Iowa/Omaha Day 1 Part 1

I'm going to have to write these blogs in increments because we were sooo busy. And I took almost 300 pictures. So bear with me.

We left on Monday the 3rd of August. Packed the car with a few backpacks of clothes, our swimsuits and bikes, and transformed and rolled out by 8. We had planned a stop overnight in Iowa in a cute little city near Iowa City called Corallville. I looked, but did not see any coral.

The Iowa Children's Museum was located there. It was so great. Mostly it was great because we already have reciprocal museum passes, so it cost me nothing to get the kids in when it would otherwise have been $25. I love our museum pass.

There is a grocery store in the museum. These pics are all in random and backwards order because...well there are lots of reasons. For now, just because.

This is Nate buying bread. The bread looks a little phallic to me, don't you think? Okay, the next 2 pictures will shock and surprise you. They are pics of my three children playing together. And not fighting. And they are playing without swords or other weapons.

Maddie makes her purchasse while Nate waits somewhat patiently (another oddity) and Jack is the "checker outer guy". Jack was trying to build something here. This room is cool. There are wooden sticks and things and bolts and nuts and you can put them together to make a structure of sorts. The only problem is, everytime Jack went to refill his supply bucket the pseudo-Nazi cleaner/volunteer kept picking up after him. I was like, "Dude, he's NOT done yet."

Anywho, Note the Orange hat. He wears orange almost as well as his Opa.

There was a room full of displays about kids from various parts of the world. This one was Maddie's favorite. It was about a little Russian girl named Olga who lives and breathes ballet. I thought it was a bit stereotypical, but maybe not since the exhibit was more 'ballet' centric than 'gymnastics'. Still, isn't the Bolshoi ballet pretty famous?

This is Maddie doing ballet to Olga's favorite music.

Nate, somewhere in the Amazon found him a resting place. Only thing missing is the t.v.

More ballet. It was really cute to watch her dancing.

Chef Willie, making me a scrumdiddlyumptious pizza. With EVERYTHING on it. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Oh, please, please please please PLEASE let this be a glimpse into the future. Add to it the scholarships he will win because of his genius-ness.

The kids also had fun putting my broken foot in a boot and driving me to the nearest hospital in via the ambulance that was in the museum. Nate stole my crutches and broke the other foot. Two boots and one wacked out ride with Nate (that boy is NEVER getting his real license if the simulator is any indication of future performance) I was right as rain and able to take the kids to the fossil gorge.

Stay tuned....

My Little Monkey

I am currently formulating lots of blog entries in my head regarding our vacation to Omaha and Iowa. We had a grea time and I took 291 pictures. I am resting today after a 9 and 1/2 hour drive (no, it's not supposed to take that long- THAT is a story unto itself) by playing with my photos and blogging.

I took these pics before we left for Nebraska. Sure, she's not quite 3. She's amazing. She's potty trained,can ride a bike, a scooter, and do the monkey bars. While on vacation, she had on the cutest dress that buttons down the front with tiny buttons. She HAD to button them herself. HAD to. She told me to "Go way wight now!" And I did, and 15 minutes later she had that thing buttoned. This is at the end of her climb, just to prove I'm not making up her abilities.

I took this one (below) to prove how far away I was taking pics while she went across.

Check out her arm muscles! Check out that core!

I love Maddie a lot, but what I think I love most is that she is sooo fiercely independent, and then a snuggle bug all in the same sentence. I truly believe there are great things in store for this chick.

Omaha Bound

Sure, I should be packing, since I'm leaving in 2 hours and haven't finished my stuff yet. Sure, I should be getting the car ready. I know I should. But I need my coffe, e-mail, and facebook ing all done first. And I also decided to blog.

I LOVE Omaha. It's like the best kept secret ever, notwithstanding the Counting Crows song about it. The people are great, the zoo in fantastic, and they have a great pumpkin patch in October. I'm taking the kiddos by myself on a road trip with a slight detour in Iowa to visit some friends, the children's museum, and this place: http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/coralville/devonian_fossil_gorge.htm

Looks pretty cool to me.

So, I will be gone, and John will be here taking care of business, like working and boring stuff like that.

