From the mouths of babes...

"Mommy, how does the grass stay up?" — a rather thoughtful question from Riley, at 4:42 a.m. Apparently burning questions like these keep him up at night.

New Year, new adventures

Aaron always says that he would never want to live in Florida. Too hot and too many old people, and i tend to agree. But there is one thing that Florida has that Michigan does not, especially in January, and that is sunshine, and lots of it. In Michigan the clouds settle in about November, and don't lift until sometime in May. That gloominess, paired with the cold dry air can sap the life out of even the cheeriest of people! So this past week we packed up the car with 5 kids and 9 bags and drove to Chicago, where we got on a plane which took us all away from the gloom, if only for a little while.
Grandma and Grandpa Collick had generously invited us and Aaron's brother's family (Andy, Anna, and their kids, Madison and Drew) to stay with them in their rental house in Marathon, Fl., which only had one bathroom (for thirteen people!), but did have a boat and a private island to play on. It was a trip of first for the girls, who had never been on a plane before, and had never really been to the ocean. We didn't do a whole lot of swimming, (it was January, after all, the ocean wasn't exactly warm) but we did get to do some snorkeling, The island was basically a lump of coral, and one side of it had some really cool formations, which housed everything from sea urchins and anemones to snails and brightly colored fish. The last day we were there, Meagan finally got the hang of the snorkel and spent a long time in the water looking at everything. The island also came with kayaks, and we spent a lot of time paddling around a bigger island nearby, looking at pelicans and giant iguanas perched in trees.
Its hard to sum up a whole week's worth of experiences in one blog posting. There was the epic walk on the old 7 mile bridge, where we walked 2 miles to this little island, only to find out that the entire island was a museum, and that if we didn't pay for a tour, the employees had the right to call the police! The only thing worse than having some pompous old lady tell us she could call the cops was knowing that we still had to walk two miles back to the car! Then there was Key West beer and BBQ sandwiches at Porky's, the only place where we had internet access, and breakfast at Pepe's, at the start of our day in Key West, where the girls and I all got henna tattoos before walking to the southernmost point in the U.S. Basically it was just a time to hang out and chill a little bit, bask in the sun and not have to do anything.
Now we're back in Michigan, and I go back to work tomorrow. Right now it's snowing and by the end of the week, it is supposed to be 12 degrees. Ahhhhh, good to be home, right?
Here are some pics from the trip.

Poop happens

Athletes train for months, even years, to acquire the skills necessary to stay at the top of their game. Eventually they retire, start to get a little soft, then someone trots them out for an old-timers' game and it is obvious that they've lost their edge.
This has happened to me, but not with my athletic prowess. I have lost my poop tolerance. The one skill absolutely necessary for raising a baby. If humans had no poop tolerance, babies wouldn't stand much of a chance, because they'd be chained out back, with a bowl of water and a bone. Instead, we catch the poop in a cute little diaper, obsess over whether it is too hard or too soft, then add it to the pile of poopy diapers in a specially-designed garbage can, which, in our case, sat in the living room.
That is, of course, when you have a baby. The boys are now three, and since they have been potty trained for almost a year now, I am a little out of practice in the poop department. This became evident earlier this week when I went to wake the boys up in the morning, and was greeted by an unmistakable stench in their room. Assuming one of the cats had left a present for us, I started sniffing for the source. As I was crawling around on my hands and knees, looking for a little pile, Riley rolls over and says, "Hey, Mommy, my pants are kinda wet."
Yes, they were.
Although I tried to stay nonchalant, I was gagging internally as I carried him down to the bathroom, holding him by the armpits and keeping him a good arm's length away from me. We managed to save the Spider-man pajamas, but the underpants went right outside to the trash, seeing as how we no longer have the specially designated trash can in the house. I got him cleaned up, and even after stripping the bed, scrubbing the bathtub and washing my hands about ten times, that smell seemed to linger in my nostrils. I don't understand how I managed to change all those stinky diapers without batting an eye just a few short years ago!

