I'm alive!

This was the closest thing I could get to an Easter picture. Tantrums get thrown - Easter or no Easter.

Gosh where have the days gone? I have been meaning to get a post on here for the past three days! It all goes in cycles. Some weeks I manage to get on here a lot - some weeks not so much. You all understand.

Easter came and went rather quickly. The weekend before Easter our church put on a party for the kids. I took Katie and Will...not really knowing what to expect. It was a free party, although they did ask for donations of plastic eggs and bags of candy the few weeks before. I brought a few dozen eggs so I figured I did my part. It was an AMAZING party! There was just the right number of kids. They split them up into two rooms...one was 4 and under, the other was 5 and over. Will and I stayed in the 4 and under room while Katie drifted back and forth. They had cookie decorating which was BY FAR Will's favorite. They also had about 4 different crafts set up for the kids to do. When it was time for the egg hunt, the first group of younger kids (that was us) went up into the sanctuary and were told that they could each find 9 eggs. Katie found hers, and I was just going to let Will find 3-4, and that would be enough...no, no, no - silly Mommy. Will found his quota of 9 as well. The party went so well, I decided to skip the city egg hunt the following weekend.

Last Saturday Katie and I went to the Hannah Montana movie while Dad and Will hung out at home. It was a pretty good movie - lots of music, which pleased Katie. There were about 20 people in the theater with us - half girls around Katie's age. Whenever a good song began in the movie - UP they popped, and the dancing bug took over. It was really cute - and made the movie more enjoyable.

Sunday Katie had to sing in church so we did our egg hunt at home, and the kids opened their Easter Bunny presents. Katie got a Hannah Montana game along with some books and stickers. Will got a couple cars and some books. The four of us went out to eat after church.

Mmmmm...chocolate and orange juice.

Nevermind...

Ok. Jeff and Erica get sent home. False alarm I guess. Obviously it's gotta happen sometime!

The other side

Jeff and Erica are at the hospital, in labor as I type. (I think) They went in last night and that's about all I know. Jeff is not the best person to pass along medical information. I have a million questions, but they go unanswered as I sit on the other side and wait. This is why we told people AFTER the kids were born. :) Well, that and the fact they were born in less time than it took to make a phone call. (Give or take)

Hopefully I'll have good news soon.

Good Times...

We just got home from a visit to the Mall of America today. The kids and I met up with my niece, Sarah, who was in town on a class trip. Every other year or so, the band and choir take a trip to the Chanhassen Dinner Theater to see a show, (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) and spend a few hours at the mall. So we met for lunch and walked around a bit. Katie even talked Sarah into doing a few rides with her in the amusement park.

Sharky at the Mall of America practically attacked Sarah. I think they are going steady now. As you can see, Sharky is thrilled.

The dinner theater here in Chanhassen is really just a stones throw from our house and it's odd knowing that Sarah is there. :) It makes me think back to my own trips to the dinner theater when I was in high school. I was in 11th grade...I was part of the very FIRST bus trip up here to Chanhassen. We saw 42nd Street...it was really very good. The next year we came up here as well, but I can't remember the show that we saw. Little did I know 14 years later I would be raising a family about a mile away.

Another funny coincidence...Remember last summer when we went on vacation and Katie took a few tennis lessons at the resort we stayed at? Her tennis instructor is also an actor and is currently working at the dinner theater AND is in the show that Sarah is seeing. :) Small world.

On another note - I did talk to Erica, my sister-in-law, and Joey is doing well after his eye surgery on Monday. They worked on both eyes I guess...they were tightening some eye muscles so that his eyes don't cross..don't really understand anything more technical than that. He is supposed to have a low activity level for the next month....no running...no jumping....no wrestling...etc. Not sure if that has something to do with blood pressure or what, but he's SIX years old, yeah - good luck with that.

Erica also had a check up while they were in LaCrosse. She is 34 weeks now - both babies are doing well, and are probably close to 6 pounds. Both her and Joey go back for check ups next Wednesday.

Congratulations also go out to my friend, Natalie (from high school) - she is expecting her second child in October. Her son is a few weeks older than Will. I'm very happy for her...happy that it's her and not me. :)

Just a quickie...

Just a quick shout out to my six year old nephew, Joey, who is having eye surgery today in LaCrosse. Good luck guys! We'll be thinking of you.

Children's Museum

On Tuesday the kids and I went to the Children's museum in St. Paul. From the number of people there, I SWEAR, you would have thought it was Saturday. I think the weather and spring break for some schools pulled the people to the museum. The kids really don't mind the crowds, but it's much harder to keep track of 2 small kids. I thought that Will would just follow Katie around most of the time. NO WAY! They each wanted to do different things that seemed to be on the opposite sides of the rooms. So I stayed with Will and told Katie that she could go explore on her own - but don't go to a different floor, and check back with me in about 15 minutes. (Like she knows what 15 minutes is.) So every so often I would pick Will up - usually kicking - and go on a hunt for Katie. Obviously, we found her each time, but there were moments where my heart sped up much faster because it seemed that she was no where to be seen. I think when we go back next year (yes, it will take a year to work up the ambition to do that again) it may be better cuz Will will be 2 1/2....either that or it will be much worse. :)

The special exhibit this time was "Clifford." Will worked up the courage to go touch him after about 10 minutes.

Katie working in the kitchen - that yellow thing is suppsed to be bread...I think.

Will finally got to use the broom after some other kids had been hogging it.

And really the only time they spent together...lunch. Katie painted her face...you like?

On another note, I heard from my sister-in-law, yesterday...the one expecting the twins. No - there aren't any babies yet, but she did go to the dr. and they are estimating that baby A - the boy, weighs 5 pounds, 5 ounces. And baby B - the girl, weighs 5 pounds, 1 ounce. Yes, she is having one of each which, I think is good because then we won't get them mixed up....well, at least the odds are in our favor.

And finally - that brings us to the question of the week. Boy the weeks go fast, don't they? Maybe I should have a question every OTHER week. :) I had a suggested question that I will use this week.

How do you define love?

"I love Dad more!", "NO!"

Katie and Will have a common argument lately. They fight over John. Every night we get our jammies on and brush our teeth. Will has this strong attachment to John - he ONLY wants Dad to help put his jammies on and brush his teeth. So then Katie runs over to John yelling, "No, I love Dad more!" And because Will can basically only say a few words, he yells at the top of his lungs, "NOOO!" Then Katie yells again, then Will, then Katie, then Will...you get the idea. It really is cute. And it means that John has to do a lot more work with the kids at night so I tell Katie that I think "I" love Dad the MOST. Boy, does THAT make her mad.