I have been busy preparing for this trip by going for an hour and a half run yesterday and then going out to dinner w/my hubby. It was nice to eat some bread and oil and re-carb up after the run, order a bottle of wine and get loopy after one glass because I wasn't rehydrated enough yet, and then enjoy my lobster fettuccine. YUM! It was VERY NICE to eat a hot meal and converse and people watch and catch up. I felt full, but not overfull, and just heady enough from the wine to enjoy a GREAT night's sleep. We didn't even have to worry about driving the sitter home, since her mom came and got her! NICE!

I am now going to burn myself some music from my i-tunes, because I can't plug in my ipod as I've borrowed my friend's British speaking GPS we lovingly refer to as "Becks". I like to imagine David sitting next to me telling me which way to go. It's nice. I also got super ambitious and rented "Jane Eyre" on tape to listen too as I drive. Soooo, until I get home,

Au Revoir Illinois!

I'm sure that when I come home I'll have lots of pictures and stories to tell!

Some Goings Ons

Oh yes, she is FAB! Freeeeeeezing!

Cousins in the pool.

Bryce is in Jail.
Auntie is fixing Maddie, while simultaneously yelling at me to not cut her bangs (I don't, they just grew that way) because her hair looks better without them. I say who cares? She's not even 3 yet.

We've finally been able to start hitting the pool, having barbecues with friends and family, and make final arrangements for our upcoming trip to Omaha. We're all VERY excited to be going. Well, the KIDS and I are excited. Daddy's hanging at home and working, but that is a-okay.

Jack update:

I met with our doc yesterday and Jack is officially OFF all dairy. We may retest his allergies in 2 years, but the doc suspects that he won't grow out of it. For now, we let him have Rice Milk, and soy cheese and yogurt. It tastes kind of gross, but I think in the end we may all wind up being unintentionally a bit healthier, as dairy products are in everything on the market. Check out any crackers, cookies, or other processed packaged goodies. All contain milk or milk powder. Or eggs. It could be worse, we could have to add wheat/gluten to that too and wind up eating nothing except celery and such.

His worst allergy is of all things 'mold'. It's a severe allergy and could cause asthma like symptoms this fall, but we won't know until October how to treat it. Thank goodness we are already the proud owners of a nebulizer, just in case of emergency. I'm also going to start traveling with Benadryl just in cae Jack eats something dairy on accident...since his throat gets itchy and he said it's hard to swallow.

Fortunately, I've found the Vegan food list at Trader Joe's to be helpful, although their soy cheese still contains casein. I'm looking for soy or rice cheese that is completely dairy free, so if anyone knows of anything good, fill me in!

Allergies. Oh what fun

We finally got Jack's allergy test results back and he is officially allergic to milk, eggs and mold. But mold doesn't count. Because, who ISN'T allergic to freaking mold?

I have decided to remove all dairy products from Jack's diet. John thinks I'm going overboard and I'm in panic mode. Well, duh. The kid's throat gets scratchy, and he actually said, "Mom, it feels like when I try to swallow there's something stuck in there." No anaphylaxis on my watch dude. No way.

The hard part is, milk and eggs (not mold) are in pretty much EVERYTHING. Read a label. I haven't figured out if it's the casein protein, or the lactase, but I'm guessing casein because if it were lactase he'd have gas and stomach pains. And diarrhea.

We meet with the doctor Monday to discuss the severity of the allergies, but I'm doing my best. Trying to coordinate meals for 5 people isn't easy. And then, I need to figure out if I should get my other two darlings tested.

If anyone has any good websites, vegan recipes or the like I'd love them! Really!
Thanks!

The Boys and the Babies

I was rapid fire shooting pics at the zoo. John, Matt and Craig all grew up and went to the same high school together. Matt has been a fireman in Antarctica, and is currently a fireman in Myrtle Beach. Next summer I may just pick up and go visit. Myrtle Beach sounds nice.

There they are! Jack, Nate, Maddie, John, Bryce, Criag, Brooke, Matt and baby Isabella, or Izzy.
Matt and Izzy. She has a chrome dome too, so they look a lot alike! She is daddy's girl!

We had a great day at the zoo. I've been trying to post dino photos, but I'm having technical difficulties. Oh well. I'm glad we got to see Matt, his lovely daughter and his wife. Matt is one of my favorite people. When John used to travel overseas for work, he would take me on 'dates' to some really spectacular Italian restaurants where movies like High Fidelity and others were filmed.

The best Tiramisu I've ever had in my life was with Matt. He drove a truck for a company that delivered food goods. I went on a run with him, he delivered fresh cream somewhere, we delivered some more, drove back to the first place and dined on what can only be described as manna.

