EMMA

Beautiful weather and bubbles

Camera wars with Eden


Emma was popping all the bubbles she could with sprays from the water bottle








"OMG! Look at that one!!"

Update

Well, we made a little progress with Eden today. She only ate yogurt for breakfast and lunch but when she got home from school, I was able to coax her into eating 3 mini peanut butter cups! She just took tiny little nibbles at first, then I dared her to take bigger and bigger bites until she put the 3rd one in her mouth whole! I cheered! I opened our door and shouted it outside! My kids laughed and thought I was crazy.

Then, at dinner time, she ate half a pancake. It wasn't a lot, but it was something solid. She says she is still very nervous and you can tell because her face is bright red the entire time. However small, it was progress! And that is good news.

She also had a couple of ensure milk shakes today too. So she is getting nutrition. I am hoping that tomorrow will be an even better day! Thanks for your concern everyone!

How do I get my kid to eat?

I took Eden to the see a doctor this morning. I am not one to run my kids to the doctor for every little sniffle and cough (right mom?). In fact, unless they are obviously in great pain or have a dangerous fever or other serious ailment, or it's time for a well check, we don't go. I really don't get people who go and get antibiotics for everything. I mean, it does nothing for a cold anyway. Do they not realize the increasing rates of bacterial resistance are because of the inappropriate use of antibiotics? Moving on...

My point is, I'm really concerned. I took her to the doctor because she has hardly eaten a thing since she came back from her dad's on Sunday afternoon. Even when given some of her favorite snacks, she didn't eat. Sunday night we just assumed it was because she didn't like my chili (as absurd as THAT sounds...I mean I rock chili...lol). But then Monday morning came around and still nothing. We finally found out that she was afraid of choking.

I guess at her dad's she was having trouble eating steak. That's pretty common for Eden. Even the most tender cuts of beef (coupled by my super human ability to cook it to a melt-in-your-mouth tender piece of heaven.....I'm just kidding, but I do OK), still, she will complain about how hard it is to chew and swallow. Anyway, she kind of got some pieces stuck in her throat and it was scary for her, as I can imagine, and then was further traumatized by the fact that he still made her eat it. Apparently, he doesn't realize that she almost always has this trouble with steak.

So she is crying at every meal. As soon as she sits down to eat, she cries. Poor kid is scared to death of choking now. Eden tends to be a bit obsessive about things the way it is, I have a feeling she will not let this go easily. Last night, she couldn't even swallow a pea without great effort, and she likes peas. This morning, same thing. I gave her pudding, CHOCOLATE pudding for breakfast and she still cried. I am starting to get increasingly worried of course. How long can she go without eating?!?!?! Again, taking into consideration how obsessive she gets, this could last a while.

So I decided to take her in, just to make sure there wasn't something more going on. Swollen glands or tonsils, I don't know. So, after waiting for and hour and fifteen minutes to be seen in the walk in clinic, we left knowing it was pretty much what we thought all along. She's just afraid to eat. And maybe she scratched the lining of her throat a bit with the steak incident, making it a little sore and sensitive. I'm going to make her favorite for dinner (Swedish porridge rice) and probably smoothies and other easy to swallow stuff for the next few days. AND, I promised her a trip to Space Aliens when she has eaten a normal meal, chunks and all.

It's almost like having an anorexic child. I can't even imagine how scary that would be, as a parent, watching your child starve themselves. Hopefully she will start to cooperate and at least drink some smoothies or something. I want her to eat her typical 2-3 bowls of yummy porridge tonight. I'll keep you posted.

Mumbo-Jumbo

Gosh I love my life.

Honestly, I am just giddy, over-the-top, annoyingly happy, in love with my life.

I have perfect kids, a perfect husband, a perfect house in the perfect town with less than perfect weather, perfect, yet almost non-existent friends - the result of being a hermit/housewife for years, and a perfect extended family.

I'm not trying to brag. I dislike it when people brag so I try really hard most of the time to not brag. I am just really appreciative to God for the life He has given me.

I'm not the most religious person in the world. I used to go to church and take my kids to Sunday school but I don't anymore. Part of that is laziness and most of it is that my husband doesn't attend and I don't like to do things alone. It seems like I do a lot of things alone the way it is, so I don't care to add to that list.

