A Thanksgiving Prayer

Brooke Simmons 4 1/2 years old...

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day. Please bless everyone to have a good Thanksgiving, and all of the kids so they can be fun and playing. Please bless thE food. And Please bless Daddy and McKee that they can get home safely. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE, FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS. BE SAFE AND ENJOY YOUR FAMILIES.

Shhh...Twiglight SPOILER!!!

OK, Crystal's off for the night and in a few hours will be propping up her eyelids with toothpicks so she can try to stay awake and watch Twiglight. Well, what some of you might not know is that I'm in the movie biz. Now, hear me out before you laugh to hard. It's true, I'm in "the biz." I might not always say things that are the truth, but that statement is 100% dyed in the wool (what the freak does that really mean) TRUE!!! I'm in "the biz." Has it sunk in yet? Need another minute or two? Ok, you got 2 minutes while I get Tyler out of his high chair and get him some milk.

....Ok, that was only a minute, but you all are mature enough to get over it in a minute or less.

....so, let's continue.

Crystal is gone, yadda yadda yadda ("I mentioned the bisque!"), and I'm in the movie biz. See, I support the Kodak Digital Cinema equipment which means I know a bit about movies and stuff....and I even get a bit of insider info.....like.....(shhh....) a pre-release copy of Twiglight. See, if our equipment fails to show, and we don't know until the theater is packed with thousands of....vampires....then we don't look good. So, they often send us out movies to test so we don't look like idiots come 12:01am on any given day.

So, now that she's gone I can FINALLY tell my faithful readers about the show.

It's good.....as far as teenage vampires go. Edward goes about doing his vampire duties and falls in love with Ariel. They go off to college where he majors in......what else but.....phlebotomy. She stays home and has 2.5 vampmaids (did you get that? a combination of vampire and mermaid....see, Ariel is a mermaid....WHY do I have to explain these things to you people?)....or is it merpires.

The plot thickens as Edward gets prostate cancer. Early diagnosis shows that there is hope, but one day while out vamping around town, sucks on a pig that was fed corn that was fertilized by a mad cow, and before Edward can go see the doc, he turns into......a flying pig.



When Edward returns home, he tries to explain to Ariel what happened, but all he can get out is "oink oink, i vant to suck your blooood." Well, Ariel not knowing what to do, and being rightfully scared, swims back to Atlantis and get's George Clooney (stupid Hollywood throwing in famous people just to up their sales) who comes out of the water (yes, the Cloonmeister is a malemaid....a dudemaid.....and manmaid......I don't remember). Well, the Clooninator swims up to the land and upon seeing Ed-pig-O he realizes he is hungry and missed breakfast. (go ahead, gasp a big one, because you know what's coming.....) So, the Cloontastic Cloonster busts out a wooden knife (see, vampires need to be stabbed with a wooden stake (hmmm...steak sounds good right now)) and does a number on old Pigward, and next thing you know.......mmmmm.....bacon!!!!



Needless to say, I REALLY hope their will be a international sequel, because I've really got a hankering (there's another strange word) for some Canadian Bacon!!!

(for all of you real Twiglight fans out there, I warned you that this was a SPOILER....you knew better than to read on.....you got what you deserved.... a wasted 3 minutes of your life!!!)

.....I mentioned the bisque!

I have to interrupt this Fantasy Land to Brag a Little

McKee brought home his report card yesterday. I am so proud! He did an awesome job! His GPA is 3.765 that's high honor roll! He has done such a great job. He's finally adjusting to the huge change on middle school, and even though we fight with him to help him concentrate and remember to bring home his stuff, he's learning and is doing awesome! Great Job McKee, I'm so proud of you!

Twilight

So tonights the big night! My best friend Rachel's birthday was in October and as a gift to her I promised to take her to see Twilight as soon as it came out. So we discussed what time would be best and we decided tonight. We are actually having a nice girls night out, which I never really do, so I'm really looking forward to it! We'll start off the evening with some Close to My Heart stamping fun from 6-8pm (we are in a group that meets once a month for 6 months and gets to make some really cool stuff.) Then we will head out for something yummy to eat, I'm not sure where yet. Finally, we will end up at Greece Regal Cinema at the mall for the 12:01am showing of Twilight. I purchased the tickets on line so we're all set and ready to go! I will post more tomorrow with pictures, of course I'm bringing my camera! I may not really be awake tomorrow, but it's worth it. The book is set at a high school age, and we're acting like high school girls...how fun!