I've missed Matt. I'm glad he came for a visit!

Dinosaurs at the Zoo

We had our last baseball game of the season today :-(. And afterwards, we headed straight to the zoo to visit with a very good friend of ours who lives with his wife and 1 year old beautiful daughter in Myrtle Beach. I LOVE Matt. Love him. But I'll write more about him later.

The zoo is doing this dino exhibit. It is so cool. Realistic life sized dinosaurs that are rawring and moving heads and tails and all sorts of neat-o things. It'd be a great exhibit when the zoo is less crowded and I can take my time. For now, this is what I got out of the exhibit.

I'm sort of wondering if falling poop is worse than the kind you can step in?

Or you will be crushed. Dead.

This behind a giant dinosaur butt. The irony is was that they don't have these signs posted anywhere near the elephants. Or the penguin house, which is the smelliest of all. I want to blow this up and put it in the boys' bathroom.

Or you will be eaten, head first.

Okay, she was just cute. But there is also a sign about "No Smoking" with a flying reptile ripping some body's head off. For real. Now THAT'S entertainment.

So, Uh, What's New?

I am a big fan of people observing. Big, big fan. My latest observations have been in the socially appropriate, or inappropriate manner in which people answer when an acquaintance casually asks, "So, What's new?", or the every populare, 'Hey, how are you?'

Mostly, people who are asking don't really care. The people who DO care are usually close enough friends that they don't need to ask what's new, or how you are doing. I know some people might care, but based on what I'm seeing and hearing, the vast majority ask out of politeness.

Case in point: 2 weeks ago we went to a local farmers market. I was in line at the falafel booth that serves awesome organic vegetarian foods and a woman came up behind me in line, and began a convo with the dude in front of me. "Hey, Bob. How are you". He answered, typically as we all do, "Fine, and you?" And then it began. She actually went on and on about the following.

"Well, I'm better today. I had a sad weekend". (No response from Mr. Fine)
"See, well, my kitty died, and it was a really hard time for me, and then you know, my friend Sue, she has ovarian cancer so I was sad about her but she's all better now after some treatment...blah blah blah".

Mr. Fine didn't care lady...notice the lack of eye contact...and random strangers don't give a shizz about your biz either. I know it sounds harsh, but I didn't care so much for the content of her conversation with herself, as much as I found watching the reactions of others around her. Socially awkward doesn't happen in a day.

Rest assured, dear friends of mine, if I ever ask you how things are, or what you're up to, I truly mean it. I want to hear your answer. For general day to day run ins I may say, "Hi Jane. Having fun here at the grocery store?" Because then I know the answer is short and sweet. Conversely, if you ask me what's new, I'll probably say nothing, because nothing is ever new with us. Well, nothing anyone really cares about anyway. I've been thinking about this forever, trying to come up with some things that are new and interesting in our lives, and to be honest, they're not great conversation pieces. Following are some examples:

New on our agenda...::::::

1.) Jack learned to tie his shoes. I'm so proud of him!

2.) Maddie decided one day about 2 months ago or so that she wanted to go pee in the potty. The rest is history, but she still misses sometimes. I thought my potty woes were mostly boy related. I realize their issues are aim related. Hers is purely anatomical. Still, it's nice not to have to carry a diaper bag anymore.

3.) Nate has started occupational therapy. While I find his eval report interesting reading, I'm pretty sure his dad hasn't even looked at it yet. Mostly because he thinks I'm crazy and can't understand why I even had an eval done, but I was sick of the constant falling, clumsiness, disorganization, and marble mouth. Since we started therapy and he has been put on a brushing protocol, which I have to do 6-8 x's per day, I have seen less falling and his speech is slightly clearer. Coincidence? I think not.

4.) I love Nate's OT. I hand picked her of course, because I think she's fantastic. AND because if John ever gets to sit in on a session, she's really, really good at explaining things to parents who don't know the lingo.

5.) I am now sustaining my runs for 1 hr. 15 minutes and going about 8 miles give or take a half mile here and there. It'd be awesome, but the crap part about building your endurance is that you start to burn calories more efficiently, which means not as many as you used to on the same routes. I'm varying them, and my workouts so I don't plateau, but still. This is a gigantor accomplishment for me, because I never used to run. I used to hate it. And now I am like Forrest Gump.

