Christmas Past

I have returned! Bearing photos!

Grandpa (Bumpa) with the great-grandkids

Jeana, Paige and AnnaLaura

on Thanksgiving

The Family on Christmas morning

AnnaLaura and Michelle on a new sled

in Grandma and Grandpa's yard

on Christmas

Darin on his new snowskate

(a cross between a skateboard and a snowboard)

on Christams

Even Mike had to try it out!

An Uninvited Houseguest

We find ourselves with a furry friend in our garage. He is enjoying munching on empty pop cans (which had been placed back inside their cases for delivery to the grocery store, but which are now scattered all over the floor), making all sorts of lovely noises during the night, and sleeping blissfully during the day in some cozy corner yet unfound. Mike wandered around the garage this morning and, since he couldn't find the little bugger, declared him gone. But...I know he's simply hiding somewhere having little fuzzy soda-filled dreams. I'd like to think our guest had vacated, but for now I will refrain from walking through the garage without a pair of boots and a broom. I shall even park outside and use the side door rather than subject my ankles and shins to the possibility of being savaged by it's wicked needle-teeth.

What could have me so flustered you ask?

Now, I am sure some of you are thinking, "What is that?" The rest are wondering, "You're scared of a opossum?" *sigh* Yes. Yes I am. You have obviously never seen their teeth. No sane and rational person would ever take a good look at all those long, needle-sharp, wicked looking teeth and not fear getting munched upon.

I had someone tell me that I had nothing to worry about since they move so slow. Trust me, just because they slowly amble across roads and get squished does not mean that they are always slow...it just means that your car doesn't scare them. I am begining to think nothing scares them. Make a loud noise, move toward them, throw pop cans at them, it doesn't matter. It will just sit there and stare at you. Then it will go back to doing whatever it was doing before. Like sleeping. However, when one decides to chase you while you're walking through the woods you quickly find out just how fast they can move. You also find out how hard it is to spot them when they're moving through (or should I say under) ferns. It is also hard to spot them when they are the same color as the floor and lower walls of your garage. And believe me, they can move when they want to.

Okay, you can stop laughing now. Yes, I really was chased by an opossum once. Yes, it scared me (since this seems to not be normal behavior for the opossum, I had things like "rabies" bouncing around in my head while I ran away...tell me it wouldn't have scared you, too). And yes, I've seen their evil teeth up close. My dog (anyone remember Coby?) cornered one and I, like an idiot, stood 10-15 feet away and took pictures while it hissed at my dog (who was happily wagging his tail, thinking he'd found a new friend). The teeth still make me shudder.

So, now I'm hoping my parent's neighbor will let me borrow their live trap. It's either that or I call pest control (I tried shooing it out with a broom but it crawled away somewhere and hid...probably fell asleep again). Hope your Holiday guests are more welcome than mine (and smell better)!

Drum Roll, Please.....

The newest ultrasound pics....

And the work in progress is a.......

And like any male, seems to enjoy showing off that which is most important to him. Typical.... *grin*

The due date is still set at April 10th.

All I Want For Christmas...

Okay. My kid brought her school photos home the other day, and I'm just wondering who this kid is. While all of you may think that she looks like mine....this is NOT what my child looks like.

You see, a few weeks after the school pictures were taken, the kidlet ran into the neighbor boy's elbow, resulting in....

Three days later, after eating dinner, she suddenly looked like....

Now, go back and look at that first picture again. Notice the gigantic gap on each side of her front teeth? Yeah. Okay, maybe this is my kid....she sure looks different now though. Seeing as how it's been weeks since the teeth fell out and she still looks like this, the thought keeps floating through my head.....all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth....

On a side note, she also got her first school ID card with her pictures. The first thing she asked me was, "Does this mean I can drive now?" *scream*

Guess What!

For those of you that haven't yet heard the news....

I am pregnant!

Yep, that's right. I'm right about 13 - 14 weeks along (which means my appetite has returned and I'm not sleeping all day anymore). I just had an ultrasound this morning, and they are putting my due date at right about April 10th. Seeing as how my parents' birthdays are April 4th and 6th, I figure I've got their presents covered next year.

The other day Mike said something about how we'd get another baby shower. I told him that I thought you were only allowed one for your first kid, so I didn't think we could have another. My Mom came to the rescue and pointed out that because it's been over 6 years since AnnaLaura's shower, we could probably get away with having another. Seeing as how all our baby items are over 6 years old, have spent the last 5 years in a moldy basement, and since most the clothing items have gone through 2 (sometimes 3) kids, this is good news.

