Twins

I just finished taking Noah and Brenna to the dentist to have their chipped teeth (one each)pulled. It seemed quite painless to me as Noah waltzed right off, seemingly without a care in the world and I went with Brenna who quickly jumped into the hot seat and immediately began inspecting the light above and the utensils around the chair. However, as we were waiting one of the dental hygenists came in and told me Noah was very nervous. Now, I don't know about you, but the "very" word catapulted my stomach into my throat and I realized I needed to be with my other child and not the bright, inquisitive child who had no gut instinct as to what was about to happen to her. I got up to go to the room next door and the hygenist told me not too. Darn it!! So, then the dentist came in and kicked me out and left me to wander the waiting room as I looked for xray vision to see through the walls to my Noah, where I didn't know what was occurring in his mind or his mouth. An eternity to me of waiting culminated in Brenna sneaking up behind me and garbling her words. I turned around to see a gauze pad tumbling out of her mouth. Brenna took a few minutes to communicate with me that she wanted to see Noah. I replied that we couldn't and we had to wait for him. And as the hygenist spoke to me about my wonderful darling and how well she did, Brenna snuck off into the room where Noah was! I couldn't believe Brenna had the courage to do what I had been wanting to do! By the time I got to him Noah, too, wore his guaze pad of courage bravely and confidently. The dentist told me he had done a fabulous job. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the last hour.

7 things you didn't know.....

1. I really do like eminem, the rapper. Yes, the one who seems to have nothing nice to say. One night I pulled up to a fast food drive thu window and had the eminem song "Loose yourself" blaring. The cashier gave me this funny look, so I turned down the radio apologizing for how loud it was: he replied, "no, that's not it. I just didn't expect someone like you to have the song on. What can I say, I like to work out to this song and it kinda caught hold of me.

2. I want to get a tatoo. Not a big one, just something small on the inside of my ankle. Something that means something. But that's just it, I can't think of something that would be that meaningful my whole life w/out it being cheesy.

3. In my next house, I want to decorate a bathroom with a panda theme. Some people love animals for certain reasons. And Brenna and I have watched the pandas on the webcam to really love them. But, the real reason I want pandas on my wall is because if you took the P in my name and the A in Andy's name and added an and in the middle, PandA.........sitting in a tree....you know the rest, it becomes a cute little symbol for us without being too cheesy obvious, except to you who read my blog.

4. I want to write children's books. My sister and I have kicked around having a book series where the characters are pen pals, but it hasn't developed into anything yet. I keep waiting for not the "right time", but simply any time where I'm not busy. Although, the book I have started writing is titled: "Things I want to tell my daughter, but she's too busy acting like me to listen." Catchy, huh?


5. I have a beautiful dress that hangs in my closet that I wore on my wedding day. I wore it to a luncheon we had afterwards. To this day, it is still one of my favorite dresses and hangs in there waiting to be worn again. But the usual has happened, being married weight, baby weight, emotional eating weight, etc. and so it hangs, lonely and waiting.

6. I sometimes wonder about reconciling God with science.

7. When Tobin was a baby and our only child and he would sometimes wake us up in the middle of the night. I always woke up instantly. But I was also working and sleep deprived. Can you tell I'm trying to justify what I'm abou to tell you? Sometimes, when I heard Tobin, but was simply too tired to get up, I would gently kick Andy's legs so to wake him up so he would hear Tobin crying out. He would always go get Tobin and take care of him. :)

More schoolwork

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share with you some of the artwork from the kids. They are always so proud of their schoolwork. Brenna's homework was to make a disguise for her turkey so we made a peacock together. If you look closely, you can see the turkey behind the plate. Noah made a self portrait and wrote a bcr describing himself. Noah describes himself as atheletic, funny and shy. I think it's so interesting to see what they choose; it's the closest thing to reading their mind.

Funny sayings are another way to get into their head. The other day, when Andy returned home from Spain, Brenna said, "daddy, it's a good thing you came home today, so I didn't have to miss you anymore."

