Talan's Batman Party

Whew! What a blast we all had at Talan's Party. The Fun Guy place is so much fun! I will have more photos that I can post later once I get a hold of Barclay's camera. We had a great turn out for which I am so grateful for as I had fears of no one coming. Kristen and Tim and their kids Lydia and Ethan were the first to arrive. Kristen is the gal who passed her sign language business to me. She also was part of Talan's speech therapy treatment team. I adore her and never get to see her so that was a special treat. Harini came with Ethan and Aaron. Our boys all play well with each other so that was fabulous too. Ethan wore his Batman costume so I especially appreciated that. :) My new babysitter DiAnna brought her daughter Lori Ann. While they stayed only for a short time, I appreciated that she came at all considering she doesn't really know anyone. Of course, it wouldn't be a party without May Paul. Missy and Sean were both there as well. We had two Masons and two Ethans at the party. As we were wrapping up our party we learned that the party after us was for a five year old named Talon. Jenna and Shelby (the girls whose father owns Lil Polpetta) had rented out the Fun Guy for Talon. His birthday is also on the 23rd! Wild isn't it?

We had some woes with the pinata and, of course, I forgot bags for the loot but other than that is all went well. The kids (and adults) were all fascinated/repelled by the "cat litter" cake. Talan refused to try it. It was delicious. The kids who were scared ate their pinata candy instead of cake. :)

Talan scored some good gifts: a thomas train, an alphabet game, batman pjs and a cool air paint sprayer art game. Talan will love all of them. Talan is easy to please which is one of my favorite things about him! :) I hope he remembers this day. I know I will.

Talan's 3rd Birthday!

I can't believe my little guy is 3! I went into his room this morning and had all sorts of thoughts flood my head as I picked him up and held him. He was so soft and warm. Still feels like a baby, still sleeps in a crib but quickly turning into a little boy. I gave him two gifts this morning: gum balls and a play-dough birthday cake set. (There is a photo of the playdough cake we made). They were both a huge hit and we played with them until Joe reminded me that I needed to get Mason ready for school. I completely forgot!

After we picked Mason up from school, we went to Cold Stone to get our free birthday ice cream. Cotton Candy with M&Ms in it. It was blue and drippy and I refused to lick their cones to help them keep their ice cream from leaking. Very messy but thoroughly enjoyed. Then I took them to the Goodwill and told them they could each pick one toy. Talan chose a sit and spin while Mason chose (and scored) a Guido and Luigi from the movie Cars (we have been missing those two items so we were very excited to add them to our collection). Both boys paid for their toy themselves (using my money) and felt very "big boy". We played with our toys at home before we took a late nap.

When we woke up, Barclay was already here. Latee Matt and Keira (KiKi) came over to join the feastivities (Joe had gone to church with them while I napped with the boys). We sang happy birthday, ate a ice cream cake from Cold Stone and opened all the other gifts. Then we played and assembled everything and destroyed the place! The kids loved it. Barclay has laryngitis so the boys were worried she was going to die. Mason asked her why we couldn't hear her. Too funny.

So I am tired but trying to post this as I know everyone is awaiting the details of Talan's day. So enjoy. He had a fabulous birthday. He is one happy kid. :) Tomorrow is the big Batman Party! We are so excited. :) I'll be sure to post again tomorrow with those comments and photos.