So, here's the work in progress....

In Other News...

AnnaLaura turned 6 last month! We had 2 Birthday parties (yes, we are insane), one for family and one for kids.

First came the family party. She had lots of fun with her cousins and the neighbor kids (okay, family plus next-door neighbors party). For some reason she seemed rather excited about a new blanket for her bed. I kinda wonder if she actually realized what it was....

The present that really excited her however, was a guitar. She is fascinated by Darin's guitar and plays with it whenever he lets her. Mike thought she'd love one of her own. She has since covered it in bug stickers and refers to it as her "bug guitar." I have a strange daughter....
The theme this year was butterflies. It is soooo much easier decorating a butterfly cake rather than Tigger (or any other cake she's had so far). I think I really got lucky when I was unable to find Star Wars themed party items (like any good parent we've happily addicted our child to Star Wars...she seems to really like Darth Vader...have I mentioned I have a strange daughter?). Just how does one decorate a Darth Vader cake? I'm glad I never had to find out.

please stay tuned....more later....must pick up small child (and neighbor's children) at school...

Pencil Problems

As I've mentioned before, the school that AnnaLaura attends does not have busing. That being said I drop her off and pick her up every day. Last Friday when I picked her up, she jumped into the car and excitedly said, "I have real homework!"

When we got home I opened her bag to look at her homework. Not only did I find a worksheet for writing numbers poperly, I found a note that reads as follows:

AnnaLaura had a small incident today in math class. Her pencil broke, and she started to cry. I offered her spare pencil from our classroom, and instead of taking it, she continued to talk about how she wanted her own pencil. We have a classroom rule that we do not sharpen pencils after the pledge due to distractions, therefore she needed to take my pencil in order to finish her assignment. She finally took a pencil, but instead of working, she started to talk to her neighbors about her pencil. I then had her take a break in Mrs. Plant's room. When she came back, math class was over, and she was out of time to complete her work. Please help her finish this assignment at home.

Let me tell you about her pencil. At the school Open House, she (and every other kid in the school) received a pencil and an eraser from their teacher. The pencils had nifty designs on them rather than being the boring yellow ones. AnnaLaura refers to it as her "special pencil." Knowing that she had her special pencil plus one other (unsharpened) pencil in her pencil case, I figured she didn't need any others...who has ever heard of a elementary class were you are not allowed to sharpen pencils after saying the Pledge (which we all know happens at the begining of school)?!?! How many pencils does this teacher think I should send with my almost 6 year old child? I'm sure we've all had days, especially when we were just learning how to write) where we had to sharpen a pencil 5 or more times in a day because the lead kept breaking. And what kind of 6 year old isn't going to be upset when she finds out she can't use her "special pencil" for the rest of the day? Never mind the fact that this is the first time she's had her own pencil to use in class. Good grief! Something tells me that this policy causes more "distractions" than allowing children to sharpen their pencils as needed. In case you're wondering, this is the teacher's rule, not the school's. I've talked to some other parents (whose children are in different classrooms) and they had never heard of such a thing either.

Needless to say, she now has 7 sharpened pencils in her box at school. I can only hope she doesn't go through all of them in one day. I am also going to buy a hand sharpener she can take to school with her. I just hope the teacher allows that. Oh, it probably doesn't need mentioning, but she is a first time teacher. Whoever suggested this "rule" to her should, in my opinion, have to sharpen all my kid's pencils with their teeth. One can only hope that this rule doesn't survive her first year of teaching.

Does this rule bother anyone else, or am I overreacting?

Since I don't want to leave a post with at least one picture....here's the kidlet with the puppy last month. Keep in mind that this is a 6 month old puppy next to a almost 6 year old kid.

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Update: Now that time has past and I've gotten to know AnnaLaura's teacher I just wanted everyone to know that I really like her. I still think that the whole no sharpening pencils thing is a bit off the wall, but she's great. Really. I mean it. AnnaLaura loves being in her class (and doesn't question the sharpening rule...at least, not that I know of) and I love knowing that she has such a kind and caring teacher. If she ever finds her way here I hope that she isn't offended or anything. I really really really like her. really.

Summer is Over Already?

Oh my...it seems like last week we were at the cottage...and I swear it was only a month ago that school let out for the summer. As usual, it seems that someone has hit the fast-forward button and I've missed summer. AnnaLaura has started 1st grade, and Darin begins his first year of High School (and now he can ride the bus to and from our house so Mike no longer needs to drive him to school early in the morning)! However, no matter how fast summer seemed to fly by, we did get quite alot done this summer.

