B's Birthday Party – followup

Posted January 29th, 2008 by Mom | Comments (0)

In reading back over yesterday’s blog, it sounds a little harsh on B.  This was not my intention.  I was just upset with myself over the gifts I chose for B.  B was appreciative of his birthday gifts.  And as for the gift I wrapped for B that was really for someone else, everyone was laughing at the situation, not at me (as B explained to me later).  I guess I have been in a hyper-sensitive mental mode lately.  B- Want a date night?  I need some B time.

Signs of a great husband (for which B unconditionally qualifies!):

1.  He is the spiritual leader of the family.

2.  He works hard at everything he does.

3.  He provides for his family’s physical needs.

4.  He provides for the mental needs of his family.

5.  He is courteous.

6.  He is sensitive.

7.  He is polite.

8.  He is helpful.

9.  He cleans up after himself.

10.  He is neat.

11.  He is thankful for what others do for him.

12.  He can laugh at himself.

13.   He is loving.

14.  He is kind.

15.  He is playful.

16.  He is timely in getting projects finished.

17.   He doesn’t complain lots.

18.  He doesn’t nag or brag.

19.  He possesses any other positive characteristics not listed above that you can think of!

B's Birthday Party

Posted January 28th, 2008 by Mom | Comments (0)

I think B had a good birthday party, but sometimes it is hard to tell. Read on to understand…

My parents and B’s parents came over on Saturday evening. Before dinner, C wanted to show all the grandparents how he could beat Boswer, the bad guy in Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. C is really talented with the Wii remotes.

For dinner, we had B’s favorite pizza (pepperoni) from B’s favorite pizza restaurant. The rest of us also enjoyed salad and rotel dip with Tostido chips. Brian requested (and I made) a yellow cake with homemade chocolate buttercream icing for dessert.

Here is the dicey part – my presents for B for his birthday. I’m not sure that he really liked any of them. I got him a couple of Polo dress shirts (red and white striped and solid light blue). B’s comment on the red and white striped shirt consisted of raised eyebrows. B’s mom said it would look good under a sweater…

I also got B the 3 complete seasons on DVD of Airwolf (a 80′s television show). B’s comment to that was “let’s not open season 2 and 3 until we finish season 1.” Oh well, I really enjoyed the show and will watch all the seasons.

I also gave B some books that were on his Amazon wish list. One of the books was one that I thought he REALLY wanted – it was already in the shopping cart for the next time we placed an order. When B unwrapped this book, he laughed and told all of us that it was a book for a friend, that B had loaned to a friend and wanted to give him a copy.

Another of the books B has already finished. He is such a quick reader! Hopefully it made for an enjoyable weekend of limited free time.

C and J gave B some clamps (B responded with “To everyone here… I now have plenty of clamps. I do not need any more clamps.). Also, C picked out a pencil pull and some orange tape. B said, “You obviously went to Home Depot. I can never have enough orange tape.” Yes, it was sarcasm. The boys didn’t notice his tone. J only wanted to “share” B’s rubber gloves!

B’s parents gave him a video game and so did my parents. (I guess I know what I will be watching after the kids go to bed for the next week or two!) B also received warm, leather gloves and a mini office supply bag for his laptop bag – of which I have claimed most of the things in it!!

Maybe I enjoyed B’s birthday more than he did. Well, B, there is always next year (the big 35!) to look forward to!

Shhh, It's a Secret

Posted January 24th, 2008 by Dad | Comments (1)

After getting home tonight, I saw the stack of gifts, including the ‘specially wrapped’ ones from the boys. The conversation went like this:

Dad, after picking up one child wrapped package, speaking to both boys: “Wow, this looks really neat. Don’t tell me what any of this is, remember it is a secret surprise until my birthday party. Did you wrap this C?”

C: “Yes sir daddy buddy! It’s a…”

Dad: “SHHH – don’t tell me! remember how surprises work”

J: “Yeah C, its a surprise!”

Dad, picking up another package: “J did you wrap this?”

J: “No, I wrapped the rubber gloves!”

Dad: “… ”

Maybe I should ask them what the rest of the surprises are

Happy 34th Birthday, B

Posted January 24th, 2008 by Mom | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, my dearest husband!

Happy Birthday to you!

I love you lots and lots!!!

This morning the J and I got haircuts.  C still didn’t need one after his fiasco of his last haircut – I’m thankful it is growing out!  I am the one with the bad haircut this time.  I told my hairdresser that I wanted the back of my hair to fluff out when I used a round hairbrush on it as I was drying it.  There’s not enough hair on the back of my head now to even bother with a hairbrush!  Oh well, the difference between a good hair cut and a bad haircut is 2 weeks (or a 2 months in this case!)  I guess I will save time and money – no mousse or hairspray needed!

