About a week ago Holly put her foot down and told me "No diaper Mommy. Undies." She was determined. But it was a Tuesday morning and I did not have the heart to drop her off with 80 changes of cloths at the center. But I did let her wear her undies over her diaper. And when she came home that night she wore undies (accident free) for just over 2 hours.

Yesterday she spent from 3:00pm until 7:30pm in undies until she went to bed. Dry.

Today I started her off in them. I reminded her to use the potty if it had been a while. We went to Target. We went to Sears. We roamed the mall. And she remained dry (and successfully used the potty all that time) until around 1:30. She's had a few accidents since we've been home, but we just handle them. "That's OK! Let's get you dry undies". She's thrilled to be a big girl. I'm hoping she remains enthusiastic at school. There's more distractions, so I figure she'll have more accidents.

I guess we'll see :o)

Gosh - it's been 5 months since I last posted. Anyone out there listening to the crickets?

Life here is happening! The boys are finishing up their final few weeks of school - that's assuming we don't close because of H1N1 - which I don't get. We don't close when there are other flu outbreaks... yes, it's very sad that so many have died in Mexico. But I feel like I need to remind people of what we are NOT seeing in the news... when I went searching I found a late April statistic from the CDC - there had been 55 Pediatric deaths from the *regular* flu this season in the US. That's just children. Just this season.

Wow - that was a tangent.

Anyway. The boys in school. Ryan is doing tremendously better this term. We've started a reward program between home and school where he gets a sticker for worksheets completed IN CLASS. Mrs C writes 'in class' across the top and he gives it to me. He just earned a brandy new game for his DS (about 80 stickers worth that was). Kyle also earned the game.

I did have Ryan evaluated by the school. I didn't think we'd come up with a disability - but I did want to know if there was anything hanging out in there that we needed to know about. Yes, he is sensory seeking. So there are recommendations from OT on sensory breaks, letting him do heavy work, maybe jumping really hard in a corner... those kinds of things. But without a disability there is nothing official. These things to not HAVE to happen. I'm slightly annoyed by this. If a child will learn better if they get the sensory input that they crave, they should be able to get it. The goal of the school is for the students to learn. My child should not need an officially labeled disability to get that.

But that's another tangent - I don't have a particular issue with the school there - just with the nature of how things are.

Holly is a jabbermouth. TalkTalkTalkTalk. It's great. She's growing up and is just adorable. I think I can find some pictures to put up here.

So sorry that I've been so absent. Mostly, I've been using my online time for game playing - like bejeweled. And I just haven't felt the need to write here ... which is obvious by the 5 month lag.

So if you are still out there - thanks!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year...

From dec08

For lots of pictures from December you can browse our December Picassa album.

There is joy in my world.
I have been baking and loving the Christmas lights. The baking has been fun and theraputic. The boys have even joined in. Tomorrow I have the day off and I will be baking again - this time for Steve. Darling Steven will turn 40 tomorrow. 40!!! He's also taken the day off - but of course things happen. The day will be interrupted with a meeting at school. And I have to go back to the periodontist... but for the most part we can spend some quiet time together. Maybe watch a couple more episodes of Trueblood :o)

We had a nasty ice storm up in these parts last week. We were very lucky. It's strange how one area can be fine and then a mile away there are trees down all over the place! There are lots of folks in NH who won't have power back until late last week - they've been out since Friday morning. And that's only if the wires are still connected to the house. If the wires were knocked down then it will be weeks!!! Nasty, nasty stuff. Again - we're very lucky.

I have my cards ready to go, just have to address them and stick them in the mail - need stamps!

We went to Breakfast with Santa on Saturday before heading down to Grammie's for an overnite. Holly told me "no Santa" - and she meant it! We got another picture of her wailing on Santa's lap - and Ryan 3 feet away from him. Maybe next year she'll tolerate him ;o)

So we went down to RI to visit Grammie Sat/Sunday and had a very nice night. Her place there is just wonderful - right on the water.

Other than today, I have just Thursday for work, then I'm off through Jan 2 :-) I am so looking forward to the downtime. I have some odds and ends that I'll tie up, but otherwise I'm not working!!!

