Demolition

I used to have a fireplace mantle and hearth. Now I have none. I still have a fireplace, though. I will post pictures soon.

Taylor Swift Concert

I will blog more about this tomorrow since it's late. Madeline and I were lucky to be able to purchase a couple of tickets to the concert tonight and attend with our friend John. He provided the opportunity to buy seats in a great location. We had a lot of fun. I have some pictures and videos to post.

Garden Update

I realized that it has been awhile since I updated on the garden. As many of you know we have a fairly extensive garden in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint.

Many of the crops did not get planted. I think I mentioned in a much earlier spring post that some things had not yet been done. They never got completed. Peas, beans, raddishes, lettuce, carrots or onions were never planted. A few things did get planted. Things that are doing well are fruits that are perennial. We had approximately well over 100 peaches. We had a variety of peach issues this year. There was some peach curl, a bug crawled over the peaches and gave them sticky spots and caused some malformation, worms got about 60% of the peaches and several were eaten or partially eaten by birds. We harvested all but one of the peaches. Several were eaten and I all found was a peach pit at the base of the tree. I'd say maybe 20 peaches were lost in that way. Even still we were able to harvest and keep a significant amount of peaches. We had about 40 that did not have any worms. Those were eaten whole. The rest are going to be canned. At least they are supposed to be canned, if Ryan does it.

The blackberries, grapes, tomatoes and peppers are ready. Raspberries are almost ripe (and there are many, which need to be covered to avoid loss from birds). The brussel sprouts are doing well and look to provide a decent crop. I almost forgot about the squash and cucumbers. Those are being picked now too. Pumpkin and butternut squash are growing now. I can't tell how many there are of each because of the way that Ryan planted them this year. They're in a cluster right now. When the growing season is over, we'll harvest them.

There are several pears on the pear trees. this is the first year fruiting. I don't know if they will ripen enough to eat. Only time will tell.

Madeline's top toof

Ryan pulled the last top tooth today. She is enjoying her new smile and excited the tooth fairy is coming tonight. I will post video and pics soon.

Surgery

Tomorrow I will have surgery. The surgery is at 9am and will last about an hour. I return to work on Tuesday. I should have a speedy recovery and be able to run again in about six weeks. Surgery is outpatient and I will be home in the afternoon. It will take about six months to have a full recovery but all should be well after about a week.

The girls will spend the day with Grandma, Grandpa and their Seattle cousins. We'll be having dinner with them tomorrow night. I am not sure if I will be up to going so I may stay home and rest. Then this weekend we're going to South Dakota to celebrate Ryan's grandma's 80th birthday. The Jackson's from Colorado will be meeting us there on Friday. It should be fun. I just hope I don't sleep through all of it! LOL

Ryan's new car

Ryan got a new car on Madeline's birthday. He got a Ford Fusion Hybrid. It's black with black interior. He really likes it. I think he has a picture to post and I will ask him to post it. We traded in the trusty Explorer that we had purchased new in 1998. He used the cash for clunkers program. I think all new car purchases get to deduct the sales tax this year too. Good year to buy a new car. The new car gets over 40 mpg in town and over 30 on the highway.

Seven

Madeline is seven today! We woke her up at 7am to wish her a happy 7th birthday! She is having a CoCo Key's birthday party starting at 1pm and ending at 5pm. It should be lots of fun!

Tonight we'll open birthday presents and have cake (which I have not yet purchased). :) No time like the present!

Mammories

I know this has less to do with my daughters and more to do with my "girls" but it's noteworthy! I had my first ever momogram! WOOHOO! THAT was really fun, minus the squishing, tugging and pulling. They read it right away and it showed everything normal. :) Now this was interesting, they put little stickers on your....nips.

Just a few more days

In just a few days we will see some relatives after a long delay. Rhonda's family will be here a week from this Thursday! We are so excited! We cannot wait to see them and their family. It will be a fantastic long weekend with lots of in-law brothers/sisters/cousins/nieces and nephews. The Colorado relatives should be here too, but we don't know the date yet. I wonder if the Colorado relatives would like to stay at our place on the way in or out. We can have the place stocked and ready to go, if that's what happens :)

Pierced Ears

For Madeline's seventh birthday Mary took her to get her ears pierced. We all went to Claires and Madeline was brave, although she did cry. The video is too large to post, but I videoed the whole event. She's very proud of them now :)

Holiday Weekend

It was a relaxed weekend. Davie came over from Peoria. He and Ryan went out Friday to a pool hall, ate dinner, played pool and drank a little beer while my friends Carrie, Beth and their kiddos hung out at our place. Carrie mixed up some tasty drinks for us. Everyone had a good time (I think!).