6.) Nothing is new with John, other than his weight loss of late (why is it SOOOO easy for men!). He's doing great and is the uber republican, which is why I love him. If he ever did something weird and unplanned (like cheering the Sox in the world series) then I would worry, but he is as steady as they come. Thank God, because I'm way more spontaneous, and outgoing and less cautious about oh so many things. Every once in a while-even when it drives me crazy- it is good to have a consistent voice of reason within shouting distance.

So that's our latest. But what do YOU do when someone says, "Hey, what's new?" Are you honest, or do you say, "Nothing, and you?". Do you ever wish you could make something up, like, "Oh, well, our oldest became a circus freak and I'm thinking about a tongue piercing, but I have to wait until my husband returns from his mission trip in Ghana?"

Food for thought. Share. Here, or privately. I'm curious.

Delicious Ballet

John's Dad gets a kick out of Maddie eating chocolate and saying Deeelicious! I think it's kinda cute myself, and yes, for the record, I know she looks odd in a t-shirt and sundress. Daddy got her dressed this morning and it was some sort of battle.

And no, I don't know why my kids like to show their butts lately in every photo op. They're just weird that way. And they're all mine!

When Summer Chooses To Grace Us With Her Presence

Today is another crappy, rainy, blah de blah day. I HATE this weather. I HATE this summer. Where are the strings of 9o plus humidity so high you can't breathe, but it feels good to be alive outside? Ugh. I just want to turn the heat on today, for me it is that cold. I HATE being cold.

My flowers are barely blooming from lack of sunshine. But when summer comes, it's good enough to ride the new splash bomb waterslide thingy majiggy.

Complete with ramps and a speed board.

You go Nate!

She doesn't ever ride the ramps, just stands in the shallow 'pool' water and splashes around. Whatever floats her boat. Come on summer, I'm waiting!

My Dad Is Cooler Than Your Dad

Sometimes, I want to chant that to my kids, but then I'm like, well, that's not only weird, it's just mean. And while John has his endearing qualities, my dad can just, for lack of better wording do stuff that he can't. Like build houses and finish sidewalks (he can finish crete as a specialty), and jimmy rig pretty much everything. Don't get me wrong, John can do cool stuff too, like financial planning, and our taxes, and even installing ceiling fans, but, well, you'll see....

For the record, I have inherited maybe three things from my dad: 1.) my height, 2.) my love of books and the irrational urge to buy more books the second we step into a book store even though we have 18 unread books piled next to our nightstands and 3.) we are food/beer/wine snobs. We likes the good stuff.

One of the biggest deficits in my genetic makeup is the ability to just look at something and be like, "Oh, well, I could make that" and then do it. So, I present to you, my dad's latest project: Castle Greyskull.

Oh yes. Remember He-Man from the 80's? Jack plays with my brother's 'dolls' (okay, action figures, whatever!) and wanted his own "Castle Greyskull". You can start bidding on them on e-bay for $10, or, you can go to Ikea, decorate an odd nook in your house with a little chair, take the big cardboard box the chair came in to your dad, and say, "Look, it's perfect for a Castle Greyskull".

This is what the result may be. Which, I'm pretty sure cost more in labor and spray paint than what you can find on e-bay,but this is so much cooler. Hey, I still have the doll house my grandpa made me....same concept.

If you look closely, the words Jack C are spelled out in the brick. I'll have to try and get better picture. So freaking cool. This is the back, Jack and my dad deocorated together. Check out the brick detail.

The front of the castle. My dad added the knob on the drawbridge just to make the stinkng thing easier to open. I woulda been like, "I don't see a problem, just use your fist and punch it out," because it's a fairly accurate drawbridge.

The "real" plastic version you can buy. Ours is waaaaay cooler, don't you think?

Nate's First Dental Exam-First Stop on the Road to "Many Moresville"

That's the cute smile I'm trying to preserve with our first visit to the dentist. Jack, Nate and I all had cleanings. I LOVE getting my teeth cleaned. I'm so weird about my teeth, I sooo want to me the lady in the nursing home with all of my own teeth. That and I don't ever want to have a heart attack brought on by plaque buildup. It can happen you know.

He was so annoyed with the sunglasses, because the dentist office has flatscreens in every exam room and we got to watch some hideous Fairly Oddparent cartoon. Taboo at home, crack when we think mom's not watching what we do, or caring, at any rate. Look, he's barely registering the white light in his eyes because he's trying desperately to crank his head to see the t.v.