AnnaLaura playing in the sprinkler.

AnnaLaura talking on the phone to our friend in Australia.

We had a wonderful time seeing family at the cottage this summer. It's always nice to have them all make the trip Up North (and we got to meet Miles, the newest family member)!
Courtney attempting to hide from me....

Courtney showing off her surfing skills!

And here's Miles!

We also had a wonderful 4th of July BBQ at our house this year. I even managed to get a few photos of Mike's mom, Phyllis (HA!). Mike's parents brought an interesting game with them called Polish Horseshoes, which was played with constantly all day, the puppy loved all the attention that was lavished on her, the girls found a toad which they happily paraded around with for far longer than neccessary, and we somehow managed to eat all the food.

My Dad, Mike's parents, and Frank (our brother-in-law)

Darin. Michelle, Alex and Mike watch from the swings.

Phyllis plays Polish Horseshoes with Michelle.

Well, methinks that be it for today. I promise to post more soon.....well, sooner than normal...maybe...

Pup O' Mystery

Well. We have ourselves a puppy. A rather large puppy. You see, we've always told AnnaLaura that we weren't home enough for a dog, and as she soon as figured out that "Mommy not working this summer" meant "Mommy home more often" we found ourselves puppy-hunting. I fell in love with quite a few husky-mix puppies at the Cherryland Humane Society that were all too hyper. Then I found some puppies at Benzie Country Animal Welfare League that not only were cheaper, but actually puppies...not half grown dogs. We spent days trying to come up with a name for her. AnnaLaura suggested "Mystery" since (as she said) "her name is a mystery." So here she is!

When we first got her in June. We guessed her weight to be around 15 lbs. and her age (acording to Animal Control) at 3 months.

3 months

After her first visit to the vet we found out that her age was off by a month. She's now almost 6 months old and weighs over 33 lbs.




More to follow shortly....

Long Time, No Post

Well. I do hope there are still some people out there who feel inclined to pop in here once in a while. In the hope that there are....

It has been a busy couple of months! My 15 year old nephew has been "visiting" us for a while now (though that will change to "living" with us as soon as Mike has time to make it legal). AnnaLaura just finished up with swimming lessons. I have a new Subaru (in much better shape than the one I traded for a camera). We remodeled the kitchen. And last, but not least, I've quit my job!

Back to the beginging. As most of you know, Mike's older sister passed a year ago. She left behind two sons. The oldest of the two is now visiting us, Darin. He's a good kid, but as with many 15 year olds, he finds himself grounded rather frequently. Right now I'm just hoping he learns how to properly clean the bathroom (his mom was a clean freak and did all the cleaning herself so he has never learned). He seems to enjoy being tardy to class (at least I assume so...it happens often enough), playing music filled with screaming, skateboarding, and BMX racing (though he took his bike downtown, threw it into some bushes and then went swimming....and yes, his brand new bike that the whole family had to chip in to buy was stolen...and yes, he doesn't understand why he's grounded again).






We also had fun with our kitchen. We took down that awful fake brick (which took the drywall with it). Hung new drywall, tore out the 1970's cabinets that were falling apart, put new cabinets in, rearranged the fridge, installed a DISHWASHER (all hail the dishwasher, how we adore thee) and a garbage disposall. We still have the floors and trim to do, but we seem to have run out of energy.




I do believe that that's all for today! Time to go pick up Darin from Sylvan and go get his hair cut. Yes, I know that there are a few topics that I haven't touched on yet. Give me time (as if I haven't used enough already) and I'll get there.

Why Won't It Stop Snowing? and When Will My Kitchen Be Done?

Yes, Yes...I know I haven't updated this in quite a while. I am sorry. Truly, deeply sorry. It has been a rather busy winter, and I meant to update this...really, I did, but life kept happening. *sigh*

Let me see. As you all know, I had knee surgery. Because of all the hideous things they had to do inside my knee I needed physical therapy...6 weeks of it...3 days a week. I normally try to find something to write about (on here) every other Friday while the kidlet is in school (she goes half days, every other Friday), but for 6 weeks I had therapy while she was at school. So much for that idea. "But," you're saying, "your therapy should have been over a while ago." Yes, you're right, it was. However, this has been our project lately.

