Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. (www.mycharmingkids.net)

It was not me who went Christmas Shopping the day after Thanksgiving primarily to go 'people-watching' - that would have been really silly to go out on a day like that and not want to shop???

And it certainly wasn't me who was put on a timeout by her 4-year old because I said out of frustration we had a very 'stupid' puppy after it pooped on my carpet within 10 seconds of returning inside from going potty (for the third time...). That would not have been one of my better parenting moments, so I'm sure that could NOT have been something I would have done, as it would have been a bad example to set for my witnessing 4-year old. Bad mom, Bad mom!

And it wasn't me who kept piling my dirty clothes up higher because I didn't want to do another load. It wasn't me who said "I'll get to it tomorrow" to keep playing with my monsters, only to have the pile so high, it actually caved and tipped over. That would never have been me.

And it most certainly wasn't me that pulled out the "I'll call Santa and tell him who has been naughty...." phrase this past weekend and smiled slightly when it actually worked. No way, wasn't me.

Happy Monday everyone!

Let's Play Hockey

My little man is a sports fan. At 3 1/2, he is already way into sports. Being a sports fan myself (as well as Mike of course) we really do enjoy and embrace his little habit.

This morning he got up and said "Mama, I want to be a hockey player today". I said, "Ok, honey, what are you thinking you'd like to wear to be a hockey player?". He pulled out his Minnesota Wild stuff of course. And I was briefly suprised at how much Wild stuff that boy has.

He went to his bedroom and pulled out his Wild hockey pants, his Wild Jersey, His Wild sock and then asked me to grab his Wild hat off the hook hanging in his room. I told him I didn't think we had any Wild underwear, but he was ok with that.

This was the end result.

Cute boy.


Then he began skipping around the room in a circle and singing the Wild song (he's been to a game already this year with Dad, so he knows the drill...). "In the state, the state of hockey....".
:)

Not so bad for 3 1/2 huh?

Black Friday

I ventured out with the thousands of other shoppers on Friday morning to see what it was all about. I had never shopped on the day after Thanksgiving, but was invited to join my two sister in-laws for the Friday festivities.

They picked me up just before six (we had a bit of a misunderstanding about the time, and I was patiently waiting for a little while outside until they arrived) and we headed off to Rochester for the big day.

Since I had never participated in the Black Friday Shopping excursion, my sister in-laws were very helpful in walking me through their process. This is kind of a summary of how they do the planning for their outing. First they get the HUGE Thursday paper and pull all the ads. They do a quick once over and glance to see if anything jumps out. Then make a list of items they need to get for certain people - Johnny needs socks, Jane needs a blanket - etc. Then they go through a second time, in great detail to see which stores need to be on the stop list. They are both so organized, I'm actually rather jealous at how organized they are.

After we arrived at the mall(sister in-laws coupons in hand), I was shocked at how busy the mall really is at 6am! Wow! I could not believe this many people really go out shopping at this time of day. Yes, I am naive. I headed off to Caribou to get a hot tea and that line was even huge - took about 20 minutes to pick up my drink. Everyone was very nice. I read on Facebook some pretty interesting stories - about how folks witnessed angry, upset people - one person even said 'melee'. Well, no such luck in Rochester MN. Pretty tame. It was crowded but everyone was pretty chipper, or at least what I saw. I'd totally do it again it was awesome people watching - and I found a few small things at a good price too.

I was super excited because I had actually done a majority of my shopping online. Since most of the Thursday deals were also available online, I got some big ones (husband and others) purchased without getting out of my jammies.

Now that is my kind of shopping!
:)

Road Trip!

We headed down to Pine Island where Mike's parent's live (and where he grew up) for Thanksgiving. We packed up the kids and the two of us and then we had to pack....the dog. I grew up with dogs at different times in my life but never really had a puppy that I can recall. I never realized how much STUFF a dog or rather, a puppy has. It's kind of crazy, they need almost as much stuff as a baby!

Wow.

So we pack the dog.

We pack, his food, his 'reward' treats (something new I learned about when doing the potty training thing with the puppy), his toys; squeaky toys, chew toys, pull toys, ball toys - ok, lots of toys. We also had to bring somewhere for him to sleep because apparently puppies like to sleep in crates or kennels. So we have this HUGE (or as they say out east uge) crate that folds down. Now don't forget the bedding to go into the crate, the leash, the collar, to water dish, the food dish.

