Family Out Evening

This week for FHE we went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and then went bowling at MSU's union center. Eric had a test and only 1 lecture on Monday so we had a nice day off for the most part. Brooklyn and Sadie were all fired up to bowl. All throughout dinner Brooklyn kept on asking to go bowling. Finally we finished up and headed to the bowling alley. If you ever go bowling and want a quiet place that's empty, the union building at MSU is the place to go. I've yet to see anyone there, it's a no smoking facility, they don't even have automated scoring. You have to keep your own score. But they do have 2 lanes with bumpers which is a plus with kids.

Brooklyn got big into helping keep score over the bowling part initially but warmed up to it when she figured she could actually "throw" the ball down the lane. I guess pushing it off the little track wasn't fun enough. It wasn't very steep and really didn't get the ball rolling very fast at all. My favorite part was after she'd drop the ball down the lane she'd run to write down her "score" even before the ball was half way to the pins. As she'd skip back to the score table she'd give us all high five's followed by a thumbs-up and a big wink. Her big wink consisted of one hand closing one eye and the other still shining at us. Which she did because she only knows how to wink the other eye and apparently she wants to be able to wink both. I love Brooklyn.

Sadie was all excited about bowling and then refused to come anywhere near our lane with a ball for a few minutes, probably because she took off down on of the lanes and slipped! Ooops! She did help push a few down the lane and gave us high fives but she wasn't too interested. in bowling she'd much rather explore and terrorize the place. Fortunately no one was there. She took off down one of the gutters, mind this is after she'd already slipped and fallen in the lane. She was crawling through all the tunnels (under all the benches), walking up and down all the ramps, turning on and off all the score table lights, getting her fingers pinched bu the bowling balls when the previously used one would return to the rack, finding pencils on the floor, competing with Brooklyn to keep score, going in and out of the women's restroom and turning on and off the light, etc.

Needless to say after all of this Eric and I were lucky we even got to bowl 10 frames. If I did the score correctly I bowled a 118 and Eric a 133. He always beats me! Except in Boggle and Boxing on the Wii. Those are two games that I consistently win. Phew! Overall we had a fun family home evening out on the town.

All in a days work

As a wife, mother, homemaker and pet owner I sometimes do things I don't ordinarily do. Like today for instance. My friend Laura called and arranged for a time for our dogs Tiger Lily and Cate to get together for a play date, not out of the ordinary. While reading stories with my girls I looked out the window and noticed a possum walking towards our backyard, this happened last year, but it's not normal to see a possum in broad daylight. My babysitter arrived so I could go to my voice lesson, not out of the ordinary. My friend arrived with Cate her golden retriever. My babysitter's mom comes in to see Tiger Lily and Cate have their joyous reunion, and it was very joyous for all parties involved and both dogs excitedly bolt out the sliding door, not out of the ordinary. My friend Laura goes out after the dogs and then immiediately calls them back to her quickly, not ordinary. I help call Tiger Lily back in when I look out and see a gray furball curled in the snow cowering from the two excited dogs, not necessarily out of the ordinary, except this it an opossum. Anny arrives to accompany me to voice lessons in the midst of the dog drama, this might be considered ordinary for Anny since she witnessed the demise of Tiger Lily's first encounter with a frog.


Now I have 2 golden retrievers excitedly chasing each other around my front room, a house full of dear friends and a possum playing "possum" in my back yard. While the dogs waiting to go outside and play we're patiently waiting for the possum to quit playing "possum" and go on it's merry way. Would you consider this ordinary? After a few minutes the possum hasn't budged. I go outside to get a closer look and attempt to encourage the possum to go by tossing snow at it using my pooper scooper. All that happens is the possum flinches slightly as the snow lands on its back. No luck encouraging it to vacate my yard. Laura suggests using a shovel to put it over the fence. I liked the idea and went in my garage in search of a possum relocating tool. I find one in the form of my snow shovel.
I must admit I was a little nervous as to what the possum might do, this I would think would be an ordinary reaction. It didn't move much when I tossed some snow on top of it, but what would it do when I attempted to "relocate" it? I did a test run and slowly push the shovel slightly under its limp, pretending to be "lifeless" body. All that happened was it opened it's mouth and bared it's teeth a little but didn't move. I proceeded to scoop the possum up gently on my snow shovel, lifted it up over the fence and then debated a moment as to how to put it down. Do I fling it as far away as possible in case it decides it doesn't want to play possum anymore? Do I set it down gently and how do you do that with a snow shovel and a four foot fence? I decided to gently tip the shovel over and allow the possum to land gently in the foot of soft snow. Again I ask is this ordinary? The only exciting thing that happened upon "re-entry" into it's newly appointed possum spot was a lovely yellow trickle that covered the snow. Our new friend then resumed his roll of playing possum in its new spot. Mari documented the "relocation" so I have proof of this not so ordinary event.

