11 years

Yesterday, Brad and I celebrated being married 11 years. And I couldn't be happier. I sure love that man.

I thought I'd tell this story, just to show how far I've come in 11 years. ;)

We decided to go out to a really nice restaurant for our anniversary. I found the sitter, and since Brad has much more experience with the restaurants here, he was going to find the place to eat. He made reservations for 7 pm and we were going to walk around the Christmas village for a little while before eating.

But, when you are married to a doctor, things tend to not always go as planned. He called me at 5 to say that he was still with a patient coming out of surgery and he might be late. I said it would be fine if we skipped the walk and just went to dinner. But then he called again, saying he was going to be even later than planned, could I drop off the kids, bring him a change of clothes, etc. Years ago, that might have stressed me out, especially since we were having plumbing issues, Roo broke the silverware drawer, and there was typical dinner chaos. Now, however, I've adjusted to the uncertainty that is life with a doctor. 11 years and I'm getting the hang of this gig. ;o)

We went to an amazing restaurant. It was so gorgeous in there! The architecture alone was stunning. I told the hostess it was our 11 year anniversary. She asked me if I got married at 10 because I looked way too young to be married that long. I didn't tell her I am 34. haha!

We got a Wagyu steak, Chateau potatoes, King crab gnocchi and a fabulous chocolate souffle for dessert. We shared all of it and still couldn't finish it. Incredibly delicious.

I love being married to the man of my dreams and look forward to the rest of eternity with him!!

4 yr old!

Wowza. My "baby" is 4. I keep forgetting she isn't a baby anymore. Sigh.

We had lots of fun for her birthday. We went to an older kid version of Chuck E Cheese (batting cages, mini-golf, laser tag, basketball court, Jupiter Jumps, arcade, etc). Roo was invited to a party there, and I figured if I was going to drive for 40 minutes just to get there, I might as well make a family activity of it all. We all had a blast and thankfully Brad didn't get paged. *phew*

Then we had a spontaneous birthday party with some friends. They even made a cute banner for her. We had pizza and crab legs. I'm not usually a sea food person, but these were really good! And, I continued my tradition of letting the birthday kid do the cake decorating. She did a great job.

Happy birthday, little pea!

Swedish meatballs

Sugar has a friend in school with a Swedish mother. They are super sweet and invited us over for lunch after school today.

The girls had a blast playing and I loved talking to Sonia. So much fun learning about Sweden. She asked if we'd like Swedish meatballs for lunch. I said sure! I was thinking of the mushroomy gravy kinda meatballs that I usually make when I say Swedish meatballs. It turns out, in Sweden, they don't really put marinara or gravy on their pasta. They put ketchup. They use ketchup for pasta and not much else. I was a little skeptical, but it was quite tasty! Who knew?!

Giving thanks!

I have so much to be thankful for today!

Brad's dad is here for Thanksgiving from OK. He took us out to a delicious Indian restaurant the other day. Yum. My aunt Stacy came down from NYC too. She has been incredibly helpful which has been fabulous since RA has my knee looking like a grapefruit. Sugar just adores her too. Stacy has been having Sugar help with cooking and she is just in heaven. Plus since our house is tiny, space is at a premium. Stacy has been sleeping in Sugar's room, and she just LOVES having a roommate.

And for Thanksgiving dinner, we are having another last minute addition, missionaries. We aren't sure where we will have everyone sitting, but nothing warms the heart like a full house, right? Oh, and we have Jasper the dog visiting too. :o)

It has been snowing off and on this morning, which has been beautiful. And Brad has been able to use his medical expertise. First, he used a needle from his kit to inject the turkey with seasonings. Then he drained my knee of fluid. I had been fighting letting him do it for a long time. Draining just hurts so dang much that I didn't want to associate him with incredible pain. But, the pain of the fluid finally outweighed the pain of the drain. He managed to get 10 cc's out, but it hardly made a dent in the fluid level. Looks like I'll be going in for another knee drain next week.

Please Touch Museum

Sugar and I went to the Please Touch Museum on Saturday while the boys went to the Constitution Center for a cub scout activity. It took us 40 minutes just to get through the toy store. Then we spent another hour at the Water Works. After that, we made it through the rest of the museum pretty fast. (Pretty fast being another 2 hours) She really loved the grocery store. She told me I was the sister and kept telling me no when I asked for stuff. LOL! She had fun loading her cart, going through check-out, and then putting the groceries away. When did all of that stop being fun for me? It was so much fun to just spend some girl time with her. I can't wait to take the boys!

