Cheers!

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name and they're always glad you came...

The staff at the urgent care center in Elverson are starting to recognize and remember us I think. Soon they'll be calling child protective services on me... Either that or dedicating a room just for my family.

Yep, you read that right. We paid another visit to urgent care. G broke her thumb. It's a nondisplaced fracture of her left thumb which means it isn't knocked out of position so we didn't have to rush right over to the ortho. She's splinted up and I have to get her an appointment for next week.

Want to guess how she did it? Girl on sled, sled on thumb. *sigh*

Retro Day

The kids' school had a "Spirit Week" two weeks ago (it's taken me forever to upload pics from my camera). Every day had a different theme such as Hobo Day, Color Day, and Retro Day. It took a lot of talking to convince Ty that Retro Day didn't necessarily mean G had to dress in 50's or 60's like he and S3 did. She went as a flapper. S3 said they practically had the cast of Grease in his 7th grade class. He wore a leather jacket over his "costume."

Happy Valentine's Day

I can't imagine anything more romantic than this:

Skeleton Couple Locked in Embrace for 5,000 Years

"Buried between 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric lovers are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig."



Locked in an eternal embrace

"We have found plenty of women embracing children but never a couple. Much less a couple hugging -- and they really are hugging. It's possible that the man died first and then the woman was killed in sacrifice to accompany his soul."

Happy 8th Birthday Gracie!

New Spread for the Bed

I've been un-enamored of our bedding for a little while now but Steve is not keen on change so even though our spread is almost ten years old and even though it's a bright pink, purple, yellow and green plaid and even though he never much liked it in the first place, he really didn't want to get a new bedspread. Well finally it started ripping and now the rip in the spread is so bad there's no choice but to get a new one.

So today I was at the Pennies outlet looking at scrubs (they have the best prices) and on a whim I went upstairs to look at the household section and wound up buying a new comforter. It's jacquards, velvet and silk and best of all because I got it at the Pennies outlet it was only $60. I still need to get the shams and curtains but they didn't have them in the store. I'll have to order online. I guess since right now our walls are pink it's time to get out the paintbrush again. I want to paint them that buttery tan color in the spread.

Sleepless in Pennsylvania

Well it's been two years and I was just laughing at my dad for getting his juror notice in the mail so it figures it's about my turn. I don't know how it works but every two years both my father and I get jury duty notice within months of each other.

So Monday I worked then went straight from work to the court house. I ran into a really nice lady in the parking garage and sorta attached myself to her. She was pleasantly chatty and that helped me keep my eyes open. There were 150 or so of us that day and they split us into two groups for two criminal cases. Luckily for me I was not chosen to serve on the jury and by 11:30 I was back in the holding tank with my jacket, fantasies of my pjs dancing in my head.

It was not to be.

The guy in charge told us to go to lunch and come back by 1:15. They were going to take the losers from our group and the losers from the other group and throw us back together to form another jury pool. That case was horrible, horrible, horrible. The stuff of nightmares. I was praying the whole time I wouldn't be picked. I didn't even want to be in the same room with the defendant. I think just about half the jury stood up at some point and said they just didn't think they could be fair and impartial. It was bad. Again luckily for me, I was not picked to serve on that trial jury. I heard later that he was convicted. I hope it helps bring peace to the victims' family.

I think I got out of there around four, picked up E from my sister's house, grabbed Ty and G and ran to Body Zone for G's first indoor game this season. They ended up getting totally creamed. The score board went up to 10. I lost track at around 15. Eventually I saw on their website that G's team lost 25 - 0. Ouch. She really played her little heart out. She is a very intense competitor and afterward she invariably falls apart in my arms, her little body wracked with sobs. Then she's ok again. It's like she has to cry out all her tension before she can move on. She even cries when she wins. Her coach said to me, "We're going to have to work on that. This is supposed to be fun." Yeah. Good luck with that Coach.

I think I finally crawled in bed around 9 pm. Nearly 36 hours awake which I think might be a record for me but I'm not sure. I've heard one can be declared legally insane after three sleepless days. I was half way there.

Here's a bonus funny story for you:

While we were at soccer E was getting bored so I pulled my mp3 player out and hooked her up. She immediately started dancing as she usually does, executing beautiful pirouettes and butt-wiggles. She was performing a particularly complicated pirouette and ran *SMACK* into the clear glass wall that surrounds the soccer field. Being the good mother that I am I immediately started howling with laughter. This sweet grandmotherly type - you know the stereotypical little old lady with white hair and cookies type - turns to me and says, "Maybe we shouldn't laugh until we find out if she's ok."