I also have all my shopping done!!! Woohoo! That includes gifts for 'Jay' - a little boy we 'adopted' for Christmas. I picked up a sweats set and flannel shirt, Thomas the Train sneakers, and a couple of toys for him. I'm also going to see if they'd be interested in some clothing from Ryan that's in good shape. Ryan's just grown out of Jay's size - so it's good timing.

We're spending Christmas at home this year. Then traveling down to my Mom's on the 26th. Hopefully, we'll get to spend time with friends that we don't get to see real often. And my parents haven't seen the kids in a while - Mom saw pictures of Holly from November and didn't recognize her!

Snowflake continues to act as a perfectly healthy cat completely unaware of the tumor that you can now see sticking out the side of his ribcage. He's slowed down a little, napping in the proximity of the kids more often... Sarek seems to be losing his sight a little. He's now waiting at night for Journey to go down the deck steps first - then he follows her. If she doesn't go, he just stands on the deck and barks. Poor thing. At least he has his buddy to help him. We have all 4 animals on special diet blends of food from the vet now. They are all old. We're just happy that they continue to seem comfortable without any specific interventions from us.

The boys are doing well at school. We continue to meet with the school to tweak the things we have in place to encourage them to perform well. And of course it's different for each of them! Kyle has started riding again and is really taking to it. It is so very good for him. Ryan has expressed an interest in riding as well, but wants to wait for the warm weather to come back - it's cold out there!!

That's where things are for the moment. Hope everyone is taking some time to slow down and enjoy the season!!!!

Things have been crazy and busy around here lately. I'm still trying to get Kyle back into horseback riding. That may actually start in December (which is next week!). The year has totally gotten away from us. I've been crazy busy at work - so much so that I have over 2 weeks of vacation left to take at the end of the year! It will be some much needed down time.

Proof that the year has gotten away with us - the things we normally have done, or at least started, by now are not. I've usually done a lot of Christmas shopping by now. Once I was even done before Thanksgiving. This year we've only just started. Though now that we're focused we're making quick progress there.

Thankfully I took care of Steve's birthday present wicked early - and gave it to him LOL. There was no reason to keep it, and he got a little bit of early celebration. I'll still have to do something with the kids, but at least the gift won't be some Christmas afterthought for him (his birthday is 12/17).

Speaking of Steven ... he's hitting a milestone this year! 4 decades is a pretty long time! I'll have to make an extra special cake for him I think. We did manage to get away for a weekend without the kids - to celebrate both his and our friend Mark's birthdays. It's been so long since we've done something without the kids. It was SO nice to just do what we wanted without worrying about their schedule or if they'll eat the food... the kids stayed with 'Ms Beth' - and had a blast. She has an 8 year old boy, and the boys all played and romped and had fun. Ryan told his afterschool teacher on Monday that he had a great time and Mommy needs to go away more often :o)

Besides shopping, I haven't gotten my act together on our Christmas cards. I've made them the last several years, and while I have the stamp set I want to use, I have yet to settle on a design. AND I haven't even started our Christmas letter.

We're having a nice, quiet Thanksgiving, with Steve's Mom joining us. I'm excited to get to cook a real meal again. So I had a fun time sitting down on Saturday and planning out my menu.

Kyle's orthodontic work has been going splendidly. His upper jaw expansion is complete. He'll keep the pendex in place for another 4 - 6 months, but the Dr couldn't be happier with the progress that was made. In 6 weeks we go back and Ky will have brackets put on his 4 upper-front teeth and he'll work on straightening them. He can't go to full braces until he has lost all his baby teeth... so that's a year or so out (thankfully!). We had Ryan in for a quick consult - yes he has an bite problem (it's off center) - but he's only lost 3 teeth. Unless something happens that forces us to act sooner (like with Kyle) we'll not do anything there for a few years.