This is my kitchen. See that window down there by my nephew? My sink is suppose to be under it. Right now I am washing dishes in the bathtub (not with me in it with them, silly! What kind of weirdo do you take me for? Ah...I see...ummmm, nevermind then). Remember that wall that ran from one end of my dining room to the far end of the kitchen? The one covered in fake brick? The frighteningly hideous wall? Yeah, it's gone now. Thank God! I shiver to recall those wanna-be bricks. I was going to add a picture here of the wall before it came down, but I don't seem to have one loaded onto the computer...perhaps later.

Here's the kitchen after all the drywall went up....notice that there's still no sink...and my stove is in the middle of the room...

And last night I finally managed to get the painting done (the brand-spankin' new cabinets should start to go up tomorrow. The color is a bit off (and I don't feel like messing with photoshop today, sorry) as it is actually a color called "Heatherbell" and has a slight lavender tint to it...looks white most of the time.


And this would be the pile of junk sitting in the garage. If you look, you will see that awful brick stuff at the bottom on the picture.
And these would be the new cabinets...

In final news, winter hath returned. A few weeks ago it was sunny, in the 70s (unusual for us, but very nice), the flowers were starting to come up, and the neighbor was talking about getting the hoses out. I did try to remind him that it was March, that we'd probably get more snow, and that it often snows in May around here. I really hoped he listened to me...

It literally snowed for 3 days, nonstop. Every single time I looked out the window, went outside to brush of the car again, went outside to snowblow the drive again, it was snowing. We got somewhere around 10 inches in 2 days. Now I realise that I live in Northern Michigan and it will sometimes snow well into May, but from April on, it usually snows then melts, snows then melts, etc. This ain't melting. And it keeps snowing. And it's getting really annoying. Why, oh why am I still here?

Well, I shall leave you today with a picture from warmer times (last month)...

Hopefully, now that therapy is over...and since the kitchen should be done soon...I will be able post more regularly for you. One can hope...

Going to the Dance, and Knitting Under the Influence

Well, Mike and AnnaLaura have just left for the school's Father Daughter Dance. What a great idea!! The dance is held for all the girls in the school (K - 12) and their Father/Uncle/Gaurdian/etc. Not only did it give her a reason to wear her Christmas dress again, but she has a reason to wear the cape Grandma gave her for Christmas (I didn't think that would ever happen).

What I Have Learned About Knitting

As previously mentioned, my friend has taught me how to knit. I quite enjoy it (although for some reason it makes me dizzy...don't ask). As my very first project, I attempted a "Jayne" hat. Now if you've never seen Firefly (a very good, wrongly cancelled show) you are probably wondering why anyone would want to wear the thing, let alone make it (perhaps if I find a picture of Adam Baldwin wearing it, you'll understand). I learned that if I ever make another one I shall find thicker yarn. I also learned that hats are easy (HA! un-learned that soon enough!). Anyway....here is the Jayne Hat in all its glory (?). I picture it here for Amy so that she might wonder what I was thinking (psst, Amy, use thicker yarn if you plan on making one...oh yeah, and I had to cast on 90 something stitches...use thicker yarn) when I picked this for a first project. Oh, and Amy will be proud to know that I used Knitting Help to figure out how to pick up stitches for the earflaps. See Amy, I was listening! Oh, and when viewing this pic, please bear in mind that Mike's head (the intended wearer) is 5" bigger around than the kidlet's.

Now since I had successfully completed a rather odd hat with ease, I decided to make the kid a hat. I picked out some cute yarn that I could throw in the wash when I wanted and started knitting. Okay...since I began knitting while the kid was sleeping I used a very handy chart in this wonderful book that told me that a 2 - 5 year old has a 18" head and a 6 - 10 year old has a 19" head. Armed with this knowledge I began knitting. After a day or two, and 5" of hat completed, I attempt (notice my choice of word) to put it on my kid's head. Do you think it fit? Hell NO! So I measure her head and find that it's 20" around!!! I have become very good at ripping out stitches, let me tell you. So I try again. Once again I listen to this wonderful book about when to start decreasing the hat at the top...now I have a hat too short to fit on my kid's head (my kid has a big head, have you noticed?). So I rip out more stitches, and attempt (there's that word again!) to stop halfway and put the stitches back on my needle so I won't have to start at the begining again. And I did it! I got all the stiches back on my needle and just as a was sticking my needle through the very last stitch....the first 2 fell off the other end and slipped down 2 more rows. So once again I started the hat at the begining. *sigh* I did finally manage to complete it, AnnaLaura loves it, and (just because someone up there wants me to make more hats) she left it at school last week and it hasn't been seen since. But here is the hat in all it's glory!