Katie and Will in the bathtub. I had to hide the behind...it is the internet, you know.

On Friday, Katie got up from her rest and was complaining about her ear hurting. I kind of wrote it off, thinking it was just another small complaint from a tired 4 year old, but she kept insisting that it hurt. Of course it was 4:00 on a Friday...the clinic was closed. Luckily our clinic here in town offers after hours urgent care which our insurance covers the same as any regular office visit. We stopped in to have her ear checked only to find out that she has her first ear infection. They said it looked pretty nasty - so she has her Amoxicillon to take the rest of this week. The pharmacist asked if I had any questions because Katie had never taken this before. I verified the dosage info and then explained that I basically grew up on the stuff and had taken it about every other month as a kid....whether I was sick or not. (Yes, Mom there were times I was faking. :) ) After Katie's first dose I could tell that she felt better. They also said that it isn't something Will should 'catch' because it obviously isn't contagious.

John had to work on Saturday. So to get out of the house, the kids and I went to the Mall of America. "WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY? YOU WENT THERE ON A SATURDAY?" I know, I know. But I figured there were just 4-5 stores I wanted to check and then we'd grab a bite to eat and a visit with the Easter Bunny. Ah, those could have been my famous last words. Luckily, the kids were AMAZINGLY good. The mall was insanely crowded and that part was not enjoyable - but the kids were troopers and listened very well with no whining. Honestly - it was more than I expected. Katie didn't even ask to go on a ride. Our mission, which we chose to accept, was shoes. Find shoes for Shelley's wedding. The result? Zip. Zero. Zilch. All of the kids' shoes are either black or white - no brown. And all the brown women's shoes have hooker heels. ("What's wrong with that?" says John - a typical man.) :) So I have decided to order our shoes from the wonderful world of Amazon.com. Never tried it before, but they have literally hundreds of brown shoes to choose from for both Katie and I, and are reasonably priced as well.

Katie and the Easter Bunny - she told me this isn't the real one.

Where's Will? Clutching onto my shoulder with his white knuckles. He wasn't going ANYWHERE near that monster! He did give him a tiny high five, but even that freaked him out.

We've been taking advantage of our Netflix subscription the past week or so. We watched Man On Wire - a documentary about a Frenchman who walked the high wire between the World Trade Towers in the 70's. It was pretty interesting. After that, I made John watch Twilight. This was the recent movie based on the book by Stephanie Miller that I read not long ago. I just finished book #2 in the saga and have started #3. John surprised be by saying that he liked the storyline - just not the movie. I figured he wouldn't like any of it. :) The movie was better than I expected - but it doesn't come close to the book - I think. Isn't that always the case? I also was not crazy about book #2...I have higher hopes for the third one.

And finally - we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall the other night. Holy cow - that was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. Great cast - funny script. It may have helped that John and I both had a couple beers in us, but c'mon - funny is funny. :) I highly recommend it....for those of you over 17 of course. :)

I remembered the Easter decorations! Here, the kids are putting up the window clings.

Question of the week....

It's Thursday again...(really, it is) and I have found another question. Actually, Katie supplied this one. Once or twice a week they will have a question at school during circle time. Everyone answers and then they graph the results for the kids to see which answer was the most popular. Katie really likes it and she can always tell me which answer got the most votes. One week the question was "What do you sleep with at night?" She told them about her two turtles and her blankie. I think that's a little too provocative for my polite little blog so I asked her to think up a question this morning.

"What is your favortie game?" (She said it could be a board game, video game or card game.)

Ah-Choo!

Katie stayed home from school today. She has a cold - runny nose and a cough. She had a SLIGHT fever last night (99) and so I told her that she better not go to school. (Cue the tears) She was quite upset that she might miss something. I think that's a pretty good run though - 2 years of school and this is her first missed day because of being sick. And I still couldn't get her to take it easy. Finally, I let her watch TV downstairs on the couch as long as she stayed covered up. That worked for a while...and I think she is actually sleeping for her rest time too. But, ALERT: We've run out of Kleenex. John will have to pick some up on his way home. :)

While Katie was couch ridden, I turned on Sesame Street for us all to watch together. One sketch especially made me laugh. Oscar was being a news reporter and was trying to report all of the dirty garbage and ickiness that grouches love. However, he was constantly running into things that were nice and friendly. The scene changed to another grouch who was watching Oscar on TV and she said "Hmpf, I'm not watching this anymore - I'm gonna watch Fox News - now THERE's a trashy news show!" Go Sesame Street. :)

One reason the Kleenex ran low was because we went to the library last Thursday. Katie got the movie "Charlotte's Web." Now, keep in mind - we have seen this before AND we have read the book together. She even told me about the spider dying in the end before I popped the movie in for her. Awhile later I am getting Will a snack and I go down to see if Katie wants anything...she is in tears.

"Katie! What's wrong?!" I ask growing concerned.

"She DIIIED!"

"Who died?"

"Charlotte died!" She answers sobbing.

It really was adorable, even though she was clearly upset. We cuddled on the couch for a while and talked about how some of the spider's kids' stay in the barn so Wilber isn't too sad, etc. A few moments later she was able to enjoy her yogurt sans tears.

It's rainy up here today - another reason I'm glad to stay home today. I spent the morning washing the floors, cleaning out the closet and putting some winter stuff away. I've been toying with the idea of having a garage sale this spring...maybe in May. Am I crazy? Everyone should probably have a garage sale at least once in their lives. That way they can say "I'm never doing THAT again!" Making a mental checklist of everything that can go - books, Cd's, clothes, etc. I'm also thinking that Katie could be in charge of selling cookies or something like that. Now the trick is to get John to grab tables from work and to take a morning off some Friday in May to watch the kids. :) (Hint, Hint)

"Hang on sis - I'll get us out of here!"

As Will drives away from Chuckie Cheese a few weeks ago.

Happy Spring

Well, the first few days of spring have been promising...but it's gonna get cold again this week...and rainy. I don't mind the rain too much right now - there may even be some thunder and I'm all up for that, during the daytime anyway. :)

Yesterday we spent most of the day outside. John and I were able to clear out most of the dead brush from the shrubs and bushes in front of the house; a job I am SO glad to have almost done. We took off the plastic from the few windows I covered last fall, and washed some of them while we were at it. John took his pruning shears to a couple trees and cut all the bushes back as well. We are ready for spring! I should have taken a before and after picture so you could have told me if it was worth doing. :)

I'm glad we did that work yesterday - today is quite windy. That still doesn't stop John and the kids from heading outside to play some baseball. Will has been introduced to the tee, and does a fairly good job at swinging at hitting the ball off it.

