Mommy Moment - 2004

Today is New Year's Eve.  Here's a memory that jumps up as one of the good ones... good that I don't have to live through it again!
Right from the beginning I knew that baby #2 was not going to have an easy life. At two weeks old I had decided to get out of the house and take our 3 yr old to the park… mommy needed out of the house. It was a beautiful day, my first try at taking two kids out in public. It was OK but I felt so pulled apart… 3 year old wanted all the attention because that’s what he was used to. I had to keep helping him down the slide which meant I was abandoning my two week old infant who was lying on a blanket… I would have never left my first child unattended at two weeks old. Now, I was maybe two feet from him (probably less) but I felt like someone could grab him and run away and being in my post-pregnancy state I felt tubby and knew I wouldn’t be able to tackle whichever NFL player was lurking behind the play structure. It was awful. Then the 3 year old needed to go potty… rush, rush, rush. This was exciting because he had just decided to not wear diapers anymore because only babies wear diapers… thank goodness we had a baby or he might still be in diapers and using a pacifier!


Anyways, I put the baby in the car seat thing, gathered all of our stuff in a hurry (for the first outing I was prepared for rain, sleet and snow and two weeks without access to a grocery store… it took me a minute). We trotted over to the bathrooms. Baby decides he needs held while we’re in the gross bathroom… I don’t want to put anything on the floor but I do. Oh man, I would never have done that with one child. Did you know it’s physically impossible to pull up your pants and button them without the use of two hands? It is. One time I actually put our first child between my legs and held him their while I buttoned my pants just so I wouldn’t have to put him on the floor. Now I see they have cute little seats in the bathrooms so mommies can buckle their baby into a safe little space… I totally missed my get-rich idea on that one! Anyways, I digress… are you still reading this? Stay with me here… I’m getting to my point…

In the bathroom back at the park 3 year old is done, but needs help with the toilet paper and his pants. So I have to put fussy baby down into the car seat which is now totally contaminated because it’s been sitting on the floor for 5 minutes. All I want to do it get out of there. I’ve wiped 3 year old, we’ve washed hands and I just want out. So I grab my poor baby who’s in the contaminated car seat and all the other equipment and we head out. Three steps out of the bathroom and I feel the car seat handle shift. What the? The car seat just ejected my two week old baby out onto the grass! Are you kidding me? Now I have a screaming baby who has every right to be upset, dirty hands, well - dirty everything. Plus my 3 year old is running towards the slide and the NFL tackler dude that I’m going to have to take down with my bare hands if he looks cross eyed at my kids although I haven’t actually confirmed his existence but don’t be fooled, I can sense him. I decided it was time to go home.

All I wanted to do was go outside.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a glimpse into some of my fondest mommy memories, Happy New Year!

Knitting and Sewing Projects for Christmas

I have been making clogs forever... or so it feels.  I've never made somethig more than once until now.  The clog pattern I found at the local yarn shop is wonderful.  You can check it out on Ravelry.com if you're interested.  I started with the child's size and then did two more in the adult version.  Jordan, Justus and Steve were the recipients.  These were completed 48 hours before Christmas.  I felt so ahead!  Uncle Brian has already placed his order for 2010.

I also sewed on all of the badges for Justus' Royal Rangers vest.  He wore it all Christmas morning.  He's been earning badges since September but hasn't had a vest to display them.  I also sewed an authentic Police Officers shield to the front of a new shirt for Jordan.  I was given the badge by an officer from Boston.  We sat next to each other on a plane from Seattle to Boston and talked all about our kids, dirt biking, camping... our families would get along so well!  At the end he gave me an extra shield he had with him.  I knew Jordan would love it.  He wore the shirt for 2 days!

Trip to the North Pole

All year long I've been promising to take the boys to the North Pole, the real North Pole.  So, when the

weather turned cold I decided I should put the date on the calendar.  Our calendars were so hectic with swim meets, holidays, work trips, etc. I realized we only had 1 weekend available so I snatched it.  We left town the Saturday after Thanksgiving and drove to Coeur d'Alene, ID.  Ssshhh, don't tell the boys the address.  Steve was called in to sub on Monday morning so wasn't able to join us.  We video taped everything from the moment we parked the car to the time we saw Santa and shared it with him as soon as we returned home.  It was a bummer to not have him with us.

