Welcome Back, Pa Chuck!

Many of you have asked how my dad is doing. I am so sorry that it has taken me this long to get back to you (and in a blog post, at that!)

Dad went into the hospital last Saturday and was only semi-conscious. My mom had found him that morning and we know he had been up some time in the evening, but had fallen in their family room.

Over the next few days, he became completely incoherent and was hallucinating. There were at least 2 days where he did not acknowledge any of us in his family and was having conversations with people from his past, etc...

We were mighty scared and had a very trying few days.

After a LONG night of medicine-induced sleep, he woke up the other day and knew who all of us were. He was making sense and realized that he was in a hospital. It was quite a wonderful awakening!

It turns out that he had been prescribed some pain pills (for Shingles, another story completely) plus some sleeping/relaxant pills and the two of those together wreaked havoc in his brain.

I am very happy to say that he is back to his old self and will be going home today!

Praise God!

Thank you so much to all of you for your kind words and prayers!

And welcome back, Dad. We REALLY missed you!

Oh, Joy!

So, I love looking to see what Brody brings home from school. It always amazes me to see how clearly brilliant he is at coloring and counting. And don't even get me STARTED on how advanced he is at patterns and The Alphabet Song.

:)



Anywho... so he came home last week with a bag. A "Fall Nature Hunt" Bag. Cool! I love Fall. I love Nature. My child is just so brilliant.






So, I take things out of the bag. Bark. Yes. Bark is Naturey. It is a good sample of a tree, which would have been just too big for the bag. Good improvisation on his part. And leaves. Two, not one. What an overachiever I have reared.






Oh, look. And grass and a flower. To show his appreciate for the beauty of nature. And his appreciation for... um.... grass. I am sure he was going for more color variety.





Oh, and a nice spirally thing to round out his collection. A nice. spiral. Hey. wait. Yeah. That is what I think it is.





It's a worm. dead. baked. black.




Brody sees me opening up the bag and he is SO PROUD of his worm. He has already forgotten color variety and improvisation, and beauty. It is all about the dead creature. This is his *favorite* thing from school this WHOLE YEAR.

*sigh*

Oh well, I suppose boys will be boys, dead worms and all!

Fun in the 'Burg

We went down to visit Grammy, BooPa, JJ, Alan, Will and Maddie last weekend. The twins turned 5 (I can't believe it!) and had a great birthday party at a place called "Pump It Up", which is a lot like Kangaroo Jacks and Jumpin' Monkey. The kids (and Kurt and I) had a ball jumpin' around.

Then, we spent time in Blacksburg with Grammy and BooPa. I snapped a few photos. :)

Are you making Googly Eyes at me?

We went to Zach's birthday party today... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH!

His mom, Rachel, always has the BEST party favor bags... and this year was no different. The kids LOVED these silly glasses so we had to get a photo of them...

Here are my 2 boys and the Hinton girls...

TWENTY!

I did it! As of my weigh-in this morning, I have lost 20 pounds! Can I get a woot woot?

Do you Swing?

Dance, that is!

When Kurt and I lived up near DC, we used to take swing lessons and LOVED it. Then, we had kids, and just hadn't gotten back to taking lessons.

Every now and then I go and look at some of the videos of our instructors and some of the people that are still up there... it is AMAZING to watch these clips. I thought I would share with you all, in case you have a lot of time to kill and enjoy watching swing!

http://www.dcswingdancing.com/

And this one is one of my favorites...
Here


Kurt and I are thinking of getting back to lessons... anyone know of a good place?

Help Help! I need YOUR HELP!

Okay, so I need new glasses. I am not a very trendy person and would LOVE a fresh, new look. But, in my opinion, the new glasses that women are wearing (a la Tina Fey) all look EXTREMELY goofy on me!

So, I am asking all of you... please take a look at the photos below and then vote on the right side of my blog which ones look best. Try not to be distracted by the crazy goofy smiles in some of these photos and just look at the glasses shape, size, etc... I know they are all very similar, and you can't get a really good idea without seeing the sides of the glasses, but any help you give me is welcomed!

Thanks so much! I REALLY appreciate it! I will post a photo later after I buy the glasses to let you know which ones I bought!

BTW... Now that I can SEE again ( eye appointment blurry eye drops), I looked at the photos and my pupils look crazy creepy all dilated in these photos! Thanks for the votes so far!

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SNL skit

I LOVE what the comedians are doing with this election.



Tina Fey is INCREDIBLE here as Sarah Palin. Amazing.

Time for some Campainin'

Jib Jab is always good for a political laugh...

