MOM IT'S AN EMERGENCY- QUICK!

Do you ever have those days that you just know from the start are going to be bad?  Today is one of those days.  I was lying in bed enjoying my sleep when Myles ran in and said, "Mom, come quick, it's an emergency."  "Yoda had gotten into something and made a huge mess."  Upon investigation I found that the mess was not made by the dog.  Instead was made by a certain three year old, named Audrey.  She had taken the tooth paste, pink and blue flavors, the bottle of lotion, and a bottle of sunscreen and squeezed them out all over the floor in the hall.  Then she added several cups of water for good measure, and started finger painting on the carpet.  Yep, that's right!  Large pink and blue and white circles on the carpet.  And if that wasn't enough she then walked down the stairs, into the living room and went to find some "lips" in my purse, something that is off limits, btw.  She took everything out of the purse.  Then went into the other purses that were hanging on the coat rack.  She emptied them all out too.  Consumed all the "treats" found in them, pulled open all the bandaids and taped them to the side of the purse and moved on.  I guess she found a bottle of RED nail polish in one purse. She then paints her nails, her toes, her lips, and then her entire foot.  Oh and everything else that she was sitting on too.  That would be the sofa, the leather ottoman, and the rug under the sofa.  I have just spent 2 hours cleaning up this little tornado and I hate to say it, but some of the mess is permanent.  What possesses a normally well behaved child to do something like this all before the hour of 7 A.M.?   I need a vacation!

This was the mess I woke to.

Notice her fingers and lips are also painted.  

Snow Day

Myles the snow remover

Audrey and Lydia with pure enjoyment on their faces

Snow isn't something my children see a lot of.  When they do visit it, it's always a good time.    Grandma and Papa's driveway is the perfect sledding hill after a night of snow.  It shoots you right out into the street which has been plowed and therefore stops  you right in your tracks.  We have to make good use of our snow clothes since they only get used once or twice a year at most.  

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!