The smallest member of the Hell's Angels...

The kids got their bikes out yesterday while it was so nice. Will hasn't mastered the pedals on the tricycle yet, although he can reach them just fine. Katie remembered how to ride her bike, and John even thinks the seat can be raised up a bit.

During our clean up, Katie's job was to pull seeds from the marigolds that were planted around our front tree last year. She got MILLIONS of them. :) So we planted 5 cups of marigolds to grow inside...and I'm also thinking of growing a few extras to give as teacher gifts at the end of the school year. Who doesn't like flowers, right?

Yesterday we also went to a home and garden show in Eden Prairie. There were crafts and planting projects for the kids as well as vendors galore. It was like Halloween for Katie - everyone was giving the kids candy. Her and Will both did a planting project too. Katie planted flower seeds in a little bucket to bring home and Will planted peas. John and I have ideas for some landscaping outside we would like to do...but nothing that we wanted to commit to just yet.

Will giving Dad a heart-to-heart talk.

Question of the week....

This week...I have a few more questions for you. Besides the posted question, I have added a couple polls to the page. As some of you may know, the Hanson family is going to grow by two very soon. Jeff and Erica are expecting twins. So far, we know it's a boy and a girl...but we have no names yet. We don't even have 'ideas' of names...so I thought I would throw a few out there and see what sticks.

You ask, "Do you have the right to name these babies?" Well. No. But someone should come up with some ideas. I don't think Jeff and Erica read me - though I have invited them several times. ARE YOU OUT THERE?? :) So I figure we'll narrow it down to a few and provide them with the approved options. :)

Now, I DID put some thought into this. Take the boy names, for example. I like the name Nick...they already have a Joe and Kevin. If we had a Nick...all Jonas brothers would be covered.

For a while the joke was that the family already has a Donnie, Joey, John, and Jordan...we almost have all the new kids on the block. I found the missing New Kids' name...it's Danny. I don't think having a Donnie and Danny in one family is a good idea. We tend to mix up kids.

The middle name for the boy came from my mom's brother who died about 25 years ago. It's a nice sounding middle name - goes with lots of things.

The girls...well, I like all these names. Plus I thought if the girl's name started with "E" and the boy's name started with "J" - that could be a tribute to their parents. The middle name is my mom's middle name...again - it's pretty and goes with lots of options. I like "Anna" for a middle name....it's also Dad's sister who died when she was 7....but Erica's sister is named Ann and I got that idea shot down right away. :)

If you don't like ANY of these that I have thrown out there...PLEASE toss your own ideas into the ring. :) If it turns out that Erica has triplets instead of twins - (maybe they missed one!), the winners of the name contest get to split the extra baby.

Ok - now for the question of the week.....

What would you send in a care package to a homesick friend spending six months abroad?

Waterpark Fun

Last Wednesday we headed down to Owatonna for a couple days of family time. We stayed at a hotel that had a small waterpark - just our speed actually. Well...to be honest, I think we could have used a bigger swimming area, like for laps and such, but overall it was fine.

We arrived at the hotel, got acquainted with our room and then headed down for some swim time. It had been a while since Will went swimming - other than the kiddie pool in our yard...let's see if I remember the last time...ummm.....we went swimming last 4th of July weekend. That would probably be it. Ooops, no it isn't. We did go swimming in Waukon the weekend of Will's 1st birthday, but it was so cold we weren't really in the water for more than 20 minutes. (Can you believe it was too cold for swimming in mid July in Iowa?)

Wet and happy...

Will had no fear with the water. He was quite the dare devil. They had a kiddie slide that he loved right away, and that Katie finally grew comfortable with. He didn't like to be held on to - wanted to just go by himself. It was really all about Daddy...generally, EVERYTHING is all about Daddy these days for Will. I haven't developed a complex about it...yet.

Katie going down the slide. Note Will waiting his turn behind her.

And here comes Willie! FYI: He is giggling.

Katie was excited to get to share a room with Will. She slept on a pull out couch, and he slept in a hotel crib. We were in an adjoining room. They didn't sleep TOO bad at night, although neither one took naps for 2 days. I always tell myself..."It could be worse." Heck, it HAS been worse. :)

Check out the attitude.

Swimming? Piece of cake.

Green Birthdays

A special Happy St. Patrick's Day to all those Irish people out there...and of course those that just "feel" Irish today.

Happy Birthday wishes also go out to my sister, Janet who is $%^*^ years old.

And more Birthday wishes go out to our friend, Julie, who is expecting her first baby this fall!

Happy Birthday Jordan!!

Yesterday was my nephew, Jordan's golden birthday. He was 15 on the 15th. My aunt Carol and I were sure that he was only going to be 14...but I guess I trust his mother more than my own judgement.

Katie made Jordan a card/book to "make him happy." She said that she doesn't think he smiles very much (what 15 year old does?) so she was going to make something for him to make him smile. I asked her if she was going to buy him a present and she said, "No - he only likes boring things."

"Boring things?"

"Yes, like video games and stuff like that."

So, Jordan, according to Katie, your video games are boring. :)

Tomorrow I'll have pictures ready of our mini-vacation and visit to Iowa.

Question of the week

I am submitting this question of the week while on vacation...mini-vacation, that is. We are in Owatonna, MN for a few days staying at a hotel and waterpark. The kids are having a good time, although naps are not going well....yet. I'll post soon about our trip...but some highlights are Will going pee on the potty, Katie and Will swimming (Will is a monster in the water!), and playing in the arcade. I get pictures on soon.

In the meantime....

What words do you hate? Are there some words that just rub you the wrong way? Leave a comment, leave your name or not....

Happy Birthday Gina!

Here's a Happy Birthday shout to our friend, Gina! Even though you lost an hour of sleep for her birthday, hopefully you'll make up for it with lots of sugar consumption.

Don't forget about your clocks...

First of all - don't forget to turn your clocks ahead tonight...at least for those of you that have to do that sort of thing.

Last fall I went to a neighborhood grocery store re-opening and won a $25 gift certificate from a local nail salon. It expires next weekend, so I took advantage of it today. I didn't have enough to get a manicure AND a pedicure and if I just got one of those services I would have an odd $ amount left over. So I decided it was time for some girl bonding with Katie. (Like we don't do enough of that anyway.) She got her nails professionally painted for $5...and got a cute little flower painted on each thumb. She picked orange for her nail color and looks very pretty. I picked a bright pick, but it looks like Katie's color in the picture.