Long time, no see!

Yes, I had a birthday last week. Another year older and wiser too!

And the new press release is out for the new Signing Time Associate Directors. Look! It's me! Yay!

This weekend is the Neighborhood Toy Store Day! Check out a local toy store near you! And if you are in the Philly area, please come to the Please Touch Museum. There will be tons of fun activities and characters to entertain the kiddos. Christmas is coming up and it would be great if we could support our locally owned toy stores! Hope to see you there!

Lots of pictures!

Wow. It has been awhile since I've put up pictures. So, I put up 9, yes 9, slide shows over on the Cookie Monster blog.

What's over there? Well, lots of stuff: Halloween, first day of school, Roo's birthday, me Dragon Boating, the zoo, Sugar at the farm, golfing... lots. You are under no obligation to go check it out. But if you want on and don't yet have an invite, let me know.

For Halloween, I was sick (I colored my nose read and put purple bags under my eyes) and Brad was my doctor. Jamo was Anakin Skywalker. Roo was Bidoof, a Pokemon. Sugar got a horse where she is two of the legs. We went to our church last night to trick or treat from room to room. We filled our room with balloons. Quite a mistake as it turned into a mosh pit and the older kids weren't always gentle with the young ones. But, the kids liked it.

Roo is 7!

Well, it has been awhile, eh? We had a fabulous time with my mommy in town. We love it when we have visitors!

Roo had his 7th birthday party. We caved and took him to Chuck E Cheese. Once or twice a year can't be too bad, right? It is actually getting a lot better now that the kids are older.

I have his SUPER cute pictures over on the Cookie blog (let me know if you need an invite please!). Sonja did an amazing job!

What a drag!

The Dragon Boat Festival got delayed.

Statement Issued by Local Official:
"The City’s Emergency Management Center is predicting devastating flooding along the Schuylkill River, perhaps as great as anything we’ve had in the past 25 years (this includes Hurricane Floyd). They are predicting flood waters reaching the CSX RR tracks and possibly into the neighborhoods."

Here are some stats that were passed along to me:

For the month of September, the river was running at less than 1,000 cfs (cubic feet per second).
Right now it's running at 76,300 cfs
Anything over 18,000 cfs, and all paddle sports are PROHIBITED

I am quite sad as it was the only Saturday Brad has off in October. Now, I either need to find a sitter at 6 am on a Saturday or not go. Boo.

Comedy of Errors

Wow. Nights like this are the reason my blog exists.

Brad convinced me that we really needed to go to a Japanese Sushi bar for Philly's Restaurant Week. Philly has some amazing places to eat, and getting them for a discount, well, that is hard to beat. And truthfully, the food was quite delicious! I still can't believe I ate an entire meal with chopsticks (except for the Hot and Sour soup) and that I ate so much raw fish. But, I love to try new things, so why not.

I digress. We left the restaurant before the dessert came so that I could get back in time for my first belly dancing class here. We walked down the street to the car, only the car wasn't there. Have I mentioned I hate Philly parking? (He was 6 inches into the No Parking zone. So petty) Our friends at the restaurant drove us to the impound lot, in a lovely area with such businesses as Club Risque and Show and Tel. Nice. Our friends played football out in the parking lot while Brad and I waited in a ridiculous line to get our car back. I can't even explain in words how incredible ridiculous the entire system was. Wait in line to pay the fee. Then wait in another line to fill out paper work. Then be told you need insurance and registration which is obviously in the car, so get it and wait again. There was one of those motivational posters on the wall that said 'Serenity', and I think it had the opposite effect on me. The irony was thick. During this waiting, our friend Jim took a football to the eye, which pushed his glasses into his eyelid. It was quite gross actually. I've been exposed to enough blood and guts to have a pretty strong stomach, but I couldn't look at it for very long.