Holly is finally talking up a storm. She's still behind, but at her 6 month re-evaluation for EI she tested out. That's good! And it's not so good :( - her therapist had some other things she wanted to continue working on. Now she only has about 45 days to complete it. So I'm sure we'll be left with lots of instructions for keeping Holly improving. Most of the work stems around making her say things and try new words. She's now comfortable to attempt almost any word I ask her to and she's using a ton of words on her own now.

So much of the same around here - I hope everyone is healthy and able to have a peaceful Thanksgiving with family or friends (or both!).

Where to start, where to start... I think this will ramble with my thoughts.

A month ago I moved my home computer up to 'Holly's Old Room'. I still haven't reconnected the audio cable, but the webcam is now functional! Last night Holly sat on my lap to wave at Poppy. Though she was confused and looked around the room to see where Poppy might be hiding!

So if you have Yahoo Messenger, and maybe even MSN Live? and you'd like to 'see' the kids - let me know. I know it works with Yahoo... I'm working on what else I use that might support it. I might even venture into Skype... but without my audio cable connected (it's lying on the desk right in front of the machine - you'd think I could get around to doing this so I have sound? ) - we'll see what happens!

We had a great weekend. It was a really nice Fall weekend, with pleasant weather. Kyle had a Den meeting on Friday, then the boys had their Space Derby on Saturday, and we attended the Boy Scouts' pancake breakfast on Sunday. Sunday also included a Family Target Run and general grocery shopping for me. I made a Lemon Herb Chicken Ring for dinner too :) The grownups and Holly loved it - the boys weren't interested. Which is more the norm lately. Totally not interested in new foods. But I keep putting them in front of them! Sometimes they try them. The rule is that they have to try it. Really try it. Unfortunately, I can make them try it, but I can't really make them give it a chance if you know what I mean? When they are convinced they are going to hate it, they usually do. Every once in a while they surprise me and eat more... but if asked they'll tell you they didn't like it. Hmph!

Looks like watermelon is finally, really out of season. They were down to three mini watermelons yesterday. And when I cut open the one I got today it was 90% overripe. Argh. Very dissappointing. Especially since that's what the boys take for lunch. Fruit and a yogurt. It's what they want AND it gets a bunch of fruit servings in them. Today I sent watermelon, cucumber, carrot, celery and yogurt :o) which is actually more veggies than fruit. Not sure if they will touch the celery, and the carrot depends on their mood. We'll see...

The new barn I thought we were going to start riding at isn't working out. They can't seem to complete their scheduling - every time I talk to them I get 'we're working on it' - an the last time I left a message they never returned my call. Since it's been since June that Ky has been on a horse I restarted the search last week. I found what will hopefully be the new barn! They are responsive and have great information. They have individual and group lessons. The prices are better. They are only a 15 minute drive (probably less). I'm bringing Ky by tomorrow to look around, pet some horses, see how the place feels. They I'll sign him up for 'by the month' - which is a great deal if you are doing weekly lessons. Then I'll splurge and ride once in a while. Might even get Ryan there on occasion if he so desires. We'll see what the options are as we get into it.

Ky has been more emotional lately, and there's been a resurgence of self image/confidence problems... "I'm an idiot" - though not frequent. This had all dramatically improved when he started riding, so I'm trying to see if this is the key.

I officially started Christmas shopping! I made the very first gift purchase on Sunday :o) It felt good. Usually I've started long before now - and we pace it out over 4 or 5 months. So we'll have a compressed buying season this year ;o)

Work is crazy at the moment... we're trying to get a release out the door among the 753 distractions that hit us daily. But we'll get there!

Oh! So Steve got me a gift certificate to a local spa last Christmas. About 2 weeks ago I finally used it. I went for a Full Body 1 hour Massage. The best part? Lying there for an hour with absolutely nothing to think about. The massage was great too, but hurt - which I expected because of the problems I've had with my shoulder/neck/back. But she got the pain to go away! I was sore from the massage for a few days - but the old pain was gone. I really, really, have to work harder on strengthening my upper body. To the gym must get!!!

So those are my thoughts this Monday Morning - have a great week!

