Wich do you think is gowing to be the new baby?

 Nora and Dana are (kind of) patiently awaiting the arrival of their newest cousin! New Bean won't make an appearance until late January, and we have spent countless conversations debating whether Elsa will have a baby sister or baby brother. It was hard to keep track of who thought what, so Dana decided to make a survey.

Wich do you think is gowing to be the new baby?

 

 

Lizzie found the survey to be delightful.

As you can see, I am betting on another girl. I have a couple of theories, but mainly my reasoning is that I have two daughters, my sister has two sons, my cousin has two daughters, and all but one of my closest friends have either two daughters or two sons. Kevin thinks that it's time for another boy, since the last boy in our family arrived 11 years ago, and it's been a steady stream of girls ever since.

Many votes have been added since this photo was taken. At the first ultrasound, New Bean was uncooperative, refusing to reveal anything, including a spine. Haha! At the second ultrasound, the spine was visible and...it's a girl! I think Dana should make another survey about whether she will have a head full of black hair like Elsa did at birth, or if she'll be blond like Nora, or bald! Dana loves when I tell her about how it never occurred to me that my second baby would have anything BUT a head full of white-blond hair, and when Dana emerged with tons and tons of dark hair, I was really confused and absolutely smitten.

 

In Minnesota in October, the only way to enjoy a book outside is in snow pants.

Did I mention that our major summer project was to build a deck? It is absolutely lovely, and wraps around 2 sides of our house. I have to stain it in the spring yet, and we need to buy patio furniture, but you can see from the photo above that we are already enjoying it immensely.

...And it's back to studying for me. I'm a senior this year and am busy getting my grad school application in order. Wish me luck!

In Like a Lion...

After a long winter with nearly no snow, this is what has happened in the last week:

Anyone up for a nice barbecue?

 

 

 

Can you tell how they feel about all of the snow?

This was around noon on Saturday. The plow didn't go by for a few more hours.

My angel making a snow angel in the road.

My other angel coming in for dry clothes and hot cocoa.

This was the craziest week! The snow started in the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, and we all got a snow day due to the blizzard conditions. Yay! It snowed and snowed all day long, and the girls got another snow day on Thursday, though I still had class. We got around a foot of heavy, wet snow, which took Kevin about 3 hours to blow out of the driveway. 

We woke up Saturday morning to find fresh snow on the ground, with more coming down. Over the course of the weekend, we got another 16 or so inches at our house! At least it was light and fluffy this time. Oddly enough, it is supposed to be 40 degrees tomorrow. Funny how the weather is this time of year.

We took advantage of being snowed in by watching the first two Harry Potter movies together, which was pretty awesome. We're hoping to watch part 3 this weekend, but we could do without another storm, thank you. 

Meow

Meet Mathilda...our kitten!

She is five months old, and we adopted her from the local animal shelter about a month ago. Kevin and I had been talking about getting a kitty for a while, and as soon as we met this little girl we knew she was the one. 

The girls had no idea we were even considering a cat, and the day we picked her up, we pulled in the driveway less than five minutes ahead of the school bus. We didn't say anything when the girls walked in-we just played it cool. Tillie was sitting on a chair pushed up to the table, and it took Dana about 5 minutes to spot her. It was kind of like watching a sitcom: she was chatting away, filling us in on her day, and she froze mid-sentence, then tilted her head and asked, "Why is there a cat here?" It was pretty fun to tell her, "Because she lives here." Why, oh why do we not have video of that moment? 

Anyhow, now that she has recovered from a kennel cold and has gotten used to us, she is feisty and fun. She likes to play soccer with an American Girl Doll soccer ball, usually in the middle of the night, and she likes to carry stuff around in her mouth. Last night she brought Nora's gloves upstairs, one at a time. Saturday night I confiscated a Barbie doll from her. We had a blizzard on Wednesday and two snow days, and while the girls were out playing in the snow, she was watching them through the patio door and howling for them. She definitely loves her girls! And she definitely livens up our little house.  

Ice Fishing

Ice houses on Grand Lake.

When you live in Northern Minnesota, you have to find ways to entertain yourself during the long, desolate, torturous winter months. Most of my ways of entertaining myself involve indoor activities: baking, sewing, knitting, playing board games, reading fiction...

Dana pulling a fish up hand over hand.

Dana caught this guy, but we threw him back.