Another part of that is I don't want to join everything. You know? If you go to church, you're expected to go to this group, or that event or donate half of your life savings. I like to donate, don't get me wrong, I just don't like the guilt that comes with it. Did I give enough? I'm still able to take hot showers and order pizza every other Friday, maybe that means I haven't given enough. Why can't I just go to church on Sunday, worship for 45 minutes and go home? I have a pretty severe case of social phobia which is probably why I feel this way.

I'm a good person, I do good deeds. I'm no where near perfect and wouldn't be even if I did go to church. But I've read (or heard it said) that being a good person simply isn't enough to get you into heaven. You have to worship and devote your free time to God in order to reap eternal rewards. Do I seriously believe this? I don't know, it just doesn't seem right to me. I'm a good person. I'm kind and generous, I have good morals and values....but I'm going to be with the murderers in the afterlife because I didn't go to church??? Come on.

Of course no one can know. Everyone can have their own theory or belief.

But, all the same, I am amazed (daily) by all that I have been given. Seriously, I am one lucky girl. And I just want to say that I try not to take any of it for granted. I don't know if I deserve all the goodness in my life, but I'd like to think I do. Maybe I'm being rewarded for being a "good" person now instead of in the afterlife. Maybe God sees that I am a decent human being but will never be the kind of person to devote my entire life to Him, so he will make my earthly life content instead of giving me a seat at his heavenly table. Who knows.

Where did this post come from? No idea.

Flood pictures

Just wanted to show you a difference in water levels here.


In this picture the you can see Hanna pointing to the water and it hadn't quite made it over the bike path.



And now you can see in this picture, that the whole area is underwater.



In this picture you can see the little golf course bridge


Now it's almost completely underwater, you can barely see the very top of it


This is over a span of 3 days. Not sure how much higher they are expecting it to get.

Visit from Gregg & Rana

This weekend we were visited by family. My nephew, Gregg, his wife, Rana, and their two little boys, Isaac and Ethan, were in town visiting my sister, Sue. They live in Rapid City, South Dakota, so it is a bit of a trek for them and two small kiddos. Needless to say, we don't see them much.

In fact, I think it may have been at least 3 years since I've seen Gregg last! He was my buddy growing up. I so loved it when my sister came home and I got to play with Gregg and Amanda. Especially Gregg, since he is only 5 years younger than me. And play we did! We would disappear all weekend long, only to show our faces at meal time (and to do up all the dishes of course). But we didn't mind, as long as we were together. We were inseparable!

We played "peoples", restaurant, barbies, house, spy, swimming, you name it! We weren't like some kids, that need to be glued to their parents all the time. We didn't WANT to be with the adults. It was good times back then.

Boy, what happened? We are grown ups now, with families of our own. Gregg went to college, got married, moved away....I hardly ever see him. My bestest childhood buddy. He made everything 500 times more fun. And laugh, my GOD did we laugh. And he is a giggly person to begin with. I could make him shake with hysteric laughter with just a look. I would use that to my advantage. We'd be sitting at the table eating, and I'd wait until he took a big gulp of milk, then I'd do something to make him laugh until 2 white streams came shooting out of his nose. It was so easy!

Sigh...

Anyway, he has an awesome wife, she is so sweet and beautiful and creative. And those boys....aw, don't get me started! I hardly know them (we don't get together often), but they are the sweetest little things. All of my previous stereotypes of the typical little boy, all wild and crazy and messy and rude are gone. A total misconception. These two are total angels. Well behaved, so polite and cuuuuuuuute! Isaac is the oldest (4), he reminds me so much of Gregg. Looks just like he did when he was that age. And Ethan, is a precious little blond. They are both so light too, like picking up air! Not that they are overly skinny or anything, just like....they have wings that help you out when they are in your arms.

I could go on and on....

And of course my girls had a blast with them. Eden said it was the best day of her life, LOL! And watching Hanna giving Isaac a ride on her back, was just like looking back in time, at Gregg and I. How I long to be a child again some days. To play carefree and imagine the possibilities of a lifetime to come. Now, another generation has their chance.