Sick Sense of Humor

But not inappropriate. I follow this blog that I think is hilarious, and has yummy recipes. I was just reading a post about her adventures with her daughter. Totally worth the 5 minutes you'll spend reading it! enjoy!

First "Real" Snowfall of the Year

Our Beautiful Maple Tree in the front yard.


This rose bush amazes me because it seems to bloom forever.

When I got home from Brooke's dance lesson last night the ground was covered in a light dusting of snow. It was beautiful. I LOVE the change of seasons and winter is no exception. My motto is if the leaves are off the trees, then it's time for some snow. The kids have also been dying to go outside and play in the snow. I'm looking forward to taking these guys sledding. Tyler is so cute, he was watching out the window saying "sow" and sometimes "snuh" (we're working on learning words)

My pretty purple mums.

"I don't want the funny nose"

Brooke had a dentist appointment yesterday to fill a tiny hole they found in one of her baby teeth back in September. I already had to reschedule her appointment once because it fell on the same day as her field trip for preschool, so the date was re-set, November 12th at 11:45am. So Yesterday morning I explained to her about how I was going to pick her up from school early and then we would drop off Hailey (I drive a little girl to preschool on Monday and Wednesday) and then we would go to see Dr. Dan and he was going to fix her tooth. I also explained that she couldn't have a snack at school because they were going to put a funny nose on her to help her be brave and the air might make her tummy sick. She seemed ok with it, and I told her teachers no snack for her, so they made her the special helper so she would be distracted. Brooke was fine, didn't flinch at all at school about the snack. Well, we get into the van and are on the way to drop off Hailey and I hear Brooke starting to cry in the back of the van. When I asked her what was wrong she said "I don't want the funny nose" She cried until we dropped off Hailey, and then I gave her a hug and started driving again. She cried the whole way to the dentist, which is about a 20 minute ride. I managed to get it out of her that she wasn't scared of the dentist, (she never has been before) but she was sad that she had to wear the funny nose because it meant that she couldn't have a snack and it was goldfish. I was trying not to laugh because even though she was crying, she was being so cute about it. So I promised her I would stop at Super Wal-Mart on the way home and get some goldfish crackers. (We go right past it on the way to and from the dentist.) I also told her that I would take a picture of her on my phone with the funny nose so she could see what she looked like. I forgot to bring my camera, I hate when I do that.

She did a great job. She got to sit in the chair and watch a Care Bears movie and they are so good with the kids here. They explain what each tool is and let her touch them and feel them so it's not scary. At one point Dr. Dan said "I see your big brown eyes peaking at me from under there" and Brooke thought that was so funny. After they finished drilling and filling, oh yeah, they didn't use any novacaine because it was a shallow cavity and with the gas, she didn't really need it, they turned on pure oxygen through the nose to restore her normal levels. She was able to pick a prize from the "special" prizes, and then we were done! She did a great job. The prize she picked was a princess duck to use in the bathtub. She's so cute and so girly.

Please help me...

I posted the following on a forum I belong to, and I thought maybe I would post it here also.

I am struggling with how to deal with my 11-year-old son. He's whiny and disrespectful and lazy. I need to take care of this now before he really hits the teen years. I have never let him get away with behavior like this, so I'm not sure what makes him think he can get away with it now. He's my oldest, I have 4 kids, the others are 6, 4, and 22 months. My kids have a chore chart and they have just 2 things to do each day, simple things like pick up the toys, pick up the books, clear/set the table, load the dishwasher, nothing too crazy, and totally appropriate for them to learn some responsibility. I am the oldest of 6 kids and had to do way more work than that when I was younger, the difference is I did it without complaining. McKee, my oldest, thinks he should whine and complain and argue with me every step of the way. He has ADD and has been on meds for a couple years now, but the behaviors I'm seeing are not related to the symptoms he was having that finally helped me decide to medicate him. I've decided that maybe tough love is the way to go so he can appreciate his 2 little daily chores. He has been complaining about loading the dishwasher. He's being ridiculous, (here's the part where I act like an old lady and walked to school uphill both ways wearing a skirt...) when I was a kid, there were 8 of us and we didn't have a dishwasher. I had to hand wash each dish and dry them and put them away, on top of everything else I had to do. So McKee in throwing his fit 2 weeks ago slammed one of my juice pitchers repeatedly into the dishwasher because it wouldn't fit and snapped the pitcher. His punishment? This is where I get really mean, but hey, I'm desperate here...14 days of hand washing the dishes EVERY DAY. He need to learn how to do the dishes anyway, but if he can't appreciate how easy it is to just load the dishwasher and turn it on, then he can see how it is to really have to wash them. So it's been 2 weeks, and last night was the first night that he's completed the dishes. THE FIRST NIGHT. The other nights after about 9:30pm, which is way past his bedtime, we've sent him upstairs with the understanding that he does not get credit for that day because it's not complete.