Will heard the words 'paint fingernails' today and got excited because we actually DID paint yesterday. I got out our finger paints and he tested them out for the first time. Neither he nor Katie opted to really use their fingers, so they stuck with the brushes. He only tried to eat the paint once or twice.

When Katie got home today she made herself a snack. She had seen a recipe on Disney somewhere that she just HAD to make. First you take a bun...(we didn't have the right kind, so I got her talked into a piece of bread)....you stick a half of a banana on the bread....then smother it in peanut butter and jelly. Enjoy! It's sort of like a banana taco. She made the whole thing herself and ate it completely. She said she is going to write the recipe down for Grandma Mary and Grandma Lyla.

And finally - I've been meaning to get this on here. One morning last week, Katie decided that it was time to write out the invitations for her birthday party. You know, she only has 3 months to go - why wait till the last minute? This was her first invitation...written on a thank you card. :) I helped her spell some words, but the phrasing was all hers....as was the yes/no boxes. :)

Currently, the invite list is at 11....personally, I think that's too many kids! I'm trying to narrow if down to 7...but try convincing Katie of that idea. You know when people are inviting friends and family to a wedding...not everyone is going to show up. You figure, what...75%?? Do you think the same would apply to birthday parties? Could I send them out in waves two weeks prior to the party? I think I may have a first string and second string invite list. :)

I think I am more nervous for this 2 hour birthday party than I was planning our wedding reception. These kids are gonna want more than music and cake.

Question of the week....

I decided that once a week (maybe) I would post a question that you all could answer (or choose not to answer) in your comments. You can leave your name, not leave your name...totally up to you. Sometimes they'll be silly, sometimes they'll be serious. Here's the first one...

If you could choose anyplace in the world to go for 1 week, where would you go?

The deal with the iPod

John bought me (and the family) an iPod touch for Christmas last year. We have been figuring it out and finding new uses for it all the time. For example you check your e-mail on it, check the weather, chart your fitness goals, keep track of your budget, play games, listen to music, watch TV shows, watch movies, and anything else the 2,000 applications that are available for download allow you to do.

Over the past few months we have found some things that Katie likes to do on it. She likes to listen to her music, she likes to do word searches, and there is spelling application that I recently found. She is allowed about 30 minutes a day on the iPod or computer. So far she has been great on it and has picked it up faster than most adults.

On Friday she got up from her rest time (it's not nap time anymore, you know) and wanted to work on the iPod. She took it into her room as I got Will up and fixed a snack for them. I yelled down to Katie to turn the iPod off and come eat her snack. She listened right away, came up and handed me the iPod.

"I put a game on there for Will," she said.
"What?" I asked back, kind of confused.
"I downloaded a game for Will."

I turned on the iPod and there on the home screen was a new program called iMBuilder. Although the icon for the program looks like building blocks, it's actually a program for generating models of genetic molecules. (Not something we would use a lot...) I asked Katie how she found this program and she continued to explain to me how she went into the Application Store online and found it.

"Did it cost money?" I asked, beginning to get worried.
"I don't know."
"KATIE! Some of these applications cost money!"

I began to dig a little deeper and found that this particular application was $12.99, and after fees we paid over $13 for it. Since it was downloaded, it was immediately charged to my back account.

"KATIE! WHAT DID YOU DO!? THIS IS VERY WRONG!" I yelled. Then I remembered that the way the iPod is set up, she would have had to enter in a password in order to put the transaction through. I asked her about this...

"Katie, didn't you have to put in a password?"

"Yes. I tried one that didn't work, and then I tried another one and it worked." replied the little hacker. I then realized that the password I was using for the iPod was indeed the same one I had used to set up Katie's new computer game she got for Christmas, so of course she knew it.

After a 10 minute time out, I had managed to e-mail iTunes, the company responsible for all the iPod applications. I explained to them what happened and in the end, they agreed to reverse all the charges with the understanding that this was a one-time deal...don't do it again. I have since changed my password, and am NOT going to tell it to Katie. She was grounded from the iPod for 1 week, and can work on it again come Friday.

John said that we had to hand it to Katie - after all, she did figure out a pretty complicated process, AND had found something for Will, not herself. It wasn't her fault the icon looked so tempting and her mother had underestimated the intelligence of her daughter. I can laugh about it now....now that we aren't out over $13.

My kind of Saturday...

What do you get when you take a burnt out mom and mix her with a husband willing to do anything? You get my kind of Saturday.

I'd been feeling a bit out of sorts the last few days - just tired and having a child overload. So I took off to run some errands Saturday morning while John stayed home with the kids. I went to the mall and unexpectedly found two pairs of jeans! "Jeans," you say - "so what?" I don't think you understand....I have been on a quest for the last few months to find new jeans. I thought I had looked everywhere. The jeans I had been wearing were 8 year old hand me downs and had holes so big in the knees, it was really getting to be a problem.

So in Old Navy I found jeans that fit...and were the right size right away. Wanna hear the kicker? They were $19. I don't care who you are...that's a good day right there. I also found some little Easter gifts for the kids and a new blow dryer - since I burned mine up putting plastic on the windows last fall. I came home after lunch to find the kids already down for naps. And John handled most of the discipline this weekend too. It was nice...

Oh, did I forget to mention that he swept the floor, emptied the dishwasher, AND cleaned the basement?

Stay tuned for a post about how Katie managed to rack up $13.46 in charges on the iPod....

Octomom weigh in

Every other blog seems to have touched on this topic...well, some of them anyway. I figured I would join the ranks.

I am assuming that everyone has heard about the woman in CA who had octuplets a few weeks ago. Wow, that's a lot of kids...but then we find out that she already had 6 other children at home. If you thought 8 was a lot...well 14 is just crazy, right?

There are lots of large families who have been able to create a great life for themselves. I can think of a few with children numbering 7 or more. But this woman has become the target of a lot of hatred. Why?

There are the obvious reasons some people give: she isn't married, she can't support them, she doesn't have a job, she may not be mentally 'stable', her reasons for having the kids weren't what we thought they should be, etc. Is that all? When I think about this person, I get angry as well. I feel sorry for the children. I also feel jealous. Now I'm not saying I want 8 babies...all at once. But I am jealous that this woman gets to experience this miracle SOOO many times over. I am jealous that she apparently has no selflessness. She seems to have no regard for anyone other than herself...and she's fine with it. Rack up a whole bunch of debt and wait for someone else to bail you out.