This is a great time to have 2 ENT residents, and ER resident, and a PA hanging out. However, they wouldn't let Brad get his "tool bag" out of the car. We had to fill out a request form, and yes, wait in line again, just to get permission to get it. We were all trying to convince Jim, that yes, he needed stitches or something on his eye when the ER resident said, "Don't worry, Jim, I'll stitch you up right." Jim responded with, "Okay, listen, nothing personal, but if anyone is going to be stitching up my face, it is going to be the Facial Plastic Surgeon. I'm sorry, but if I have the choice, I'm going with Brad." We couldn't help it, Cathy and I just busted up laughing.

I eventually got the paperwork necessary to get the bag out of the car and ran it to Cathy. We had just used some Dermabond at church on Sunday when Roo had a lovely gash above his eye from hitting a pew. But, thankfully Brad had another Dermabond in the bag and they were able to close up his eye.

Now the problem was that we didn't have a registration card, only the sticker. Long story short-ish, we were at the impound lot for 2 hours. And I never made it to belly dancing.

Doctors can be pretty useful people to have around. Especially when they have tool bags. LOL!

Daily rituals

Sugar and I have a game we play. Every day. She tells me she is tired and she wants me to go lay down with her. I say okay. Then she squeals, "I'm gonna take your pillow!!" as she dashes up the stairs. My gimpy RA knee and I get up the stairs with much less agility. I get to my room and she is laying on my pillow, giggling hysterically.

I lay down next to her and we lay there for a minute, maybe two, before she says, "I'm thirsty".

"I think you need to go get a drink."
"Why, mommy?"
"So I can steal my pillow back."

Then we will spend about 5 or 10 minutes of me pretending to sleep, her pretending to get off the bed, etc, until at some point I ended up tickling her and dangling her over the bed where the lava pit is. Don't worry though, the lava pit has a side walk.

Today we were Baby Armadillo and Mommy Armadillo. I haven't been allowed to call her by her name all day. And her jelly sandwich had grass and leaves in. 'But just pretending, mommy." At night, she snuck into my bed. I picked her up to take her back to her room and she started whining so I said, "Sugar, you sleep in your bed." "Okay, but I'm not Sugar, I'm Baby Armadillo." At 4 a.m. LOL!

Oh, to be 3 and carefree!

My son

In case there was any doubt that Roo is my son, he said this before dinner tonight:

"There is nothing better than spending the evening reading a good book."

Yup. Definitely my son!

Good call

Wow. Somehow when I have so much to write about, I just end up not writing about anything. Oops. It has just been so busy with last minute zoo trips, friends visiting from Canada, school starting, my classes starting, Cub Scouts starting, etc. I was even so busy with Signing Time stuff emailing things that Hotmail actually blocked me, considering me a spammer. Sigh.

And so I get behind, and therefore I avoid my blog. Much the same reason I haven't opened Google Reader in months. I'm so behind on reading blogs, it is overwhelming. Avoidance is such a mature coping mechanism. :o)

You know that pit in your stomach that you get when the phone rings, you say hello and then hear, "Hi, the is Miss Manners, you son's teacher." Eeek! What did he do today? I didn't say that, of course, I just let her proceed. So, she then when on to tell me what a fabulous and wonderful kid he is. And that he is a pleasure to have in class. Wow. Teachers call parents just to praise kids? I think I love his teacher! And then we talked about ASL, and apparently she took it in college and would love to have me come teach in her classroom. WHEEEE!

Life is busy, but good. I even had a cleaning lady come on Monday. It was soooo amazing to leave in the morning and come home for dinner to a clean house! WOWZA!

Where could she be?

After a long afternoon at the pool, we came home, piled the towels and suits to get washed, I started dinner, sent the boys to clean their room, then I went to work on my Signing Time stuff for a little while.

Dinner was done and I realized I had not heard Sugar yelling at her brothers in probably 30 minutes. I sent Roo up to look for her. He said she was gone. I figured she fell asleep after a busy day, even though she has given up napping. I looked in her room. No Sugar. I looked in my room. No Sugar. I look in the boys' room and the toy room. No Sugar.

Panic starts to set in a little. This house is small. There are storage containers under every bed, she couldn't be there. The closets are too small to fit a human being laying down. I would have seen her go out the front door. The back door is locked. All of the windows are locked. Where in the world could she be?!

I finally opened up our IKEA storage and there she was, asleep. She had shut herself in. Little stinker.