My Birthday

I have had such a wonderful day. It started with Talan crawling into my bed at 6:48am. He brought his blanket too. He is so cute. Then Mason heard us and was in our bed by 6:52am. We had eggs with the best part for breakfast and then picked up Aunt B at 8:40 for church. Mason got to go to the pre-k class today and actually did quite well although he missed his brother and asked to go to the nursery. Talan was defiant, wanting to join his brother and howled at the idea of being put in the nursery without him. So he sat on Aunt B's lap most of the service. He was mesmerized by the drummer and the music. I put him in the nursery towards the end of the service and to our surprise there was Mason. :) We wrote letter to ourselves from God today. An interesting exercise. I am on the right track God told me in my letter. :) My letter will be mailed to me in September. That will be interesting.
Barclay treated all of us to breakfast at Michael D's Eatery. That was fun and yummy. I ordered toast for the boys and that kept them really occupied. Mental note: toast next breakfast outing. We came home and chilled out. I read the newspaper. At one I was ready for a nap with Talan. Joe wanted to join us so we had Terran look after Mason while we all slept. We paid him two dollars, Sacagawea gold dollar coins. We looked up some information about them on the Internet to get Terran a little more excited about them. :)
I woke up before Joe and Talan so I did a little homework. I have a paper due on Tuesday in Microbiology. The paper is about Antony Leeuwenhoek who was a pioneer of microbes. Fairly interesting. I haven't written a paper in so long, it is a bit challenging to keep it interesting and scientific.
Missy and Sean volunteered to watch the boys so we could go out. Joe and Sean met each other for the first time. They chatted so long that we were running late for our movie and so Missy made us polish sausage hot dogs for dinner. :) It was yummy. We ended up seeing The Mall Cop movie which was very light and easy to follow. I had wanted to see Yes Man but Joe had already seen it when he was in California last month. Bummer!
When we picked up the boys, Mason had fallen asleep. I forgot he didn't have a nap today. Opps! Talan stayed up until 11am goofing around with me and Joe. He loves to cut and staple so we made tons of "crowns" with "ears". Joe did some magic tricks for the boys today and so Talan was wanting me to do it over and over and do it on him. Sometimes it is really nice just to have one boy awake. As tomorrow is a holiday it is OK if we are all off schedule. :) Talan and Joe lit a candle and sang Happy Birthday to me. Talan helped me blow out the candle. Such a sweetie.
That is it. I just went online to look up the bacteria that lives in our eyebrows as I cultured that in my lab on Thursday and I couldn't remember the name. My teacher didn't know what I was talking about, it is something Dr. Kluse taught me about. Well, there are bacteria in your eyebrows but what I was thinking of was the mite that lives in our eyebrows -- Demodex. So I was half right. I am obsessed with microbes again. This is what happened last time I took Microbiology. It is a whole other world, literally. OK I am going to bed.
Thanks to all who wrote, called, text, facebooked or somehow sent me birthday wishes. Special thanks to Joe, the boys, Barclay and Missy. I had the best birthday I've had in a long time. Thirty eight, bring it on!

Third date night

Joe and I have had three date nights this week. That is a record for us that may never again be matched. Tonight the boys went to "kids' night" at the Church of the Nazarene. The played, ate dinner and ran around for four hours with about 30 other kids. It cost $5 each which is a complete steal. The church does this "kids' night" once a month so you bet we will be regular attendees. :) We had dinner at Bistro on Spruce. Can't say we would go back. We also investigated the Comic Book store and picked up a few gems for Talan for his Batman party. This is going to be a very batman-y birthday party. I am excited for the little guy. Remember when we used to call him TLG? He is becoming such a boy.

My friend Tina who I met when I lived in Georgia sent us a package this week. She handmade a Batman cape (she is very crafty) and gave us a batman costume. Needless to say, we were very excited and promptly put it all on. Talan allowed Mason to try on the cape since he obviously couldn't fit into the costume. We so love getting packages in the mail.

I am looking forward to a three day weekend. I'll write more when I have more energy. Lots of big changes are happening in our lives so I'll share those in the next post.

Joe's Birthday

I love my hubby. We are exactly six days apart so on his birthday I always chide him about having a younger woman for a wife! haha I get to be a year younger than him for 6 days. I remember on our first date when I learned when his birthday was I thought how cool was that to date someone so similar in age. I also remember Joe's mom telling me the downside of marrying someone so much older because Curt was retired and she still had 8 more years to work before she could retire with him. So today I feel blessed not only to have a husband, and a husband I love, but to have a partner the same age as myself to grow old with. To Joe's surprise I did have two gifts for him this morning (we don't usually exchange gifts). One was a nose hair trimmer. I know, how romantic. But last time I cut his hair and the hair in his ears and nose, he told me it was my duty as a wife to buy a real nose hair trimmer for him. Whatever! But I saw one as I was checking out of Grocery Outlet and so I bought it. We tried it out this morning and it works like a gem. The boys love it as it also has a built in light, in case you try to trim your nose hairs in the dark? LOL I also bought him a blue (to match his eyes) long sleeve work out shirt. But alas, it is the wrong size so I will have to exchange it. I tried!

Mondays are my busy day with Boot Camp class and my Al-Anon meeting but since school started today it was extra busy. Needless to say I didn't think we were going to get to do anything special since I have class from 3 to 6pm but they let us out at 4:20pm and we managed to get a babysitter and go out for a date night! Now our idea of a date night is not like most other people's. We are just happy to be able to have a conversation without interruption. So we headed to Starbuck's and just chatted for an hour and a half. Then we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant, I won't say which one as we live in a small town, but we won't be back. Joe was alarmed by the food.