Saturday Mary came over to enjoy watching fireworks from our garage/driveway. For the most part it was a good time. Unfortunately our immature forty-something neighbors had to cast a cloud on things because they were too proud to admit that allowing their kids to shoot fireworks into our garage three times was inappropriate. It always surprises me when peoples immediate reaction is to turn things back on you and blame you for their mistakes. It's probably the most immature behavior I've seen. They made some comment about taking care of our yard, which interestingly has nothing to do with fireworks flaming past our heads but was somehow important to them at the time. Maybe if our yard was 1/4 inch shorter the kids would not have been misusing fireworks or lighting them off right in front of our driveway. Or maybe the yard had something to do with distraction during the lighting of fireworks. I'm having a hard time making the connection. Anyway, I digressed.

Davie left for Peoria this afternoon. Twenty five bucks in the back since I paid him 25$ to mow the lawn at 9pm last night right in front of my neighbors. :) My rationale was the yard was important enough to mention (and they know we have a yard boy who mows and would have been here today) then we might as well take care of it right then. I hope they felt like jerks because they certainly acted like jerks. Anyway, they did end up moving their firework lighting down a bit and OH MY GOSH, the fireworks quit flying into our garage. See how things can be easily fixed. Too bad it included a bunch of stupidity along with it. Of course then the fireworks started flying in the other neighbors yard but I think they had already gone in for the night. But I am supposed to be telling you about today... It's really sunny and hot today. Annie is resting and Maddie is cleaning the playroom. Ryan is reading and I'm about ready to go out for a second tanning session.

Hostas from Gina

New smile

New picture

All I want for Christmas is my two front teef

A few updates to give you.

Madeline lost her first big front tooth yesterday. She looks quite different. I am surprised because after her recent dentist visit I did not expect she would lose the tooth for quite some time. Madeline had been wiggling it a lot lately, which helped move the booger right out! The tooth next to it is pretty wiggly so I think she will be toof-less in a week or so.

Ryan and Madeline will be riding in a parade this morning for Ryan's art council. I think Ryan may walk and Madeline will ride in a convertible with a couple of other kids. It should be a lot of fun for her. I think Ryan is in two or three parades this summer.

Mary and David watched the girls last night and it sounds like they all had a good time. It was nice to go out with Ryan to have dinner and drinks.

What's New...

Well I have been a bit disengaged from the family for the past six weeks. This is for two reasons. First work has been very busy. My responsibilities have increased, there are pressures from budget related issues and a variety of other special projects. This requires several additional night meetings and socializing with consultants. Second, I believe I am suffering from burnout. Probably related to work, but also related to having two type-a intense personality children - one of which is in the throws of the terrible twos. That being said I still play the leading role of "Mommy" in the hit new musical "This is my life". All of this is important to note because it explaints why it's difficult to give a family update. I don't really have my finger on the pulse at the moment and there's not really an end in site. In fact things are on the verge of getting much more complicated at work which will mean additional time restraints, meetings and stress. I am riding this wave as it comes so I have no idea what will happen. Now I can give you a peripheral update about what I know of the family living in the house I share with them.

Madeline started VBS this week. What you don't know is that I just took a thirty minute hiatus from this post because at the moment I typed the first sentence of this paragraph I realized that I only had about 20 minutes to pick Maddie up from kids club and get her heiny to VBS. See how districted I am! Anyway, VBS is going well. This year we had to arrange someone to take Maddie back to kids club after VBS ended. I don't have the latitutde with my schedule like I used to. Madeline seems to be enjoying VBS. This morning when I dropped her off I leaned over to give her a goodbye kiss and she actually cough/sneezed right in my mouth. Probably the most disgusting thing that happened to me this month. Maybe the last year.