My children, on the other hand, enjoy many outdoor activities, including ice fishing! And, at 34 1/2 years old, having lived in Northern Minnesota for my entire life, I had never once been ice fishing. So a couple weeks ago, my wonderful father in law invited the 4 of us fishing with him in his new cozy, clean ice house. 

Nora got the only "keeper".

 The girls did most of the actual fishing while us grown ups kept them company. Dana was up to her elbows in the minnow bucket at least half the time we were out on the lake. She just pushed the sleeves of her pink floral dress up as far as she could first so they wouldn't get too wet.

Kevin spent a lot of time in the ice house as a kid.

I didn't really know what to expect out of this experience. I was way overdressed. Bev tried to tell me that the ice house is about 65 degrees but I couldn't wrap my head around that. So I had polar fleece leggings on under my jeans and 3 long sleeved shirts under my parka, and I could hardly bend my arms and legs. 

This was obviously not Dana's first time. She was a lot more practical with her wardrobe choices, which is funny since she was wearing a dress under her snow pants. 

Now that I know what I was missing, I am pretty excited to go back. I plan to bring my knitting and some treats next time, and I will be smarter about what I wear. I could get used to roughing it in this ice house!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

 After a long, intense semester, I am absolutely thrilled to have almost a month off to recover and enjoy my lovely little family. Hanging in my pajamas and slippers with these two creatures is going to be awesome! 

I have three comments to make about this photo:

1. I am completely amused that the girls still love having matching pajamas. 

2. They opened their slippers on December 24, put them on, and have not taken them off since, except to go outside. I think I need to get myself some cozy Acorn slippers, too!

3. Nora's pajamas are size 10!!! Double digits! I knew size 8 would be too small, and 10 was the next size up. I thought they would be huge but they are a perfect fit. That kind of freaks me out.

In fourth grade, the students at our elementary school learn to knit. Nora is halfway done with a hat that will be felted by her teacher when she is finished. I taught Dana to knit, and she is working on a scarf. Over Thanksgiving break, we spent a couple of evenings in our pajamas knitting and it was incredible. I am looking forward to more of that, and also to a much calmer spring semester, with only 10 credits and my hardest classes behind me. 

I hope your holidays are cozy and relaxing! 

Redecorating

This is probably the longest-lasting redecorating project in the entire history of redecorating, but it's FINALLY done! Well, an inch from done.

See, Kevin painted the girls' bedroom back in 2003, when Nora was one. The walls were periwinkle and the ceiling was a pale, buttery yellow. It was perfect. Keyword "was". After eight years of abuse from two lovely but energetic little girls and their friends, the walls were in desperate need of some TLC. And I made the fatal mistake of asking Nora and Dana what color they would like their room painted.

Nora could only live with a turquoise bedroom.

Dana couldn't bear the thought of anything other than purple.

After much negotiation, I finally got them to agree to two purple walls and two turquoise walls. Which was AWESOME, until I realized that this meant their bedroom would be turquoise and purple. Turquoise AND purple.

So I went and picked up a bunch of paint chips, and after deliberating for a while, I picked up a couple of sample-sized jars of the top contenders. You know what would have been helpful here? Some "before" photos. The samples were horrid. In fact, when Dana saw the squares painted on the walls, she actually got really upset and asked again and again why I didn't ask her before painting those colors on the walls.

So then a family friend suggested that I find fabric with both purple and turquoise in it and match the paint to it, since the colors would obviously go together already. So I went to the fabric store and got fabric to sew curtains, which I did immediately. And everyone was happy with them. Except I never really got a chance to paint.

This week, the girls have been at day camp, and I decided to just go for it. And the thing is, when I asked if they still wanted purple and turquoise, Nora said she wanted green and Dana agreed. And since green is my favorite color, I wasn't about to argue.

In the end, I took some of the fabric to the paint store and found a hue that was an exact match. It was a bit bright, so the paint store man lightened it half a shade and it was perfect. Still bright, but pretty. This would all be more impressive if I would have taken photos of the walls after Kevin patched all the boo boos but before I actually painted-it looked like a war zone.

I plan to sew a little throw pillow cover for each girl using leftover curtain fabrics. My mom bought them turquoise down comforters last summer, but it's oddly too warm for them in the summer, even this far north. At any rate, while the pillows will look weird with the ballerina quilts, they will be perfect with the turquoise down. Now I just have to pick a color for our bedroom...

Finally Healthy?

Oh, this has been a looooooong month.

Nora has been sick since the first day of summer vacation, which was 15 days ago.

