Pee

If for whatever reason, you happen to think your child's room smells like pee, don't chalk it up to Vic's vapor rub and sweat. It's probably just a wet bed.

Josh is sick again, cough, tons of nose goo- albeit mostly clear, congested, with a low grade fever. So I tried the Vic's on the feet remedy I'd read about. His feet were soaked, not sure what substance, but the while bed needed to be stripped and changed. Karl gave him a bath and we got him snuggled in bed thankfully with my old twin comforter.

Here hoping for a better day tomorrow!!

Broken Nose

Apparently our children all forget how to blow noses at about age 2.
We had taught them to blow out, but they all regress at about 2 1/2 and suck in when we try and get them to blow.

Josh has massive drainage and it is really nasty.

Making progress

We are slowly getting settled into our new home. My Mom came a few weeks ago to help unpack the house and either here I was able to focus in painting cabinets and walls in the kitchen,the dining room, unpack the family room, and start to set up the playroom in the basement, and my office/craft/sewing area. She has put together several bookcases which is wonderful help as I stink at that sort if thing and usually want to smash it before I take it apart and rebuild it one more time!
I love my new yellow cabinets and funky blue paint! I need the final details/decorations in place but the retro look is just what I wanted. The light Karl hung for me really brightened the formerly dark kitchen. We still need to finalize installing the trim in the dining room, but we are making progress getting settled!

A proud senior moment

Karl cracks me up- so today he says "Hey, you know the what's er-names- we saw them today. Her name is Natalie." I supplied the last name. "What's his name???" I was surprised. The other guy's name should have been easy as his name ... wait for it...is Karl. He was spared total humiliation today by not asking the guy his name. I however now have unlimited mocking rights

Day 3-6

I am grateful for the extra space in my garage which allows me to lay out all my cabinets and paint them.  I am less grateful that my car is in the shop,  hence the empty garage, but hopeful my wonderful husband will be able to get the repair bill for my transmission rebuild covered by the folks who offering us the wrong transmission fluid.


I am grateful for wonderful children, husband, and pets who make my life fun and interesting.  I am grateful for a comfy house in the face of bad weather.

Frustrating Homework

Sydney had a challenging homework assignment tonight that I felt I absolutely had to mock.  Let me preface my rant by saying that I am grateful my children now have actual textbooks that I can references for homework assignments, it is truly fantastic.

Tonight her homework had her reference a page in the book, and using the vocabulary words describe a picture on the page.  Normally I would be on board with that assignment and had it been tweaked to say, "Write a story using these vocab words, it would have been a dandy assignment."

Here is my response using all the vocab words. (Words are underlined as per homework instructions.)

I shivered in excitement when my daughter motioned me to look at her list of vocabulary words. I am not a gardener, but I was shocked that none of these words had anything to do with the flower in question. I slammed the book in sadness as I wondered how on Earth she was supposed to complete this assignment. Perhaps if it had asked for her to do something else with the word, like make up a story,  she wouldn't have struggled for so long with this assignment!

That said, the flower is a rose. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” To bad I can't smell anything in the book. It is small, pink, velvety, with ruffled edges. The flower appears to be in bloom. The leaves look pointy and it is covered in dew.

I printed it out and plan to send it in to the teacher.  I hope he responds:)

Day 2

I'm grateful for my daughter Emily! Yesterday I realized at 3:15 E wasn't home yet, and called the school. She was staying after for an activity- I remembered as soon as they told me. so I went to get her after Sydney got home so we could get to flute lessons on time. (In hindsight- I should have relayed the need to get picked up to the secretary and saved myself some angst)

I was a bit late since the bus was layer than normal and we were not ready to go the second Syd got home. Got to the school, no Emily. The guard called the bus garage official, they replied she wasn't on the bus. I called a neighbor, no Emily at the house, no answer when I called home. It took us 25 minutes to verify with a different person that yes, she was on the late bus, and had been dropped off. Fortunately Karl was home just moments later and could tell me and the three school teachers helping he saw her coming down the street.

It was 25 minutes of near panic for me, and I was truly grateful to get home and give her a huge hug to try and calm my racing heart. I don't ever want to experience that heart racing terror of not knowing where your child is ever again. I am also grateful to her teacher who was with me and card enough to ask me to call as soon as I got home and let her know Emily was safe.

