OUR TURN...

Our Turn!

The stomach, puking, barfing bug has finally arrived at our house. 10:24 pm, 1/17/09. Kid #1, Mason, awoke on the couch, made it just to the landing of the steps...the carpeted steps, of course...before.....SPLAT...SPLAT...SPLAT...

Here we go. Only six more people in the house to make its rounds.

Oh, the joy of flu season.

Guitar lessons...

When I reflect back on my memories from "The good ol' Days", there is an abundance of the "musical" memories. The great days of old from Grandma and Grandpa Rosemann's house on Sunday's, where my dad and his friends/relatives would jam with their guitars, banjos, mandolins and whatever else they had. Oh how I enjoy reflecting on that. The days of my dad playing musing in the basement, or in the backyard with his bands.... I am sure my memories of those days, are much, much different than my moms memories of those days, and also for my dad. To them, I think they are not as fond memories...but for me, they are awesome.

My girls, Allison and Alena are starting guitar lessons this week. Partly because they want to play, and partly because I want them to play. I can play some...and I think it would be cool if we could all play together, in the future....and have our own jam sessions.

Allison had her first "lesson" on Thursday. She is going to Music Folk. Alena will be getting a lesson from my brother Bryan on Sundays. I must tell you, last week, I brought over the guitar to my parents house, so Bryan could tune the guitar for us..... To my sheer delight, my dad ended up playing it...to some music he USED to play. That music that is stored in my "Great memories" file... It made my day. Here was my dad, playing this smaller version guitar. And not just any guitar. A purple shiny Hannah Montana guitar. It was priceless. I was so wishing I had a camera.

Thanks Dad! For a more recent "Great memory". I love you.

I've returned!

To the blooging world. If there are really anbody who reads this, you are in luck...ha ha...because I feel like typing out my life again. :) More to follow.

But for now, all I have to say is:

What the HELL was I thinking when I signed up THREE kids to play bastketball this season? I mean, I am essentially a single mom on weekends, who works on Sunday's! I've just added ALL the games into my (STILL UP TO DATE, yay me!) daytimer, and....whoa. I'm just praying that I figure out a way to get them all to where they need to go, when they need to get there, and I will have to finagle some schedule changes at work.

I promise to post more often now!

Winter happenings...

Winter is usually not my favorite time of year. Nothing has changed, I still pretty much hate winter, but in the last couple of weeks, we've been able to do some fun "wintery" things.

Last Sunday, was the Girl Scout Christmas party. It wasn't really a party so much as it was a gathering of all the Girl Scouts from all the grades at school, and their families who could come. I was fortunate enough to be able to get off work, and go! It was held at Steinberg Ice Rink. It was myself and my three Girl Scouts....my Junior, my Brownie and my Daisy.

It was really the perfect ice skating day. It was like 40-50 ish degrees, but very windy. So, it would get warm if you were skating in your two layers of clothes that your mother made you wear, but you didn't get cold!

Alena was very worried before going that she was going to fall, and that another skater would skate over her fingers and cut them off. (geez, where does she get this crazy thinking from??? ;)) I was worried that Julianne would have a very difficult time even standing up in the skates. But ALL three girls had a blast! Julianne was able to give the rail a death grip and go 1/4 way around, and then back. After that, she was "ready to go back to grandmas". ha ha!

But Allison had a blast, and Alena had a really, really great time! She did not want to leave! After a few hours, Allison had sore baby toes, but really, that was the only complaint of the day. I did not skate, but rather took pictures and talked with the other moms! A good day was had by all.

The next fun "wintery" thing we've done is make Gingerbread men. Well, I should say we decorated them.... Target has a great deal on them, so I picked up a couple packs. The kids were really excited to get to do it, but as almost usual, it turned into a circus side show.

Ugh. It started off cool....then about halfway through, it started to get a little hairy, and the kids started "discussing" who had more cookies, who used more icing, and where on earth had all the little gumdrops gone?? (hint hint...check Julianne's mouth...)

It ended in an almost full blown fight, as Mason was soooo upset over not having enough gumdrops, and Allison worried that somebody actually ATE one of her cookies.... But, it was fun, and I have one more package to do...and when we do it, THEY WILL have FUN, gosh darnit!

The other fun winter/Christmas thing we've done is go to my employer's Christmas party. It was held at a place called Time For Dinner. I had an awesome, awesome time! I took my oldest daughter Allison with me. Allison has been wanting to take a cooking class for some time now, so this was a great and fun thing for her to experience.

I also had fun taking pics with my new camera.

So, even though I despise the cold, and the early darkness, and the high heating bills, and the scraping of ice off my windshield, and the dry skin, and the coats, hats, gloves, socks, wet floors, and everything else that comes with winter, I do enjoy the fun things I get to do with my family, that I otherwise would not be able to do in the summer.

Jury Duty...

I can now mark, "Going to Jury Duty" off my list of things to do. After nearly 8 years of dodging the bullet due to various reasons such as, babies, breastfeeding, working hardship, blah blah blah, they finally forced me to go and stay. In a way, it was exciting, because I truly did want to experience it, and see how things happen. But, I was also a bit worried that I would get picked, because I have a very important meeting regarding Julianne today at 5 pm, that I COULD NOT miss.