How long it decided to play possum no one is quite sure. I felt my work at home was done and left my children in the care of my dear friend Mari, and the care of my dog with my dear friend Laura and her dog Cate, both of which are ordinary occurances.

Ordinary? I should say not, but definitely all in a days work.

Picture Time

I finally did it. I got my girl's pictures taken. Sadie's 1 year old picture was way overdue, but fortunately I got it taken before she turned 2! So Brooklyn had her 3 year picture taken and Sadie her 21 month picture. I found it so funny that Sadie who is the smiliest little thing around would hardly crack for the camera. Brooklyn did just great. They are just too adorable.

I just had to laugh Sadie and Brooklyn are watching Donald Duck cartoons and Sadie is eating an apple on the couch. Tiger just walked up to her, sat down right in front of her and was leaning in to snatch her apple. Sadie saw it coming and said "Bah! Lie down, Stay" she used the signal I use too, and afer telling Tiger Lily twice, Tiger actually laid down . Way to take charge Sadie!

Brooklyn just proudly showed me that she didn't have any seeds from her clementine orange in her mouth. Always a plus. At least I finally go both girls to eat something besides Cheerios. They've been eating Cheerios from morning, noon, til night and every time they're hungry in between. We're are just flying through it. Sadie seriously ate 3 big bowl fulls (as much as I would pour in a bowl for myself) for dinner the other night. At least it's somewhat healthy and has vitamins and nutrients. Between their milk and cheerios consumption they should have plenty of vitamin D, iron, and calcium in their systems.

Frozen in Time and Rambling On

Here I sit in the quiet solitude of my home at 12:54am. Relishing in the alone time that is seldom truly mine. I rode my exercise bike while watching Looney Tunes in an attempt to relieve and rebuild sore muscles from my weight lifting yesterday. No, it's not a New Year's resolution to get back in shape. I have yet to actually resolve to do anything for any particular new year. I try to resolve them as they come. But it is definitely time to get exercising regularly for my own sanity, physically, mentally and emotionally.

After a much needed bike ride, some fun abdominal work that I was reading about and trying from a new Strength Training Anatomy book I purchased over Christmas break and watching Animal Planet, I'm now in front of my computer making sure I didn't miss the temperature drop below 0 Degrees. Which I just checked it is now -4 degrees Fahrenheit out my kitchen window. Maybe now I can go to bed. Why do I like to check the weather? I don't know. I could get it from my dad or maybe it is something that is constantly changing. (I mean, I'm in Michigan it seriously changes from tornadoes to the most beautiful sunny day in less than 5 minutes!) I also wanted to make sure I got caught up on Facebook. I don't know if I should thank or hit my two friends that talked me into signing up for Facebook. It has literally become a lifeline for me, a connection with the outside world. Reminding me of fun times, hard times, great friends, and even greater friends who help you get through the hard times but you somehow lost touch over the years.

I'm grateful for technology it has made the world truly seem like such a smaller place. That I am closer to friends now than I have been for years. Though thankfully I never lost touch with my best friend. One who has always been there for me, long before we ever "dated" and who has always shown genuine love and concern for me, my wonderful husband Eric. As I watch my sweet husband struggle with the challenges medical school brings, I sit back in awe for I could not do it. It takes a special kind of person, one who I am lucky enough to be married to. January 10th was the day Eric proposed to me, it was six years ago! How quickly time has passed and all the ways I'd mapped my life out to be have been rewritten hundreds of times already and play out in ways I never dreamed would happen.

The challenges of being a wife and a mother. Challenges I always knew I was going to tackle. It was probably a good thing I didn't think about how I was going to go about rearing my children. Because right now I'm flying by the seat of my pants, grasping at straws trying to catch something to help me teach and raise my beautiful daughters. I learn so much about me through my children sometimes it's scary to see.

I can see the moon out the skylight that is frosted over in my front room. How beautiful the sky is when it is so clear and stars are shining brightly for all the world to see. Yet it is in the quiet stillness of the midnight hour when the light of the moon touches upon the glistening snow that I have a moment to let myself go and unwind to enjoy the majestic beauty of the world I live in. To try and let my worries drift off like the blowing snow and take a few minutes of some much needed peace and freezing this peaceful moment in time.

You Know It's....

You know it's . . . only foreshadowing when your three year old is digging through your purse and shouting "I want money!" I can just picture the teenage years.

You know it's . . . time to get out of the house when Sadie starts pushing Brooklyn's buttons and the pushing begins.

You know it's . . . time to turn off the Indiana Jones Lego style Wii game when it's 2:30am.

You know it's . . . time to make tortellini, even if it is 8:30pm and Brooklyn specifically requests it while in Home Depot. (I don't know what spurred the thought of tortellini especially in Home Depot, but sure enough I made it and it's now 9:30pm and she's on her second helping.)

You know it's . . . time to start exercising heavily and regularly when all you eat is fat and sugar.

You know it's . . . time to walk the dog when she runs from toy to toy trying to destroy everything. She is just like a child trying to get my attention!