Trick or treat

Happy Halloween everyone! We had a great night in our new neighborhood! Baxter even got in the action with a banana split costume. He hated the hat, but tolerated the suit on his body.

Emily and Josh were characters from a video game- Mario Kart, and Sydney was a veterinarian. Didn't get a chance to make costumes this year as the sewing machine stuff is still boxed up.
Josh loved saying trick or treat- and he follows it up with I want some candy. Less cute. He did thank everyone and tell people they had cool costumes!!

We only did a quick circuit o the street as it was fairly cold! Thankfully no snow!

30 days of gratitude

Day 1 -
Saw this idea a few wars ago, so I think I will give it a shot!
I am grateful for safety and warmth in my home! I am grateful we were not affected by the storm and we are
More prepared should another stornm or power outage come our way!

Unpacking

Josh has been sleeping on the floor since we left Suffolk-first on a foam bed in the hotel, then on his mattress on his room because we could not ind the hardware for his bed.

After a nearly a month in the new house I finally found the hardware for his bed-logically located in a box marked kitchen. Yeah!! We no longer have to wait 6 more weeks for the replacement pack from the manufacturer! It annoyed me enormously that they never ordered the first time I called in and had to get the order three weeks later processed via the nice neighbor who works there, he also got me a set of instructions!! It is a 4-8 week order period too! So I am beyond thrilled we can assemble his bed tonight!

The next box I opened contained a real treat- a bag of onions. After a month in storage and a month in our house they were beyond nasty. Who packs that??? Lat week I pulled our my bread basket to find a moldy loaf of bread inside. I don't do mold well!

A beary good time

I hit record on these two. Josh and Sydney and their bears were having a fun time chatting, which turned into an all out jumping on one another/giggle match.

Hmm, app won't load the video...

Packing mayem

Why bother having one of us identify boxes at the truck and give locations to one crew member only to have them dump the box by the door for someone else to move without passing on the box destination. Hence box ending up in the wrong place!! Kids clothes in our room, bedroom stuff in the kitchen. Argh. I really hate moving. The towers of boxes are getting to me! That said I am enjoying surfing Pintrest for home remodeling ideas.

Panic on the horizon

I just want to run around like a chicken with my head cut off screaming. We move in two weeks!! That doesn't seem real. I probably wouldn't worry so much except after the 31st we are homeless. I truly hope we can find a nice place that likes pets to temporarily stay in while we wait for a home.

That set at aside- my kids are pretty great about this while thing!!

Sydney just got baptized this past Saturday, Emily got a medal at her first Tae kwon do tournament and Josh is being spiderman when he isn't getting too worn out with his week of camp.

2 player tennis

Josh really prefers to have a partner for tennis, but when the girls are at camp or busy and I can't sit and play with him, he came up with a new approach- two player tennis!
He wiggles both remotes wildly and hits for both sides- best part- he always wins!

Pool Noodle Fun

I saw a Pintrest posting for nifty uses for pool noodles. I decided to reinvent my old noodles into swords. I'm relatively certain no one will be hurt by them, they have no pointy ends and they were essentially free! It does require duct tape and pool noodles!

Basically cover the end with two small pieces and wrap tape round the base. I made a handle out of cardstock more duct tape to make it easier to go in their hands.

It's the first time I've needed to declare swords off the table at dinner! I'm anticipating a mighty fight after dinner!

Playing with your food

We'd like to demonstrate this stellar example of playing with your food.

This is a carefully sculpted dog bone made from a baby carrot. Way to go Sydney. She ate it after she finished.

Can't believe it worked

Emily came to out door, knocked and called "Mom, you in there?"

"nope", I replied.

She responded with "ok" and left! Hehehe

Blond Jokes

We were talking at dinner tonight about hair color and how Karl and I had blond hair as kids but brown hair now. Karl said "I still think of myself as a blond."
(Hehe! There is a lot you can do with that.) So I replied, "Did you hear the one about the blond who sold their car for gas money?"

Karl laughed! Emily instantly wanted to know why. Sydney also laughed and explained the joke to her.

Lego party coming!

I've spent the last few days getting geared for a girly Lego birthday party. We will be dining on a fabulous square Lego cake covered in marshmallow fondant. Cakes baked so far, waiting to assemble, frost, and coat in fondant tomorrow. I also made Lego marshmallow head pops for party favors, Lego mini figure crayons, and Lego brick candy. It is going to be so fun!! Sydney is turning 8 next week but we will be out of town on her birthday so we planned to have the party ahead of time. She graciously offered to have all her presents ahead of time so the car would overloaded! Grin!