Annalise is back to school, after a one-week break, and having a good time. She is starting to whine, hits when she's ticked off, and still loves to destroy things, especially smashing food when she's bored with eating. She really enjoys the outisde and will take off without looking back, although that is nothing new.

Ryan is busy with work, arts council and college of architecture alumni association. He's planning a big arts bash in September and will be busy all summer with arts activities and participating in the variety of city festivals in order to promote the new council. His new-ish job at work appears to be going well.

Like I mentioned before I am swamped, in a good way, but busy nonetheless. I continue to run and am training for a full marathon. I've tentatively marked my calendar for a marathon in NY, one hour north of the city. I plan to spend a week with Mona in NY and run the marathon. All subject to change based on whichever way the wind blows. I will visit Mona this year however, now that Annie is weaned. (She has not asked to nurse for several days) woohoo!

Toilet seat ring

I just remembered a funny story. So, most of you know that I am quite petite. Both in stature and frame. I weigh about 110 pounds and am 5'4" tall. Recently during our visit to IA I used my Aunt Babes toilet. Now I have to tell you that I was just going tinkle and not attempting any crazy acrobatics. Regardless, the toilet seat ring FELL OFF. I broke the ring right off the the toilet. One isolated incident might make sense but less than a week later I broke another toilet seat ring right off the toilet. I think it was at our gym. It doesn't make a girl feel good to know that she was responsible for breaking TWO rings off toilets. I want to say there was a third but right at the moment I cannot recall. I just thought that was a funny thing to share and if I were larger I might not have had the courage to share. So there you have it folks, it's not the person but the ring!

My little haircut

Of course if you've never seen Bob and Larry's Veggie Tales about the "little hairbrush" you probably wouldn't get the title. It's supposed to be funny with a little veggie tale theme song as you say it.

Anyway, Annie had her hair cut yesterday by a really BAD hairdresser from our place. They charge very high prices which would make one assume that you're getting at least a little quality. All of our regular hair dressers were unavailable so we settled for "Rachael" who did a real wack job on Annie's hair. Bella will be fixing it as soon as we get in there. That being said, Annnie was very UNhappy about the idea of having something cut off her body. She told me she was scared, that she didn't want her hair cut, and she cried A LOT. Finally I told her that she was NOT going to have her hair cut. She immediately quit crying and, while I was holding her, Rachael cut her hair. Annie must have figured out what was going on at some point, but didn't seem to mind. She still refused to sit in the chair, but finally stood in the chair and allowed Rachael to make her wack job a little less wacky. Still needs to be fixed. :)

Weaned

I forgot to post about this a week ago but Annie is officially weaned. She still nursed once or twice per day off and on, but she is officially done. I told her that she's a big girl now and she doesn't need to nurse anymore. She was not very happy about that, but didn't throw a big tantrum over it, which told me that she was ready. She still asks about it everyday and I just tell her we don't do that anymore. We've replaced it with "hugging and cuddling" and she's okay with that. So on Friday May 15, 2009 Annie finally gave up nursing. THANK GOD! :)

Recital and anniversary

Yeterday we celebrated two things at the Horner house. We celebrated our elleven year anniversary and the culmination of this year's dance class at Madeline's dance recital. There to celebrate with Madeline was Rich and Deb, Mary and Joyce. The recital went well and we all headed off to Ted and Wally's for ice cream after the show. Madeline got a fever yesterday morning. She's been feeling crummy ever since. She did great at the show regardless of her virus. I hope she's feeling better today. It's been a lovely weekend. It did rain a little yesterday but they were only short scattered showers that were between sunny beautiful patches of weather.

The garden is going well. We are a little behind planting beans and peas. Ryan needs to install some additional planting beds. The peaches look fantastic. There are probably more than 100 peaches on the tree and they range in size from an olive to a large marble. Maybe even a little bigger. There are several pears on the pear trees this year too. The blackberries are beginning to bloom, the strawberries are getting bigger, the grapes are growing like crazy. Blueberries are blooming and the raspberries are really taking off. The weather has been perfect for the garden too. Things are looking well on that front.

The storm shelter is not quite completed yet, though it is close. Some additional landscaping was done when we came back from Iowa. Gina was so kind and gave us several splits from her garden. We all had such a lovely time in Mt. Pleasant.