I said, "Right now I can't see anything through my tears of laughter anyway."

By the by, she was ok. A little embarrassed but ok. Just don't tell her I told you this story.

Be Still My Heart

Really does it get any better than David Beckham as Prince Phillip from Disney's Sleeping Beauty photographed by the incredible Annie Leibovitz?

I could die happy right now.

Read up about it here:
Soccer Star David Beckham Becomes Newest Prince for Disney

A Volunteer, Army Style

I was in Wal-Mart today with my three youngest children. Granted we were not in a section that was of much or any interest to them but their behavior was above and beyond wild and obnoxious. Finally I had enough and as I turned around with flames in my eyes Ty grabbed G by her shoulders to stop her. I said, "Who wants the first spanking???"

Ty very subtly gave G a little push forward.

I tried to be mad, I really did.

Superior Timing

We're about half way through basketball season. Mid-terms are starting on Wednesday. What better time to have a severe sprain of your right wrist?

S3 spent the weekend at his friends' house skating. He came home around 11 PM on Saturday swollen and purple. He didn't want to tell his friend's mom because she would have made them stop skating so he and I spent Sunday morning at urgent care. The doc there said he was pretty sure it was a sprain and not a growth plate fracture so they splinted him up and sent us home. He's not allowed to skate or play basketball for two weeks. He was pretty ok with everything until on the ride home he realized that the air-hockey championships are this week and he's in the lead. Now he won't be able to play. Yeah, that's what we should be most upset about.

Holiday Party

Here's another thing I can share with you now that we know that Steve will be staying with his current employer... This year marks his tenth year of employment. The HR director called me a month ago and asked me what Steve would like for his ten-year gift. She gave me a dollar amount and told me it was supposed to be a surprise. Well there's no way I'm going to pick out his ten-year gift without his input so together we decided on a cantered hutch for our dining room made by our friends, the D's. They own a furniture store in a nearby town. We helped them in very little ways when they got started several years ago as friends are wont to do. Ed has said that he'd like to give us a dining room set as a thank you but Steve and I were never really very comfortable accepting such a lavish gift. As it turns out when we ordered the cantered hutch, Ed happened to have a return on a table. He is insistent that we accept the table and four chairs (we'll have to order a couple more to fit our family) and he's finishing my cantered hutch to match the table and chairs. So in a round-about way we're getting a whole brand-new dining room set! Now I'm trying to talk Steve into restoring our floors while all the furniture is out. At the very least I've talked him into redecorating the downstairs rooms.

What does all this have to do with the Holiday Party? Well that's when they'll present Steve with his "surprise." It's a fun party with good food and a DJ and I get all dolled up. Unfortunately we didn't know what his employment status was going to be so I did agree to work the weekend of the party but I'm going to see if I can get that night off and if not we'll at least go for the dinner part. He doesn't really like to dance anyway.

I did get a dress today. Steve drove so he could give me his opinion and I took four dresses with me into the dressing room. The first one I tried on was acceptable but not fantastic. The second dress, he wasn't crazy about the stuff at the bottom but when I put on the third and stepped out of the dressing room his eyes lit up. He really liked the third dress and when I said I was going to try on the fourth he said, "Don't bother." It's nice to be able to make your husband's eyes light up like that.

A Huge Answer to Prayer

I thought maybe it was a little too sensitive for the internet at the time it was happening so I didn't blog this but we were having some major drama over here. Just before Christmas when Steve was in Italy he got an email from work. There is a buy-out going on with his company and the new owners wanted him to sign a contract that basically said if he left or was fired from this company he couldn't work for another in this industry or for any of their customers for a year.

Well I don't know if you've noticed or not but he's married, has four kids, a mortgage, two cars and three private school tuitions to support. Not working for a year is not an option.

Adding that to the amount of work and stress and the lack of financial expressions of gratitude for all the work and stress and Steve was ready to walk. I fully supported that and maybe even encouraged it but secretly I wanted to vomit. By Christmas we had no idea if Steve would even have a job in January so when one of the girls on 11-7 broke her foot and full time hours became available we decided that I should take them just in case we needed to live off my salary for a while.

I'm pleased to say that Steve has managed to negotiate everything to an extremely satisfactory level on both salary and contract ends and we are not going to have to sell our youngest child to be able to pay the mortgage this month. It's a good thing too because she's really cute. I'd hate to have to give her up.