Within a few days of her starting Amoxicillin, the strep and sinus infection were improving and she was starting to feel a little bit better. By day 8, however, she was getting worse. She would start the day feeling sort of OK, but by afternoon she would start spiraling downward again. All of her original symptoms came back, and the sinus pain was so bad she just laid on the couch and cried. I called the doctor on call at 9:00 one night because she had a temp of 102 and was inconsolable. She called in a prescription for Azythromycin and said that if she wasn't dramatically better in 48 hours, she had to come back in.

At 48 hours, she was laying on the couch crying, and she could feel her head throb with each heartbeat. Children's Advil and a hot pack eased her pain, and I intended to call the clinic in the morning.

And then we all woke up, and I looked at my watch and it was 10am. And Nora was all smiles, with her dimples popping out to say good morning. I don't know what happened overnight, but her fever finally broke and she started to actually get better.

And so we baked a cake! Because feeling better after being sick for 15 days is worth celebrating.

Chocolate on chocolate-that'll make anyone feel better!

And since she was feeling so good, she thought it was a good opportunity to spray all of her hair cobalt blue. I guess that's another way to celebrate.

Nora almost busted a gut laughing at the deep blue color of the bath water after she washed her hair twice.

I myself laughed until it all drained out and I had to get out the Soft Scrub. Then it wasn't quite as funny.

And we completed the celebration by putting on our Halloween pajamas and climbing into bed to snuggle.

Today is the first day in 2 weeks that Nora has felt good, hasn't asked for Advil, and hasn't had a fever. It was pretty phenomenal.

See ya, resistant strep! We won't miss you!

Hola

Hello! I am still trying to recover from my first semester back at school. School ended almost a month ago for me, and I have spent that month playing catch-up at home. You know-cleaning things that had been neglected, doing boatloads of laundry, etc. Nothing that interesting. Finals week was exhausting! I can't handle going on 5 hours of sleep anymore. Ugh! However, I got 100% on my bio final, I got 82 out of 80 on my physics final (2 extra credit points), and I set the curve with the highest grade in my communication disorders class, so I can't complain. First semester back and I got a 4.0! I guess this old lady's still got it. At least, I got it when it comes to freshman-level classes. Ha!

Then I chaperoned a handful of field trips the girls took for school:

Kindergarten tug-o'-war at the all-day picnic. Dana's class won! Woot!

Kindergarten trip to the zoo-another all-day event.

Nora brought her own camera to the nature center, so I have no photos of that trip. Oops.

Zak graduated on Wednesday (HOW did that teeny-tiny, under 4-pound preemie grow into a 19 year-old man?!) and I made his cake:

I was a little disappointed with my very rusty cake-decorating skills, particularly with royal icing, but I am my own worst critic-nobody else seemed to notice the flaws. For example, nobody but me could see that I accidentally broke off the Greyhound's tail and reattached it. Also-because I am rusty, it took twice as long to make the East logo as it would have 10 years ago. I also decorated about 65 cupcakes for the party. I used 2 pounds of butter and 6 pounds of powdered sugar to make all of the buttercream and royal icing. Yikes!

Now that all of that is over and the girls are also on summer vacation, Nora is sick.

This morning, after 3 days of strange symptoms and a temp of 101, we took her in and she tested positive for strep. Sore throat was nowhere in her assortment of symptoms. Leave it to Nora to get sick in her own way.

We are hoping that she feels better soon so we can enjoy the gorgeous sunshine and the joys of being on summer break!

Checking In

Well hello!

I have managed to survive the first eight weeks of school and am FINALLY on spring break! WOOHOO!

I am not going to lie-school is a lot. Kevin has been taking the girls out on the town every Saturday so I can have a quiet house to do homework in. And I still don't usually finish everything for the week, even if I work for 12 hours on Saturdays. It is maddening!

The girls fight over who gets to hold Elsa first every. single. morning.

Last week was extra fun, as I had 3 tests, 2 papers, and a project due. The project was a naked egg drop. As frightening as that sounds, it just means that we had to drop a naked egg from the roof of the planetarium onto a catching device that we created. The catching device could not be more than 5cm tall (which is about 2 inches), and the total drop distance was 7 meters.

I was in a group with Chelsea and Kelsy. I just like to tell people that because it really exemplifies what it's like to be 33 and in freshman level classes. Chelsea and Kelsy are both sweet girls, and oddly enough, they are both studying to be speech therapists and will be in my fall sequences. I am not sure how that happened in a physics class with 100 people in it. Anyhow, Chelsea and Kelsy and I decided to use a heavily-frosted cake as a landing pad.

