and put on our ceiling fan to our bedroom. I put the fan on high speed and constantly reminded myself NOT to go into our bedroom and turn on the light. Poor Randy. He actually got a kick out this one! I was in the next room so I knew when he came looking for me. I was happily impressed with how well the confetti coated our bedroom. :) Randy said he couldn't wait for tomorrow. Not to get me back but so April Fool's Day would be over. :)

HELLO!!!

Hello! Wow, that's been 1 long absence!!! I guarantee the many, MANY month absence does not mean we haven't been doing anything fun to write about. Quite the opposite!! Too much crazy stuff going on and well, the blog is the last to get any attention. Blame the kids. :)

Speaking of the kids...they are all doing fabulous! Henry had his first birthday on Feb 22. He is still so little so it's hard to believe he can really be a year old. But he's doing what 1 year old kiddos should be...talking, loving his brother and sister, eating big kid food and getting all over the place. He's been cruising furniture since he was 7 months old but he is taking his time to independently walk. He's getting close and this week he's standing frequently, takes 2-4 steps and drives to whatever he was trying to get. I'm trying to savor the last days of him hanging out in his stroller, unaware he can get out and explore his environment. My friend Kerry reminded me of this as she chased her 3 year old and 1.5 year old around the playground as I causally sat by Henry and watched Lily play. My days are numbered!
Harrison is 4 and a HALF. Do not dare says he's 4. His happiness is simple. Play army guys with him (with ourselves as the army guys, not the plastic ones) or hang with him as he plays Angry Birds on the ipad. In school he is becoming more interested in learning letter sounds and has been writing his whole name. That's not easy when he has 8 letters! He's not overly thrilled to practice writing his name but when I dangle the ipad in front of him he will practice it. :) I can't forget to mention he likes pancakes. Again, his happiness is simple. You should see the smile 1 pancake can produce. :)
Lily is 6 years old. She is close to 6.5 years but I want to savor every part of 6 I can. When she talks about her 7th birthday I plugged my ears. This girl loves kindergarten. She loves her teacher and I means LOVES her. Her teacher probably gets 10 Lily hugs every day. When she's not in school she draws pictures for her teacher. Speaking of drawing, this girl can draw. She impresses us all the time with a new detailed picture. She even had her artwork celebrated at a local bank. Our house has buckets of markers all over it cuz she will color anytime, anyplace. Right now she fell asleep with a marker on her headboard. Lily is still a sweet little girl and loves all girlie things but won't pass up a mud puddle or hunting worms. She recently set up a worm house to shelter all those misdirected worms we find. She started taking piano lessons recently. It's a group lesson with some other girls from her kindergarten class. Practicing at home isn't her top priority but last week I provided an incentive...if she practiced piano and wrote her last name 3 times she could get a prize from the grab bag. She repeated this the next day and again the next day. Of course I had to up the stakes but she did what she needed to get more prizes. :) Lily also chose to take French lessons offered at her school. Hopefully one day she'll be our translator during a trip to France!

Randy is doing really great about now. If I blogged a few weeks ago then no since he was in the midst of proposal writing. That means he works day and night, night and day for weeks. All that hard work to write his proposals is paying off and he's been awarded some impressive grants recently! On the playful side, he just took up golfing on a more serious level and tries to play frisbee golf as much as I'd let him. :)

I'm still working full time from home. I love the at home gig but it's getting more tricky with Henry at home. I actually started blogging tonight as a way to avoid further work (who wants to work on a Sunday night anyway?). My work is flexible so I can work at night after the kiddos are fast asleep. Our big house news is that we sold our "dream house" and plan to simply our lives. The "dream house" was bigger than we needed (I know, that seems really silly to say), hard to keep up with cleaning that big house and that big, ginormous wooded yard?? Well, we are happy NOT to mow it anymore or spend hours picking up sticks after a windy day. I will miss that house but mostly because it's where we bought Henry home from the hospital. I'm a bit sentimental like that. Since we sold at Thanksgiving time and need to move RIGHT after Christmas (yay for us! not!)we had to rent since we didn't find anything to buy. Since we were renting for 6 months we decided to look into building. We really didn't expect to do this since we have a tight budget but guess what?? We're building!! Well, not us but some fabulous builders are doing a very impressive job. We should be in by early summer and I.CAN'T.WAIT!!!!

Hopefully I'll have blogging back in my blood now!!!!