Conversations with a doctor

I'm sure every wife out there has heard this from her husband:

"I'm sorry honey, I'm tied up at work and can't make it home for dinner."

I had this one:

"I'm sorry honey, I'm trying to get these leeches on a guy's ear and they just won't bite. I won't be able to make it home for dinner. I promise they won't get lost this time."

I love my life. There is never a dull moment!

Blog Tour - Residency

Last stop on the blog tour! Our residency experience started out a little different. Brad had been set on ENT since he got his MBA between MSII and MSIII. He worked with a doctor during that year and loved the cases. However, he didn't match in ENT and scrambled into a General Surgery spot. He loved it and enjoyed being in the OR. We loved the town and the program and while intern year can be a bit, um, intense, it was over all a good experience for us.

Then, out of the blue, he was contacted by a med school friend and told about a position in ENT that opened up. He couldn't ignore the siren call of his first love and ended up applying for the spot. When he got it, it meant a little bit of craziness for our family. He only had a couple of weeks to move hundreds of miles, and we owned our house in MI. Thankfully, the friend that told him about the spot let him stay with him. Meanwhile, I stayed in MI with our 3 kids waiting for the house to sell. Waiting, and waiting. I had hoped and planned on a couple of months, but it ended up being 7 months. It was a LONG 7 months, and things were crazy at times. :o) We still own our house in MI and rent it out to some resident friends of ours.

It warms my heart when Brad comes home after 10 pm because of a 14 hour surgery to see him beaming from ear to ear because he loves it so much. Yes, it is hard, but I know this is exactly where we are supposed to be and this is EXACTLY what Brad is supposed to be doing. It makes the hard times easier on me.

Now, we are getting to the fun part of residency. Brad can finally moonlight and make up for the paltry resident salary. Philadelphia is not a cheap place to live. And call schedules are getting better too! Most days, his pager doesn't even go off! And finally, we are starting to interview for after-residency jobs. Oh my, that is fun!

I am one very happy wife of a resident. :o)

Medical school journey

I thought I'd participate on a blog tour. It has been awhile since I've thought about medical school. I'm trying to block it out. ;o)

I think the thing I hated the most was the applying for medical school part. Sooooo much time and money spent on taking the MCAT, applying to schools, flying out for interviews, etc. I just wanted him to get in, and I didn't care where. It was such a huge relief when the acceptance letters started coming in.

We had 3 kids by the time Brad finished med school. And somehow it took me until MSIV to realize that I was going to have to start planning and doing things without Brad. We'd plan dates, or get invited to activities, and somehow I kept thinking he'd always be able to attend. It was a very freeing day when I finally realized that I could go places and do things without him. And it probably helped prepare me for the 7 months we lived apart after a residency change.

And I really remember how great if felt to be done with medical school. If only I'd realized we were only half-way there! LOL!

Here is where to find the tour:
http://queseraaasera.blogspot.com/2010/08/life-as-medical-school-wife.html

Pictures up!

I finally got pictures put up over on Cookie. Took me long enough! LOL!

Brad got a week of vacation this month. We used part of it to go to South Dakota for some job interviews. Oh my lands, it was fun! They paid for plane tickets for us and our 3 kids. They even got us adjoining hotel rooms so our kids wouldn't keep us up all night. There was a beautiful fruit and snack basket waiting for us in our room. They arranged for childcare during fancy meals with the other doctors. Took us on tours of the town. Had realtors to show us around neighborhoods. Arranged a meeting with the school superintendent.
Then we got to talk about salary, signing bonus, loan forgiveness, moving expenses, housing payments, stipends, etc. It just feels so wonderful to be getting spoiled like this. There is a light shining at the end of the tunnel and it is beautiful!

We really liked the towns we visited. I could definitely see myself ending up there!

Then we used the rest of the vacation to go to Niagra Falls. Wow. I am at a loss for words to describe how truly incredible it was there. I tried to convince Brad we needed to move there. haha! It was absolutely stunning! We wanted to do everything we could while we were there.

The first thing we did was go on the Maid of the Mist. Aaaaaaaaaamazing. I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face. It was complete bliss for me. I love waterfalls, and being right under there was unbelievable. The Observation Tower was great too!

