Can't make up my mind...

Changed the template again. Still not happy, but at least I can capitalize words now. I wish there were more templates to choose from. Oh well.
Went to the grocery store today with the kids. Henry picked out a matchbox car and while I was checking out he got mad that I put it in the bag and hit me. Yes, hit me! So I told him he would not get the car after all which sent him into a crying fit. I tend to ignore these fits since there is really nothing you can do to stop them and I certainly wasn't giving him the car! Besides I was about done paying for the groceries. In the lane next to us there was a woman and little boy. The boy was probably between Roo and Henry's age...anyway they came over to our lane with a balloon for Henry. So sweet! But I wanted to ask where my balloon was....I had to deal with this kiddo ;-) The balloon calmed Henry down and the gesture was very kind. But I wonder what kind of charm or charisma my son has that people always rush over to give him things. This is such a common occurrence. I wish I had that! But I would prefer people gave me money ;-)
Pete texted me today that he got his vacation time back. In early December Crown BMW decided they were taking away vacation time as a money saving tactic. Really crappy move by these people and a good way to lose employee loyalty. But I guess they decided to "have a soul" as one person described it and gave the vacation back. I am excited because I am pushing for Pete and Ashley to come up here during one of the warm weather months.
Today was my second time snow blowing. Easier this time and I did a larger section. So much better than shoveling but it makes my hands and wrists hurt. I am sooo sick of snow!

Changing colors...

I changed the template of this blog today. Why? I don't know. This is just the darker version of the one I had before. This darker version will not let me capitalize the date and sidebar titles. I hate that! It makes me look like I have no understanding of basic English punctuation and capitalization. Let me do what I want with it! So...now I am annoyed that I changed it since it screams out to me each time I see it as being incorrect. Any ideas? I may have to spend time tonight trying on other blog templates.

Happy New Year!!!

Our New Year's Eve was a very quiet one. Surprisingly Mark was home with us which we did not expect. My mom was off from work but she stayed home because she was cold and didn't want to go out. No big deal. Mark made us spaghetti for dinner which the kids barely touched. Unusual since they both normally love it. After we put the kids to bed Mark made me a Manhattan to drink. Then he played on the computer and I read and watched tv. Pete called from C-ville...Ashley had fallen asleep by 9pm and I think he was bored. I didn't think Mark and I would actually stay up to watch the ball drop and all that but we did. Then bed. Exciting!!

The next day we had to drive Mark to Grand Rapids. He had a load to deliver to Canada. Poor Henry did not want his daddy to go back to work. He kept saying "daddy stay home pleeease". It broke my heart. I told Mark no more three weeks out at a time. It's too hard on all of us. Thankfully the roads were terrific all the way down and back. I was so worried about that since we had the kids with us. It started to snow almost the second I parked the van at home. But since I had prayed for good weather/roads just until I got home I couldn't complain.

Oh yeah...the Weinermobile was parked where my husband parks his truck. Loved it! Henry called it the hot dog vroom vroom and was still talking about it today. So cool!

We wish everyone a Happy New Year! Hope it's a good one!

Christmas time...Part Two

On December 26th we once again gathered at my house this time for brunch. Ashley does not eat beef or pork so we had turkey ham cooking for her. And of course we had to have polish sausage because that is a huge family tradition from a million years ago. We also had potato delight, eggs, and my great-grandma Rose's Christmas cardamon bread. After brunch the kiddies had naptime and Peter took Ashley to my mom's house to meet her doggies. Pete was mad because Jomo (my dog Chang's sister) who has always been Pete's girl growled at him but loved Ashley up. The rest of us found that funny because it so typical of Tibetan Spaniels.

We had planned on cooking dinner at home but everyone was tired so we drove to Beulah to the Brookside Inn for dinner. We sat right by the fireplace which was great when we got there since we were all cold but after a while poor Ashley was roasting. We were one of three tables that night. Could that be why dinner was not that great? Usually I love to eat there. They have a fabulous salad which I love and Henry does too. Plus their hummus is usually soooo good. But neither was good that night. They changed the salad and it was just ...yuck. The hummus had almost no flavor to it. The entrees were okay and dessert was yummy but it was a rather disappointing meal especially since we had wanted something Ashley would love and remember. But the company was superb and that's what counts. And Ashley said the next time we go down to Charlottesville she would take us to someplace that had fantastic hummus :-)

On the drive back to town we drove through Bear Lake's "Sparkle in the Park". It is a lakeside park that different groups decorate with lights and figures. Very cute. Once again we ended up at our house where Ashley made us champagne punch. Ashley and my mom feel asleep in their chairs and we talked about drawing mustaches on them but in the end the spirit of Christmas prevailed and we did not.

The next day Peter and Ashley were driving back down to my dad's. I tried to get them to stay longer but it didn't happen. On Sunday they had a long drive back to Virginia.

It really was a great Christmas and we so enjoyed meeting Ashley.

Edited to add...Stacy's mom made us Christmas cookies again this year. So yummy! We gobbled them down. We love you Annette!

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 :-)