Here's Chelsea holding the cake.

Just kidding. That's Dana. But Chelsea is 18 and I feel like 18 and 5 are a heck of a lot closer together than 18 and 33. Seriously-Chelsea has a sibling the same age as my baby. Meaning me and her mom are close in age.

Bet you can see where our egg hit!

It totally worked and our egg survived the fall without breaking. Which was a relief, considering the group before us used Jell-o as a landing device and their egg bounced off and split into two symmetrical egg pieces. They did not get their points.

We also got to write a paper about all of the physics at work during the egg drop project, things like acceleration and kinetic energy and momentum.

I have exciting plans to do our taxes over spring break. Also-studying for two tests I have to take the day I get back from break. You know what they say-girls just wanna have fun.

School Girl

Dear Friends,

Today was my first day of school, and I want to tell you all about it.

Well, maybe not ALL about it, but a little about it.

First, you should be made aware of the intense stress I have been feeling about my return to College (yes, I am going to capitalize "College" because that is how it feels to me). I've had insomnia, I've had completely unrelated but still disturbing nightmares, I've had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I have tormented myself worrying about everything from parking (it's a nightmare there) to having to write papers to not having time to hang with my family or enjoy one of my numerous nerd hobbies.

I had been slowly gearing up for The Big Day. Kevin took me to campus, helped me buy my books, then walked me to all of my classes so I would know how to find them. He even carried my books, which reminded me of the first time I went to college (yes, "college"-it wasn't as scary back then as it is now). He sneaked up to Best Buy with my amazing in-laws and they bought me a brand new laptop. And get this-it has every single one of its keys, there is no peanut butter anywhere on it, and when I put in my password it just fires right up with no 5-minute lag. I totally played it cool when they came over to surprise me with this gift, but later on, I went upstairs and cried because it was so incredible. They are just so good to me, those 3. Kevin talked me into getting myself a new backpack with a laptop compartment, which I did. But still I was fretting. A lot.

I mean, I had a decent handle on it until last weekend, when I logged into my university email and found messages from all four of my instructors, directing me to their Moodle sites where I was able to look at each syllabus and class schedule, and where I learned that I had to read four chapters and complete two assignments for my first day of class. For my FIRST DAY OF CLASS! Oh, has the internet ever changed things.

Anyhow, I somehow managed to fall asleep around 10:00 last night. I woke up when it was still pitch black outside and was at school by 7:20 for my 8am class. I know-but my friend teaches at UMD and told me some really terrifying stories about parking, and I wasn't about to be late to my first class. And you probably already figured out that I found a parking spot immediately and had about 10 hours to wander around before my class started. Actually, I read my biology book, but still.

So by 7:55, nobody had arrived for my 8am class and the lecture hall was dark. And so I called Kevin, and even though he was trying to get Nora and Dana ready for school while taking care of Elsa, he called the CSD department and found out that the class had been moved. He totally saved me. I had no idea what to do. He suggested I walk to the help desk but I had no idea where it was and I was pretty sure I was about to throw up. I am such a dork. Anyhoo, I got to my class 10 minutes late and within 5 minutes it totally clicked with me that this is not College, but college. Because you know what? I am 33 years old, I have a (superhero) husband, two gorgeous daughters, a mortgage, a past career, and LIFE EXPERIENCE. I am not 19 years old. I am here for different reasons than these kids. I have so much more at stake than they do. And so the rest of my day was fantastic. For real. I somehow lucked into being able to buy a parking permit, despite it being second semester and there only being a few available. I went to my biology class in the afternoon and I thought it was really interesting, and that my professor would be fun to hang out with (she's really funny). I came home and took the statistics quiz that I had been dreading (yes, a quiz on day 1), only to log in and find that it was a quiz about the syllabus, and I got 100%. Maybe the quiz I take tonight will be harder, but I am no longer living in a dark, scary place. I feel like I can do this. I just need to keep on top of my reading.

And on that note, I am going to go play Sorry and eat some ice cream before I get the girls to bed and log back in to watch a statistics lecture online.

Sorry if that was super boring. I am just so thrilled that today went so well. Tomorrow I have physics-cross your fingers that it goes well, too.

Christmas and Stuff

I have been really bad about posting, and I'm afraid it's going to get even worse.