We knew we had arrived at the hotel when we turned the corner.  We went from driving n pitch black to a million white Christms lights in the blink of an eye, it was amazingly beautiful, you could see lights forever.  When we checked into the hotel we were informed we'd received a complimentary upgrade.  The room had two beds, a sitting window, a flat screen tv, a sunken living room, two bathroom sinks and a deck overlooking the boat docks below... honestly, I can't imagine what they normally charge for that room!  I think she took pity on a frazzled mom with two boys, it was such a nice blessing!

We headed over to the ticketing area to pick-up our pre-purchased boat ride tickets... that's how you get to the North Pole, on a magical boat.  What, you didn't know that?  We boarded the double decker boat (imagine something like a houseboat but a bit larger).  The Ferry took us to the North Pole (the other side of Lake Coeur'd Alene) past several moving Christmas images all light up, to the hotel resort owners home.  It was all lite up with Christmas lights and they had a dock with a 'house' at the end of it.  The Ferry pulled close to the house and all of a sudden the lights came on and you could see directly into Santa's living room, dog and all!  Santa told us little stories and then read from the Nice list he'd recently received.  Thank goodness both of the boys names were read.  Jordan spent the entire month of December telling everyone he was not on the Naughty List... a very good thing to be proud of!

We later enjoyed a nice dinner at one of the hotels restaurants overlooking the Christmas lights on the water. We even shared a big snickers sundae for dessert.

The next morning we left and enjoyed some shopping time at Cabela's. We also saw the movie 'A Christmas Carol' in Spokane in 3-D and then visited with Santa at the Spokane mall.  It was a wonderful weekend!

(Note about the movie: not recommended for younger children without lots of hand holding and closing of the eys.  Both of the boys had been well prepared for it and enjoyed it.)

Angel Alert Christmas Production at Church

Angel Alert was the name of the Christmas Musical this year at church.  Justus had auditioned for a role with less lines in it but due to family scheduling conflicts one of the original cast members had to step down.  Justus was given the part of Harpo - an angel with a friend named Halo Hattie.  The two friends kept getting in trouble for surfing on shooting stars.  Our friend Chad (check out his blog) was played the role of Michael the Arch Angel and did an outstanding job.  He's made to act!  The play was wonderful, it had funny lines throughout and kept the audience entertained.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all enjoyed some strong family time together over the Christmas Holiday. We had a great time with lots of relatives at the house between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Lots of food and some good laughs. Jordan loved his Iron Man Rocket Launcher and immediately tested it upon opening. I was ready with my camera but hadn't anticipated the tremendous amount of pressure and speed at which it was about to hit my living room ceiling. With about 30 people in the living room (all of the Shraders) we're lucky no one had an eye poked out, or a head torn off. I'm sure it would have shattered our front window. Once we all checked if our body parts were still attached we had quite a laugh! Not intended for indoor use - well gee, look at all the fun the instruction following families missed!

Justus chopped down the tree today with the hatchet he bought with his money last month during our North Pole trip. Then he vacuumed all the pine needles. I'll post a couple of photo's below.

I think this is one of the 'rights of passage into manhood' - he passed :-)

Jordan and the candy bar

Big thud, muffled cries (the I really hurt myself kind of cries) mommy runs to the kitchen to find Jordan on the floor covering his mouth, crying, hurt, a little scared. He couldn't talk between the crying, gasping for air and his hand covering his mouth like he bit his tongue or something. Took me a minute to figure out he fell off the kitchen counter backwards straight onto his back. He was up there to reach his cute little pudgy hand into the candy basket Daddy 'hid' on the very top shelf. His hand has been over his mouth this entire time not because he bit his tongue, because he's scared mommy will find out he's shoved a butterfinger bar in there. There's so much in there he can't chew or swallow. When I finally realize there's no blood we all laugh a little and each of us gets a candy... honestly, what my kids will do for sugar!

She can sew - who knew!

Yep, I can sew too. Thanks to my mother and Ms. Pratt in the 8th grade I was able to sew this 'Inn keepers' costume for the Christmas Play at Justus' school. I'm pretty proud of it. Only took 2 nights, and I still have all 10 fingers. I couldn't figure out how to show it in the picture but I also made a head cover, a belt and a tie thing to hold on the head cover... ok the belt and tie thingy are just two of the scraps left over but they count for creativity points - right?

I've been knitting!