Check, all packed.

We got the kids all settled in the truck, got their movie in the player, buckled up. I grabbed my purse, made sure my overnight bag made it into the truck (because that has happened before) and hopped into the truck.

Mike looked at me. "forget something?" Nope I think we're good I say.

Um, what about the dog?

Oh right, the dog. Can't forget that little guy.

He was kind of a hit at Thanksgiving. The kids were in their glory showing off their new pup to all of the family. And I was in all my glory happily 'sharing' the pup with family. Grandma and Grandpa have offered to take him. I offered to take them up on their offer. Mike, not so much. Well, I didn't see much of the pup this weekend, as he was with Grandma and Grandpa most of the time.

This was a common site this weekend - Grandpa holding Jake (the puppy).


Or Cailin holding Jake.



We also got to get together with the cousins. Sheila and Darin were in town from Pensylvania and Kelly came down with Alex, Lauren and Catherine. We all met up at Uncle Dale and Auntie Janet's house in Rochester. Mike's two sisters and brother in law also joined us. So it was a big group - great to see everyone! The kids were very sad to go.

Andrew passed out cold in the car seat even before we hit the highway. He was pooped out!

Everyone slept well, ate way too well and played well. It was a wonderful Thanskgiving!

Oh, and I promise that not every post is going to be about the dog. Really, we do have other things going on in our lives.....
:)

Seriously????

Ok, so we have this new puppy. Day two is less 'cute' than day 1 was I have to admit. Don't get me wrong, he still is cute, but the reality of puppy-ownership hit home today as my husband trotted off to work leaving me at home with the two mashers and the puppy. Mike kept reassuring me, it wasn't that much work, and heck we've done the infant thing twice, so how hard could it be? he says to me.....

Seriously?

Mike and I have decided to take turns on the overnight patrol and yes, tonight is my night. I happily laid in bed last night trying to pretend not to hear the comings and goings of Mike with the puppy during the night. But it is TOTALLY like an infant. In the sense that you need to get up a few times during the night to make sure the puppy gets out and goes potty (not that you put an infant outside of course - just the getting up all the time stuff) and then when it whines and you don't know why. 'is it hungry? is it thirsty? is it just bored and needs to be held?' Oh heck I don't know.

This is my FIRST experience with a puppy. I was hoping to adopt an older, wiser dog as my first go-round. Now, it'll be initiation by FIRE. Not that I worry or anything. Anyone who knows me knows that I need to plan things out and this wasn't exactly the plan. But oh well, here we are. So a learning I shall go. Right?

I spent every moment of today (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration) online reading about golden retriever puppies, how they eat, when they eat, how to 'crate them', how to housebreak them, how to discipline them, how to do everything with them. I had no idea.

So now, I'm a little wiser and of course a little more sleep deprived and of I go for my shift on the puppy watch for the evening. After I finish my glass of wine (i'm hoping that'll help my mood as I dredge out in the rain with my cute, adorable, small bladdered puppy - not that I mind of course).

Wish me luck!
:)

Big Decisions

Mike and I have been having 'the talk'. Should we have another child or not? We are blessed with two wonderful, healthy, fantastic kids already, so it's a big decision. We both love the idea of NOT being out numbered by our kids (yes, that's pretty chicken, we know).

Mike has also really wanted a dog for some time. So lately the conversation has been "Do we have another child or do we get a dog?" Sounds crazy right? Can't or shouldn't really compare the two I know it's pretty odd. But that's what's been talked about in our house. Cailin wanted a baby (our daycare lady has one due any day now, so that's on her mind). Andrew votes for the dog.

We signed up with a golden retriever rescue organization that places golden retrievers that have been surrendered for numerous reasons. We liked that idea. Mike has grown a little impatient however with the process. You sign up, you get approved - great idea - just not on Mike's timeline.
It's really a great organization, but the key is patience, you need patience to wait for just the right dog for your family. I was all on board with the 'patience' thing. Then Mike saw some info online about puppies that were available.


Soooooooooo, last night Mike got a fire lit in him and found a farm outside of Kenyon MN that had Golden Retriever puppies available. And soooooooooo he decided to go on a MISSION! He was just going to take a quick look. Yeah, right I know.
This is how it turned out:


Let me introduce you to the newest Friary - Jake Maximillian Friary. He's an 8 week old Golden Retriever.