The other issue we've had is him fighting with the littler kids. That drives me nuts too, because some reason he thinks that they are out to get him. So when I caught him just over a week ago swinging at his 6 year old brother because he touched his bear, I just about lost it. So in order to learn to love his brothers and sister he is serving them. So for 14 days he has to do their chores also. Again, I know I sound really mean, but I feel like I've tried everything with him and I don't know what to do to break this lazy habit. The whining has to stop, I have little patience for that from an 11-year-old boy.

We've also started waking him up at 5:30 am instead of 6 so he can take a shower. He was showering previously in the evenings every other day, or every couple days. He's not really sweating yet, so it's not a huge deal. BUT, when he went over a week with no shower and then whined and complained about it when he had to take one, it was on. I told him from now on (probably for a week at least) I will be waking him up at 5:30 am so he can have enough time to shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, and then make it to the bus stop without running and almost missing the bus.

His new trick is to complain and complain until we finally tell him to cut it out, and then he'll say "if this is torture for you then why don't you just unground me?" He's pretty smart to try to torture us into giving up, I have to give him credit for that, but I'm not going to break. He has to learn how to behave, and he has to learn how to do these chores properly and not waste his whole day doing it. He's really torturing himself. With a full sink of dishes and the other 8 daily chores, he should take about an hour tops.

Can you tell I'm getting desperate? I'm fragile right now so please be kind to me! I just need to know if anyone has anything that has worked for them. Have you had any of these problems before?

Tyler the Great!

Tyler has had a food allergy (actually 3 food allergies, milk, eggs, and soy) since he was a new little baby. We found out about his allergy when he was just 10 months old...October 9, 2007. I went off to a Mary Kay meeting, and up until this day had nursed Tyler with no problems, but since I was gone I left some formula for Mike to give to Tyler. I got a phone call from Mike saying that Tyler was throwing up and had red hives all over his face. This is the picture I saw when I got home.

So the next day we called the pediatrician and they wanted us to bring Tyler in to the office. They looked him over and then sent us for a blood test to check him for allergies. The blood test came back negative for milk and soy, and positive for eggs. I thought that was really wierd because the formula had no eggs in it, but it did have milk and soy. So they sent us to Dr. Valet, a pediatric allergist to figure things out. I think we were able to get in there within just a couple weeks of calling. We hiked out to Brockport (he has a closer office, but they had the first opening) and he looked over poor Tyler. They decided to do a skin test. The results of the first blood test were tainted because it was done too soon after a reaction and the results were false. So we scheduled the skin test in his Greece office and waited for the day to find out what the deal was. I thought I took a picture of the skin test, but I can't find it anywhere. His reaction was pretty bad. So Tyler has been off the milk, eggs, and soy and anything containing any of those for a year now. I took him in again this last Monday, NOV 3rd, to be retested, since it has been a year. Here is a photo of his back...after 20 minutes...

#1 was his skin to compare
#2 a histamine (to see a normal reaction)
#3 milk
#4 eggs
#5 soy

So you can see that there was NO reaction to the milk and soy. YEAH! So I had to take Tyler in for a blood test to confirm the results of the skin test. I put off the test for a week, partly because it was a crazy week, and partly because I feel so bad having them poke him. So yesterday morning after I dropped Brooke off at school I finally got up the courage to take him to the blood lab. He sat on my lap and watched the nurse put the needle in his arm, looked at her, looked at his arm and just watched. He didn't flinch, cry, make a peep, nothing. He did AWESOME! I'm so proud of him! I gave him a lollipop when he was done and got a sticker and walked out of there like the biggest boy ever. Here he is showing me his bandage on his arm.