Running is going well except Friday I got a bad blister from a pair of work shoes. It actually ripped the skin right off my foot and is still hurting. I ran yesterday which must have aggrivated it further. I am sitting here in my running gear contemplating whether or not I should run because the throbbing from my foot hurts so bad. I really need to keep running though. I may walk a little to see how things go and make my decision then.

Tulips

We're ending our visit to IA tomorrow. We enjoyed Pella's tulips yesterday and spent lots of time with family between yesterday and today. Tomorrow we'll have our last hurrah and head home. I have pictures to post when I get home, if I have time to post them.

All the family is doing well. Babe is getting along nicely. Pat and Kent are busy and doing well between County Board duties and preservation commission fun. Tom and Gina are also busy and getting into the garden season, morrel hunting and maybe some stained glass work. Tom and I played pool and I only had two balls left when he won. This was very impressive for my limited pool talent.

I haven't gotten to run yet but perhaps tomorrow morning I will be able to run. I doubt it though so I will be spending the better part of next week getting back into a training routine. I want to run another half marathon in a week. I am a little concerned because I haven't been able to train but even if I cannot do the half, I may do the 10k run, which is 6.2 miles.

13.1

That's how many miles I ran in the half-marathon race today. I finished in 2 hours and 20 minutes, which is what I had assumed it would take. I was pleased to be in under 11 minutes per mile. I thought about my parents a few times along the way. Today, I ran for them.

That's a heck of a long way to run, by the way, all in a row. The nice thing about running that long is that you have a long time to think. I enjoyed the run until the 12 mile mark. Then things got to be very discouraging. As ridiculous as this may sound, I was pretty convinced around 12.5 miles that I would not be able to finish. I was trying to tell myself, at the time, that it's pretty stupid to think that I couldn't make it another stinking half mile. After all, I'd already run 12.5 miles.

When the road split and the full marathoners went on to run another 13.1 miles I thought to myself "how in the world can they do it?" I'd like to try. I need to increase my pace though and figure out how to prevent these ****ing blisters. I can't imagine what would happen to my feet if I ran the full.

You ask: "what does someone look like after they've run a half marathon?" Something like this:

Something occurred to me while I was running and perhaps it takes having almost two and a half hours to reflect on things in order to figure something like this out. My whole life, in general terms, I've followed the rules, stayed the course and done what I am supposed to. I have been careful to make the right decision, be highly logical, maintain high ethics and be an all-around dudley do-right. In the past year I've had to think more critically about situations at work that may not follow the same path. Through this process of understanding politics and when is the most appropriate time to do what is right versus doing what is mostly right, or partially right I've had the opportunity to consider how this concept applies to my own life. What I figured out today is that I am tired of being perfect. I'm tired of doing everything right. I don't want to make the most logical choice 100% of the time. Sometimes I just want to do something that *I* want to do and I don't care anymore if it isn't logical or right. I suppose one may find a variety of terms to describe this self evaluation/realization but for now I am just going to go with the flow and see where I lead. Carpe Diem.

Good Monday!

Did everyone enjoy the weekend? My favorite part was the blowing snow and below freezing temperatures. Come on, admit it now, it was your favorite part too! Annie actually enjoyed playing in the snow. We watched her play outside from the warmth of the inside. I think Madeline went out for a little bit too. It was good snowman snow, if there had been more. What we did get melted pretty quickly.

Maddie and Annie had dance. I ran a little but was trying to heal the massive blister I got from my 9 mile run last week. I'm planning to run 10 this week sometime. We'll see what kind of blister I get from that!

Some of the relatives are in Qatar doing lectures at a university. We can't wait to hear about their travels when they return. So far it sounds like a lot of fun, albeit exhausting fun.

Happy Birthday Savanna!

Happy Birthday to my niece Savanna who turns 5 today!

Weekend Summary Report

Even though I don't have time to write, here I am updating you all on the blog. I guess that just goes to show you that people will still do what they want regardless of priority!

Madeline and Annalise started swimming lessons this past weekend. For Annie it was just another day swimming with the added strange person watching her during her swim, which she did NOT appreciate. She really didn't care for the instructor. Even though she sees her in the kiddie room all the time. Madeline did fantastic. She learned to freestyle and work on other techniques. She is very excited to tell everyone that she skipped level 3. She is the youngest in her class. She told me "everyone else can touch the bottom of the pool!".