I told Joe the boys were disappointed that we weren't doing a birthday cake but I distracted them with making Yellow Jello. Say it out loud, its fun. Yellow Jello. I bought the yellow jello after Talan's last speech therapy appointment as he is supposed to be practicing his "W"s and yellow ends in "w" and jello rhymes with yellow and you can see how the whole thing went down. So we have been saying "yellow jello" a lot today. :)

OK, that is enough rambling. Except that I have to mention that Mason keeps asking about his magnets and I keep saying "what magnets?" and then he says "you know, the ones in the cup". At that point, and this keeps happening which is what is so funny because you would think I would remember this, I realize he is talking about the Maggots. Fortunately they are now all in the Pupa stage http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th6a.htm which means they are no longer maggots. Thank God! They did hold the maggots, dropped the maggots, had to re-find the maggots and had a maggot race on our dining room table. The boys went promptly into the bath and I have disinfected everything in a 10 foot radius. The joys of having boys. This isn't exactly what I thought 4H was going to be about but I am just faking it until I make it (or Mason drops out).

Proud Owner of a Maggot Farm

Oh my lord, the things I get stuck with. I took Mason to his second Entomology meeting through 4H and the teacher asked if I was OK with Mason receiving a pet. Sure I said, we love pets. I don't know what I was thinking it would be but when she scooped out 5 maggots into a plastic cup filled with corn meal and then secured the top with Saran wrap and a rubber band I was frozen in disbelief. Mason thought they were very small worms and told me not only were they cute but that he wanted to hold one. So, we drove home from the meeting with the cup of maggots in my cup holder and now they are residing on top of our bookshelf in the living room. We are to report on when they become pupa and then adults i.e. flies. Maggots go through full metamorphosis just like butterflies. I would have been much happier bringing home five caterpillars. Mason managed to enjoy, engage and pay attention to about 50% of the 90 minute meeting. He is the youngest of the group so the older boys are very nice to him. He partnered up with a boy named Hunter to make a insect leg out of pipe cleaners, beads and tin foil. They had to name the different parts of the leg: trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsi and a couple other parts that I do not remember (the ones I just listed are also parts that humans have which I just learned last semester)! So they do learn quite a bit and next month we are going to actually practice pinning bugs to enter into the competition at the fair. Exciting stuff.

Today is Barclay's birthday and so this morning I suggested to Talan that we call Aunt B and wish her happy birthday. I said can you say Happy Birthday and he said "no". So we text her instead. But then Talan had a change of heart and wanted to talk to Aunt B. To his dismay we got her voicemail but he babbled into it "Aunt B, Aunt B not there, B?, B?" and with some prompting said something close to Happy Birthday, I love you and bye bye. He is such a cutie. Barclay called me to tell me that she adored her message from Talan. Good, that is what we wanted to hear! :)

So another day closer to school starting. I am getting anxious, nervous and flustered. Somehow everything will fall into place, I trust. Oh, I did secure a birthday party for Talan at the Fun Guy http://www.thefunguy.com/indoor.html in the mall for Saturday January 24th so I am one step closer to making it a great day for my soon-to-be 3 year old! I am looking into making some Batman capes and magnets Squirrel Acorns as my friend Tina, from the Georgia days, has really inspired me. :) We shall see if I actually follow through on it. I do have the best of intentions a lot of the time and then fail to follow through.

Heartache of a Day

I got up this morning knowing in my heart that today was the day to put Misty to sleep. I called the vet and they gave me a 1:30pm appointment. So Misty went to my Al-Anon meeting with us and then we collected Mason from school and headed to the vet. Talan and Mason both got a chance to hold Misty one more time. After the Dr. gave her the sedative they got to hold her again. Mason kept crying and saying he'd miss her. Talan pointed to himself and said "me too". Thank goodness there were tissues well stocked in the room. Both boys watched as the Dr. gave her the barbiturate that ended her life. Talan was gracious enough to lend Misty his favorite blue blanket to use for this last day. They wanted to know how she was going to get to Heaven and see Grandma Susie and Guiness. I explained that her body would stay here but her spirit was already drifting up to Heaven as we speak. That seemed to suffice. Mason then said "Mommy, you know what would make me feel better?" and I asked him what thinking he was going to say donuts or ice cream but he said "McDonalds". So we went to McDonalds and had ice creams and a happy meal which came with two toys. The boys played for an hour and then we went home. I feel emotionally exhausted and drained from all the crying. It feels so strange to not have a pet anymore. I have had cats since 1996. Mason asked on the way home if we were going to get another pet. He though a baby chick might be a good pet for us. :) I told him I think we shall wait awhile. I need to mourn. Misty will always hold a very special place in my heart and I know I did the right thing today. Wow, death is really tough. I just want to shut down, eat junk and isolate. Not very good coping skills. I dragged the whole family into bed to watch an episode of LOST. Both boys feel asleep (it was nap time) and when it was over I felt momentary relief. But then I thought about Misty again and a wave of heartache rolled over me again. Just for today I can make it. Time will heal all wounds. I know this to be true. I just need to accept that today it just feels particularly raw.