After finishing her hat, I still had a bunch of yarn left... and since AnnaLaura was begging for a scarf, I made a scarf. In doing so I learned another valuable knitting lesson: DO NOT KNIT WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF COLD MEDICINE!! There are so many rows of knitting when I was suppose to be purling (and vice versa) due to that cold medicine....*sigh* At one point I mentioned that I was going to start over (I really didn't like how it looked anyway) and AnnaLaura got so sad. "But Mom, I really want my scarf!" So, realizing that my 5 year old could care less if I was knitting and purling in the proper order, I continued on (heck, when she told me she wanted a scarf I told her she had enough of them, and she said - bless her heart - "But I don't have one that you made, Mom!" Aaaaawwww....... Of course the scarf is also MIA with the hat, so...... Now I'm making a scarf for my Mom, bought a book that has all sorts of stitch patterns in it, and have now figured out how to do a "linen stitch" It really is a nice looking stitch. Now I just have to hope that my cold doesn't come back (or maybe my mom should hope that my cold doesn't come back).

All I want for Christmas...

That'll Teach Her to Eat Celery...

Look Ma, No Tooth

AnnaLaura's tooth came out at Daycare the other day (Cheryl managed to get it on video too!). She was eating celery with lunch when it fell off. I guess she as pretty excited until the other kids started yelling at her that she was bleeding. She has 3 others loose already, so she'll be keeping the tooth fairy busy for a while. Everytime she brushes her teeth she has to look at her new tooth in the mirror...she's getting quite a kick out of it!

The Snow Has Returned!

Mike and AnnaLaura finally got to go sledding this past weekend. Santa brought Mike some snowpants for Christmas that he's been itching to try out. It was odd not having any snow on the ground for Christmas this year (or New Year's for that matter). Not that I'm complaining! Now we just have to hope they don't take out the cable in the neighborhood...though it is nice having such a deep ditch in front of the house.

Merry Belated Christmas!!

As usual, our Christmas started at home, but moved quickly to my parent's house. Paige and Jeana wore matching Santa dresses, how cute! I tried to get a good AnnaLaura, Jeana and Paige picture...but they weren't cooperating. Oh well...

Many presents were opened, my Mom's super-yummy breakfast was devoured, and the floor was covered in wrapping paper. AnnaLaura and Jeana did a great job trying to deliver packages to the proper person, but with so many moms and dads they got a bit confused at times. It was a very busy house.

Christmas at the Arnold's

After we'd stuffed ourselves at my parent's house, we were off again. A quick stop at home to off-load (and grab more presents) we headed for Mike's parent's. For the first time, we got there before dinner was ready. I think Phyllis tells me every year that the turkey will be done by 1:00, but when we get there at 1:00 they're all done eating (the same thing happens on Thanksgiving...we've learned to come early, but that doesn't always work either).

So, we opened more presents, gave out more presents, ate more food...you get the picture.

Christmas at the Petzler's, and some sledding.


A Visitor Comes Calling

My dear friend Amy* came to visit her family immediately follwoing Christmas with her son Oscar. I convinced her to teach me how to knit while she was here (yeah, convinced...it's not like she was jumping up and down with uncontrolable joy or anything...okay, maybe all I had to do was mention it). So...I'm now knitting. Make that attempting to knit. Okay, I'm knitting, I'm holding my own, it's more enjoyable than SuDoKu every night. Honestly, I'm having alot of fun, trying to learn how to do things (though I still can't figure out how to pick up dropped stiches). AND I'm getting good at unraveling and re-knitting...real good...lots o' practice, ya know?

Oscar had fun crawling around our house and sticking AnnaLaura's toys in his mouth. He also tried to help her play her video games on her V-Smile system. It was nice to have her here for a while, and sad to see her go (though after stopping by Mama Grouch, I see she had a simply miserable time going home).

He's Got the Whole World in His Mouth?

*it now occurs to me that she might rather that I refer to her as Mama Grouch, and her child as The Creep. I hope I'm not giving away any secret identities...oopsie...

Sorry Everyone!

I will be putting up a new post soon, I promise. We've been a little busy around here lately, but since I have the next week off while I recover from knee surgery I'm hoping to write something nice and long for ya! So, as soon as I can sit in a chair without somehow making sure my knee is over my heart (joy...) I'll tell ya all about our Christmas, how the snow came back, and my adventures in knitting (thank you Mama Grouch!!).



Till then, take care! Cross your fingers that moving and reshaping my kneecap somehow stops the back of my knee from hurting...