Ryan took Friday off and has been working almost nonstop on the storm shelter. I think all of the framing is up. I believe the next step is to install the steel sheets, but don't quote me on that. Hopefully it will be completed by the end of next weekend.

Spring

Spring is finally here and we've been enjoying unseasonably warm weather. I guess if the global warming thing is changing our seasons it isn't really unseasonably anymore. I think we hit 80 last week. The snow has melted but I have a gut feeling we're in for at least one more snow this spring. My fear is that we'll have a late cold snap that will put my peach tree in peril. I will be working very hard to protect the garden this year. We're planning to plant several new fruit trees this year. Ryan is installing several new raised beds which will help with the weed and drainage issues from last year. I believe he's also putting down a lot of mulch in the back half of the yard. We'll see.

Right now Ryan is working on my storm shelter. I think this is funny (in a not-so-funny-more-like-irritating way) because of the tornadoes that went through our area last night. We did have a brief conversation about his promise to have the storm shelter ready for the storm season. Well it looks like most of the shelter will be completed this weekend. The steel door may or may not be ready this weekend.

We're also working on a new planting plan and landscape layout for part of the yard. We should receive the new design this week. I am sure it will take quite a while to finish.

Madeline's two top teeth are pretty wiggly. She's trying to loose them at school so she can get the "cool treasure box". She is eating all kinds of hard things biting with her top teeth to make them wigglier. Annie declares that she has wiggly teeth. I am sure they will be "wiggly" for the next three years.

We all (minus Ryan) just got over a nasty stomach virus that gave us fevers for two weeks. I heard influenza and strep are also going around but hopefully none of us will get anything. I need to stay healthy for the next five weeks. May 3 is the half-marathon. I have to do a little catch-up to make up for the time I was sick. I have more but will put things in separate posts.

Woops

Apparently I fell off the posting wagon.

One important detail I forgot about my birthday is that there was snow on the ground. It is a well known fact in my household that on my birthday there is ALWAYS snow on the ground. If I recall correctly last year got VERY close to no snow and THIS year there was quite a bit of snow on the ground.

We are ending this beautiful week with fantastically warm spring weather and the girls are getting better. Annie started out the week with a fever and dreaded diarrea. Her fever hung around about four days. Madeline came down with the creaping crud a day and a half ago. We assume she'll follow the same long term path to recovery. They are both still sick but seem to be improving slowly, very slowly. So far neither Ryan nor I have gotten The Crud. My stomach hasn't been the greatest, however.

Madeline finished up her clay class and is moving forward to her dance recital which is at the end of May. In a few weeks we head to Minneapolis for my national planning conference. The whole family is tagging along for fun, because we all know that there is a LOT of fun to be had in Minneapolis.

Birthday Bash

Tonight we celebrated my birthday. The girls and Ryan made adorable cards for me using some cool foam-y noodles and pastels. Madeline did a fantastic job freehanding a cake. I will post a picture of that later.

After we enjoyed cheese fondu and fruit we ate a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (selected by the girls last night with Ryan). They bought me two gifts; a bracelet with two charms (a heart and a baby shoe with both girls birthstones inlaid) and Ryan surprised me with a Garmin! It is the coolest thing and I can't wait to use it. It tracks my heart rate, pace, distance and a host of other goodies. I thought he was getting me an iSport but it turns out I got something BETTER! Yay for Ryan!

Then we played wii and watched part of a movie. It was fun!

I should tell you what my work did for me. Michelle decorated my office, Register of Deeds had a food day for me and Administration bought a cake and lit a candle. My friend Ross, the Facilities Management Director gave me a brand new doorstop for my department! Yahoo! It was pretty funny.

Me

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to meeee,
Happy birthday to me.

:)

One year ago I was at an American Girl style show watching Madeline walk the stage with a matching "bitty baby";

Five years ago I was living in a different city with an 18 month old;

Ten years ago I was starting a new job;

Fourteen years ago I was starting college and adjusting to living with four other roommates;

Eighteen years ago I was receiving a car;

Twenty seven years ago I was watching a clown ride a unicycle down my street with a bunch of my friends;

Thirty four years ago I was born.