Hope you had a safe trip back home, Gregg and Rana! I love and miss you guys!


Click HERE to see more pictures from last weekend!

Here come the sandbags

This is the second round of sandbags brought to our neighborhood of Rose Creek, by police escort, today.

Sandbag schedule: I guess they are taking 51,300 bags to our neighborhood on day 1 (today) and another 51,300 bags on day 3. That's 19 loads each day.

We are expecting a crest at 38 feet this Saturday, two weeks earlier than originally predicted.

Scuttling to School

Scuttling probably means next to nothing to the average family. But here, we are big fans of Futurama (as you may already know). And there is a character on the show called Dr. Zoidberg who is a lobster. And he scuttles. Therefore, we scuttle from time to time.

The girls did the scuttle on the way to school one morning a couple weeks back and it has become a "thing" every morning since. Emma and I stand at the window, shaking with laughter as we watch Hanna & Eden scuttle off to school. Lord only knows what our neighbors are thinking. What sort of crazy family has entered our neighborhood?

But this morning Hanna said she was sort of getting tired of scuttling every day. So I said I would record them this one last time so she wouldn't have to do it again. Although she probably will. Without further ado (or is it adieu? Well I had to look it up and here it is: adieu is goodbye in French, an ado is a fuss. And so, it is ado. So there).

And so, without further ADO, here are Hanna and Eden doing the Zoidberg scuttle.

vanity plate

Hanna (my 12 year old) has an assignment due on Thursday, where she is to come up with a personalized license plate suited for a career of her choosing. The group she chose was what she referred to as "caring", nurse, doctor, etc.. They need to be 8 characters or less and be original.

So while Mom, Andreas and I were playing a very looooong game of Skip-Bo, we were playing around with a few ideas (most of which are NOT suited for the 12 year old crowd) and here are the losers:

(be warned, we used no tact whatsoever - so if you lack a sense of humor or do not wish to tarnish your idea that we are mature, angelic adults, please stop reading NOW)

Plastic Surgeon
LUV LIPO
TIT DR
BOOBSRUS
ISLICEIT
BARBIEDR
RUFUGLY


Pathologist/Coroner
TOE TAG
CUT U UP
DRAIN U

ENT
IDOEARS

CNA
DIGUOUT

Obstetrician
BABYSRUS

Proctologist
ASS MAN (Seinfeld)
PROBE U
BENDOVER


And one totally unrelated to the health field:

Programmer
10110100


And, an actual plate I've seen:
I SPIT....I bet her dad is proud.

In the end, I think the best choice for Hanna was:

Nurse
ICARE4U

...and she thought so too.

Andreas turns 39

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband, Andreas! Click to see some photos from today. VIEW PICTURES

Saturday, cheese, and other stuff

We had a lovely wine & cheese with the kids on Saturday. Of course, the kids just had lovely cheese. Anyway, it was a nice relaxing night with the kids, in front of the screen watching one of our old favorites, "CHEF!".

It's a British comedy that used to be on PBS a few years ago. We always liked watching it, so we bought a set of DVDs. It's hilarious. And we love shows about cooking. Hilarious + Cooking = BIG hit at our house.






I love moldy stinky cheese. The bad thing is Andreas doesn't. So I had all this Brie and Blue and Gorgonzola that I was going to have to eat by myself or it would go to waste. And I hate wasting food, especially cheese. Because I love cheese. How do you tell when moldy cheese goes bad anyway?

But back to my love of cheese. I think I've eaten more cheese in the last three days than most normal people probably eat in half a year. Seriously. I expect to see a 5 pound weight gain the next time I step on the scale. Blech!

Now, this is TO DIE FOR cheese. A Gorgonzola cheese torte with walnuts and cranberries. A beautiful whipped wonder, so creamy and delicious!



Emma is just so darn cute sometimes.


I dislike those ugly cords dangling from our TV. Andreas said pulling them behind the wall (which we did at our last house) is a fire hazard. Maybe we need to have an outlet installed behind the TV.


I got new plants last weekend. I love how they bring a little tropical ambiance to the room. I always wanted to live in the jungle. I love plants.



And I love this rose.



The end.