The next thing we did was go to the Aquarium. There was also a seal show and a magic show there. We went to the Discovery Center for some hands-on fun, rode around on the Trolley. Walked over to Luna Island. That was a little freaky actually. You are right over the rushing river and it didn't seem like there was much of a guardrail. It was a little intimidating to realize how close you are to water that is about to plunge 180 ft. And I loved every second of it! I couldn't help but think about white water rafting seeing all of those rapids. :o)

Not content to be merely above the water, we next went down for the Cave of the Winds tour. Absolutely INCREDIBLE. You stand under the Bridal Falls, only a few feet away. The water is extremely powerful and you feel like you are going to blow away! The water just pounds down on you with amazing force. We couldn't get enough of it! Jamo and I kept going back up for more. We even did it without our plastic covers! Well, I only went up to the Hurricane Deck. Jamo actually went under the falls. That's my boy! He was soaked!

Then we ate dinner at the Top of the Falls restaurant. We ate on the outside deck with a gorgeous view and tried to dry off. We went over to Terrapin point for another stunning view. We went to watch the movie playing in the Visitor's Center. The boys bought super cool rocks and Sugar bought a fishing pole.

We waited for night to fall and enjoyed the beauty of the color lights on the falls. I still get speechless thinking about it. Then there were fireworks! I can't think of a more spectacular way to end the day. I'm already plotting a trip back so we can do the Canadian side!

Excitement galore!

Oh, there is soooo much to blog about! But, I'll start with the news that has made it hard to blog in the first place!

I just got a new job as the Associate Director for the Central Atlantic Region of Signing Time Academy! YAY! I am super excited for all of the wonderful experiences I will have doing this.

To celebrate, I'm having 2 separate giveaways. One is on my Facebook page and the other one is at Allison's giveaway blog. If you've been waiting to get a Series 2 DVD, you might want to enter!

And keep an eye out for these upcoming posts:
Niagra Falls
Sioux Falls
And cute stuff with the kiddos

My turn!

Sorry to post so much, I just want to remember the funny stuff. :o)

Today I had my kids go outside and clean up the dog poop to earn Handipoints. We have them earn Handipoints to do pretty much everything fun (Wii, Nintendo DS, TV, eat out, computer). It is great because it keeps them from having unlimited access to goofing off. LOL! They were bored and needed some Handipoints so I had them clean poop from the dogs we were watching.

Sugar even wanted to get in on the action. I suspected it was just because she wanted to wear the gloves, but when we were out there, she started to yell, "It's my turn to pick up poop!" I started to laugh and she said, "It's not funny! I want to pick up poop too!"

Three-year-olds are awesome! What other age group complains about not cleaning up poop!?

Ruby slippers

SugarPea is growing fast. I bought her some new shoes yesterday since her old ones were too small. She picked out some red, sparkly ones. When she wore them to church today, her teacher said, "Those are beautiful ruby shoes you have!" Sugar said, "They aren't booby shoes! They are red!" The whole way home Brad was trying to explain that a ruby is a red stone.

"Ruby, Sugar. Ru-ru-ru-ruby."
"Wooby. Wu-wu-wu-booby."

Oh so funny!

Sugar has been asking me to help her form signs lately. In ASL, the number 3 is done with your thumb, index, and middle fingers and the number 6 is done with your thumb and pinky touching. We've been working on her 3 lately, since she is 3 and is frequently asked how old she is. Today at church, she was signing water. Water is signed with the same handshape as the number 6 (forming a W) bouncing on your chin. But she was signing it with a number 3 on her chin. Such a cute little girl!!!

That is just sad

Our family was asked to sing in church with some other families. Our family is not the most musically gifted family around, so it took some convincing (read: bribery) to persuade the kids (and me) to sing in front of an audience.

We had a couple of practices before and after church, plus time practicing at home. I asked the kids what they wanted as a reward for doing such a great job. They wanted to go to McDonald's and get desserts there too. And they didn't want to pay for the toys in the Happy Meals. We use the Handipoints system (linked on the side). If they want their toy in their Happy Meal, it costs them 25 Handipoints.

Sadly enough, on the way home, they couldn't stop talking about how this is their first time to get dessert at McDonald's, like it was the greatest.thing.ever. Sundaes off the Dollar Menu are the highlights of my kids' day. And for the record, I don't think it is the first time they've had dessert at McDonald's, but it has been quite awhile...