Obviously this woman is not good at taking advice from friends and family. It made me think that there must be people in everyone's life that are like this woman....on some level. Do we have the right to tell them what to do because we think we know best? Maybe they're racking up too much debt...maybe they're having kids they can't support...etc. We may be pretty sure we know best...should we offer unsolicited advice? In my case I find it hard to bite my lip when I 'think' I know something. I know that if I don't give them my two cents, it will be me and others cleaning up the mess afterwards. But does that make it right? Am I rambling???? Is someone advising me to stop this post now? :)

I guess I'm asking you readers what you think about the octomom's case....and is it right to give people advice they didn't ask for? Is it right to say "I told you so" in hopes it helps stop future mistakes? Should we still step in to help with the aftermath? Should I even have bothered to write this?

One more thing...if you want to post and not leave your name...that's fine - give me your solicited two cents!

I need to reminisce

Last night I watched ER. This used to be a television show I watched religiously, but over the years, favorite characters have left the show and time for TV has somewhat diminished. This happens to be the last year for the show and in these final weeks the 'powers that be' have decided to bring back favorite characters from the early years.

So last night Dr. Carter (Noah Wylie) made his return to ER. I enjoyed the reunion and look forward to the final weeks, even if the ending seems like it might not be a happy one.

So why is the show such a big deal to me? Good question...after all, it's just a glorified soap opera. I suppose my sentimental attachment to the show started in college. I was already 'hooked' on the show before my freshman year, but as time progressed I enjoyed it even more. Girls may not be able to bond with each other over their majors, their families, or their lifestyles - but they CAN bond over ER. Whether it was the screams as George Clooney took to the screen or the tears shed during an emotional story line - it seemed to be a show that brought us together....literally. My senior year of college found me living in a campus apartment with 5 other girls. On Thursday nights at 9:00 you could find between 10-15 girls, 4 pizzas, and countless bottles of pop and water strewn about. (why didn't we ever drink beer with our pizza?) It may not seem like much to an outsider, but it really did cement friendships.

There's also the acedemic side to the show that people may forget about - really! I'm not kidding. :) It helps that half of the audience in our apartment had majors in the medical field. So when terms like diverticulitis popped up - they were quickly explained to yours truly, the lone math major. I swear I learned something.

I guess what's important here is that each of us has something in our lives that we are nostalgic about. So, take some time to revisit yours. I plan to next Thursday...although John pobably won't be joining me. :) Last night during the show I found myself talking to myself. "No way!" "Come ON!" and "YAY!" could be heard muttered downstairs. John was perched on the couch upstairs, and I believe he was laughing at me. :)

Here is Will sproting Katie's boots, and his recent haircut....done by me. I think it looks fairly ok.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today John and I celebrated Valentine's Day by donating blood for the first time. You'll all be glad to know that we survived and are no worse for the wear. I went first and then John went a couple hours later. I must say I got quite queasy towards the end of the whole process, but a bit of apple juice and some encouraging words from the kind nurses went a long way. I was also told that I have good veins, and I'll take a compliment about my body where ever I can get it. John, of course, took it like a big boy...he says it didn't phase him a bit. All in all, we are happy with ourselves and not sure why we waited as long as we did to do it.

Katie got a lot of Valentine's at school yesterday. This was the first year that I let her get some and give them out to her friends. She was very happy and excited to do it. Between her and Will I think they got more mail the last few days than John or I did. Katie says she wants to go to both of her Grandma's houses to celebrate Valentine's Day.

"Well it isn't that kind of holiday," I told her "we just stay home."

"But we went to their houses to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving!"

To Katie, this holiday ranks right up there. I conceded and offered, instead, to get a heart shaped pizza for supper tonight from Papa Murphy's. That seemed to work. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Katie and Will sharing the earbud earphones and enjoying some music. Their one and only independent act of kindness to each other today. It lasted a whole 6 minutes too.

Readin' and Watchin' Update

Boy the weather sure has improved. We haven't had any sun up here, but the temperature has stayed above 20 for a good week now. We've even had some rain which has helped to really melt the snow. I can see lots of grass in our yard now! I'm sure it won't stay this way, but it helps to remind me that this (winter) too shall pass.

John and I watched "There Will Be Blood" this week. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for best actor last year...it takes us about a year to catch up on movies. It's the story of an oil man on a ruthless quest for wealth during the early 20th century. Wow - it was very good...kinda freaky, but very well done. A couple weeks ago we watched "Into the Wild." Hmmm...as John said, it was kind of a downer. :) We had both read the book a few years ago - it's about a guy in his early 20's who gives up everything he owns to live a life in the 'wild.' His dream is to trek across the beautiful, yet harsh land of Alaska - which ultimately kills him. (Sorry - spoiler alert!) I wanted to see the movie because Sean Penn directed it, and it had a decent soundtrack filled with lots of Eddie Vedder music. Both the book and the movie left a bad taste in my mouth - I just can't stand the main character. I don't like his arrogance.

Next - I think I need something lighter to watch. So we are getting "Burn After Reading" with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, and John Malkovich...what a cast. Even lighter yet..."Hannah Montana: The Movie." I thought I had heard that it was opening this weekend, so I told Katie about it and said that we would go together next weekend. (For some silly reason, John is not at all interested in this one.) The problem is, I heard wrong...the movie doesn't open til April 10th....oops. So hopefully she will forget if I just don't bring it up anymore.

On another front - I started reading "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. I am impressed with it so far. I really enjoy it! It's definitely a 'chick' book, but not an overly sappy story. It has an edge to it. It's also this author's first book - which also surprises me. Guess you gotta start somewhere. It reminds me of "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova - great book! That was her first novel as well and dealt with the 'blood drinkers'. :) (Thanks to Shelley for that one!)

I think Katie gets her style from me.

As if I didn't have enough competition for the iPod. I downloaded a 'game' geared for Will. It has about 12 pictures of animals. You touch the picture and the animal makes the corresponding sound. He really likes it and is learning the names of the animals...although he doesn't get to do it very often.

It's about naptime now - the kids are playing quietly downstairs...too quietly. Better go check.

A picture mix...

Not too much to say today, but I thought a post was due.

We went to a book sale at the library and got a bag full of books - (about 25!) for $7.00. I call that a good day. I got a nice mix of Will books, Katie books and adult books. Some titles that we found were Harold and the Purple Crayon, 3 great Judy Blume books, Mystic River, and Snow Falling on Cedars.

