reflections on a decade

I know many people feel that this past decade has been a big stinker but for me personally, it was wonderful! Some of the highlights:
-became a wife!
-had two fabulous kids!
-bought 2 houses
-bought 4 cars
-found a vocation that is the perfect fit
-hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out in one day
-took some great family vacations
-watched both of Em's kids being born
-became active and involved in a small church
-continued employment for Jay despite the economy

Granted, there are downers from this year. 9/11 being a huge one; the wars that are still ongoing; financial crisis; 4 car accidents (only one was my fault!); deaths of extended family members. But overall, I still think of the decade as being pretty great!

I feel like my life is turning out just as I hoped it would. Granted, I didn't have a firm plan on what that was going to look like but I am liking how it is unfolding! :)

Here's to the next decade being just as great!

happy birthmas!

Welcome to my niece, Ashley Grace Towey! She joined us today around 1 PM, weighing in at 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 21 inches long. JT is referring to her as a "handsome woman"--she is pretty chubby! :) She looks like a little sumo wrestler when she is all bundled up.

We had a whole plan in place for how things were going to go today and of course nothing went as planned! Emily was induced and we thought it would take a lot longer than it did. We had some childcare issues for the three cousins but thankfully Jimbo was there to hang out with them while the ladies went to watch Ashley make her entrance. Because of flu precautions the cousins aren't allowed up to see Ashley which was a bit of a bummer. Understandable but still a bummer.

I was able to witness the births of both of Em's children and this birth was far less horrific and scarring than the last one. :) Em did great and only pushed for 30 minutes this time. She is doing great and feels so much better than last time. They might end up coming home tomorrow just to chill before the holidays get started.

We are glad to have Ashley here safe and sound!

my friend the local celebrity

My friend Shannon Daugherty (yes, we call her Brenda) entered a cooking contest on Fox 9 and is now one of FIVE finalists for the grand prize! If she wins, she gets Cambria countertops as well as one year of free groceries! Her hubs was laid off in July so free groceries would be a huge blessing right now.

She was on the morning news in October to demonstrate her recipe (yes, the morning anchor jokingly called her Brenda too). I want her to win this so we are trying to get the word out. You can vote for her once per day for the next two weeks. Each time you vote you get entered into a drawing for No Name Steaks--yum!

Here is the link to vote:

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/generic/contest/Cookoff_Recipe_Contest

If you vote for the Smoked Trout Pate I will kill you. I am dry heaving over here just thinking about it!

Support Brenda! Donna Martin graduates! Maybe someday you will buy her house in SLP and love the countertops! Get voting people!!!!

a lesson i'm learning

It is easy to love your kids when they are sweet, cuddly, respectful and obedient. It is quite another thing to love them when they are the opposite of all those things.

Ethan and I are experiencing some growing pains in the last few weeks and I find myself really struggling to even want to be with him. He wakes up complaining and doesn't stop until he is back in bed at night. So far I've been unable to shake this from him--I desperately hope this is a phase and not a personality trait. I dislike negative people. I actively work to stay away from people like that and do not cultivate them as friends. Everyone has their moments of course but someone who consistently looks at the glass half empty really tries my patience.

When I need to enforce house rules, I usually end up getting a lot of sass and hurtful comments thrown my way. Don't get me wrong--I can take it but somehow I end up feeling drained and exhausted, sometimes by 9 AM! He seems to think that when I discipline him it gives him fair cause to say something uncalled for to me--usually it is about how I am terrible and have ruined his life.

We're trying different things to see what we can do about all this but so far nothing really seems to be working. The more you discipline him or take privileges away the more angry and lippy he gets. Spending quality time with him seems to work but usually he is so cranky that this is difficult.

So love your kids in the good times and be prepared to love them in the bad times. Ugh.

we are on the mend

Our visit to the doctor's office last Monday. Poor little man!

worst $25 i've spent lately

Every time I give Olivia Tamiflu, she throws it right back up. Immediately. It is a mess and I feel bad for her because she obviously hates the stuff. I gave her a few doses and have just quit it altogether. What a waste of money! I should've gotten the pills and ground them up in her food.

Tamiflu is not cheap! If I didn't have insurance it would've been $100 per prescription! Not exactly accessible to the average person without insurance.

On a brighter note, we seem to be over the hump in our house. Ethan's fever finally broke early this morning (if you are counting, that is a full 7 days with a fever). They are both coughing like crazy. They wanted to go outside so we went out on the deck and ran around for a few minutes and they could barely breathe when we got inside. Oops. They are also stir-crazy and crabby. I hope their coughing settles down so we can go out in public without feeling like we are infecting everyone around us!

the swine flew into our house

Well, it's here. Ethan has an unofficial case of H1N1. He started showing symptoms on Friday and is still feeling pretty yucky today. Mostly just a fever and a cough. Not sleeping as much as I would expect him to. Doctor said there is really nothing that she can do for him--Tamiflu won't help at this point. Jay and Olivia are on Tamiflu now with the hopes that they won't get it or won't get it as bad. Poor old mom gets nothing--except the flu I guess!

Last night I heard Olivia screaming around 4 AM. I knew something was up because I can't even remember the last time she woke up in the middle of the night. She was just laying there screaming and I just knew she had thrown up. I got her cleaned up and by that point she thought the whole thing was pretty funny and kept saying, "Wee-ah burp! Wee-ah burp!". She was still laughing about it today, talking about how she burped. It makes me smile. :)

So that's the news from our house. It is going to be a loooong week.