Thank you for your prayers for our unspoken request. Jehovah Jireh!

Happy Thirteen Years

Today is our anniversary! We didn't do much since I slept all day but Steve did surprise me by bringing home a Dairy Queen Blizzard Cake for after dinner. While we were sitting around the dining room table I asked the kids to say why they were glad that Steve and I got married thirteen years ago. Here are their responses:

G: Because of the kindness. You don't make us sleep in boxes or anything like that.

E: Because you got married before Christmas.
Me: E, we got married after Christmas.
E: Oh

Ty: Because I'm alive.

S3: Because I got my good looks from Mom and Dad.

This Child Is So Hard To Parent

We were sitting around the dinner table tonight and G would not keep her feet off of Ty's chair or his person. Finally after about the tenth time of asking G to get her feet off he announced, "Hmm, I have a little something coming," then he tilted to the side and FARTED on his sister.

I so wanted to be mad.

At least his father had the presence of mind to say that it was only funny the first time.

God's Blessings

One of the girls on 11-7 broke her foot and my scheduler called and asked me to pick up her full time hours. The timing of the request was good but I worried about S3. This is the last month of basketball games and while I would still be able to come to home games, it was much more doubtful that I'd be able to get to the away games. His away games are at schools that are several hour drives away and I'm not sure I'd get home in time to make it to work. So before I accepted the hours I sat down with him and made sure it would be ok with him if I missed half his games this month. He said it was ok and I accepted the hours.

Last night I got my schedule and put it all in my Outlook calendar. It turns out that every night he has an away game, I do not have to work. Work overlaps a few home games but I can still go to those and make it home in plenty of time.

Although I never made a direct request to God to be able to make those games, He knew the desire of my heart and made it so that I can still go. I'm overwhelmed with the demonstration of His love.

Barnes & Noble

My in-laws gave me a very sweet gift card to Barnes & Noble for Christmas and it occurred to me the other day that I could probably use it online. Sure enough! I placed my order and then went to work and talked to Phil. It turns out two of the six books I picked out, he had also picked out for himself for Christmas. One he read and loaned me last night and when I got home this morning I managed to quick cancel that book from the order. The other book I decided to leave in my order since I really like the author and would rather have my own copy. I knew Phil and I had similar taste in reading material but that still kinda surprised me. Anyway, here's what should be delivered to my home on Tuesday the 9th of January:

Hawke by Ted Bell (first book in a new-to-me series)
Relic by Preston & Child (Phil and I read Still Life with Crows and loved it. Phil actually picked up the sequel to Relic for Christmas called Reliquary)
Seven Deadly Wonders by Matt Reilly (this is one that Phil picked up too)

And I picked up two romance novels that I thought my mom and I might enjoy.
Anyone but You by Jennifer Cruisie (an author that we have already established that we like)
Help Wanted, Desperately by Ariel Horn (it was cheap and the reviews looked good)

Brimstone by Preston & Child is the one that I canceled because Phil loaned me his copy last night. I gave him Cell by Stephen King (Steve gave it to me for Christmas and I devoured it in a day) and London Bridges by James Patterson which I haven't read yet but I know Phil will get through it faster than I will, especially since I'm still reading Temple by Matt Reilly. He gave me a couple of others but I can't recall what they are at the moment. If you couldn't tell, we have our own little book club going.

Jewelry, Stitching and Cakes

I've finally organized my pictures somewhat and have made my creative album accessable by the public. It's kinda like my cross stitch gallery except everything else is in there too. Enjoy

Kid Art

G's first attempt at throwing a pot was dry last night so she painted it. I am very proud of the job she did both in the construction and the painting. She's taken it to school to give to her teacher.














For Christmas Ty received a huge book of drawing tips and tricks and although he was supposed to be going to sleep, apparently he was actually up in his room drawing on the only scrap paper he could find - the tag from a pair of new pants.

Now That Christmas Is Over

Remember our live tree expedition that we take every year with our friends? This year we went further out into the tree farm so we ended up taking the wagon out and back. We picked our tree to fit in a tall and narrow space, chopped it down and gave it to the guy on the wagon. He affixed a number to the tree and gave us the other half of the ticket with our number on it. Our friends did the same thing and then we all went and had hot cocoa.

So last night we were over at their house to have our one last Christmas gathering - lasagna, fondue and gift exchange - and Md was saying how she was going to take the tree down today but had decided to leave it up since we were all coming over. That's when Ed chimed in that he thought maybe they had our tree.

