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With everybody sick, we decided not to have Sean's birthday party on his actual birthday. But that didn't mean we didn't still want to celebrate. So to start the day off right, we had cake and ice cream for breakfast, complete with candles. The kids were blown away - they thought that the world had turned upside-down. After breakfast, Sean got to open a birthday present. And once we were all done with that, we got dressed and headed to the bowling alley for a couple of strings of fun. The kids had a great time, as you can see. |
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Bangs
We've decided to let Carter's bangs grow out, and I've been trying to get a cute picture of her for the last few days. But lately, every time the flash goes off, she closes her eyes. Isn't she such a cutie though?
42 Words of Wisdom: #12
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
- Douglas Adams
We have had quite a string of bad luck over the last few months. Each event taken seperately is not that terrible, but taken as a whole it is starting to seem a little overwhelming. First, I discovered that the framing behind the front porch and the headers over the garage were rotten, and had to be repaired. Then, the ground froze before I could get concrete footings poured for the new porch - so we are porch-less until the spring. Next, we got hit with an ice storm that left us without power for eleven days. When the power finally came back and we tried to come home (two days before Christmas) the heat didn't work yet. Once the heat started working and we were back in the house - which was Christmas Eve at this point - we lost the power again, at 2:00 AM on Christmas morning. The day after Christmas, my laptop died - totally bricked. It's still out for repair (it was thankfully still under warranty), and I have no idea if they will be able to fix it without wiping the hard drive - which contains all the work I've done since my last backup, including our Christmas pictures for this year (which is why I haven't posted them yet, in case you were wondering). And then last week, the whole family started getting sick. Come to find out (yesterday), Carter has bacterial pnuemonia, Lori has a sinus infection, and I've got bronchitis. And to top it all off, we had to bring the van to the shop yesterday, as it had started giving Lori trouble with the power steering. Sweet merciful crap! I thought bad luck was only supposed to come in threes?!? Sorry to post a rant, but it feels better to get it off my chest. :)
Fun in the Snow
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Last Wednesday while it was snowing, we took the tykes outside to play. This was only Carter's second real time in the snow. Last year we took her outside once, but she was still too little to really enjoy it much. We tried to do a little sledding on the slope behind our shed. For such a little hill, it was actually a pretty good run. Sean especially enjoyed it - every time we went down, he wanted to go faster and further the next time. While we were back there, I though I spotted a good hill or two in our back woods that might be worth further investigation. I love Sean's pose in that bottom right-hand photo - he looks like some kind of Kung-Fu master. |
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Carter’s Christmas
Here are a pair of pics of Carter's Christmas. I love the sunglasses - she looks like a movie star in them. She's been wearing them everywhere ever since she opened them. Sometimes she also talks on her new little toy cellphone at the same time. In the second shot, she's wearing a pair of butterfly wings that light up. She can't get enough of those, either. She loves to play dress-up. Next year we will have to pick up even more surplus Halloween costumes after the holiday.
Snooze
Between the ice storm, vacation, and working from home a few days, Sean and I have been able to spend a lot of time together. As much as I hated the complete disruption of our lives the last few weeks, I can't really complain about all of the time Sean and I have been able to connect. Lori took this photo yesterday. I was zonked on the couch, and Sean was curled right up into me playing Sonic the Hedgehog on his Gameboy. He probably stayed there for almost an hour. We've had a lot of moments like this lately, and it warms my heart just looking at the pictures.
Don’t Cry Mommy
During the ice storm, we were out of our house for about 12 days, all told. We spent the majority of that time at my folks' condo up in the mountains. It was Lori, the kids, the dogs, and I, plus my parents, their two dogs, and their two cats. Everyone was trying real hard to make the best of it, but it was a pretty stressful arangement - especially with Christmas looming. So we were all worn a little thin. At one point, I accidentally walked in on Lori crying in the second bedroom, just overwhelmed by it all. So I'm trying to console her, but it was Sean who finally got her to smile. He was headed to the bathroom, and heard his mom crying. So he came in, wrapped his arms around her legs in a great big hug, and said, "Don't cry Mommy, it's ok. There aren't any monsters in here."
Ice Storm
For those who didn't know, and have been wondering what caused the lack of updates here on the blog, we were out of our house for about 12 days due to a massive ice storm in our area that happened a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, a friend of Lori's father helped us drain our heating system before we took off, so we didn't have any pipes burst. But we are just now finally getting our life back to some level of normalcy. So expect the updates to start rolling out again within the next day or so.
From the Archives – Spelling Bee
Here is another old newspaper clipping I pulled from that old stack of Lori's stuff. This is from the same year that I moved to Epping and Lori and I met - and started dating. I think it was her goofy haircut that attracted me the most - heh! But seriously, all that spelling acumen has paid off well. We have to spell almost every interesting word when we are in front of the kids, in order to keep things a secret. It's amazing how adept you get at it with practice - I can probably spell d-e-s-s-e-r-t faster than anyone you know. And this is off topic, but it has to be said. Dan, you look like quite the goober in that photo. Get a haircut, hippie!
Scenes From Space #45
If any of you have taken a look at the moon in the last week or two, right at sunset, you might have noticed two bright points of light right next to it. Those weren't stars though - that was Venus (the brighter of the two) and Jupiter. How cool is that?