Gotta clean and decorate tomorrow morning!! Her colors are hot pink, purple, and teal! The party is at 4, but we have lots of prep left!

There are so many awesome ideas, so I borrowed from the Lego party blogs and used marshmallow Lego pops, Lego juice box wraps, and a Lego cake. I also snagged the Lego party bags and the Lego typeface banners! Our door wreath was adapted by the girls into just and 8 and we had to scrap the duplo mason jar idea because the store was out of helium! Ack!! Who runs out of helium???

Emily's haircut

We have been trying to sell 13-15" of Emily's hair lately and I think we finally have all our ducks in a row. She gets to keep the money from the sale and will put half aside in savings, pay for the ad, and keep the other half for fun!
We advertised, found a buyer or two, got a good offer, and hopefully they will come through with payment. We videoed the cut, and will sens them proof of haircut and length. The they pay, and we ship.

So the cut process was traumatic, she burst into tears after her ponytail was trimmed. The jagged edges needed a lot of trimming to even out. The tears stopped after awhile, but it was heartbreaking for me. And there was no was to undo it.

She ended with an adorable angled bob made even cuter by the addition of some feathers. Choosing the feather was what stopped her tears! Yes I bribed her. But she looks soo cute!!!

Chalkboard art

I painted a chalkboard in Josh's room about a month ago and just finally got it framed in, still have to paint though:(

The kids have been enjoying all sorts of fun pictures. Today Sydney drew a sea monster attacking the ocean- and Emily made it fart. Yup she must be 10.
When we saw what Emily had done she laughed so hard we thought she might pass out from a lack of oxygen.

2nd Honeymoon- of sorts

Karl and I are lucky enough to have his mother staying with us and watching the kids as we take advantage of his work travel to Hawaii!! On the plane right now!! Pictures will be coming soon!

We spent an awesome two weeks with his mom at the house! I took everyone to Williamsburg last Friday to see some fun colonial history, and we did an bunch of genealogy research together!! I had forgotten how fun that was to do! Plus now I have a better grasp of census reading.

A lesson for Emily

Sadly she learned this morning not make sure he brigs her backpack inside at night. The pouring rain made her backpack a wee bit damp. She of course only realized this as the bus was barreling down the street and she was rushing off to school. Wish she had thought of it say before pouncing in me to get up and make breakfast and then again while she was campaigning for present opening since she needed something to do. Course getting dressed would have been good too say maybe before I did the birthday hairdo. She slept in her clothes so she looked dressed to me:(

It's a fabulous day in the Pilz household this morning!!!

Breakfast Conversation

We were enjoying a yummy pancake breakfast when Karl murmured something to me. I didn't quite catch it, just the beginning bit and the end. I asked him to repeat it saying I only got the last word. He repeated it, nope second to last, nope, finally the third to last was what I heard. I rolled my eyes at him saying he knew what I meant and said "thank you Mr. Anal" as he defended his right to be specific.

Sydney piped up "what's an anal?"
Emily " someone who loves animals"
Karl dissolved into laughter and insisted I post this.

In return he gets to explain the definition of anal.

Belt testing again

Finally!!! We are so thrilled to be testing and getting Em to the next belt color. The schedule depends on your color, and this schedule was horrible for us to attend! Emily has been stressed and excited for the test, but I think she did a great job tonight! I'm so proud of her! And yes tonight I'll charge my camera battery! Sorry!

Potty training complete

Oh happy day!! He is finally getting the concept. He has a great track record at night and indoors, but outside playing can be too much of a distraction. Today he dumped dirt "on his belly" and came inside with his pants and undies at his ankles. He had to go straight to the bath as his whole diaper area was filled with dirt.

Potty training baby steps

We were doing fairly well before Christmas time, but we have slide backward as the schedule and routine went amuck so Josh has been resistant to get back into the swing of underwear.

Today was a preschool morning.
Me "josh would you like to era underwear like Kason?"

Josh -big smile and shaking his head " nooooooo! Mom that's so funny! Kason doesn't wear underwear, he wears pants!! "

When Kason arrived for school he used the bathroom and Josh got a quick look as he got dressed.

"mom! Kason has underwear!"