Holly's third speech therapist came out on Friday and spent some time with us. Future visits will happen at the daycare center - which makes life easier! She asked me to start writing down the words Holly 'knows' - 'know' meaning she's used it spontaneously and appropriately more than once. The goal is to have her at 50 words with some two word combinations (like "hi mama") by 24 months old. We're almost there!

I sent the current list into the school... having written them down let's see how many I can remember...

hi, bye, sit, chair, hat, shirt, nose, ears, eyes, hair, teeth, shoes, socks, baby, mine, more, again, Nanna, Mama, Dada, on, off, up, down, please, dressed (as in to get dressed), kitty (though it doesn't sound like much of anything it's consistent always means the same thing), kiss, bye, Alba (teacher), Chelle (teacher), Danielle (teacher), thanks, no-thank-you, wee, uhoh, brush, help, book, ball, train, done 42!

hi mama, hi dada, hi *teacher*
bye Alba
my *item* (my book, my train, my ball...)

So she's quite the little chatter box these days. She's also not afraid to try out new sounds and new words. She's doing a lot more babbling than she used to. All in all we're pretty happy with where she's come. She'll be re-evaluated in November (after 6 months of services). We'll see how things go.

Alright. I'm going to tie myself to the keyboard and not leave until I get a real post up!

Actually this should be fairly easy :)

This weekend was OctoberFest here in town. Steve went to visit friends for the weekend (left around noon on Friday) and I had the three with me at home. Friday night we made personal pizzas :) though Kyle didn't want to put any effort into. Ryan is ALL ABOUT cooking lately though and eats up (ha! no pun intended!) any opportunity to do so. So we had yummy pizzas Friday night. Tucked Holly in and called Daddy to say good night.

Ryan had a real conversation with him - and then resorted to telling knock knock jokes :o) but hey - he didn't push the phone away. This is improvement.

Saturday I got everyone up and dressed and we headed downtown for the 'Fest. We stuck Holly in her stroller and brought the Cub Scout gear so that we could do some candy selling while out. They were SO not into it - but we managed to sell ONE bar. Good thing we'd already done our part around the neighborhood!!! After 'selling' candy we hit the bounce houses. And the boys spent a few rounds on the obstacle course. As Ry came down the sliding part he was 'singing' (more like humming but singing the notes 'da da') the theme to Indiana Jones. Funny stuff.

After burning off some energy we got hot dogs all around and some fries. Holly ate the whole thing - AND the bun! I broke pieces off so she didn't have to hold the whole unweildly thing, so she had 4 mini-dogs :). Then we got the obligatory ice cream. Which I shared with Holly.

We did more walking, played some Town Trivia - both boys won prizes. They watched Animal Adventures... skunk, hedgehog, bearded dragon (Ky volunteered to be a 'rock' for this one), tarantula, corn snake, ferret, chinchilla, boa constrictor, and an alligator - Fun!

On our way out for the day we stopped at a vendor selling carved boxes. Kyle fell in love with a small pyramid and Ryan picked out a box to act as 'baby giraffey's bed'.

We went home and vegged for the rest of the afternoon (holly took a nice long nap too!).

Sunday came and we had to venture out fairly early (for a sunday). We were at the good old KMart by 10:00 - we needed to pick up a gift for a party Ky was going to at 12:30. I also grabbed some Tinkerbell undies for Holly and some diaper pins. Holly has become very interested in everyone's undies - even came out wearing a pair of Ry's so I thought she might want some of her own. We're not anywhere near officially potty training - still in the potty 'friendly' mode. Occassionally she sits on it, and even less frequently she's successful there. But she's very willing to go and sit when I ask her to. The undies go her excited. She sat on the potty and I let her wear them. Fearful of accidents I had her go back to the potty after about 7 minutes. After sitting she declared 'all done' and handed me the undies back LOL!

The pins are to keep her zipped up at night. Now that we're getting colder weather she's into zip up sleepers at night. And yesterday when I came up to get her she was naked! So we'll go back to what we did with the boys - slip a diaper pin through the top of the zipper to keep it up.