Little kid in a big chair...he'd better get used to it, since he doesn't just have 3 cavities, he's got major craters which need repairing.

The hygenist tried to get me to own up to giving him juice, which I only allow as a treat in the summer when it's so hot and they won't drink anything else. We're not juice junkies here, but apparently, giving him Starbursts and Tootsie Rolls to help with his oral motor issues (ie: speech therapy needs) hasn't been the greatest. Up one side and down the other I suppose.

The next step is taking him to a pediatric dentist, who by the way, are considered "specialists" and charged differently on insurance. The nearest one to me, according to my insurance is about half an hour away, and I'll have to take him in for a consult and then later for the job. Our regular dentist even referenced him possibly needing some sort of kiddie root canal the one tooth is so jazzed up, so I'm hoping that when Nate gets gassed for the procedure I can get me a hit of it too, since I'll be the one dealing with him in pain.

I also discussed with the dentist Nate's thumb sucking. Do you want to know what our hundreds dollars -worth- of- an -appointment -and- God- knows -how -many -years- of -college -it- took- us- to- come- to -this -conclusion suggestion was? "Well, mom, you could try putting hot sauce on it." Brilliant doc, is that why you make the big bucks, to tell me something that is in probably no less than 12 parenting magazines and probably considered abusive in this day and age? Please.

To quote a great man, (my dad) "Jenny, alcohol was invented for people like you". Uh huh, and days like the ones I'm about to encounter with my 4 year old getting mini root canals. It'll numb my pain at least.

Playing with The Camera

On Sunday I got quite the tutorial on my camera and how to use it from my friend Jen who takes really sweet photos. So I got home and started practicing with ISO's and the triangle of perfect pictures and white balance and all that. I'm slowly getting the hang of taking pictures in the preference setting and not relying totally on fully automatic.

Observe: My first pepper. Same picture, different shutter speed, and I think I put the setting on "cloudy" so that I could see how the colors changed.

The boys were playing ball, and I changed the setting to an artificial lighting setting, so they turned kinda blue.

This one turned out okay, but as luck has it, I cannot remember the setting I put it on. Figures.

I think I put this on some sort of half light setting, and he came out a bit orangey. I just find it interesting considering he was blue before.

Still looking for help and ideas if anyone has them on how to use this wonderful piece of machinery. I will still probably continue to use the automatic settings, since my photos haven't turned out to badly from that!

Hill Billy Smores

You have to do it naked, of course. Isn't she pretty, beard and all?

Sometimes, when Graham crackers and that kind of stuff is on sale, I buy them. And sometimes, when we don't have a fire going and the grill has been turned off I make hillbilly s'mores-for you uninitiated, that's smores made either on the stove (if I feel super duper festive, and find a need to play with fire), OR melted in the microwave.

I love summer. I love the heat-since I am always so cold. I can't wait for menopause, just so that I can have a few hot flashes and just feel normal, since I'm sure they won't be hot flashes for me. I love summertime activities, and being outside all day every day. I love taking my kids on random road trips, even though I know most of my friends find this to be crazy. I love giving them experiences to meet new people and learn how to adapt (Look out Omaha, here we come!). And it will all be good.

I love the down time. I love the chocolate face.

Bass Lake

Last week, (on my birthday to be exact) I took the kids on a 3 hour adventure into Indiana to my college roommate's cottage. It was dubbed the N.B.R., or the No Bra Retreat-aptly named as we spent 15 hours a day in swimsuits because it was 100 something degrees with the heat index and all.

We stayed in a tiny cottage- my guess is somewhere maybe around 1000 sq. feet, if that. And we had over 20 kids with their mommies in the cottage. It was a total blast. There were also 3 other cottages full of mom's and kids who were heading to the lake for their family reunion, so the place is set up unbelievably kid friendly.

This is Nate, driving the Gator.

Making faces.

Posing.

Eating with a smile.

Down by the lake. Jack went tubing a few times, and I don't think he got out of the lake the entire week except to sleep and eat. He LOVES the water!

Check this out. The pier is L shaped to keep the kids in the shallow area and they have it set up with a sweet huge playground slide.

Nate going down.

There is also a paddle boat the kids can drive around the little cove area.

Skinny Minnie--She barely ever went past the water past her toes. She doesn't have much a sense of adventure yet.

I'll have to post more later. There's many a thing I should be doing right now...like making sure my daughter has undies on...