Art Show

Madeline had her first-ever art show last Monday. She completed a four week Pop Art class at a local art shop. Mary, David and Michelle W. all came to support Madeline's fantastic efforts. We had a good time and Madeline was very proud of her work. They displayed art inspired by Warhol, Oldenburg, and Lichtenstein.

Her "Featured Artist" tag read as follows:

Name: Madeline

Age: 6

Hobbies: Playing toilet tag and freeze dance, playing dress up.

Favorite Art: Everything in art.

Something neat about me: I came from Lincoln and I like to talk a lot.

Fat Boy Slim

While talking with a friend last week about children I told her that if I had known what it would be like to have my two children, I may have stopped at one! Of course then I'd have to think about which child I'd rather have and it became easier just to have them both. They're not an easy two children to have, but Ryan did point out to me, as they played together at a restaurant table, sometimes they are pretty darn cute together.

The girls had fun on their day off Monday dancing to Fat Boy Slim. Madeline has a decidedly gangsta-ish appeal. Notice how Annie inconspicuously aims for the doctor kit.

Daddy Daughter Night

The corsages

The trio
Annie and Daddy
Madeline

55 degrees

Fifty-five degrees. Since it's the beginning of February and we live in a state that has an average temperature around 20 these days, 55 sounds pretty warm doesn't it? The thermometer inched up close to that temperature today in fact. I can tell you, however, that 55 degrees is sometimes a very bad temperature.

Like when it's the temperature of the inside of your house at 4:45am on Monday night. To make matters worse, it's a really bad temperature when your husband is out of state sleeping in a nice warm hotel room while you are freezing your biscuits off with your two little children trying to figure out WHY exactly it is 55 degrees in your house at 4:45am.

This was the scene at our house earlier this week. To my great surprise Ryan answered his cell phone when I called him at 4am in the morning in Denver. He told me to re-light the pilot light. Which are words Ihad heard before, but never needed to know since I've never actually HAD to light a pilot light. Have I ever told you that flaming things scare me? That probably harkens back to the time I almost burnt down our apartment during college but that's for another blog. Ryan INSISTS that there are instructions on the furnace that will tell me exactly how to light this little flame of heat called the "pilot". Unfortunately my ability to converse without dropping "f" bombs is limited when I am both; freezing and tired. Guess what? Our furnace does not have a pilot light!

Resolutions

Two years ago I made a resolution to become more "gadget-ized" and over the past two years my beloved betrothed bestowed tech-y birthday gifts galore. I now am the proud owner of a five day forecaster that links into accu-weather, 4gen ipod, pda, smart-ish cell phone, digital SLR and probably other things I don't even recall. I signed up for a MySpace page, joined LinkedIn and "got connected" in a variety of other tech-y ways. Then, IT happened. Last year I lost my pda, and about a month ago I lost my cell phone, I sometimes forget my login and passwords, I go months without checking my email accounts, then we had to use the triple A batteries from my forecaster in order to operate Annie's new remote controlled "My Little Pony" scooter (for her ponies). The list goes on. Did my technological devises fail me, or did I fail them? And what have I learned from all of this? Not that I need a GPS tracking system for all of my junk, but rather that I don't need all the junk. I think in the depths of my subconscious I wanted to lose all of those things. I wanted to be disconnected.

Since July of last year my cell phone was permanently affixed to my hip and that meant one thing; no matter where I was or what I was doing everyone could be connected to me. That's a connection I am not willing to commit to at this time. I am not ready for the commitment to the tech-y world and truth be told I may never be ready for that responsibility. And what I think it says about me is that I don't want to be predictable, that I want to be spontaneous and that for certain moments of my life I want to be free. Free from people. Free from tracking and free from the indiscriminate knowledge of just about everything that society had forced upon us. Where's the fun in knowing everything? What would my role in life be if there was nothing to gain from actual real life people with whom I interact daily? What's wrong with not knowing the answer? My answer to that and my 2009 resolution is: nothing. My resolution this year: to be less "connected" and more alive.

And here's a little secret: I don't check my cell phone voice mail. I probably have messages from weeks ago that I never listened to. And I am horrible about checking the answering machine at home. I sometimes wait a week or more to listen! :)

Elixir

Naked
Juice
is not
a bedtime elixir.