A brand new year

We had a letting go ceremony at Church this morning. Each of us wrote down the things we are letting go of and then they were all burned in a big bowl. I didn't think I had anything to let go and then Deirdre gave some really good suggestions and I just started coming up with all sorts of things. It felt powerful and cleansing. Next week we do a white stone ceremony where we write one word on a white stone which we keep for the year. Several years ago, I wrote BREATHE on my stone. This year I think I am going to write SURRENDER. I am powerless over people, places, things and situations. If I remember to surrender then I won't struggle, resist or get annoyed. Hopefully. :)
So we had the best New Years Eve I can remember in a long time. We spent it at Lori's house. Lots of good friends, great food and fun games. We actually stayed up past midnight which I never do. Talan and Mason stayed up too. There were so many kids there, it was pretty fun for them too. Talan really enjoyed us and the dogs. Charlyne had her two dogs and Lori has three dogs so there were 5 little dogs all over the couches, our laps and leaping onto the dinner table for leftovers. :)
It has been a relaxing week. I can't believe Mason's school starts tomorrow and mine starts next week. I didn't do everything I wanted to do but I think the weather is a huge factor in mobility and motivation.
Yesterday Matt and Keira invited us to go cross country skiing with them on the Forth of July pass. Barclay was sweet enough to hang out with the boys so that we could go skiing. We rented skis for $15 each and it was so worth it. We had a fabulous time. Matt is a total outdoors man and he packed a shovel, heater, lighter fluid, sandwiches and hot cocoa. He built a pit for us to sit around and made a fire in the pit to keep us warm. When Keira gives me the photos I will post them here because I can't even describe it accurately except to tell you I was very impressed. We still got pretty cold while we ate lunch and I couldn't feel my toes or my finger tips for quite awhile. On the way back down the mountain we all fell. I fell 3 times, Keira fell 3 times, Matt fell once and Joe fell 4 times. It was crazy snow conditions but I laughed a lot and had fun.
I have Misty on my lap as I type this. She is so thin and frail. This morning I offered her salmon, cream cheese, and butter but she wouldn't try any of it. I think she can't eat anymore. It must hurt her or I don't know what. I still struggle what to do for her. What is best for her? She still gets a lot of love from all of us. But is she in pain? I wish I knew.
So I have been trying to sneak in some study time for my TEAS test this Thursday. I hate standardized tests. They are stressful and I don't think they really say anything about my abilities other than how I do on standardized tests. I hope for at least a 6 out of 10. Anything less than that would be an embarrasment. But, I will turn it over. I don't have oodles of enthusiasm for it so I am lucky that I am studying the little bit that I am.
Joe has really become involved with Facebook. He is far more into it than I am and has connected with way more people than I have. I am happy for him. It is funny because this morning I was just reading in the newspaper 10 ways to feel better in 2009. You know how they have all these types of articles this time of year. But one of the 10 items listed was connecting more with friends and the cited Facebook as an example. People who isolate tend to be more depressed, more unhealthy, blah blah blah so it makes perfect sense that someone who is connecting with a lot of old friends, even via Facebook, is bound to be more content, connected and feel better about themselves.
As I write this, Joe and I are playing Scrabble via Facebook for the first time. It is kinda funny because it doesn't ding or tell you when the other person has gone so we keep telling each other its your turn. Maybe we aren't using it properly, I don't know. We are still so new to the whole website. Joe just got a really high score with the word "toxines" which I would love to hear him define! haha Somehow it is allowed so now he is 100 points ahead of me.
Talan is getting excited about his birthday although he keeps saying he is going to turn five like big brother. When I tell him he is going to be 3 he says "no". I am burnt out on shopping but I suppose I will have to rally to get him some presents. Poor guy, January birthdays aren't much fun. I know mine is coming up and Barclay's and Joe's. I have little enthusiasm for any of them.
OK, that is all I have enthusiasm for right now. My focus is on scrabble. I want to win just one game against Joe.