Yes, I'll admit it, I'm a big faker........

Today was the blood drive at Kempton Elementary where Blake and Abbey go to school. Abbey has been especially looking forward to this day. She has been asking for weeks, "Is it the blood drive yet? Is it? Huh? Is it?" The students, being too young to donate, are "sent forth" into their homes and neighborhoods to try and wrangle up some legal doners. I am not sure what her fascination is with it. Could it be the cheap-o Jr. Blood Donor ruler she was promised, the potential pizza party or was she really concerned for her fellow man? (My money's on the ruler) My first response had been, "Can't I just buy a candybar or something?" But no, they wanted blood..... o.k. then...ROB!!!!

So, when Rob got off of work he came by and picked up the twins and they headed over to the school to donate. After filling out a number of forms and answering some questions, it was decided that he was inelligible to donate. Something to do with his recent trip to Africa.

Well, this brought Abbey to tears. She came home and was sobbing...I couldn't make out all the words, but I know I heard, "blood, pizza, and ruler" amidst the blubbering (told ya!) So what does any good mommy do in this situation? That's right ,I popped a banana, guzzled a soda and took my cryin' kids right back over to that school!

Then it was my turn to fill out all the forms and answer the questions....where it was determined that I too was inelligible to donate....indefinetly....something about living in the UK in the early 80's and Mad Cow Disease. I swore to them that I hadn't eaten a hamburger between 1980 and 1985, but that didn't matter to them. I was inelligible...disaster.....Fortunately, all of this transpired behind the "privacy" screen so the kids didn't know what was going on yet. Even more fortunately, I possess both a flair for the dramatic AND absolutely no shame, so I was able to talk a couple of nurses into staging a "fake" donation for the twins' benefit. When everything was in place and the kids were anxiously awaiting "the draw", the nurses brought me out to the table, layed me down, swabbed me, put out a number of vials and some tubing, waved a needle at me and then produced a vial of some stranger's blood for the kids to "ooh" and "ahh" over. We topped it off with a band-aid, and I even complained of a little light-headedness when I sat up..... just for effect.....

Gretzky...uh..No, Improving...YES!

When it comes to sports, Blake is more of a loner...a rebel....He absolutely loves being active and playing sports. It's the "team" part of sports that he is not a fan of. So swimming, biking and tumbling he handled fine. And this boy could hit golf balls all day! But when we had him do a stint in soccer, he was completely not into it (to Rob's horror). For example, he would stand out there on the field and pull grass, look at passing birds and planes and watch the ball roll past him. He never complained, he simply said that he didn't like it because he couldn't have the ball all the time. We even tried a little bribing technique that I like to call the "Candy Corn Con". I would sit on the sidelines with a big bag of candy corn (he loves that stuff) and everytime he touched the ball at all (or the ball touched him, which was a little more common) I would put a piece of candy corn in another little bag for him. That may be the only way we made it through the season. In Blake's perfect soccer game, EVERYONE would have a ball and use them at the same time. I told him....uh, that's called practice. He told me, he likes practice!

So after that, Rob thought to himself, "What is the MOST expensive team sport that we can "test" on him next?..Oh, Hockey!"So off they went to get him outfitted with all his gear. Honestly though, Rob put in a lot of work over the last few months, taking him to learn to skate and free-skate sessions so that he would be ready for this. And you know what? He was (to Rob's relief). He has had several practices and 2 games so far and he is LOVING IT! I was worried that when he realized that there is only 1 puck when the game starts that he would be upset, but he's not. He skates really hard and even got an "assist" the other day. I guess all he needed all along was a long, wooden implement to hack his way through the crowd...I'll keep that in mind just in case he ever wants to try soccer again...(ouch)

P.S. Rob, hoping to indoctrinate Cole at an earlier age, took him to a free-skate session yesterday. He had him in full dress, breezers, helmet, pads, etc...and he just layed on the ice like a slug....(Poor Rob).

Hickory Joe and the Sunroom of Doom...

I would consider myself an animal lover. I mean, I'm not posing nude for a PETA ad or anything, but I'll pet your cat, your dog, even your cow. I'm not picky. That was until the day I met....(gulp) Hickory Joe....

As you know we visited my parents in Iowa over the Easter Holiday. Butchie, our Boston Terrier, is an excellent traveler and loves spending time at Omi's house too. So as usual he came along on the trip. Since our last stay in Iowa, my parents got a cat....well a kitten...actually, a monster... His name is Hickory Joe. Hick for short. We really didn't think that the cat/dog combo was going to be a problem. In my experience, Butch sniffs the cat, the cat jumps up on something high and hisses from a distance, case closed. That is what was supposed to happen. Here's what actually happened...

