Christmas time is here... Part One

What a busy couple of weeks! Getting ready for Christmas is always an adventure. I had to drive the two hours to pick up Mark on Christmas Eve. I started out early and thankfully my mother stayed home with the children. I didn't even make it a block before I was stuck in the snow. The city did not plow the roads! It was a mess but the worst part was the five...yes FIVE people that walked and drove past me and never offered to help. Some stood and watched me! Spirit of Christmas? More like Christmas Grinches. Not a very good start to the trip and it put me in a foul mood. Thankfully I talked to Pete and he made me laugh which brightened my mood. The roads were a terrible mess. At points there would be a line of cars all doing 45 mph. When I finally decided to turn around I was past the halfway point. I decided to keep going because at least I would have Mark with me going back and that would be better than going it alone. When I was about to merge with about of traffic and try to get onto another freeway all the snow from the top of the van slide down the window. This stopped the wipers and I could not see a thing! Thankfully I knew there was a car next to me that had just merged on so I could slip behind him to get to my exit/on ramp. Then I put on the flashers and tried to pull over. Because of the road conditions everyone was going really slow...thank God! It was frightening but fixed rather easily. After that point it was just rain the rest of the way. Of course on the way back we ran back into the terrible road conditions. I prayed a lot :-) We made it home and the children were so happy to see daddy.

Christmas day was a blast. I loved watching the kids open their gifts. And let me just say that my family and friends are kind, sweet, and generous. We did not go overboard with the gifts this year. Henry and Irene each got a couple of gifts that were just for them and the rest were gifts for them to share. That's the great thing about having young kids close together in age...they like the same things. So they were both happy with the gifts, especially the Elmo's Kitchen, and we were pleased to have not spent a fortune. My family and friends had a tremendous amount of gifts for the kids. The house looks like a toy store exploded in it. I was amazed at all the gifts the received. And yet the gifts were the toys I would have liked to have gotten the kids but didn't want to blow the budget on. Amazing how that worked out! The Lord provides...through my family :-)

My brother Peter and his girlfriend Ashley drove the very long drive from Virginia on Christmas Eve. They stayed the night at my dad's and had Christmas morning with him and my brother Matt before heading up here. This was the first time we were meeting Ashley. She and I had become good friends on Facebook but still I was worried that she wouldn't like me in person....the usual. But when they showed up...it was like we had known each other for years! She was so easy to be around. As a family we could tease, bicker, bitch, moan, and Ashley just joined in :-) We love you Ashley! Oh yeah...Ashley brought her Chihuahua Mollie up too. Chang Po was in LOVE!!!

My mother made a super yummy Christmas dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and all the other goodies that go with. Later that night we put the children to bed. My mom stayed at the house with them and Peter, Ashley, Mark and I went to the casino. For some reason we thought we could get a drink there but being Christmas day we couldn't. Instead we played "high roller" with our dollar each. Yes...a dollar. Then we ordered some pizza from the deli and took it home to share with mom. We stayed up late, 12:30am. Late for those of us with kids! It was a fantastic Christmas!

Photos by Ashley Crockett and Pete Wisniewski

Santa Overload

Three Santas in three days! On Sunday my mom and I took the kids down to Wal-mart. I really needed laundry detergent and a bunch of other things. While shopping around we heard that Santa was in the garden department! We rushed over and got in line. Henry was so excited he kept trying to get into other people's pictures. For our turn neither child smiled though. Wal-mart takes the picture and an hour later you get a FREE very nice photo with a border around it. No Polaroid. We got pictures with the Easter bunny there too so I was pleased to have Santa pictures too. The only downside of the night was when Henry found the live lobsters in the grocery section. He wanted one sooooo badly! Try explaining to a three year old why we couldn't take care of one ;-)

Tuesday Santa was going to be at storytime at the public library. We went and listened to stories and sang songs. Got another picture with Santa and got a book and coloring/activity book. We also made cute tree ornaments and had cookies and juice. Once again the kids are not really smiling in the photos.

Roo and her cookie

Silly face Henry!

For dinner Grandma took us to Pizza Hut for pizza buffet with Santa! Robin and her daughter Ali joined us and we did have a nice dinner. Her daughter is so quiet and well behaved. My kids were their usual selves. When Santa and Mrs. Claus came they went around to all the tables. Irene gave Santa a death glare. Guess she didn't want to have her dinner interrupted. By the time we went for pictures Henry was mad about something (don't know what) and so he would not smile at all. Roo refused to even look at Santa. She just ignored him. Oh well! Dinner was fun and I got the picture :-)

The pictures are not that great. Sorry!

