Snowed in

This weekend we got our first big snow of the year. We knew it was coming and when it was over we had eight inches on the ground. I, however, did not do any shopping in preparation for this storm. Partly due to lack of time, partly due to laziness, but mostly because I'm from ND. I'm prepared even without having to get prepared. I knew we had everything we could possibly need at home including enough food to last a week if need be. There were times over the weekend that the kids were at each other's throats, but for the most part it was a very good weekend. It was the kind of weekend that made me feel like a good mom. It might be weird, but I feel like a good mom when I want to cook something and I have everything on hand to make it. I had been planning on making some kuchen so I had bought everything for it, but since we were stuck inside as the snow fell I decided to continue baking. I had some nice ripe bananas on the counter so I whipped up some Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then wanting a big breakfast the next morning I put together some Overnight French Toast for the morning. I planned on making a carrot cake as well, but I ran out of time. Still I felt good knowing I had everything on hand to make that too. I'll probably make the cake tomorrow.

This weekend Torii and I also played some board games. We hadn't played Rummikub in a long time and it was fun playing with him. We also got outside and played some today. We had some good drifts in the driveway, but we got it pretty well cleared out. We ended our time outside in a snow fight, which Cordelia informed me I lost. I was pretty snowy when it was all said and done so she was probably right.

I even got a little cleaning done. Our house is still a mess, let's not crazy here. I said a little cleaning done. Well, there's still tomorrow.

Arm surgery for Torii

When Torii was much younger Fred noticed that there was a curve in Torii's left arm. We mentioned it at his next doctor's appointment, but decided that we would let it be for awhile and see how he grew. We knew we would eventually have to go to Minneapolis and talk to a specialist. As luck would have it, this past summer I learned that Shriner's Hospital would be seeing children locally to see if they qualified for treatment. Torii qualified and after an appointment in July we were back in October for surgery.

 

The "before" picture. See how his left arm has a curve to it? 

Torii picked yellow and black stripes on his cast for the Steelers. 

Of course we had to do a little spoiling the day before surgery. Here's Fred and Torii on a roller coaster at Mall of America.

 

Torii picked the Rainforest Cafe for dinner the night before. 

Shriner's Hospital is located in a nice quiet area of Minneapolis. It's sort of tucked in a hillside next to the Mississippi River. There was a nature trail that we explored our last full day there. It was a beautiful fall day to be outside.

There was also lots of things for kids to do to stay busy. We played some air hockey, pool, watched movies and played a lot of Angry Birds on the iPad.

 

 

I can't say enough about Shriner's Hospital. They had an excellent staff and took great care of us while we there. We were also able to stay in the parent's center that is attached to the hospital. They are definitely going to be a charity of choice for our family.

5 years

I started this blog back on Aug. 27th, 2007, just a couple of months before we got to meet our little girl. I can't believe she is already five years old! In some ways it seems like yesterday. Of course, some days it seems like a lifetime ago. Once in awhile I'll get a bit nostalgic and read old posts. There are a lot of things I have already forgotten about. Four years ago at this time we were in Minneapolis with Cordelia for her surgery. I forgot we almost didn't get home in time to vote in the last presidential election. There's also stories about people that are no longer with us and a lot of happy and funny stories too. I've been lax on the blog lately, but I am thankful I've had the blog to record some of our family's adventures together. For family and friends reading along, I hope you've enjoyed reading about our adventures too.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Where did the summer go?

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Check mate

For some reason I have never learned to play chess and Torii has always wanted to learn. A few weeks ago we found a pretty good chess board for him and Fred taught him the game. At the time we were pretty busy with our usual life plus getting ready for vacation so I didn’t play any games with Torii. Meanwhile, Torii like everything he does, kept practicing, playing with anyone who would play with him. He even brought it with on vacation and the boys played it first thing almost every morning. After we got home and life got settled again, Torii finally taught me to play. I’m really terrible, but I can see the appeal of chess. Torii is really good at capitalizing at my mistakes. I even try to think ahead a move or so, but so far that has always backfired. The thing is, I’m pretty sure he’s plotting a few moves ahead as well. And he sees things that I don’t pick up on. But I will beat him one of these days. I told him to watch out because the more we play, the better I’ll get. Of course, he’ll get better too. Yup, my plans just got foiled again.