Rob (poor unsuspecting Rob) set up "the meet" by closing himself, Hickory AND my mother into the sunroom. He thought that if disaster struck, at least this way it would be contained. Good Plan. He then let Butchie in by way of the sliding glass door. Bad Plan....I'll say this much for Hickory, he's a fighter...Upon meeting Butch, the cat hissed of course, and then proceeded to ATTACK the dog! Rob, completely caught of guard, intervened and was able to get the cat off the dog, but not without first having the arm of his sweatshirt shredded. Once detached from the dog, Hickory went into a "flying banshee" routine of sorts, which found him hanging from the walls, the curtains and my mother's stomach and legs (yes, we lost 2 more pieces of clothing and some skin). Finally, we were able to get my mom, Rob and the dog extracted from the sunroom. Then we all stood dumbfounded, looking in through the glass doors at this cat, who now has a tail the size of a feather duster.

It was at that moment that my brother, Paige, came in. Now, although my brother is heavily trained and carries a gun and badge, he is deathly afraid of anything that flies. (You should see him around bees and "woe" to the pigeon who flies too low!) So of course, he was the obvious choice to send in next to try to calm the "flying cat". He didn't actually scream like a girl, but he was back out pretty quick... Probably about an hour or so after the episode began and the children were all barricaded upstairs, for their own safety, Paige (armed with a towel) was able to get Hickory into the basement. Where he remained for the duration of our stay. As a second line of defense, Abbey was kind enough to make this poster which she affixed to the basement door as a WARNING TO ALL....

Be gone....before someone drops a house on you too!

Weird. I took the "Which Wizard of Oz Character are You?" Quiz on Facebook and I could have sworn it said that I was either a member of the Lollipop Guild or a Flying Monkey. Oh Well. I just happen to have some great socks to go with this broomstick....really.

While we were with my parents in Iowa, they took us to this cute little Swedish Village called Bishop Hill. Very small, but a great place. We started out at the Bakery,where I was very tempted to instigate a "bake-off" with the head baker, but managed to control myself. Then it was off to visit several of the local shops. One shop housed the local weaver, potter and broomstick maker. Uhh...not to be confused with the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, that's next door... Anyways, I own this broom now. Apparently, it's bad etiquette to get so "familiar" with something and then not pay for it... We really enjoyed browsing all of the handmade items and getting to be out in the sunshine. It was so nice in fact, I rode my broomstick all the way back to my folks house....da duh, da duh, da duh, duh duh!!!

Check out more of the Easter in Iowa photos on my Facebook page!

Here Come Da.....Eggs!

They're everywhere! They're everywhere! Ahh Easter....A time to reflect on the Lord's love, his ultimate sacrifice and of course Eggs... Our "worldly" Easter festivities kicked off last weekend and just haven't stopped. The windows are donned with kid-colored Easter Eggs, the Bunny is on the door and the boughs of the Easter Tree have been adorned (well, just a couple of the boughs. I give the kids all these ornaments and they put them all on the same branch...whatever). At our house Easter Time usually means Craft Time. I can just smell the glue and glitter in the air! Pipe Cleaners, Mini-Pom Poms and colorful felt abound! I mean we honestly can't get enough of it....This week we have made, among other things, bunny lanterns, all the FREE Easter printables you can imagine and Abbey also managed to churn out an entire army of plastic egg pets. We are really on a roll! Last night was the baking/decorating of the egg-shaped sugar cookies. The kids did this themselves....it is very difficult for me to relenquish control of the sprinkles, but in the end, they over took me...and so now after multiple sweepings and vacuumings I am still stepping on colored sugar balls...arg! Today we kept the fun going with the "baptizing of the eggs" and several rounds of "Who can pick up the most plastic eggs before Mommy loses her mind?" Good Game. There has only been one crafting disaster that had to be cut short. It's still too painful to talk about...all I will say is that it involved balloons being precariously suspended from the ceiling light and lots of paste...don't make me say anymore...

Checkout my Facebook page for ALL the photos!

Lord, Where are you when I need you?

And he said unto me,"Riding Shotgun in your cupholder!" We have this Easter Playset, nothing gruesome, just the Resurrection Scene. My mom finds this stuff, I don't know where, but the kids love it. Last year, some of you may recall, several fights broke out among the children because everybody wanted to "be" Jesus. He's a popular guy... O.k. So this set has an empty tomb, 2 Roman Soldiers, a couple Marys, an angel (who is currently headless...I have the head and will attempt a reattachment later...) and the Man himself. Today, Cole had to take something for show and tell that represents why we celebrate Easter. After wrestling the chocolate bunny and plastic eggs away from him, he decided that he would take Jesus and the empty tomb. Fine, but of course I forgot it while I was busy herding everyone out the door this morning. Upon our arrival at school, he was quite disappointed, so I told him that I would go home and bring it to him at lunch time. And that's how the Christ ended up next to my cell phone and tic tacs (he actually prefers wintergreen). I'll be honest, it was a little strange and I kept feeling the need to talk to him. So I did. He didn't talk back, but I do feel like he thinks he was being funny when the song "Jesus Take the Wheel" suddenly came on the radio. Coincidence? I think not...