A Very Merry Unbirthday

Well, things have been nuts around here lately getting ready to move, but I really wanted to squeeze in a birthday party for John before we left. He thinks he is now five, but it's not official yet, and I'm pretty sure I CANNOT have a five-year-old. Wow.

I kept it pretty simple and just had hot dogs and chips for lunch, which lots of the kids didn't eat very well. Since when do kids not eat hot dogs? Anyway, I was surprised by that, but it was fine of course. I may have ruined their appetites with the candy necklaces I adorned them with when they came in. I just think they look adorable, and I used to love them. I decided to get a group shot before we started the slipping and sliding, so here's the crowd (minus a couple cousins that just kept drifting upstairs to play alone, and I don't blame them!)... There were so many others that John wanted to invite--he said he had thirty thousand friends, but I just didn't think I could entertain too many more.

After lunch, I tried to corral the kids and they created a story as we made this lovely mural. They had quite impressive imaginations with this, but I think they were anxious to get outside.

We did water balloons for five seconds (thanks for filling them, Nicki) and then I fired up the Slip-N-Slide. I actually had a lot of fun watching the kids do this, and they all seemed to enjoy it. I enjoyed their different styles--some just tip-toed across the whole thing, most went on their knees, or slipped to their bum, or did the kneel down then to the tummy thing. Only one really did it on their tummy the "right" way, and now John desperately wants to do it that way, but can't seem to get it. Maybe soon.





And of course we had a dinosaur cake, which was so easy to create. John wanted to put all of his dinosaurs on it, but since he has a whole boxful and lots of bigger ones, I had to limit it to just a few. I did let him help quite a bit, though, so he was so proud of his cake.





And there you have it! It was a little chaotic, but I thought it was fun. Thanks so much to everyone for coming, and congrats to John for being so big! We love you!

Can I speak to your manager?

I'm so bugged right now, I don't know if I'll be able to even keep my sentences coherent. I just went to the library where we often go, did our thing, and then when checking out I was told I had a fine and a missing overdue book. Well, that isn't completely implausible, but I then questioned to find out what book, etc, which the lady took personally, as though no one had ever questioned an overdue book, and she immediately got her feathers ruffled and went on the defensive. When she showed me what the "missing" book was, I told her I was pretty sure that I had never had that book. When she showed me what books I owed fines on, I told her I was basically 100% sure that I hadn't had those books. One was Hop On Pop, by Dr. Seuss, and she had the NERVE to say, "You've never checked out a Dr. Seuss book?" And then you could see her mind continuing on with "...you're a bad mother and you're lying to me." I replied with, "Well, not that one, because I have it." (Which actually isn't true--but I swear that was my only lie in this whole thing and it just seemed like it would sound better than just saying "not that one.")

Anyway, this went on and on and on and on. At one point she tried to insist that I check out so many (we do often approach our limit of 50), that I must have had all these, which certainly makes sense--NOT! I then quickly shot that down by showing her that basically all our books were about dinosaurs, so I was pretty sure her other list didn't fit that scheme, and though I don't memorize all the titles that we check out, I am not a complete MORON! Then she changed her whole case to the fact that the computer was showing that they were mine and that the "computer doesn't make mistakes." Oh, right, how could I be so silly?

To try and prove her point, she said something about how some of them had just been checked out today, so she thought they were in the pile that she had just scanned. She very confidently went through each book to try to show me a certain book about the Civil War or something, which was NOT in my pile, and then she tried to find a movie and I told her we didn't even get any movies today, but she still went through the pile again, and then she still didn't ever admit that there just might be something wrong here besides me, much less say sorry for the confusion! She said she would waive the fine "this time" and acted like that was doing me a huge favor. I tried to explain that I had no reason to lie about 80 cents, really, and I was just concerned that this problem would continue. Well, she figured out an ingenious solution. She insisted that I go home and double check. Go check what? Go home and ransack my house to see if books about Doodlebugs and movies about Abe Lincoln that I KNOW I have never checked out are hiding in my couch cushions or under my kids' beds? Genius. Why didn't I think of that? Seriously.

Well, I feel better now after getting that out and because I just found out I have new NIECE. Yay, and congrats Megan, Justin, and Maggie! Hope I get to meet the little miss soon!

It's official!

We're finally moving....

to MINNESOTA!

What? I know, right? It all kind of happened fast, unlike things in Illinois. Anyway, we feel like this is the answer to prayers, and the reason that things were not progressing faster in Illinois. It is a really awesome opportunity with a lot of benefits over the other place--better offer, more staff, MDs and PhDs, a state of the art facility, a great benefit package even offering tuition reimbursement perks, an area with a lower cost of living than Chicagoland, etc.

So, we haven't figured all the details out, but Jared just accepted their offer this morning and they want him up there on the 28th, so we'll be heading out soon.

Here is a link to the clinic's website, so check it out:

http://www.noranclinic.com/

But, it's a good thing this happened in August, because if it had come up in the winter, I'm not sure I would move even farther NORTH. Are we nuts?

So, any thoughts/connections/tips on the Minneapolis area?

Now all I need is a personal chef...

Well, my friend Julie and I took the kids to the beach yesterday, and I mentioned that I had planned to bring my camera but forgot, and she said she had brought hers, so she pulled it out, and we just went to town making the kids pose the whole time! Here's the goods, and thanks to Julie for being the photographer! It was a fun little photo shoot, I mean trip to the beach!

As a side note, we went right after we fed the kids lunch and didn't even bring food, so they didn't pester us every two seconds about a snack, so that worked out nicely, too. Of course we were all starving and worn out by the time we got home and bathed and everything, but I still think it was a good idea to go without food. Next time I don't know if I'll even bother with towels...

I always love black and white photos, so I turned some of these black and white, which also helped hide the red Kool-aid mustache Sara was sporting. But it was such a beautiful day, I don't think the black and white did justice to these pictures, so anyway, I couldn't make up my mind which I liked better. Any opinions out there?

Got to love the Baywatch photo...


I'd say John was showing off his muscles, but he was actually posing as some kind of dinosaur, of course.


There were some boats and a tent on the beach that were part of the "Rendezvous" that was going on up the hill from the beach, but we thought they'd make for some interesting pictures. Pretty cute kids!


We tried to tell them to not get in the boats, but as long as they weren't listening, we had them smile real fast. Hope they didn't mess anything up!


There is a tire swing and a few other playground things at this beach, and Sara is addicted to the tire swing. The last time we went I came home with sore arms, I had seriously pushed for that long (not just Sara, by the way, I'm not that wimpy), oh, and the bum of her suit was almost totally black! I love that, though, because I have some very vivid memories on tire swings as a kid, and I LOVED them. However, the tire swing is tricky for getting good pictures, that's for sure! But, you should have heard the squeals!



There was this old, broken boardwalk (I'm guessing here) that the kids were interested in, and we finally let them explore it a little, and I helped them jump off it into the water a little bit, and then they got the courage to try on their own. Yes, that meant I was in the water, in case you didn't catch that. How many points is that worth? Although, I should be honest that it wasn't as cold by this thing for some reason. I love this picture of John summoning his courage--tongue out always helps! :o)


And there you have it. Another fun day at the beach!