High School Musical, the play

I took Brenna to High School Musical, the fall play at Northwest High School. We were originally supposed to go with two little friends of hers, Lauren and Madison, from dance class. Unfortunately, Lauren was sick, so we invited my friend Katie and her children, Delaney and Jaiden. Brenna and Madison sat together and sang every song amidst giggles and laughter. We have every version of HSM II on our tevo: the original, the dance along, and the sing along. I will often catch Brenna dancing and singing to the movie at home. It's fun when I catch her in the act, but she gets embarassed and stops. And then, I have to walk away with a smile on my face. Oh to be young again....

Oops! Alzeihmer's already?

I forgot to add the climax of Tobin's Halloween outfit! Are you sitting down? He didn't even wear the costume I got for him. Hence the football costume, which isn't really much of a costume. Now is that the epitome of a teenager or what!!

Trick or Treat?

I forgot to mention that Tobin lost his tooth on Halloween. He greeted me at the door after school with his mouth wide open. At first I couldn't see what he was trying to show me. Then it dawned on me that there was a gaping hole in the right side of his mouth. A missing tooth!? How old is my son again? 11? Which tooth is this that could be missing? Please tell me it is a baby tooth. It seems to be, a molar. Does the tooth fairy visit at this age? Please let her know either way as I will be trying to catch up on my beauty sleep.

Happy Halloween

What a night!! Actually, it was pretty uneventful which I consider to be the best success. Tobin is definitely getting older. I would say he was acting like a teenager, but I don't want to face my future yet. I took Noah and Brenna to Hallmark to buy a webkinz for a friend of Noah's and my cell phone rang and lo and behold it was my son telling me he had changed his mind and he now needed a costume for trick or treating! Was he kidding? Doesn't he know how many errands I run for them almost everyday!! In fact, now that I think about it, if I could save the gas, wear and tear on my car and most of all wear and tear on me, I would have his college paid for! So, I schlepped his younger siblings to some huge megastore and found the costumes on sale, which was a plus for me. As I was waiting in line, I started talking to the woman in front of me and I relayed my tale of woe as we waited painfully for the clerk. She told me that I was a much better mother than she was b/c she would have had him either make do or do without. It was some small gesture of niceness but it always makes you feel good to be told you're doing something right.

As soon as it got dark, Noah and Brenna were ready to go. Brenna and Noah practically ran between houses. They had so much fun asking for tricks and treats! They loved it best when they were able to dip their hand in the candy bowl themselves. One house in our neighborhood really goes all out for halloween. In addition to handing out candy, she hands out glow necklaces, hires a magician and has fairy dust for the kids to throw for good luck. Brenna and Noah probably would have been happy at watching the magician all night; he was quite good. During one of his tricks he had Brenna right the word TOP on a card. It was part of the trick which I can't explain because the magician's hands were faster than my eye, but he tore it in half and gave it to Brenna to remember! She was as excited to get that torn piece of card as she was a huge candy bar. We ran into several of Brenna's friends which was fun. I love looking at all the costumes. I kept asking Brenna if she was ready to go back home, but she would adamantly say no. What I forgot to tell her that was as far as she walked from home would be how far we had to walk back. Two minutes after I asked her for the 10th time if she was ready to go home, she finally declared in her most tired voice that she was ready to go home. Oops, were we far from home. Luckily, we knocked on the door of a friend who took pity on us and gave us a ride home.

As we were trick or treating, Noah was pretty quick and would scoot ahead. I wished he would have stayed with us, but he is definitely growing up. Noah was hoping to catch up with his buddies to complete the costume as a rapping trio, but we never did much to his dismay. I had hoped when Noah told me he wanted to ge a gangster, that it was the glorified Al Capone 1920s gangster version. Nope-- it was the thoroughly modern "gangsta" version complete with bling! Andy convinced me a few years ago that Halloween costumes were about their individual freedom of expression and not some creative version of a trio I could come up with (the 3 musketeers; Hermoine, Ron and Harry) to create a perfect costume. I mean what was I thinking, they weren't triplets after all! Happy Halloween everyone!