Have tools, will travel

Aaron is amazing. He can look at a tired, broken down old bathroom and see something completely shiny and new. I don't understand how his mind works, but it is fascinating to watch him in action. We recently spent most of Thanksgiving week working on my mom's bathroom. The old plaster ceiling had fallen down, and instead of simply repairing it, Aaron thought it would be a good time to remodel. So we attacked the walls, chipping away at tiles and ancient plaster. For days, all Riley wanted to do was "work," also known as methodically chipping away at the remaining plaster with a hammer, until all that was left was the lathe underneath. It was really fun to watch him, so focused on making a humongous mess!
When we weren't racing against the clock to get the bathroom finished (which, guess what, is not QUITE done) we were staying at my dad's. We had fun over there, the boys especially, who liked to check out all the extremely breakable stuff like Chinese vases and glass chess sets. To their credit though, nothing got destroyed. Whenever they got a little crazy, we found we could pacify them with this amazing invention called On Demand Cable. With a push of a button, they could watch as many episodes of Little Bear and Bob the Builder and Blues Clues as they wanted. Amazing stuff. Too bad we don't have that fancy cable stuff at our house!
All in all, the trip was hectic, but fun. It was good to get to spend that much time with my parents. Since we now live about 6 hours away, visits are usually limited to a weekend, and the boys don't get as much grandma and grandpa time as they should.
Everybody always makes a list of things they are thankful for over the holidays. Of course I am thankful that I have a wonderful loving family that still gets along despite a divorce and remarriage. I am thankful that my brother made the drive up from Memphis in the middle of the night so he and his friend could eat turkey with us. I am thankful for my amazing husband who spent so much time last week doing something nice for his mother-in-law. I am thankful for the boys, who bring such joy to everyone around them. I am thankful that despite the busyness of our lives there is a lot of fun to be had.
So in addition to my list full of of sappy gratitude, here are a few things we learned over Thanksgiving:
















1. It's okay to eat French toast for dinner.
2. When you brag to friends about how well-behaved your kids are, they will melt down in public and you will have to drag them screaming to the car.
3. Playing with Daddy's tools never gets old.
4. Whether you are 3 or 30, see-saws are fun.
5. When the kids get into a fistfight over a puzzle, it is time for bed.
6. When you are still updating your blog at 11 p.m., it is time for bed.

Goodnight!

Shout Out

Wow. Last post was around Halloween. I guess I am not doing too well on keeping up with the blog. I know this because Aaron says his boss, Eric, checks here all the time to see if there is something new, and well, lately, there hasn't been. Its been a combination of being really busy with a lot of mundane crap that seems to take up a lot of time but yet does not seem to be worth writing about. So anyway, Eric, this post is for you. SHOUT OUT! Give me an E! Give me an R! Give me an I! Give me a C! What's that spell? ERIC! Yay ERIC!

And yes, there will be more posts to come in the very near future.

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. I think it is my favorite holiday. There is something about the spookiness, and the costumes, and the idea that it is okay to be a little bit weird and different. There's the carving of pumpkins, and of course, the candy, although now that I am older there is more of a love/hate relationship wih the candy. Now that the boys are old enough to really understand the holiday, it is even more fun. We carved our pumpkins a couple weeks ago, with the girls, before we left on our epic road trip to NJ. They had a great time using the pumpkin carving knives, and nobody even ended up with a flesh wound! But the day or two after we carved them, it rained, and the boys were devastated when we got back from our trip and the pumpkins had melted into a big pile of black mushy goo on the front porch. :(
Tonight we went over to our friends' house for dinner and trick or treating. The Kujacznskis live in the best trick or treating neighborhood in the area, and you can tell by the number of almost-too-old-teenagers walking around without costumes, looking for free candy. The boys had a good time, scored a pile of candy and didn't get scared at all. Riley was very disapointed though, when a great Darth Vader we saw in the neighborhood didn't stop by the house for candy. Perhaps he was busy using the Jedi mind trick to relieve other kids of their candy; at any rate, he didn't stop by for snickers.

Spell check

Every so often in my line of work I have the opportunity to take a picture that resonates with people. I mean, a picture with meaning and depth that speaks to the very essence of humanity. Other times, you drive someplace with the kids in the back seat, jump out of the car, engine still running, and snap a few frames of the road. Somehow the above picture made it onto our front page, the Associated Press wire service, San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Times websites, and yes, even David Letterman! Letterman used it to close out a segment on his show called small-town news last week. Unfortunately Letterman is on a little bit too late for me, and I didn't see the show. So if any of you are closet Letterman fans who Tivo every show, let me know, I would love to see it!