After haircuts, I got the kids some Chick-fil-A to eat for brunch as we drove into the city to exchange a shirt that B got for Christmas that was too large.  The arms length was only about 5 inches too long…  Hopefully this new shirt will fit.  (this is why B shops for himself)

The next errand was for the boys to pick out presents for Daddy.  When we got home, I let the kids loose with wrapping paper, tape and scissors (with my supervision!).  I helped J with the majority of the labor of wrapping Daddy’s present.  It looks pretty good.  As far as C’s present to Daddy goes, well, what can I say, uh, well, let’s see, it was wrapped with a lot of love, a LOT of  wrapping paper, and a LOT of tape.  C was so proud of himself.  He really did do a good job.

We will celebrate B’s birthday on Saturday evening with my parents and B’s parents.  We’ll see how much effort will be needed in tearing though all the tape!

Late night

Posted January 20th, 2008 by Mom | Comments (0)

Last night, B and I went to bed very late.  We finally went to bed around 1:30 in the morning.  Wow!  We haven’t had a late night like this in a LONG time!!

The boys went to bed around 9 and were asleep around 10.  We knew that we had church this morning, but found that a Star Trek movie was playing on HBO last night and wanted to stay up and watch it.  It had been years since we had seen the movie, and we turned out the lights and enjoyed the solitude and movie.  It was almost like we were newly married again.

The only difference was that we both fell asleep on the couch.  That is the only reason we got to bed so late.

Munchkin Olympic Event

Posted January 16th, 2008 by Mom | Comments (0)

It is around 11.30 at night. I am checking email, eBay, etc. in the kitchen on the computer. B isn’t home from work yet, C is asleep. J is not asleep as of a half hour ago when I last checked on him.

Slam. J just closed his bedroom door. The question next is, “Do I go check on him immediately?” Nah. Chances are high that J closed his door with the intention of turning on his bedroom light (a no-no after lights out time) to look for a toy. Next question, “Did the loud closing of the door wake up C?” Nope – C hasn’t called out for me. *Sigh*

If it wasn’t raining, I would go outside and peek in his window (J has his blinds raised a bit since he has had a difficult time keeping his hands off of the blinds as he looks out his window. Wooden blinds are expensive and I raised them to cut my losses!) instead of obviously opening J’s bedroom door. That thought brings up another host of questions – Would me looking in his window scare the heck out of him?! Would I find a little face peeking back at me?! What would I see J doing if I peeked in his room?! Where’s Tara the cat? Did Tara come in J’s room and J quickly close her in the bedroom with him? I don’t think so. If he did that, I would hear a host of giggling (or loud meowing). Maybe.

If this was a toddler Olympic event, with a 5 being the top score in each category, I would have to give J a zero for originality. He would have gotten more points if he had ever so quietly closed his door. For determination, the boy would get a 5. (His hardheadedness ensures that he would get at least a 4 in this category without even trying.) For endurance, I would have to give him a 5 as well. He is quiet and as far as I know, his door is still closed.

I guess enough time has passed. I’ll go check on the little munchkin and try to get him to go to sleep. If he found what he was looking for, he is probably already asleep. Maybe the 3 hour nap he took was too long this afternoon. Ya think?!

Update – I found Tara asleep on the couch as I went to check on J.

I checked on J. He didn’t lock his door when he closed it. Prior to J closing his door, he obtained C’s portable CD player with over the ear earphones. I am amazed that J -not only- got the CD player working, but GOT THE HEADPHONES ON CORRECTLY!! It is really good that I checked on him. The boys are not allowed to have any type of cords in their rooms – too big a chocking hazard.

J was listening to Chris Tomlin’s Indescribable. Most excellent song. J was also asleep. I tried to very gently remove the headphones, but J had his hands up to his face and I had to move his arm to get the cord of the headphones away from his body. This woke him up. FYI – waking up J from a hard sleep is not a good thing. He got very upset and said, “I need dat. It helps me go sleep!” (with a bit of a sleepy whine to the tone.)

I gently explained to him that no one in this family goes to sleep with cords (not even C! – this made it ok for me to take the CD player and headphones away) and that I would talk to Daddy about getting him a radio/CD player for his room. J broke his other radio, so we would have to give it a lot of thought, but I think enough time has passed that J has been without music, that he understands the consequences and really misses the music and CD stories. J requested that I put the CD player on his dresser, but I told him that it couldn’t even be in his room. I told him that it would be in the living room table for him to listen to in the morning. I finally got him calmed down and back asleep.

Wow! I will be more cognizant to check on him more quickly next time. This could have ended very badly. Here I was poking fun at him with the imaginary Olympic event and he could have been choking to death. This was a Big Time reality check for me!