DH is a school teacher so he got to be home for two weeks during the winter break. I love it when he is home but quite often two things happen; he gets sick and we have some sort of disagreement. I have to admit the offense is usually my fault for over-reacting to something and he finally loses his patience with me. He is the most patient person I know. 2009 was no fights for the Christmas Break. It really is a Christmas miracle. Either I was extra good or he was extra patient with me. We are trying to get better at communicating since we both have a tendency to be passive-aggressive. He didn't get sick so I have to say it was the best Christmas break ever. We were both sad for him to go back to work yesterday. And we are a little tired because we stayed up late every night and slept in every morning. It was fabulous. We can't fall asleep at a reasonable time but we still have to get up early. Hopefully in a few more days we'll adjust back to real life. I miss having a grown up to talk to during the day.

I almost forgot to mention that he did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen everyday. Now I have to do it. Rrrr.

#29 Hang the stockings with Care

On Christmas Eve day DH and I made a list of things that needed to been done before the dinner with his family that evening. We added a few silly things to make it more fun. We also added some obvious things just to make ourselves feel like we got a lot done. I am pretty sure that there were at least 30 things.

One thing was for DH to kiss me passionately which he never did but I never finished smacking him in the head 10 times. I think I got 4 done. We also color coded the list. Green was for things to be done anytime during the day and Red was for things that had to be done within the last 2 hours before the dinner like baking the ham. When we finished something we wrote "Merry Christmas" over the top of it .

Mya was watching us so she made a list of her own and even color coded it. I thought it was too cute not to share.

Spring Break '08

I love Spring Break. I like having a break from running the kids to school and we get to all be home together. At first we thought everyone was getting over their colds but Val and I still weren't feeling too good. Em got conjunctivitis but it cleared up quickly. My favorite part of Spring Break is DH being home. He helped me out a ton around the house. He did yard work. And he got a break from his hectic schedule. Since he was home I got to go out and do errands and do some playing with my friends without the kids. I am still fighting my cold and it remains mildly annoying.

Our first big event was Easter. We actually asked the Easter bunny to come Saturday morning so we would have time to hunt and enjoy our goodies. The rest of the day was lovely, the kids played outside all day. Cor played so long he got sun stroke and threw up in the middle of church the next day. The puke got all the way down the hall, all over himself, and all over DH. I AM SO GRATEFUL IT WASN'T ME. But DH will need some more time before he finds it amusing.

Ballerina finds her eggs.
Em gets a squishy frog that she loves. She played with it for 3 days straight. It looks like a real frog. She likes reptiles, amphibians, and dinosaurs.
Cory searching for eggs and putting them in his big mouth bunny. We make these bunnies every year out of milk jugs and cotton balls.
Cor collecting things to take home. Sunday night we decided we wanted to spend one day at the beach so we looked up the weather. The forecast said Monday would be the nicest day so we went. We went to a fab restaurant reccommended by Anth. The view was beautiful and the food was good. We tried a new beach because I wanted to try a new beach each time we go. DH really wanted to go back to Siletz Bay because we had so much fun there last time. After eating lunch we drove a little way then DH pulled into Gleneden Beach. It was really fun. Lots of climbing and sunshine. The wind was mild and the waves were huge. So very uncharacteristic of the Oregon Coast that I didn't even think to bring Sunblock. So we didn't stay on the beach as long as we would have liked. After that we went to the outlet mall and scored some great deals and got some cute things for the kids and myself. We didn't stay there too long because Ballerina was tired, throwing fits, and constantly running off.
Mya and the huge waves. She is the only one brave enough to put her feet in the water. We heard on the radio on the way home that it was going to snow at the coast that night. It was hard to believe since it was such a beautiful day. But by the weekend we heard they had 4 inches of snow.
One of Dad's 5 million trips climbing the rocks with the little girls.
Hailstorm in our back yard. This week was crazy weather. All in one day we would have snow, rain, wind, hail, and sunshine.
By the last day of the Spring Break it was sunny again. I really love my daffodils. They make me happy. The kids want to pick them all but I try to convince them they look beautiful right where they are. You can see the tulips are coming up next.

Anti-Procrastination Day...2007 Easter Project

Here is a project that I bought all the stuff for last year and was so ambitious that I would get it done but as you can see one year later I am finally doing it (that's actually really good, for me). I got the idea from a Pottery Barn catalog. I like all their stuff but it's grossly overpriced. They had them, customized with names, for $12 which isn't a bad price but I got stuff to make four of them for around the same price as one. But the catch is you actually have to DO the project for it to be a good deal. I had also bought a couple years ago these little crocheted flowers for some project and never used them so they look cute right next to Em's name. So far I only have Em's done and it took a few hours but I am hopeful I will get another one done today and maybe 2 tomorrow. At the bottom I used some of Mya's beads. The rick rack is my favorite because it's so cute and has a cute name. Rick rack, rick rack!
It has this cute little pocket that you can put cards or gifts in. I expect the girls to put their toys and other favorite things in there. I put interfacing on the back side of the egg to help reinforce it. My plan is to make each egg unique. I have green, yellow, and blue fabric for the others. If I had more hand embroidery skills I would have done more stitches. My sewing machine has some fun stitches so I'll try that on the next one.

When I asked Ballerina if she like them she said it looked "wonderful." If I am really good I will make one for Me and DH. But I that's not likely to happen...this year.

Yay for me. I got well enough to go to Bunco and I won! I won the kids Caribou game and everyone suggested that I give it to the kids for Easter and I am considering it. It will help keep everyone entertained during Spring Break next week.

This makes four...

This is the 4th time this winter that I have been sick with a cold. Well my kids have all had a cough and runny nose this week. Cor was home for 2 days with pink eye and Ballerina started pink eye last Friday. Em and Mya have both did not want to be sick so they mentally willed themselves to get better. Em's motivation is that she does not like going to the doctor. So when she would cough she would tell me it was just a little one and that she was all better. Mya is so determined not to miss school and all her friends. Cor enjoyed his home time and entertained the girls the whole time. Ballerina has suffered and whined through the whole thing. I don't blame her, she gets colds so easily.

My cold feels the same as the sinus infection I had only 3 weeks ago. But that one I had a fever of nearly 105 degrees. This fever hasn't gotten over 100 degrees. So I think my body is fighting it. I have been pretty achy and it's upset my digestive system. It started coming on while I was at a piano concert with Mya Saturday night. We went to see James O'neil Miner. It was really fun but I was freezing the whole time. And my throat got sore. I was still freezing when we got home so I took my temperature. Sunday I spent most of the day on the couch. Ballerina sat with me for most of it. FOUR COLDS this winter. Yuck! I usually only get real sick once each winter and maybe once in Spring/Summer time.

Unfortunately, I had kissed my DH several times that day so it is very likely that he will get sick too. He says he is going to get sick during Spring Break so I won't make him do yard work.

I am having serious cabin fever and I may just spend the day writing emails to friends so I feel like I have a life. It's so sad. I had planned to have our big mouth bunny party today but that will not happen. Today is Cor's half birthday so we'll try to do something fun for that.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Yesterday Mya and Cory made their leprechaun traps and put them on the porch. They put their shiniest pennies inside to attract the leprechaun. The leprechaun did escape their traps but he left a variety of green candies for them. And he left green footprints all over the porch. One of these years we'll catch a leprechaun and he'll have to show where he has hid his pot of gold.