Yesterday was Roo's 18 month check up at the doctor. My mom was kind enough to go with us and I enjoyed having the grown-up company. Considering all the snow we have gotten the ride was really easy until we got to Interlochen. From there to the doctor's office the roads were not good. Both kids go to the Grand Traverse Children's Clinic. The doctors there are great and so good with the kids. Anyway Roo got a Hep A shot and a flu shot. When we were finished grandma treated us to lunch at the yummy Omelette Shoppe. The kids didn't eat that well but we had a great lunch. When we left Henry wanted to go into the Wild Birds Unlimited store. They had soooo many great things in there. I could have gladly gotten a lot of stuff for me as well as Christmas gifts. Check it out!
Before we left for home we stopped at Borders. I love me some Borders! Everyone went potty there and Henry scored some truck books. There were some books I wanted but a little elf told me that someone might be getting me them as an x-mas gift :-) While waiting in line to pay we got a free sample of gingerbread latte complete with a little gingerbread man cookie.
We got home to discover that the city had FINALLY plowed our road but they had covered up the walkway to the house. The snow was waist deep. I had to crawl through it just to get to the house then spent twenty minutes shoveling back to the car to get the kids. I was so mad! Lots of neighbors but no one willing to help the lady with two toddlers. Enjoy the show, jerks?


When I went up to bed I found Roo sleeping in this pose. What a darling! I took the pictures in the dark so they are kinda fuzzy but I just had to share. She is sleeping on Henry's "Cars" pillow with her mound of babies and with the blanket my mom knitted for her and a blanket my grandma Bernie made for me almost 32 years ago :-)

My Daughter's Darn Good Guardian Angel

My stinker of a daughter has a DARN Good guardian angel. The kids were watching cartoons so I went down to put laundry in. No problem...right? When I came back up I noticed I missed a call on my phone. It was the doctor's office wanting me to call back and confirm Irene's appointment for tomorrow. I called and was immediately on hold. While waiting Roo started crying. When I looked for her I couldn't find her. I finally realized the crying was coming from the second floor! She had climbed up the stairs!!! While trying to come down her pants got caught on the metal floor thingy at the top thus keeping her there until I could rescue her. I had she not gotten stuck she would have certainly fell down the stairs. She cannot get down them by herself. It took a minute for it to sink in for me and then I was thanking the lord! My stinker Irene eating a cookie at Grandma's.

Can You Hear Me Now?!

What a mixed day this has been. During nap time I chatted online with a Sprint customer service person. This is the first time I have ever gotten someone knowledgeable, helpful, and polite. The woman walked me through the steps to get my phone working again. I am once again a happy Blackberry owner. It works! I also made a new friend on Facebook (Hi Beth!). Always makes me feel so happy to make friends. So the day was picking up from the morning. However when we left the house to grocery shop I discovered that my neighbor had snowblowed the sidewalk from his house to mine. He stopped right at the side of my house but sent all the snow onto my shoveled out walkway. So I am out there with two young children up to our knees trying to wade out. And just to top that off he had also sent a dead bird with all that snow. Geez thanks.

The store was busy with people stocking up for the freezing rain and snow we are suppose to be getting. Surprisingly I did not see Stacy's mom Annette there (she totally follows me there ;-). Anyway at the deli the young lady working gave Henry and Roo a dish full of 3 colors of jello. That was so sweet and gave them something to snack on while I shopped. Roo loved it up. Of course when I got home I had to deal with that darn snow so I was out shovelling...again. I hate snow. Totally moving to Virginia.

There was a new Top Gear on tonight so I let Henry stay up longer than I should have but he loves that show. Tonight he decided he wanted a BMW M3. I informed Mr. BMW himself, Uncle Pete, that he could get Henry that for Christmas.

Wedding Pictures from 2002

Wedding pictures from our wedding in 2002. All pictures by Beth Weston.
These next pictures are photoshopped by my brother Matt. Great sense of humor...brat.

Notice he managed to put himself into this picture.

Pictures found in my email folder

Hey! I was going through my email folder and came across some pictures. Lots of baby pictures. Enjoy!

Irene in the hospital
Picture by Kaye Wisniewski

Roo at home Henry with Uncle Pete Henry's first Halloween. Yes he is a Lobster Henry Teaching Uncle Pete to read.
Photos by Stacy Eddy