Here is Katie and one of her 'best friends', the crab we ate for our anniversary. Turns out she liked it alot. The lens is all smudgy because, well, because my fingers were a mess of crab and butter!

One morning, not too long ago, Will threw a fit because he wanted to put on Katie's jeans. (Note her pink shirt that he already managed to get on.) Fine, I thought - but you are going to throw an even bigger fit when we put them on you and they don't fit. WRONG! They did fit - around the waist anyway. Of course the length was a bit too long, but easily fixed. Then I thought it would be fun to see if HIS pants fit Katie. Sure enough - his pants were Capri's on him, but the waist was fine. Will hung out in Katie's pants the rest of the day. Katie didn't leave pants on because she wanted her summer dress on. Yep - it's -10 degrees outside, but a summer dress make sense to me.

And finally, I thought it would be fun to post a picture from one year ago. This was in January of last year - at our old townhome. Katie's hair is a bit longer, and obviously Will has changed a lot!

Joint Resolution

This year I didn't really make any New Year's resolutions...not that I do any year. But a few weeks ago I had been to see our chiropractor for an adjustment and was told they were having a blood drive on Valentine's Day. Hmmm...that's always something I think I should do - but never have. Chalk it up to fear of needles, blood, etc. But even since I was pregnant with Katie I have felt an obligation to donate blood.

I was tested for many things while pregnant, as are everyone. I never even knew my blood type. They tested for something called your "Rh factor". It came back that I was Rh negative, which means that there was a possibility that my blood and the baby's blood would not mesh well. For subsequent pregnancies there would be a greater chance of miscarriage unless I subjected myself to a few shots here and there. These days it's really no big deal. Through this whole process I learned that my blood type is AB-.

The most common type of blood is O. They are called universal donors and can donate to anyone. The rarest type is AB-. That'd be me. Less that 1% of the entire population has this type of blood. We are called universal receivers...we can receive blood from almost anyone. (How selfish of me.) But sometimes a perfect match is needed, and since I have a rare blood type, I've always felt that I should do my part.

I mentioned this to John one night and he was all for donating too. Like me - he had never given blood, but always felt it was the thing to do. So, we are both scheduled to donate blood for the first time on Valentine's Day. How romantic. We won't be going at the same time since someone has to stay home and watch the kids, but still...maybe we'll sit in the same chair or something.

Some of you may be familiar with my history on V-Day. I like to call it a curse....For the last 3-4 years something bad has happened that evening. I had a very bad flu one year, went to the emergency room another year, and last year our furnace quit...all on the same day. I'm thinking this is the year to turn it around.

Should I mark it as a charitable donation on my taxes? :)

Been awhile since we had a cute picture...

Minnesota Twins

The Twins are getting a new baseball stadium in Minneapolis. Currently, they share the Metrodome with the Vikings, but come 2010 they will have their own place to play. John is doing some work on the site for his company and took some recent pictures of the progress. I'll let him explain...

West elevation showing what the outside of ballpark will look like - note the street bridge right next to the bldg. - underneath the bridge will be the loading dock & player/employee entrances,

View down the main concourse showing some of Olympic's work - the ceiling framing and the yellow walls, which will be covered with an acrylic plaster product....

View from concourse level facing West across the field - on the upper left is the start of the terrace level seating.

View from the other end looking East - the red sign w/ 2010 (bottom right) is where home plate will be. No games today, it was about zero degrees when I took these.

Looking towards downtown to the Southeast. On the left are some of the outfield bleacher seats.

Does this make sense to anyone?

I just spent the last 45 minutes on the phone arguing with a dental insurance representative. Gee, that makes for an afternoon of rainbows. :)

Ok - here's the situation...remember about a month back, John and I were concerned about a 'spot' on Katie's tooth. I called the dentist and they suggested to bring her in and they would take a quick look to see what it was. Turned out to be a small surface cavity just beginning, so they fixed it. They also found another 'spot' that was just beginning to decay so you couldn't see it just yet, but they suggested we get that fixed as well. And then they would apply a sealant to the tooth to make sure it was protected even further. The whole process took 2 visits - about 15-20 minutes each. And because we had caught them so early, they didn't even have to use Novocaine.

Fast forward to now - we get the bill. The total the dentist charged was $517. Let me say that again....$517. That's 2 filings, an x-ray, and a sealant. Our insurance paid a whopping $123.00. Our balance is $358.00. (The difference of $36 was reduced because we used an in network provider - whatever.) There was an office visit of $60 - insurance company wouldn't pay that because she had just been in a month ago for a checkup, and they only allow for 2 visits a year, no emergency visits.

"Ok, if she was just in a month ago - why the HELL didn't the dentist see the cavity?"

"I don't know ma'am."

Then there were the x-rays....the insurance covered those....thankfully. The sealant? Nope, insurance says no way, Jose. We didn't need Novocaine...but Katie did use the nitrous oxide. Insurance doesn't pay for that at all. When I used the 'gas' 2 years ago, it was $25. This dentist charged me $50 for Katie....each time. You can't tell me that a 35 pound little girl uses more gas than I do.

The filings - the dentist charged $274.00 for those tiny teeth. Insurance is supposed to pay 50%...did they? No. They paid $87. Leaving us with $187. The insurance company claimed that they will only pay 50% on mercury fillings...these were amalgam fillings - they cost more. Here in Minnesota, it's very difficult to find a dentist that will do mercury fillings on a child. Our dentist is no different, we didn't have a choice in material.

Because we were concerned for Katie's teeth - we took her to the Dr. I asked the insurance rep if it would have been better off for us to wait 5 months to bring Katie to the dentist - wait for her 6 month checkup. That way the tooth would have decayed even MORE to the point where they would have had to use Novocaine. The Novocaine would have been covered and the office visit would have been covered. And perhaps Katie would have been in pain and not as excited about the dentist anymore. The rep apologized saying that she realized the system isn't perfect, but this is the coverage that is contracted, blah, blah, blah.

This sure didn't make any sense to me. And I don't think there's any quick fix to correct it either.

A book report...

I just finished a book the other day that I thought I would take time to tell you about. It's called My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. If you are in the mood for a gut wrenching, tear jerker - gee, are you in luck.

Some of my college friends recommended the book a few weekends ago. I got it from the library and was hooked by page 3...crying by page 60.