The wrath of Melisa

I *try* to not complain about this house as much as I want to. Honestly, if you knew how frequently I encounter something about this house that makes me mentally scream, you'd be surprised. Unless you've seen my house. Then you wouldn't be shocked.

Anyhoo... I've earned a venting post and this is it. Read at your own risk. It will get ugly. :o)

Yesterday we were blessed with a nice big storm. It took the temperature from 99 degrees to 76. It was lovely. We had been at church, driving home in the pounding rain. We pull into the driveway and before we can even open the doors to get out, a huge (and by huge I mean longer than 6 feet) branch lands on top of poor Odie. If only we'd been a few minutes later, Odie wouldn't have (yet another) huge dent on the roof thanks to the neighbor's tree. Maybe the tree is doing it on purpose because I called the police when this car was parked in front of my house for over an hour. How was I to know he was visiting my neighbor???
After most of the rain stopped, I went to visit my friend Bea and pick up a book. I wanted nothing more than to just sit and chat in her house for hours on end and play with her adorable baby, but alas, Brad had to be somewhere in an hour and I had more errands to run. So, off I dashed with my gas light on, when I come to a firetruck and police tape blocking an entire block. Ever find out what it was, Bea?? Thanks to GPS, I was able to find a way out of the neighborhood and into the city.

Did you know that in the city of Philadelphia, when stoplights go out, you don't treat them as a stop sign? Really! You just keep driving as if you are the one with a green light. And be sure to honk at anyone who does treat it like a stop sign. I'm pretty sure honking at people is a law too. Drive in Philly, take your life in your hands...

I did manage to make it home on fumes, and thankfully there is a gas station across the street from me, so I can fill Odie up before we go anywhere.

Without ever intentionally doing so, we've started a dog-sitting business. We've had Dax twice, Jasper once, and now have a sweet and adorable little puppy named Brynleigh (welsh puppy=welsh name). She still isn't sleeping through the night. We were asked to bring her crate into our room for her to sleep at night, but it wouldn't fit in our room. And even if it did fit, I'm pretty sure dogs don't enjoy sleeping in rooms that are 85-90 degrees all.night.long. So, that means leaving her downstairs and me running up and down the stairs all night. I've taken her out no less than 8 times since 3 a.m., and yet she still has peed twice and pooped once in the house today. I really believe puppies are cute as a survival mechanism. How else can you explain her surviving after chewing my only pair of strappy shoes?

Here is where it gets graphic. Feel free to stop reading now if you haven't already. :o)

I ran up the stairs to discover that the only toilet in the house was being sat upon. I asked if he was almost done. He said, and I quote, "Yes, but be careful flushing because it was almost overflowing this morning." Ummm, why wasn't I informed of that this morning instead of after you've already done your business in there???

After 20 minutes, I gave up trying to plunge it myself. I called 5 plumbers and none would answer there phone. Is today a plumber holiday I don't know about? Keep in mind again, this was our only toilet. I'll spare you the goriest details, but I will say that most of the room, myself included, was covered in poo water before I finally got it to work. For the briefest of moments I considered taking a picture of the horror of it all. But then I realized that there will NEVER be a moment in my life that this will be amusing and worth reliving via picture.

The clean up stage took longer than fixing the toilet. As we ALL know, most disasters in the home occur during meal time. It isn't a disaster until you are covered in poo water with kids crying about how they are starving! I had the puppy outside on a chain during all of this. And boy, was that puppy mad. But really, I can only handle so much at once, and a puppy chewing on things, and kids, was not an ingredient I wanted to add to this mix. My bleeding heart daughter couldn't stand to hear the puppy's whines, so she decided to go and let the puppy off the chain. Which would be fine since our yard is fenced, expect that the puppy is small enough to fit through the closed gate. And who doesn't need a puppy running around loose while you are covered in poo water?

And now, it is nap time. The toilet is working, the bathroom is cleaned, I have showered, the kids have been fed, and I have vented. Brad is working late tonight and I'm supposed to take dinner to someone. I think pizza is a perfectly logical choice at this point. :o)

River rat

My grandparents owned a rafting company when I was growing up. It was great during family reunions because we had all of the equipment for rafting and half of my family has been a river guide at some point.

