Market Street Grill

Every year at Christmas time there is an evening when all the adults go to dinner.  It's a great time for everyone to get to eat a warm meal and enjoy some great company.  It's the "Smith", "party of ten", kind of fun.  We all love it and it's the one time of year that I am guaranteed to have a great meal and eat it while it is hot too!  And another perk is that it's all on mom and dad.  That's right, we don't have to shell out a penny.  Thanks mom and dad.  

 Shauna and Mas; AKA mom and dad

 Bjorn and Brooke

 Chris and Kristin

 Melissa and Dru

Leslie and Ryan

Christmas stockings

I love Christmas stockings.  I made my first set about 5 years before i got married.  Then my taste changed and I no longer am into that country look.  For the last 3 years I have wanted new stockings and had even bought fabric and a pattern.  Well every year I would go to decorate and have no new stockings to put out.  This year I got my act together and made the stockings before Thanksgiving.  I love how they turned out.  I love how they look on my mantle and I love how big they are.  Tell me what you think.

Post Christmas funk

It's been a while since I last posted.  You see there was this technical error where I didn't have iphoto for a whole year.  Storing my digital photos on the memory card alone.  Now, thanks to Dru, I have iphoto again and am back in business.  However, that being said I was never a great blogger so don't expect too much!  

It's the time of year that I hate.  Christmas is over, and I *HEART* Christmas.  I always feel a let down when it comes time to take all the trimmings down.  It started for me yesterday as the trash man was coming to take the tree.  It was either that or haul it off on my own.  And since I don't know where the city dump is that wasn't an option.  I could have cut it up an put it in my green waste bin I guess.  It just seemed the easiest to take it down when the city was going to do all the hard work.  Once you take the tree down though, you have to take all the rest down too.  That also means CLEANING, urgh...   I've almost got the entire place stripped of Christmas decor and am thinking that I should just be like the stores and get out the valentines stuff as the house now looks so bare.  

It probably doesn't help that all three of my children have fevers and two with a cough.  So here we are all in our PJ's watching way too much t.v. and cleaning a little at a time.  

I will try and get some of the highlights of Christmas up soon.  I just have to remember how to upload photos... anyone... anyone...

Funny Myles

One day last week while Bjorn was getting ready for work Myles joined him in the bathroom. Bjorn got out of the shower, toweled off, did his hair, brushed his teeth and then came this little voice. "Daddy, your fur is all dry!" He was talking about the curly hair that covers Bjorn's legs. It's STILL funny to me to hear out loud the way kids think. And just when I think I have heard it all, he reminds me that I haven't. Love you Bubba!

One foot, two feet...

Can you see the bruising on the top of the big toe? It extends all the way up the top of the foot almost to the ankle.

Battle wounds

This is how mom saw me most of her time here. I was totally taken care of. She brought me everything I needed. It almost felt decadent.

Lets just say last week was a hard one. I woke on Monday to an abscess that needed attention. After calling the dentist I dropped off my kids to my friends home and went to the dentist who deduced that it was a "difficult" root canal that would need to be done. She sent me to the Endodentist who luckily could get me right in. He started the two prong procedure and by noon I was home with the kids after undergoing phase one. The following day I was scheduled for foot surgery that has been coming for a while now. The surgery was referred to by the doctor as a "bump and run". It only takes a few hours for the Doctor to go in and shave off the excess bone, but it takes quite a bit longer to heal. I assure you there is no running going on here. In fact I now have an old lady walker to help me get around and to act as a barricade so the kids don't come to close to the very painful feet. I now have two incisions on each foot(inside and outside). The doctor said it would be no big deal to do both feet at once, the nurse and everyone else kept saying "are you sure you want to do both feet at once?" I now know why they were asking me! I have to say it is more painful than I thought. The first night I got to sleep at 6:30 am. It has a horrible night of pain and restless legs. When you can't get up and walk, and your legs are crawling, it's a horrible feeling. The following day I was able to get some stronger pain killers which worked well, but make me nauseous. So it's back to the IBU 800.

I went back to the doctors yesterday for the follow up to surgery. The sutures look great but will stay in for another week. For now it's "take it easy", feet up, ice, and don't get them wet. It's not that easy taking a bath with both your feet hanging out the side. You try it sometime. I can't wait to get into the shower and get both feet wet! The up side to the story is this, 1st it will be nice to wear any shoes I want and not have to worry about if they will hit in the wrong spot, 2nd, it's always nice to see mom! Myles told me, to tell her, that "she could come back tomorrow."

A huge shout out to Mom who came and saved the day taking care of us. I felt so bad just sitting on the couch or in bed while she did all the work, but at the end of the day the kids *HEART* having her here. We had great food, fun playing and reading, and lots of kisses. It's always fun when Grandma's in town. Thanks Mom!

House maintenance

Lydia was in the middle of getting changed when she spotted the "problem" and got to work right away!

Myles, ever the fix it, had to don the safety goggles in order to get a handle on this "problem".

Lydia, now dressed, is always a helpful assistant. Do you see that pipe wrench? Well I guess we really have a problem spot because, that is where the pipe wrench lives. It CANNOT go in the toolbox with the other tools at the end of the job, it must stay there for safe keeping.

This is a little insight into a Sunday afternoon at the Dodd house. You know the plumbing is always a problem and needs constant attention. Not to worry, I have three very willing handy men to do the job. It's a favorite pass time for everyone. Let's just hope a real plumbing emergency doesn't arise as the real handy woman wouldn't have a clue what to do!

First day of preschool

Myles and Audrey wait by the "lunch wagon" before entering the classroom.

The VERY proud and happy preschooler. He was thrilled to go to school, and even more thrilled to find out he has a "cubby" to put his "stuff" in.

It's official my kids are growing up way too fast. Myles started his first year of preschool on the 6th of September. He is the oldest in his class and by far the tallest. The smallest girl in his class of 5 only comes to his shoulder. It's quite funny. He absolutely loves it despite his "I don't want to go to school" comment each morning before school. When I asked him how his 1st day of school was he simply said: "It was pretty cool Mom."

He is enrolled at a Presbyterian church run school that would have been super close to our old house on Ivy Ave. It's just one block west, though we are not far even in our new home. Just a short 2 min. drive. He is going twice a week this year. I wish I could afford to send him more. He seems to really love it. He has already come home singing a song about apples! It's really cute. I will try and get a video of it so you can see.

Now if I could get Lydia to stop crying each day we drop him off. She would just really like to stay too. Next year! I think he should get one whole year to himself. The girls could technically go in a month or so, assuming I could get Audrey potty trained. But for now I think that we will keep them home for the year.

Way to go my big bubba! So proud of you!