It's about this typical, everyday family. Their discovered their daughter had a very serious form of leukemia at age 2. Their other son wasn't a good enough match for donating things like bone marrow so they decided to have another baby - but this time they would genetically match her so that she would be able to donate cord blood, bone marrow, etc. for their other daughter.

Fast forward 13 years - the sick daughter is in kidney failure and needs a transplant. The younger daughter files a lawsuit for medical emancipation, claiming she doesn't want to be picked apart anymore and harvested. If she wins the case, she will lose her sister. If she loses the case, she loses her independence

It's certainly a heart breaking book - especially if you happen to have sisters (like I do).....and have children (like I do)........and happen to have a daughter named Kate (the daughter with leukemia is named Kate...gee, I have that too.) Do I have to explain to you why I was bawling by page 60?

They are in the process of making a movie out of this book as well. Unfortunately, it's being directed by the same guy that directed The Notebook. I haven't seen the whole movie, but in my opinion it was too sappy and fluffy...the book was much better - as is in most cases. Anyway they have a pretty good cast set.....Alec Baldwin will be the prosecuting attorney (great choice)....Cameron Diaz will be the mother (hmmm - not sure about this one)....Abigail Breslin will be the daughter suing her parents (GREAT CHOICE! I LOVE HER!). Anyway - keep your eye out for that this summer - June, I think. It'll probably be one of those cases where the book is much better - has there ever been a case where the movie is better?

Next, I am opting for something a little lighter. I am on the waiting list at the library for Twilight. (I hope I reserved the right one.) I am told the movie is good - who has time to go to a movie??? - I'll read the book.

Birthdays and more birthdays

Today, a birthday wish goes out to John's brother, Jim Pladsen. Katie hopes that you get cake. :) Maybe all the farm animals will get together and sing for you. Although Katie tells me that won't happen. Not many people know this, but when Katie was younger she took to calling Jim "Butch." Not sure where that came from, but no matter how much we tried to get her to say "Jim" she always said "Butch." So....Happy Birthday Butch!

Another happy birthday for our friend, Joe Margolis. While he and his wife, Jamie and all their families are out celebrating his 30th birthday (yeah, that's right - I said it) we get to babysit their son Noah! I figured I would let your age out of the bag because you're younger than me and I figure you can't hurt me too much - you need me to watch Noah. :)

Boy - you guys sure picked cold days to have your birthday on.

6 years....

I want to take a moment to say Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband, John. 6 years ago today we were married on a sunny beach in Key West, Florida. I'm glad we aren't there right now because they are having a cold streak and it's only going to be in the 50's there today.

Although none of you could be there with us...because, well, we didn't really invite you... :) It was one of the happiest days of my life. The love I have for you, John, is a thousand times more powerful today and I am thankful for every day we have together. You're stuck with me now.

So to celebrate, we are having a nice dinner at home. I am going to get some crab legs at the store today and cook those up. (Yummy) And I spose I'll try to make or find some type of Key Lime desert...our tradition. I told Katie we were going to eat crab for dinner and she informed me that she will be dining on peanut butter and jelly. Great - more for me....I mean us. :)

I also wanted to update you on Katie's skating progress. She had her third lesson on Tuesday. It was a big day - she was able to stand up all by herself. She fell like 4-5 times and each time got right back up with no problem - slowly, but she did it. Then towards the end of the half hour, she started moving her feet and was able to actually gain some forward motion. And once - by accident - she even went backwards. (She thought that was extremely funny.) If you would have told me 3 weeks ago that she would be able to do this, I would have laughed. The most important thing is that it's giving her a new confidence in herself and strengthening her balance skills.

Happy Birthday Denise!!

Today is my sister Denise's birthday. Should I say the number? I DO live 3 1/2 hours away so it's not like she could kill me IMMEDIATELY. :). All I'll say (if I have the number right) is that there is a 5 at the end. Happy Birthday Denise!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow. You're only a day away...

It's almost here. Do you sense the excitement and anticipation? Tomorrow is Inauguration Day. We will have a new president and a place in history. I've been trying to explain it to Katie because she doesn't really understand WHY he isn't the real president yet. Good grief - the election was over 2 months ago! I also haven't explained that he is the first African American president. She doesn't really SEE differences like that - and I think I'd like to keep it that way for the time being. She has a great mix of cultures in her preschool class, and it's no big deal to her. So, if she isn't making a big deal about people's differences, why should I point them out to her and MAKE them an issue.

The bigger issue here is remembering who will NOT be president tomorrow. After approximately 2,922 days Bushie will finally be gone. Did you hear my sigh of relief? I don't agree with his policies, I don't approve of most of the people he surrounded himself with, and I don't think history will look back positively on his legacy.

I've heard over the last few years that people liked him because he was someone you could go have a beer with. Ugh. I never understood this thought process. I don't want MY president to have a beer with me. I don't want him to be some average Joe off the street. I don't want him to be my bar buddy. Our president should be the smartest, most eloquent guy in the room. I want him to be more intelligent about things than I am, and to be WAY too busy to have a beer with me. Here's the twist - he has to have compassion for other people and a sense of service to the people that elected him....or her as the case may be. :)

On another note - I haven't come across her birth certificate yet. I'm trying to think if we were even issued one. We got the certificate from the hospital, but it says right on there that it isn't an official document. When Will was born, I remember them asking me if I wanted the birth certificate. Is it possible that I didn't get one for Katie? In any case I'll have to call the government center tomorrow and see if I can get one. I never had to have proof of birth date for Katie's preschool - they just took my word for it.

The Fam

Back in December we had our family picture taken at our church here in town. I got our free 8x10 last weekend and thought I would share that with you. So here's your one glance at the whole family together. Doesn't happen very often. :) Will was SO giggly. Every time the flash went off he laughed and laughed....and I'm talking BELLY laughs. :)

It's finally above zero here today. They never called off school for Katie this week. They rarely do - not a lot of buses having to travel off road I guess. I am in the process of filling out her paperwork for kindergarten. I need one last item....now if YOU were Katie's birth certificate....where would you likely be? I can find Will's, but can't seem to locate Katie's...yet. It's not in her baby book, but that's the only place I have checked.