Rather than giving you an update to span across the past 9 months of time let's just say I've been busy. Torn ligaments in my ankle while at Disneyland, a few business trips and boom, it's the holidays! I did manage to squeeze in some knitting. Here are my first two pairs of socks. They aren't perfect, but they are all mine and I love them. I'm currently working on a small bag/purse for a friend. Hoping to finish it this week.

Leo the Lion

Introducing Leo the Lion, our 7 week old kitten! The boys love him; Steve tolerates him and he keeps me entertained during the work day. There are times he's so entertaining I have to close him out of my office. He really enjoys walking across my keyboard... hmmm.

He also enjoys sitting on my shoulders and taking naps in my jacket. He's already mastered crawling from the bottom of my pant leg to my shoulders. He's a great cat. Fully potty trained. My kind of man!

Dinner Party

This week we enjoyed a small dinner party at the house with a few of our friends. Being at home during the work day allowed me to prepare a nice meal for everyone. I really enjoy entertaining friends and family and am trying to do it more often. It's a New Years' Resolution that I'm still succeeding at and it's almost 3 months into the year - a little pat on the back for me! We had seasoned chicken, baked potatoes, snow peas, Wendy brought a caesar salad (and beautiful flowers) and I had time to bake a pumpkin spice cake - yum!

The cake turned out so well one of the guests had two slices and took a piece home with him - I'll keep their identity hidden. He even told me he's never liked pumpkin prior to tasting the cake. This was such an easy one to put together I thought I'd share the receipt. It whipped up very quickly. I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy it.

Finished Projects!

This winter a friend and I took a 4 week knitting class at the community college. I thought I'd share the outcome of my recently acquired knitting skills. The purple hat is for my great-niece. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a 'great'-niece. She is the sweetest baby there ever was. Her cheeks are adorably squishable, she's very calm and happy, smart. I love her to pieces. She just turned 4 months old. The hat matches a blanket I crocheted for her earlier this year.

The blue hat was finished tonight during swim team practice. It's for Justus. Half way through the project he said he wanted a hat that would cover his ears. Thank goodness this one just makes it! I think I'll look for a pattern that's actually intended to cover the ears for a little variety in my next project. Ear coverage would be good... and not just because he asked for it.

This is for my friend Delena (Happy Birthday BTW). She missed this little adventure because she successfully rangled her kids out of the pool much earlier than I did. Justus eventually emerged from the locker room. When you're a boy there must be some really fasinating stuff in there because it takes FOREVER to get out when your mom's waiting for you. He was followed by his friend who came over to the parent's bleachers and announced to everyone that he heard someone say, 'Frickin' idiot.' He then divulged the name of the offender... I left quietly. Frickin' is my favorite word right now, it's useful in a variety of situations (driving, laundry time) but usually reserved for use in front of the immediate family members. Guess I need a new word. Or ear flaps!

The Longest Valentine's Day Ever!

Both boys had a Valentine's Day party on Thursday this week. Then Jordan had another one on Friday. Then of course Valentine's Day was on Saturday. They were bouncing off the walls with all the candy in their tummy's. Mom was bouncing off the walls too...

Picture of Jordan at his preschool party enjoying his cake. He talked me (forced me) into bringing an entire sheet cake from Costco to the party. I had planned to split Costco cupcakes between the two schools but I didn't realize Jordan thought this was a birthday party. When we got to the store it was either spend the money and buy the cake or drag a 60 pound 4 year old out of the store by his heels... do you know how far of a walk that would have been... the bakery is in the back of the store you know! I quickly decided this wasn't a battle I was up to that night. So we left Costco with a full sheet cake AND 24 cupcakes. My boys must have been the class favorites this year! Next year I'm shopping without kids.

On Valentine's morning the boys had fun decorating personalized Valentine's Day cards for their daddy, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Honestly, there are days that they actually get dressed before noon!

Steve had a beautiful bouquet of roses waiting for me and we enjoyed an early dinner at our favorite restaurant. Then we had family over for a thrilling card game (1,500 trump anyone!) to top off the day.

Hope your family enjoyed the Valentine's Day Weekend as much as ours!

February Junior Bible Quiz Meet

Yesterday Justus and I traveled to the Seattle area for a Junior Bible Quiz competition. The teams are much tougher this year. Being able to buzz in quick enough to answer a question is actually pretty impressive in and of itself. He was in competition with approximately 50 kids. He earned enough points over the course of the day to fall into the 25th spot. I am very proud of him.