Oh! While in line at the Big K - I noticed their display of pools at the exit. They had this one for just $42.50 - so I snatched it up! Now we have a replacement pool for next summer :)

We dropped Ky off for the party and then me and the smaller two headed off for groceries. Holly took a VERY long nap and I got some cleaning and reading done. Ran out to get Ky from the party and then got dinner in the oven. Steve came home a little before dinner was ready - yay!

We found a new series of books to start reading with the boys - The Secrets of Droon. We're 4 chapters into the first one now. Looks interesting - and very much similar to the Magic Treehouse series.

That's enough for now. It's Monday and we're back at work. Have a great week!

Sarah Palin's been getting lots of attention lately. And most of it negative. Lots of comparisons on both sides between her and Obama. What they are, what they aren't. Who is better at this. Why so and so is a horrible choice.

I hate politics.

What I'd really, really like is to chat with either one of them on the sidelines of a kids' sporting event. Just the random chatter you get amongst parents. Just random chatter. About nothing. That's the part I want to hear. What do they think about when they aren't 'on'. I think it's interesting that the media has grasped the Republican candidate for VP and the Democrat's candidate for Pres to compare them. Instead of Obama to McCain. I'm sure it would be just as bad if it was office to office, but it's interesting that it's not.

I'm not sure I'm happy with any of the choices and that bugs me. I don't like the system. But that happens a lot with me and I find I have to work within what is given, so I try to make a reasonable choice. I find a reason to like one side and go with it.

Usually, this aligns mostly with Republican thinking. Now there are major holes there - there are definitely Republican stances that I do not align with. But there are more Democrat flaws here, so generally I end up voting Republican.

At first, I really thought this would be the year that changed that. I really liked Obama. But now - he's just another politician trying to get my vote. Not sure when it happened, or even why - but he's lost most of that pull. And I couldn't even really put a finger on it for you.

So there's that.

I've never been a big McCain fan, so when he pulled Palin out of his hat it made things interesting. And funny enough, the more fodder the media throws around about her, the more intrigued I am. Here's this woman... who is coming from Alaska. Who is having all of her faults pointed out relentlessly. And even some of her non-faults - that are made into VeryBadThings - because it's part of the game. It's what you do. But she's there. She's smiling and she's telling us that she's the candidate that can do this. She's stands up there even though they pull her family up there. She's got cajones. I like that.

I think an attitude like that is mandatory for someone who is going to deal in foreign policy.

Does it make me overlook all other things? No. But it's a check in the box on the pro side....

Yeah that's me. Haven't posted anything in a month? Yikes.

At any rate - it was pointed out that I never posted pics from Ky's birthday. *oops*
I created an album of the 8 pictures I have (see why there wasn't some big picture montage?)
I'll try to get it uploaded and link to it in the near future.

We've mostly been involved in The Great Bedroom Shuffle of '08
If I ever get them clean, I'll take pictures... don't hold your breath!

Steve has a jeep. Not a cherokee or a liberty - a 'jeep' jeep. AKA Wrangler. Hmmm I know it's a Sahara Unlimited. Which means it has 4 doors - not the 2 you're used to seeing. Came with a soft and a hard top. Pretty cool the jeep. Oh yah - it's Jeep Green of course.

So in the last few months I've noticed something interesting.

Jeep people wave to each other.

It's pretty funny and I was glad I noticed. So that when I took it out and someone waved at me from another jeep I knew what to do and was prepared... I gave them the finger. OK no I'm just kidding - I waved back of course :o)

So now I wonder... Durango people don't wave to me. On Thursday decided I was going to do just that. Every time I see a Durango I'll wave. Easy peasy - I may get arrested for over-friendly-driving - but we'll see. Since Thursday I have noticed exacly - 0 - durangos. No that's not true - on Friday when we went out and Steve drove (in the jeep) I saw 3 durangos. But when I've been driving big Red? Zero. How am I supposed to start the Durango friendly waving craze if I don't see any.

Sheesh. I'll try to keep watching. I'm sure they're out there and sneak past when I'm lost in thought. Then I see a JEEP and remember the wave thing and I start looking again! LOL

The woman that Ky had been taking riding lessons from has been MIA. I managed to run into her friend/partner at the barn and chat - sounds like J was making some changes. She dropped her email and barn phones to instead use her work email and her cell phone (I have neither). I did try leaving her a couple of messages on her voicemail at work, but haven't gotten a response.