He was telling Brooke "arm" and "poke" showing her the bandage. It was really cute. So now, we just wait. It should be about a week before we hear back from the Dr. with the results. The next step will be a challenge in the office. They will give him some milk and we have to sit and wait to see if there is a reaction. If there isn't, then he's free and clear!

Some random thoughts on the election...

I am posting this here mainly for me, so the next time an election comes around I can remember my thoughts and feelings about what just went down.

1. no matter who the candidate is, they cannot live up to their promises. no one really knows what the president is facing every day, and I'm sure that he makes decisions we don't like because of the information that he has that we don't. i don't want to know those details either. I'm sure it's a matter of security. i wish that just once a real person would come out and make this seemingly obvious statement to America so they can realize not to count 100% of what these guys tell us.

2. No matter who wins/won we are still all Americans. that said, even if we don't like who won, we who participated in the vote can be proud that we did, and then be grown up enough to try to support our country. how bad does it look to the rest of the world when we are supposed to be a "world superpower" and we spend most of our time and effort and money on fighting the person we just picked to be in charge? way to go unity and strength in numbers. if we are to be a successful nation we need to try to support our president as much as we can, and then go through the proper channels to override his choices when they are really out of control. that's one of the blessings of the democratic system in which we live.

3. i am sick of the stupid campaign ads. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. sticks and stones...

4. i reserve the right to add to this list my other thoughts that i should have written down days ago and can't remember at the moment! :) (it's not even 7am yet, and I've been up since 5:30, my brain is not quite the superpower i would hope for)

There is a fine line...

Please forgive me a rant for a couple of minutes. I have 2 issues right at this moment that are bugging me.

1. I love blogging. I think it's great, it gives me an outlet and a way to journal the goings-on of my family in a quick and easy way. It also allows me to connect with out of town family, or distant relatives that I may not have known otherwise. So what is the issue? I feel like I am losing the closeness of friends. I'm finding that I am not really having any of those good old fashioned long phone convos about nothing and everything. It's easier to take a quick minute and check some one's blog or myspace page and see what they're up to, and then you feel like you've touched base with them. I think people are becoming afraid of talking on the phone. Are we worried that maybe someone will find out from the tone of our voice or the words we say, that are not as easily edited, that something is wrong, or all is not right in paradise?

2. ADHD and behavioral issues. What do you do with an 11-year-old boy who you are ready to strangle? It took me years to decided for sure that he had ADD and was in need of medication. He is on the meds now, and has been for a while, and they work wonders for him. His 5 week progress report was mostly A's and a few B+'s. He did awesome. So my problem with him is that he is so smart and can act so stupid. I AM NOT CALLING HIM STUPID, PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT, BECAUSE I DON'T. I'm just saying that his behavior is out of control sometimes. Especially in the morning. This morning was an hour long battle that ended with me so upset I was ready to move to Alaska (maybe Sarah Palin will take me shopping and her husband can take me fly-fishing) and Mike coming home from work to deal with McKee. He is 11. He is old enough to know that whining and yelling at his mother is unacceptable behavior. He is old enough to know that we take showers to get clean, and the only way to get the soap off is to rinse it under the water. I mean really, come on. I'm so fed up. And then the worst part is I try to tell Damon, (his dad) and he is so oblivious and thinks I'm overreacting because he doesn't see the same behaviors I do. Well, it might be because he only sees him on the weekend and one weeknight, and it's during his less structured time. And, who really whines at their friends? Damon treats him like a friend. So anyway, what do you do with a child to reinforce appropriate behavior and make him realize that I don't want to be up waking up a whiny, lazy (his new favorite phrase is "I don't want to have to do anything") when he knows better.

Thanks for any advice. I may not take it, but please feel free to help me. I am also taking donations for a vacation.

So...

I think we could all use a laugh today after the crazy 2 years we've spent hoping for the best and listening to candidates and trying to make a difference. So...please enjoy this little blast from the past. I'm sure you've seen it before, but I love it. God Bless America...please.