So, this is how it went.

First of all, not only did I have to attend jury duty, downtown, where I am not so familiar with how to get there and park and find the shuttle, all in a timely manner. (All of which I did fine, thank goodness!), but it also was icing, and snowing...which if you know me at all, you know that I am scared crapless to drive in the snow and ice. On top of that already mounting stressful bowl of life, I had to get situated my daycare issue. My sweet Aunt Mary, who usually drives to the city on Monday's to watch the little Pepperoni's offered to stay the night on Sunday, so she wouldn't have to deal with the drive and ice issues. It was such a sweet offer, but I told her it wasn't necessary, because the kids would probably be off school, since the great Meteorologists were predicting GREAT snow and ICE, as if the world was going to fall off its axis because of so much snow. So, the plan was that Jeff would take off work and stay with the kids, who would surely be out of school...since it was going to be so "bad". Well, there was ice, but it ended up not being so bad, and the kids were NOT off school, which threw the whole plan out the window. But, my dear husband does not mind driving in ice and snow, and graciously took Audrey over to my mom's to watch for the day.

Back to Jury Duty.

I get there at 8 am. Sit in my chair, in my "jury duty zone". Jury Duty Zone is when you sit in your chair, acting as if you don't mind that there are 400 other people in the room with you, two of which are touching your arms and you are squeezing your butt and legs so tight because, God forbid if you touch legs...that would be too much. And I sat reading, or pretending to read my book borrowed from my 10 year old, and ate from my bag of chocolate covered peanuts. Until 10:30, when my Juror number was called. So, I head to the assigned area, and sit some more. Same deal, different spot. Then go to the courtroom. Find out it is going to be a criminal trial. Cool, I think...beats people suing over stupid stuff. A rape trial. Ok, maybe not so cool, but should be interesting none the less.

Well, that is where the coolness stops, and the very irritating, annoying and any other word that would mean, "Totally getting on my nerves" starts. We just get started...and by started, I mean, we just start to get questioned to see who might actually get to be a juror in this case, when WHAMO, why not break for 2 freaking hours for lunch. Gosh darn it. What the hello am I supposed to do for 2 hours, downtown, where I can't leave, because my car is parked elsewhere, and it is snowing and icing out???? Geez.

So, after lunch, we get back into the courtroom, sit down, when immediately the guy with the gun in the brown suit says, "The judge needs a little more time. Please go wait outside the room, it should be about 20 more minutes." Well, in jury duty time, 20 minutes means TWO HOURS. Good lord, I'm not even kidding. What a hard thing to do, wait.

After the two hour long 20 minutes, we get back in...more questioning...still no jurors picked. SURE, why not just come back in the morning and start all over. Ugh.

So, this morning....it is SNOWING!!! ugh ugh ugh. I get there ON TIME. 9 am sharp I am sitting in my juror chair. Waiting more. 9:45 the guy in the brown suit with the gun, again starts to talk. This time, however, he said the guy took a plea, and sorry you all had to come here in this weather, but that is how it works around here.

Home I went.

Time served....I better not get called again for a long time. :)

Poor Baby...

If you were hoping to open my blog this day to read a happy, uplifting, cutesy kid story, you'd better exit right now. This story I am about to tell is a sad, horrific, terrible story. It involves a dog, a baby and a toddler.

If you continue on from here, it is your own fault. It is Christmastime afterall, and I cannot be responsible for your feeling sadness at what should be a happy time.

And this is how the story goes.

Audrey, the toddler, was playing with her friend Beebe. They were having a great day. Playing, tossing, hiding...all the great things toddlers and Beebe's do.

Well, shortly after lunch, Audrey realized that Beebe had gone missing. She looked high and low for her. At the very last second before naptime, she heard something. Something strangely familiar. It couldn't be. It better not be!!!

It was.

It was the dog. That &*@#@!! dog that lives in the kitchen had somehow gotten ahold of Beebe! It was a sight that nobody should have been allowed to see. After a long standoff by bad dog, we were able to get Beebe back. But....it wasn't pretty.

Audrey begged to see her one last time. It was almost too much for her to take.

But Audrey was brave. She said her goodbye's. Poor Baby, she said. Over and over and over and over.

She even asked if she would be able to give Beebe her feet for Beebe to use. But the doctors said it wouldn't help.

Audrey had a talk with the authorities.

and it was decided that "Bad Dog" was to be quarantined forever in the klink.

R.I.P Beebe....

A bedtime prayer...

The scene:
Julianne tucked under her covers. Hair braided ever so cutely, just for bed. She is lying on clean (spiderman) sheets, freshly showered and ready to sleep. I'm kneeling next to her bed, doing the whole, "nighty night, kissy kissy" say your prayers routine. I say, "Julianne, let me hear you say a prayer". This was her prayer:

Dear God. Can you please drop me a baby doll down here to me. I'll catch it. I am in *this* house, see me?

:) Awesome prayer!