Jib Jab - Time for Some Campainin'

Less of Me

I wasn't going to blog about this, simply because I usually jinx myself, and it is my least favorite topic... but things are going so well and I want to share...

I have been doing Jenny Craig. I have just finished my 6th week and lost 16 pounds.

Ohhhh..... how dee doo dah day!

I have just had a few people start to comment that I look like I have lost weight, which makes it ALL WORTHWHILE! I am loving it! Usually, I don't like attention on my looks, because I can't take a compliment gracefully, and just think the person is probably lieing just to be nice. I know, esteem issues.

Anywho... I will keep you all updated, and hopefully in the next year, I will post a before and after photo.

Yip Yip Yip! Yippppeeee!

It's all downhill from here.

Brody had his first homework assignment ever this past week. He LOVED it, but I have visions of the future and trying to get him to do homework.

Here he is with items cut out of a magazine that start with "B". Oh, if only all projects/deadlines/assignments could be so simple! What a wonderful world it would "B".

Addicted to Blogs? You NEED a reader!

I just heard about this and it has changed my life! There are 19 blogs that I read on a regular basis. Usually, I go through my favorites or my live feeds on my browser to see if those blogs have been updated...

well, google has done it again!

www.google.com/reader is a fantastic place where you can enter the names of the sites/blogs that you keep up with on the left hand side, and just like an inbox for email, it highlights them when there is a new post.

so, if you want to read blogs, or news sites, or whatever... you just log into your reader and click on the ones that have new posts.

AWESOME!

Mommy has PHOTOSHOP POWERS

If you could have seen the look on Brody's face when I showed him this photo. He has never looked more excited or PROUD, like he ACTUALLY did this. Too funny.

Better than ADT

Our home is always well protected! At any given time, there is at least one super hero in our home, and usually we have two. One main superfriend with a smaller, and equally excited, sidekick. They even fly! Pretty cool, huh?

Feat of Engineering

This is what we found in the kitchen when we came down for breakfast this morning.

Man, I tell ya. If Brody keeps this up, he will have a nice cushy job somewhere in the field of architecture, or engineering, ummm.... or maybe prison. Who knows!

Best Husband Award

Kurt is the best husband I know. Really. I know a lot of you out there are sure that your husband is the best, but we will just have to agree to disagree. :)

Kurt works full time but then when he gets home, he cleans. He makes dinner some nights. He does laundry. He gives the kids baths. He reads to them. He puts them to bed. He pays the bills. He cleans up after dinner. He gives me a foot massage while we watch tv. AND, he rubs/scratches my back while I fall asleep. (I win, right?)

Now, he doesn't do all of those things every night, but any time he sees something that needs to be done, he just does it. And he doesn't gripe. He loves to help out.

I am so incredibly blessed to have him as my partner for the rest of our lives. And our kids have such an incredible role model of what a man/father/husband should be. I know they are learning from the best and I couldn't be happier!

Kurt, I love you sweetie! You REALLY ARE the best. :)

2008 Presidential Election

I am avoiding political conversations like the plague, mostly because I find myself in the minority... the minority being that I don't know yet who I want to vote for. Most people seem to have chosen their candidate and are FIERCELY arguing against the other. On the rare occasion that I have been sucked into a presidential conversation, I usually end up frustrated and feeling like a big dope.

There are issues on both platforms that I agree with/disagree with. I think it will come down to deciding which issues are most important to me and going with this candidate.

I have been doing research on both parties and still find myself torn... so I went to this website...

Who Should You Vote For?

And you know what it told me? I am 52% in favor of Obama. Big help that was. 52%. So, I still don't know what I am doing!

Now, all you out there with your solid opinions, don't think any less of me because I am still trying to figure it out! I KNOW how much you love your candidate! Can't we all just get along? :)

Back To School!

Today is the day! Back to School!!!

Seth is off to school for the first time today and Brody is excited to be the oldest class in the school.

And MOMMY is excited to have 2 kids in preschool! YAY!!!

JMU Roomie Weekend Year 3

A few years ago, some of my roommates from JMU all started meeting in Maryland for a "reunion". It has since become an annual event!

We got together again this weekend to see how much the kids had grown and to catch up on each others lives. It is amazing that whenever we get together, it is just like we saw each other the day before!

Also, we realized this year that we roomed with each other for the first time SEVENTEEN years ago! When did we get that old!?

I have a TON of photos to go through and will post those later!

Home Run!!!

Brody likes to play T-Ball, by himself, in the front yard. He hits the ball off the T and then runs the bases in the cul-de-sac. He is getting pretty quick, too! He does this A LOT. funny.