It actually
winds up
your child
in a
most
unpleasant
manner.

Deep Thoughts by a mother

I had it once,
It was with me.
I dearly miss,
My sanity.

Happy MLK day

The beloved whoppie pie. I pay homage to the great allrecipes for this recipe.

Ryan can do tricks, which he discovered recently when peeling a satsuma tangerine. He can peel the tangerine with one tear AND it will look like an elephant. The girls LOVE this. The one in the picture Madeline peeled herself.

Last night I called everyone to dinner. The first one to the table was Tootsie. No kidding, she was just sitting there waiting. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, she sat in a chair with no place setting. (do you see her little head poking up from the back chair?)
Tootsie waiting for dinner again tonight. Same chair, still no place setting.

Santa brought Madeline a modified ATV. The thing does seven MPH on the high setting. She was trucking around the neighborhood yesterday. Sometimes she is gracious enough to give her sis a ride.

Today Madeline and I observed the MLK jr Holiday. Madeline chose to observe the holiday by watching a couple of movies, playing with Mackenzie, swimming, hot tubbing, and driving her mother nuts while I observed the holiday by cleaning the basement, doing pilates, swimming, hot tubbing, baking whoppie pies and doing my best to retain my sanity. Thankfully Ryan and Annie came home before all hope was lost.

Speaking of lost hope, I had an interesting experience this past weekend. On Friday I lost one pearl earring when I was changing before or after Pilates class. It wasn't just any pearl earring, of course, it was the set from our honeymoon. I think we bought it in Mexico. I didn't realize I had lost the earring until bedtime. On Saturday we made our weekly jaunt to the rec. club. As I was dressing to go run I spied the earring (sans back) just sitting on the floor in front of my locker. So I happily picked it up and placed it in my locker. After running I changed and hustled the girls out to take Madeline to her dance class. At some point I realized that I forgot all about the earring. Knowing that I had taken everything out of my locker during my change I was certain the earring was no longer in my locker. Later that night we went back to the rec. club in order to take the girls swimming. Lo and behold the earring was sitting right in front of my locker again. This time I put the earring in my purse and brought it home.

Whilst cleaning the basement I was very happy to find the newspaper clipping from my high school graduation. Fwew! I had been losing sleep trying to figure out where that went. Now I can rest in peace.

Also, the dentist said that her mouth bump is normal and is due to irritation from her six year molar. I am still a little concerned so we'll watch that.

Interesting growth

We noticed an interesting growth in Madeline's mouth yesterday. Hopefully we'll find out soon what course of action we'll take. It looks like it may be a gingiva overgrowth.

Reading

Since we determined Madeline's reading "issue" we've focused on squishing her words together. Now that Madeline understands what her teacher wants she has totally changed her reading stype and now reads normally. She reads much faster and smoother. She adds inflection into her voice and is doing great. It's amazing what good direction can do for you. I lament that we shouldn't have waited so long to find the problem and move forward but fortunately Madeline has always excelled at language arts and is soaring forward. Which is just as I predicted in the meeting. Madeline enjoys reading more as well. Gofigure!

Report Card and Conferences

We had a mid-year conference with Madeline's teacher yesterday. It was a very good meeting. We learned some interesting things about reading and about Madeline herself! As we suspected Madeline is reading at a much higher level than her teacher placed her. She does need to work on speed and smoothness and now that we know the direction to move forward we are certain Madeline will thrive. Her readability and comprehension exceeds the year-end goal which places her in the top readers of her class, but she does not read fast and doesn't "squish" her words together. She is more mechanical with her reading which does not surprise me. Her problem solving has always lended itself to the mechanics. So that is good news! Everyone, including the linquist that attended the meeting, was surprised at how high her readability and comprehension was compared to her smoothness and speed. Once again Madeline is showing us exactly how much she is outside the box.

The other great news is that she is focusing on her tasks much better without being overly concerned about everyone else. She has a new assigned seat in the classroom for worktime. Apparently she prefers to kneel on the ground and use her chair as a work surface. And they let her complete her tasks in her own timeframe (to give her extra time for the details since she's extremely detail oriented). To our relief the teacher and the school will allow Madeline to be herself so she can reach her full potential. One of my biggest fears of public school has always been the "conformity" and it's nice to see that Madeline has challenged them enough to give her boundaries while letting her do things in the manner best suited for her. They called her a "Level 4 learner" which is to say that she always thinks outside the box. The linquist put it well: she finds every other way to accomplish a task than the one given. Maybe it is her way of making school more interesting! I love it! I love that she is able to think about things in so many different ways, is goal oriented and creative.