We started really looking at the tree. It was much thinner than they usually pick out and Ed said when they brought it in the tree was scraping along the ceiling. He and his daughter Alli were looking at each other wondering how they'd managed to pick a tree that was too tall for their house. When they said that, Steve and I started laughing. He had set our tree up the day after we'd bought it and when he'd cut the strings and the tree popped open, he and I were thinking our tree was much, much fatter than it looked when it was out at the tree farm.

Since we both turned our trees in one after the other, we think we didn't look closely enough at the numbers on our tickets when we picked the trees up.

Mass Movie Reviews

I watched a lot of movies over this holiday season so I'm going to try to do a quick review of all of them.

Joyeux Noël
This is another of my wonderful little French movie finds however the language of the movie is not entirely in French. It takes place on Christmas Eve during the trench war of WWI amongst the French, German and Scottish forces. They realistically use French, German and English throughout the movie. Based on a true story, I highly recommend this as a holiday movie for you and your family next year. It was an amazingly touching story and I was delighted with a cameo performance by Michel Serrault.



The Black Dahlia
I was so interested to see this movie since I tend to like true-crime stories and this one is a particularly fascinating story because they never figured out who the murderer was despite the numerous suspects. I was sorely disappointed. The movie was much less about the Black Dahlia and much more about the soap opera worthy drama of two police officers who were investigating the crime. Granted I was pretty sick when we watched this one but the drama was so uncompelling that I was unable to stay awake. Steve had to tell me what happened in the end and it turns out although I slept through more than half the movie, I didn't miss much. Starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank.



Lady in the Water
I am a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan so I was very excited that this one had been released to DVD. He wrote this story as a bedtime tale for his children and I would say that it very much had that feel to it. It reminded me of stories that S3 has read in the past few years - not exactly at an adult level but definitely past Dick and Jane. I don't think they marketed this movie to children but other than one scary beast, it's very appropriate for most of the 10 - 13 year old set (I don't think Ty could handle it but he's easily frightened). There is a big demon-like dog that jumps out at unpredictable times that is startling (I screamed like a girl!) but the fright is over quickly and there is very little to no tension in the rest of the story. I loved it! Starring Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard and M. Night Shyamalan.



Nacho Libre
We were lazing about one of the days after Christmas and decided to buy this one from PPV. I slept through most of it since I was not feeling well but what I saw was a little slow and not very funny. However S3 liked it a lot so I'm guessing if you liked movies like Napoleon Dynamite and The Benchwarmers you'd probably also like this one. I think I remember hearing my sister and her family also enjoyed this movie. Starring Jack Black.





Invincible
I had wanted to see this one in the theater so badly but we were just too busy and never made it so again, I was thrilled to see it had been released on DVD. It's about the Philadelphia Eagles and a 30 year old underdog, Vince Papale. Dick Vermeil was brought in as a new coach in 1976 and decided to try something radical - he held open try-outs for the Philadelphia Eagles. Vince Papale was encouraged by his friends to try out despite the fact that he only ever played one year in high school and back-lot football with his friends. The story chronicles both Papale's and Vermeil's struggle to make it in the world of professional football. I'm not a huge fan of football but I really, really enjoyed this movie. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear.



Annapolis
This one is about a guy who's mother's dying wish was to see her son rise above being a ship builder and attend Annapolis. Somewhere along the storyline it changes from a movie about the struggles of a new student at a tough Naval academy and turns into a movie about boxing. It wasn't a horrible movie but it was very predictable and a little hokey. Not bad if you're looking for mindless entertainment for two hours but I'd have been mad if I'd paid $10 a ticket to see this one. Frankly, the best part of watching this movie was seeing Tyrese Gibson with his shirt off. Oh Mama! Starring James Franco, Donnie Wahlberg (remember NKOTB?), and Tyrese Gibson.

Carded

I have "Please ask for Photo ID" on the back of my credit card to help prevent from theft. Most people in the store don't even ask but it gives me some false sense of security. Recently we went out to dinner with some friends and I paid the bill with my card. The waiter came back to my table and asked to see my photo id. I have never, ever, ever had a restaurant ask for my photo ID and I thought it was kinda funny.

So as I hand my ID over to him I joke, "Hey you didn't even ask me for my ID when I ordered wine."

His reply, "Oh you're obviously not 21."

Ha. There goes your tip.