A note from Katie

Today after breakfast, Katie wanted to do her usual drawing activity. Most mornings her and Will belly up to the table after breakfast and after we are dressed, and use crayons and paper to create their masterpiece. Today this was what Katie's said:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
KATIE RO DET

:) Do you get it? I asked her to read it to me. She said her alphabet and then "Katie wrote it." I asked her how she knew to write that sentence and she said that she just sounded out the letters. To say the least, I was pretty proud of that. :)

Yesterday we went to Will's 18 month check up. He checked out fine. He weighs just over 25 pounds (our home scale says 28) and is just over 33 inches tall. He still has a big head. :)

The only thing we are keeping an eye on is his speech. "They" say he should have between 10-15 words now - which he doesn't. I would say he has 3...at times. I told the doctor that we can never get him to say any words - but he'll say them on his own. She said this showed independence. (Yeah, right.) She also said that slow speech is a sign of early intelligence. What ever works I guess. :) So we decided that we would check in again in 3 months to see if there is any progress....maybe do a hearing check just to rule that out.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is staying warm. It's very cold up here, although bright and sunny. I have 2 loads of laundry to get folded before I start supper. We are having No Name steaks tonight...with some kind of vegetable(s) on the side. Should I set a place for you? :)

Katie's not cold...she's kickin' back on a beach.

Olympics...here we come!

Katie had her second ice skating lesson today. If she keeps improving at the rate she's going, she'll be competing in an upcoming Olympics. :) Ok, probably not, BUT she did stand vertical on her skates today which was a VAST improvement from last week!

So this was last week. And here, you can see Katie trying to stand up...this was as close as she ever got.

She has lessons for 30 minutes ever Tuesday afternoon. The session only goes for 7 weeks. I figure that's enough of a taste for now. Thank goodness she is skating indoors. I don't think we could be outside very long today. It's -11 right now, and that's the warmest it's been all day.

Will had no interest in watching his sister learn to skate. (I know - big surprise!) This week though, I brought snacks for him so he was much easier to handle. We got there early so that Katie could practice walking in her skates on the floor, and practice getting up from a sitting position. She still has trouble getting up by herself on the ice, but once she is up - she stands up. She doesn't MOVE, she just stands there, but heck - one thing at a time, right?

Wah-Hoo! And we're up! Look, no hands! Note the poor little girl off to the side grasping onto the teacher's hand for dear life. :) Her name happens to be 'Katie' too.

It also helped that there were 5 kids there this week with 2 teachers...versus 10 last week with 2 teachers. Last week out of Katie's 30 minute lesson I think she was either on her butt or her knees for 25 of the 30 minutes. (I'm not exaggerating.) This week, it was easily the other way around. And next week - maybe she'll start some forward motion.

There is Katie and the other Katie standing alone. Neither one dares to make a move or shift their weight...God forbid they start to glide. (Note the Plexiglas cleaner in the background. They said that they clean that weekly!)

Wow! Look at that determination....look at that braveness...look at that DIRTY coat! Geez..note to self...'wash your kid's coat!'

At least she hasn't broken anything...that's the biggest accomplishment of all.

Our Slumber Party

This weekend we had company at our house. Some friends of mine from college came to town and visited. Julie and her husband traveled from Holmen, WI. Laurel, Casey, and their two kids, Karlie and Cameron came up from McGregor, IA. And we also got together with Jamie, Joe, and their son, Noah in St. Louis Park, MN. For those of you keeping score that's a 4 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and a 6 month old. (Including our kids)

We all met for lunch at Jamie's on Saturday and then a few of us brave souls ventured out to an indoor park nearby. Whew! Was that a mistake! There were SOO many people it was crazy. Of course the kids (all except baby Cameron went) had a blast and weren't phased by the massive numbers. Us adults though...that's a different story and we left after not too long.

For supper, everyone came over to our house. The kids ate a played SO well - it was a lot of fun. Katie and Karlie had a great time with each other. Katie also took a liking to baby Cameron whom she decided she wanted to babysit.

When it was time for bedtime, Julie and Russ went with Jamie and Joe to stay at their house. Laurel and Casey stayed at our place. That meant that the girls were going to be able to have a sleep over in Katie's room. We laid out sleeping mats on the floor, got blankets and pillows ready, and after hearing a story - the girls passed out. I wanted to get a picture of them on the floor, but didn't get in there before they fell asleep. And there was NO WAY I was going to take a chance waking them up. :) Poor Cameron was teething and had a rough time settling down. But the kids had SO much fun - I'd love to do it again.

We all met again for lunch at Jamie and Joe's today. The kids played together for a few hours after lunch and for having 2 days with no naps...they were GREAT! They really do get along so well and have a good time together. It's a shame we are all so far apart. Hopefully we'll all see each other again when the weather warms up.

Be ready - I'm trying to get a post up about Katie's ice skating lessons...haven't had time lately, but keep checking back...it's coming!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

A Happy Birthday goes to my brother-in-law, Jeff Mezera. Hope you have a great day! Janet told me your age, but I'll be nice and just say you're over 20. Heck, you have a 19 year old son so I guess you would have to be. :)

Cold, but sunny

We got some fresh snow last night - not too much, but enough to probably warrant some shoveling. Katie starts back to school tomorrow. (Yipee!) It will be nice for her to get back on a schedule again. Will slept through the night on Friday night, but awoke this morning at 6:30 am...luckily he went back to sleep after a few minutes of rocking and nursing. I guess I can't complain about that.

The kids are getting much better at playing together. Katie likes to be the teacher, and gets very angry at Will when he doesn't listen to her. I don't think that's ever going to change. Right now they are both playing in Katie's room and we haven't seen either one for about 20 minutes. (I get to blog and John is reading the paper!) Katie always alerts us when something is wrong by screaming at the top of her lungs "Mom, Dad come quick! This is a catastrophe!" Which means that Will has grabbed her doll or toothbrush and is about to put one of them in the toilet.

We had ice cream cones last night. Gone are the days when Will was satisfied just having bites of my cone. This time, HE had the cone and I had to be happy with bites and licks every once in a while.

On Saturday the four of us went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. There was an exhibit there on Eero Saarinen that John wanted to see. He was an architect that designed such things at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the IBM plant in Rochester, MN. It's an amazing museum! The admission is free and Katie really got into looking at things like the Egyptian artifacts and some of the Indian displays. She also thought it was funny that she could see the rear end on some the statues. That's a four year old for you. Both kids were amazingly well behaved. And even though Katie spilled her milk at lunch time, I considered it a successful trip.

Then we drove by the new Twins stadium so John could show us the progress they have made. They sure SQUEEZED that thing in there. It's going to be very nice, and hopefully I will be able to post pictures from there soon. And no, we don't get free tickets. :)

Katie starts ice skating lessons this week too. Let's hope we don't have to make any mad dashes to the emergency room...