Oh, one other thing! I know you may find this incredibly surprising. The teachers made sure to communicate that Madeline's forte is art. Now that is a BIG surprise. Madeline starts a Pop Art class in a little over a week. It last for six weeks and ends with an art show. We'll keep you updated on that as time goes on...

January

We had our Christmas and birthday celebrations last Sunday. The girls had fun. Tony came with his girlfriend Chelsea. Mary, David and Ron came also. We ate cheesecake for dessert which was selected by Ron, but I heard some rumbling sadness about the lack of an ice-cream cake. Madeline and Annie liked the cheesecake though! They take after Ryan who loves cheesecake above all others.

The girls were very tired and both fell asleep in the car on the way home. I ran 6.5 miles that night. Unfortunately it was aroun18 degrees and too cold to run outside so I had to do the treadmill.

Running Log

On the right hand side of the blog layout I added a link to my running log. I just started it today and added what I could remember of my run two days ago. I still need a few running accessories to get myself 100% outfitted. I'd love to have a watch that is linked to GPS, tracks heartrate and speed. Ryan is getting me the NikeSport for my birthday which will have some of those things but not the heartrate information. I love my new insoles that help keep my pronating in check and the new midweight running pants I got in Boulder. Running in the mid thirty degree weather today was pretty easy with those pants. I was a little cold at the end, but not too bad considering the temp. I need to get some heavy weight pants soon though. Unfortunately Dick's doesn't carry very good gear. I will have to stop in the specialty running shop for those. Plus the Brooks pants have a little pocket in the back which holds my ipod perfectly! I did see two or three other runners this morning so I wasn't the only diehard on the trail. Tomorrow I am going to run around the local lake a couple of times for a 10k hopefully. Anyway, I just wanted to share the link to my running log!

Heading into the weekend

Just a quick note. I went running last night (my new running pants keep me VERY warm) and did Pilates today. The stuffiness is remaining very mild! I think it has to do with keeping fit. I am just glad it's not too bad. Madeline gets back to Spanish lessons today. Tonight we're headed out to dinner with Joyce and Steve to a local Mexican restaurant Hector's. We're looking forward to our monthly dinner with Joyce and Steve.

This weekend Madeline is back to yoga and dance and Annie goes back to dance class. It should be a very status quo weekend for us. I almost forgot! On Sunday we'll be celebrating birthday and post-Christmas with Ryan's family. We're celebrating birthday for JoLene, Ron II, Tony and myself. I guess we're moving toward celebrating birthdays in two waves; winter and summer. It will be a Mexican inspired weekend since we're having taco soup. Ryan made "chicken" enchiladas for our New Year's Day dinner. Good thing we all really like Mexican.

Happy New Year 2009

We have returned to see another year. We arrived home late Tuesday night to wildly rip open the rest of our Christmas gifts under the tree. Santa left Madeline a ride on beach racer and Annie a little wooden kitchen set complete with wooden tableware and food. They were both very happy with their Christmas this year and they had tons of fun in Colorado with their aunt, uncle and cousins. The cousins were very tolerant of our high energy want-to-play-all-of-the-time children! While in Colorado some of us played at the park, went running, ice skated twice, climbed in the mountains, went to a movie, baked cookies, stayed in the YMCA of the Rockies cabin, enjoyed the shops in Estes, and went mall shopping. It was a great vacation except I brought a little stuffiness home with me. That's okay because it's been six months since I've had any kind of sickness. Hopefully it will stay mild.

We rang in the new year by watching movies; Wall-E and the Dark Knight. Mary is coming over today to make cookies with Madeline. She and David spent yesterday morning with the girls too. I heard that Mary had fun riding the beach racer with Madeline. Ryan spent some time yesterday playing with his new Air Hog and Wii games. Today we've just been cleaning out some of the closets to help de-junk the inner depths of the house. I will post Colorado Christmas pictures later. Happy New Year to all!