A Quiz Bee was held afterwards which is very similar to a spelling bee. They read a question and the child gives the answer. If they do not give the answer they are out. They started with about 50 kids. Justus made it through until he was the 13th child left. The top 10 kids earned a trophy. It was a very big accomplishment for him - he had such a big smile on his face! Even when it was his turn to sit out. He knew he had done well. One of his team mates actually made it into the top 10 - that was very exciting!


Today we had an Ice Skating party to celebrate the teams efforts over the past 4 weeks. They spend several hours studying in prerparation for these meets. I didn't get a picture of us today but this is one from a previous skating experience with the boys. Can I just mention that taking a 4 yr old child who weighs approximately 60 pounds ice skating should not be repeated; Back pain!

Two Play Dates for the Price of One

Yesterday Steve was gone to an all day Diving Meet. I invited Mitchell over for Justus and Caleb over for Jordan. The four boys played very well together! You'll see that Caleb and Jordan were Batmand and Robin and Mitchell and Justus were Hot Wheel Designers. Their Hot Wheels creations were so cool that the little boys just had to join them. And believe it or not, the big boys scooted over and made room for them without any prompting! They were all so well behaved I cleaned the kitchen to stay out of their way.

February's Menu Plan

January dinners were so stress-free. I put the January menu plan on the refridgerator and referred to it every day at lunch time. There were days that situations popped up and I had to move a meal around, etc but having the basic structure ready to go was great. I knew that I had the right food in the house to make any of the meals for that week.

I have completed the menu plans for February. I've attached a picture below and believe you can click on it to view in a seperate, larger window (pretty proud of figuring that out BTW). If you're interested in any of the recipes just let me know. I'll probably post some of our favorites during the month.


Yipee!

Our First Wenatchee Wild Hockey Game

Last night I took both boys to our very first semi-professional hockey game. The Wenatchee Wild is our new team in town. They play at the newly constructed Town Toyota Center. It's a great place. The people around us were fun, there were times during the game that we were ahead and the announcer really kept the crowd lively when we weren't. Being a brand new team we aren't at the top of the scoreboard very often. Jordan loved watching where the team mascot, 'Wolf' was going and what he was doing. Justus was really into the game, he read the rules from cover to cover.

It was group night for Central Washington Hospital employees. We ended up with 720 people there which is the largest group crowd they've had in the building since it opened! We made lots of noise throughout the night. So much that my voice was a little raw this morning.

(Self portrait)

Pictures - Hooray!

It only took two failed attempts at loading the camera software, and the purchase of an all-in-one photo, copy, fax, scanner to get my pictures from the camera to the computer. I'm so happy to report that all 604 pictures transfered easily once I realized there was a little slot on the front of the printer... too cool!
Photo's to be posted shortly.

Menu Planning

I have been struggling with fixing meals for my family. I'm not a 21st century mom who's struggling with fixing healthy meals. I'm talking about getting something on a plate each night for dinner. I won't admit how many months it's been since I've provided two home cooked meals within one 7-day window. My definition of 'home cooked' equates to anything I can say I cooked; AKA heated up within the confines of my own kitchen. Now you know a little of the history. Ready for the unveiling? I have spent about an hour a day for about 3 days working on a menu planner. I saw another blog with a great template, tweaked it for our family and following is the result. If anyone is interested in recipes I'm happy to share.

When creating the plan I flipped through my 2008 Quick Cooking cookbook. My wonderful grandparents have purchased an annual subscription for me for several years. I love this book! I belive you can click on the picture to view a larger image.

I'm still here

I haven't forgotten about my faithful followers... geez guys, way to put the pressure on me! I'm having difficulty getting pictures off of my camera. We're in the middle of swapping from one computer to the other. I guess I need to re-load the software for the camera onto the new (used) computer. Just figured that out today. More to come.

On another note I've really been trying to come up with a meal plan for our family. Something that functions for us. I was inspired by Kerry's blog, a fellow FlyLady. Check it out if you're interested; http://ignoranceandapathy.blogspot.com/

I'll post our meal plan once it's completed. I'd say I'm more than 50% done for the entire month of January - hooray! I was so desperate at one point I had signed up to pay $50+ dollars for a year of automated menu planning through a website - it was approved of by Oprah so it had to be good, right? Then my senses where knocked into me (that's a nice way of say, "My husband found out.") Tee Hee!