And yes, we are CRAZY!!!! But he is cute....

And yes, we have a Very, very expensive trip in our schedule for today to PetSmart.

More to come........

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. (www.mycharmingkids.net)

I will try to get to this once a month, it seems like weekly has been difficult for me to do, but try I will to get to this at least once per month....

I'm sure it wasn't me that allowed my child to wear her striped Halloween tights with a large t-shirt over it, just because she wanted to. It looked kind of crazy to be going out in public, but I would never allow her to dress like that in public I'm sure.

It also certainly wasn't me that has been secretly praying that my 9-month pregnant daycare provider hold off on having that third child just a couple more days so it's more convenient for me? Now that wouldn't be very neighborly of me to hope she remains pregnant and uncomfortable a few more days just because I don't really have another daycare plan for the next four days?? ('oh please, don't go into labor until after 4:30 on Thursday - thanks')We love our provider, and that would be terribly rude.

It was not me who didn't exactly tell the entire reason for last week's doctor visit to the kids. I should have told the kids that the sole reason for our trip into the pediatrician was for the H1N1 flu shot, but I'm sure I just forgot to tell them. I'm sure I didn't tell them that we were just going to 'visit' the doctor for a quick check up, because that would not have been the whole truth. I would not have shielded them from that information to hopefully avoid the HUGE meltdown at the door of the pediatrician's office when they indeed found out that they were getting a shot, even if it was just the nasal spray immuniziation. I'm sure the visit went just fine - tears and all.

And it certainly could not have been me that allowed the kids to run around the house in their swimsuits last night just because they wanted to. It's November in Minnesota - how crazy would that be to allow that. And there is no way it was me that allowed the kids to take their nighttime tubs while still wearing their swimsuits. That would be very irresponsible I'm sure.


Well either way, I'm sure none of those behaviors would have been anything like what a responsible parent would do. So I'm absolutely sure none of those thing would have been done by me. Right?
;)

Oh, and Happy Monday!

A Whole Lotta Nothing

I know, I know "lotta" isn't a real word, but it was kind of fun to use, so please forgive me.
What I'm trying to say is some folks have been asking - "so what are you guys up to these days?" and I guess the answer is a 'whole lotta nothing'.
We've been very busy, just with nothing huge or monumental (thankfully) or anything really just out of the ordinary.

We've been very busy enjoying every last bit of this late warm fall we've been having. After having 3" of snow the last time we camped in October, it's been in the 50s or 60s almost every day the last two weeks.

So we've been having s'mores by our campfire in our backyard..




We've been enjoying Popsicles.


We've been swinging on the swing set.


We've been running around the backyard playing "Mr. Fox" (seems made up to me) and "Red Light, Green Light"


We've been strapping the helmets on and going for bike rides - sorry no pictures with that, now that wouldn't be safe now would it? ;)


And on the days it has been too cold to play outside, or too rainy - we've been busy inside playing any game a 4 or 3 year old brain can invent. Including this one, which was their "fort in Cailin's bed game..."


Or just snuggling with the kittys. That's one of Cailin's favorites.


And of course, we are still doing the usual stuff - gymnastics for Cailin, Preschool classes for Andrew, Volleyball for Mike and running for me.

All in all, it sure feels like we've been super busy and it's been a great kind of busy, a fun kind of busy!

Stellan

Stellan is in Boston now... please keep this family in your prayers!
www.mycharmingkids.net

Halloween

We started Halloween off with a bang this year by me (Karen) sort of, kind of stabbing myself in the hand while carving pumpkins. It was pretty nasty, only a small cut, but managed to cut an artery, tendon and a nerve. All that stuff in a 1/2" spot. After an ER trip and a planned surgerical consult to come, we had an uneventful weekend and Halloween.

Cailin wanted to be Olivia the Pig. She's a charecter in a children's book series and tv show. She decided she didn't want to wear the pig mask, but after much 'discussion', we got a few pictures full-costume. Then off went the mask for trick-or-treating.


Andrew was Superman. He LOVED his costume. We went to visit our neighbors and friends, the Frasers and Caleb was also Superman.


Grandpa and Grandma came up. They had dinner with us and then daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, Cailin and Andrew went door to door trick or treating while mommy stayed home to give candy out to the masses.


The kids met up with the Fraser kids and they all went together trick or treating for a long time. They came back with LARGE piles of loot! It really was a perfect night!