I love the excitement and adventure of the white water. Dodging boulders and avoiding whirlpools can be quite the rush. Then I heard about Dragon Boat racing. White water rafting it is not. It is, however, still a blast. And such a workout! I really had no clue it would be so exhausting! Of course, we did practice our starts numerous times and do a couple practice races all in the space of an hour, so that could be part of it! LOL!

I still miss rafting, but it feels great to be back in the water with a paddle!

How to...

As moms know, sometimes you feel like a short-order cook. Everyone wants something different. Here is how I make 3 kinds of sandwiches with only 1 knife getting dirty.

Butter the bread for grilled cheese and wipe the knife on the bread as best you can.

Spread the mayo and mustard around on the ham and cheese sandwich and wipe again on bread.

Next comes the jelly because it wipes off easier than PB.

Finish off the PB&J with the peanut butter. Once you've used it in PB, it isn't going to wipe as clean, so you're stuck after that.

And don't forget to flip the grilled cheese or it will burn. :o)

Time flies

Has it really been this long since I've posted? Oops. :o) Things get a little crazy when kids get out of school. And when I develop an addiction to Burn Notice. hee hee

We are getting ready to enjoy Brad's week of vacation for this 6 month period. We will be in South Dakota for a few days and then spend some time traveling in the East. Yay for vacations!

Brad is now a Post Grad Year 4 (PGY4) resident, and better call hours come with that. It has been super nice. Sometimes I even forget he is on call. It is a little crazy to think we only have 2 years left, assuming he doesn't do a fellowship.

I've signed up to row on the river with a club called Dragon Ladies. I'm pretty excited about it. Our first practice is next Saturday. I've seen boats on the river and I thought it looked like a blast, and now I'm going to be on there! I can hardly contain my excitement!!!!

Dream come true

There is so much I can do here in Philadelphia. I'm coming up with a list of things to keep the kids from driving me crazy while they are home this summer.

• Zoo


• Pool


• Park


• Berry picking at Linvilla


• Please Touch Museum


• Longwood Gardens


• Beach

How great would it be to have affordable cleaning and do all of that stuff and then come home to a nice, clean house? Cleaning with the kids home is like shoveling during a blizzard. I could take them out, tire them out, have fun, and then come home and not have to worry about cleaning up. Sounds heavenly, huh. And, if you happen to have a house in another state for sale and need a reliable cleaning service before a showing, how great would that be?

What would you do while your house was being cleaned for you? I made a list of 101 things to do before I leave Philly. So much I could do!

Candlelit dinner

Last week, something broke in the box for the dining room light. Brad was on call and ended up being gone most of the weekend. Last night he was in a laryngectomy and didn't get home until after midnight. Today, we were having company for dinner. And the light was still broken. Thankfully, it stays light longer since it is the summer, but I wish I could have found some candles so we could have all eaten by candle light. Oh, the stories I'm living in this house.

Pictures

Here are some fun pictures of our basement.




I was going to get a video of the wall crumbling when I touched it, but I got was running late. Maybe if I have to go down there again. I try to avoid it for some reason...

We had two fun visits last week, so we've been keeping busy! I put 2 slide shows over on Cookie with our visitors, Jessi, Randy and Hannah, and my brother Jeremy and his friends. It is nice living in a place that lots of people come to visit!

Bad kitty

We have a long history of cats trying to adopt us. Now there is another.

We get terrible cell reception in our house, so Brad went outside to talk and the cat tried to break in.

Also, I put up a bunch of pictures over on Cookie, including pictures of the kids while we were dog sitting.

Fun with paint!

Today at Young-In-Arts, the kids got to paint with their feet. Yes, it was as fun as it sounds! I put a slide show over on Cookie along with a picture of Roo's lost tooth.

Laughing out loud

As a general rule, I try to avoid laughing out loud in church. But sometimes, it cannot be helped. Take today for instance. I was showing Roo that magic trick of moving half of your thumb, when really it is actually the thumb from the other hand (see video below if you have no idea what I'm talking about). Anyway, Sugar was watching us intently, and then asks, "Mommy, what sign is that?" I couldn't help it. I was laughing before I could stop myself. I guess that happens when your kids know American Sign Language.