After being home with my girls for five years, I temporarily rejoined the workforce. I initially planned to work one or two days a week as a substitute teacher. While things started out according to plan, it wasn't long before I was working every day. I used to do all of my grocery shopping, cleaning, errand running and laundry during the day, and suddenly that is not possible. Plus I am really tired, which doesn't help things.

Nora is completely smitten with Elsa. Seriously-who can blame her?


After Christmas vacation, things are going to get even crazier. While I will no longer be subbing, I will have my hands full with other things. I will spend my mornings with Elsa and my afternoons at school. That's right-I am going back to school.

My parents got the girls digital cameras for Christmas, so now we have 2 gigs of photos like this.

I am working on a degree in communication science and disorders so that I can become a speech therapist. My first two semesters will be full time, and the remaining 3 semesters will be part time. And then I have a 2-year master's program to complete.

Kevin's parents got the girls beds for their American Girl dolls. These dolls have nicer furniture than we do. For real.

Starting in mid-January, I will be taking human communication disorders, physics, biology (plus a bio lab), and statistics. It's going to get hairy, but they are prerequisites for my fall sequences, so I have to just motor through. I hope I remember how to write a paper.

Dana practically fits into Felicity's bed.

I have been trying to spend as much time as possible relaxing because I know my time is going to become a premium very shortly. We've been playing lots of board games, lolling around in our pajamas, hanging out. I have been baking, knitting and sewing, trying to get it out of my system for a while.

Kevin and his grandma looked through the American Girl catalog on Christmas. They were amused by the selection and the prices. For example, camping chairs for dolls are more expensive than camping chairs for humans.


Anyhow, I probably won't be on here much until mid-May.

And then I might sleep until June.

Health Night at School

PTA organized a family health night at school in early October. It was a great event, with lots of fun activities and a spaghetti dinner.

Dana was one of the first kids to attempt the climbing wall, despite the cold drizzly weather. She climbed all the way to the top, then stopped to look down at everyone with a great big grin. And then she climbed back down, while the climbing guy said to the crowd, "Everyone watch Dana. She's climbing down exactly right." When she got to the bottom, he gave us a brochure for climbing camp and told us that Dana's a natural. Oh, good. That's what every mother wants to hear about her kindergartener.

Dana thought the yoga station was pretty cool, too.

It was a really fun night, and Dana still brags about her climbing skills.

Bayfield Apples

About 100 years ago, back in September, we hopped in the car for an impromptu trip to Bayfield, Wisconsin to pick apples.

It was unseasonably warm, so we stopped at a lakeside playground for a while before heading to the apple orchard. It is the most awesomest playground ever, according to the girls.

Nora liked the climbing wall a lot. They both loved the tire swing and made us push them until we all got dizzy.

I don't know what this crazy contraption was supposed to be, but it was pretty fun, until Dana knocked her noggin.

After the girls ran off some energy, we climbed back in the car for the 5 minute drive to the orchard.

The dwarf apple trees were a huge hit with the kids. Dana was thrilled that she could reach fruit without help.

Nora was pretty psyched, too.

It took us about 15 minutes to pick an entire bushel.

I baked 2 apple pies, but we ate the majority of these straight up. I used the last of them the day before Thanksgiving to make 2 quarts of applesauce.

We are looking forward to making this an annual tradition. It was good family fun.

Elsa

She's eight days late, but she is finally here!

Her name is Elsa Rayanne and she was 8 pounds and 22 inches long. Rayanne is a combination of my dad's middle name and Liz's mom's middle name. She has a ton of black hair and gorgeous blue eyes.

Dana thought it was adorable when Elsa couldn't stop licking her blanket. She also thinks her cry is really cute, and she knows just how to sway to soothe her new cousin.

Nora is a natural. She knows exactly how to hold her arm to support Elsa's head. She couldn't resist smooching that beautiful face.

Mama, Daddy and Elsa are all doing great.

Dana's Got Skills

Nora, Dana and I were sitting on the couch one evening this week when Dana started giggling. We looked over at her and saw this:

And then we made a big fuss over her spoon hanging on nose trick, and we both tried it and failed. And that encouraged her and then she started to get sassy about her new skill.

"Watch me! I can walk with the spoon on my nose!"

"Look! I can do the splits with the spoon on my nose!"
Honey, the fact that you can do the splits at all is impressive.

"I can dance with the spoon on my nose!"

Showoff.

Our bellies ached from all of the laughing. Dana put on a great show.