So yesterday we visited a *new* barn. This one is closer - about 20 minutes closer! It's only 5 minutes away from us. It's not someone's backyard - it's a business barn. About 15 horses in the main barn (or maybe 17?) and 4 ponies in the 'Pony Barn'. It's owned by a husband/wife. We got to meet both of them and all of the horses that they own (there are also boarders, but since they don't own them they don't vouch for them). Kyle was in love. Ryan was antsy and nervous and shy. So we walked all over and finally found the smallest pony they have - Yellow Brick Road. "Bricker" is I think less than 13 hands. She is blond and cute as a button. She stands about as tall as Kyle. Ryan was petting her and loving her and I even heard him singing to her softly.

Ryan has declared he would like to ride - as long as it's on Bricker.

Poor Mommy. I will sacrifice my own riding so that he can. I won't be able to afford all three of us! But who knows, maybe they'll have some random barn type chores I can do to bring the cost down :o)

A link to a picture of 'Bricker'

So I got back to The Walking Company yesterday and came home with a pair of Unstructured shoes. The guy had me get my feet scanned...

Here is a random image of a foot scan:



Mine was red all through the areas that are orange above - showing all kinds of - well, whatever it is that these images show you ;o)

So he dissappeared and came back with 4 pairs of shoes for me to try out. I ended up liking the Unstructured best for comfort and came home with these:






Comfy comfy! And an exact exchange - they were the exact price of the sandals I was returning - bonus!

I am not sure I will ever buy cheap shoes again.

Now that I have been introduced to the comfort of high quality shoes, I have a hard time going back. Even wearing sneakers doesn't compare.

Over the weekend I broke one of my Dansko sandals. On Sunday I made a trip back to the store - WITHOUT A RECEIPT - but I had a print out of the charge hitting my credit card. I pled my case. He took the shoes and told me he'd contact Dansko to see if maybe they would do a direct repair. Fabulous! No guarantees, but I was happy he was going to try. I figured worst case, maybe they could repair it for a charge.

He called last night - Dansko has authorized him to accept the return. RETURN! I get a brandy new pair of shoes! He doesn't have that type in my size, so I'll go on Friday and try some stuff on again. But how thrilled am I? If this was my usual $20 shoe pair I would have just thrown them out. And the number of cheap shoes laying around my house that I never wear because they aren't as comfortable as I thought they'd be? I am now committed to stocking up on a few different pairs of GOOD, QUALITY shoes instead!

Directly related to this new found happiness - www.zappos.com - WOW! If you need shoes, you need to go here. Having successfully worn my sandals for a few months now, I decided not having them was a good time to order an additional pair of non-sandals. I ordered them Monday evening. Zappos offers free shipping both ways... so I figured there was little risk involved - just inconvenience if they didn't fit. I also figured 'free' would be 'slow boat from China' kinda shipping... but OH NO was I wrong! They bumped up my regular shipping for now cost and I got them yesterday! That's overnight for those of you not wanting to do the math ;o)

Sadly, they didn't fit... but there's more happiness here. I log on to my Zappos account and click the big button 'begin return process'. They ask me why and a few other questions and give me a UPS label. I ordered a new pair in the next size up - which they again upgraded shipping on. Woohoo! Even if these don't fit, I am so very thrilled with this level of service!!!

It's a busy home week around here. Ky's birthday is Saturday. We're having a small 'family' party Saturday, followed by his mostly-school-friends party on Sunday - swimming at the community pool. We've got to pick up all the clutter because it's probably going to rain. And we've got a new bedroom to move into.

Oh and we work too :) there's that.

At any rate, the new bed is in the house and assembled. Waiting patiently for the mattress and boxspring. Maybe we'll get them down there tonight! And then Holly HAS to sleep through the night because we'll be a floor removed LOL.

Lots to do, lots to do.

Can't believe my baby is 8!!!!