Raising Twins (fans)

Torii has always been his own person. He doesn’t like to follow the lead of others and no matter how much we try to brainwash  persuade him, he will still like the opposite. He drinks Pepsi because I drink Diet Coke. He likes sports teams that neither Fred nor I like. He likes the Vikings because Fred and I both hate them. For the most part I am fine with that. Except that he can also be a real pill about things. I’ve tried to explain to him that although the Steelers are not my favorite team, I still root for them because he likes them. He won’t do the same for the Broncos and trash talks them repeatedly. The worst was in baseball. Thankfully he hasn’t started to rooting for the Yankees, but he would root against the Twins at every opportunity. We went to a Twins/Tigers game and he cheered for the Tigers. How dare he. After all, he’s named after a Twin. Last month Torii and I went to one game together and he actually cheered for the Twins. A couple of weeks later the whole family went to a game and Torii again cheered for the Twins. I suppose I was taken in by the Twins by going to games too. I was telling Torii the other day that when I first got interested in baseball I liked the Twins and Oakland A’s. After a few years, the Twins were my only team. I’m sure going to games every summer helped cement my Twins fandom. Now I’m hoping the same will be true with my kids. It’s also a lot of fun to see my kids watch games on TV and remember things about the stadium and recognize players. I think I may have some Twins fans yet.

This brings me to another related issue. It seems the boys are being brainwashed in school about certain colleges. Actually, each class has a designated college that they learn about and in some cases they have gotten to tour the school. Last year Rion got to visit U of Mary and is now talking about how he’s going to go to school there. First of all, I’m not paying for that school. Second of all, he doesn’t realize that by that time in his life he is going to want to get out of this city and quite possibly this state. I will gladly send the kids to any college they want, (expect some overpriced private college like U of Mary), but I would be overjoyed if they decided to attend NDSU. I keep highlighting NDSU’s many features such as their engineering dept. or just the fact that it’s in Fargo.  Torii could really care less about the academic side, so I think it’s about time to start getting the family to some NDSU football games too. Fargo on game day is so much fun and I want Torii to experience that. I want him to get excited about NDSU football and possibly decide to attend college there.

Is this brainwashing? Maybe. But I would love to be able to bond with the kids over a Twins game or send them off to NDSU. Still, I will be happy with whatever they choose as long as it makes them happy.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Gymnastics

The kids have been in gymnastics off and on for the last three years. We’ve tried to be in it as much as we could, but sometimes it just didn’t work out with other activities. Lately, our gymnastics academy has become very competitive. And I’m not taking about the kids. I talked to another mom at church who also has a daughter in gymnastics. She said she had shown up the first day of registration to find the line stretched outside the office. I told her it was getting really full when I signed up on the second day, but I was able to get the kids in a class. During the next session registration, I couldn’t get to gymnastics to sign them up the first day. The kids had their class during the second day of registration so I wasn’t worried about not getting them into a class. Wow, was I wrong. I couldn’t even get Torii into a class. I’ve never had a problem getting him in. Cordelia’s classes fill up fast, but Torii’s I wasn’t worried about at all. The kids were really disappointed so we decided to check out the gymnastics across the river. So far we really like this gymnastics. The classes are smaller and they have more than one coach for each class. Torii’s previous class consisted of six boys and one coach. I felt bad for the kid trying to keep those boys on task. It would be tough for anyone. Torii’s current class has two other boys and two coaches. Not only do these coaches seem more enthusiastic about coaching, but having two coaches allows them more one-on-one time with the boys. Torii has been able to practice his skills more in each class and gets more advice from his coaches on how to improve. Cordelia’s class is the same size as before, but again with more than one coach to keep an eye on them all. While the facility may not offer all that the previous one did, the kids are really enjoying this gymnastics. I really like it too. I can actually watch most of their practice. (The previous place had an obstructed view). And the gymnastics is in an old building downtown so I continually marvel at some of the building’s features and construction. The only thing I don’t like is that they don’t have a time that Torii and Cordelia could be in gymnastics at the same time. It’s not that big of a deal to drive over there twice a week, but I could see it becoming too much. There are currently times that we are only home one day a week. While we hated leaving the other gymnastics, I think it was time for a change and this one seems to be working out.

Wordless Wednesday

Learning to ride a bike

Last summer Rion wanted to learn to ride his bike. So we tried to teach him. We spent countless hours trying to help him. There were many times that he seemed so close to taking off. And then he would fall. Then came the tears and the self-doubt. Rion doesn't do well when things are hard and riding a bike was proving hard. Many of our lessons ended with Rion crying that he would never learn to ride his bike and me frustrated that he gave up so easily. Meanwhile, Torii, who is never one to give up, was riding his bike all over the place. Near the end of summer, Torii's bike broke. Since Rion didn't look like he would be riding it any time soon, I let Torii use Rion's bike. More recently, we've been enjoying an early spring and spending a lot of time outside. A couple of weeks ago Torii took out Rion's bike since his bike was still out of commission. Rion had a fit. He wanted to ride his bike. Dreading a repeat of last summer, I asked Rion if he was really going to learn to ride his bike this summer. He said he would so I prepared myself for another tough lesson. But before  I could get another word out, Rion hopped on his bike and took off. I asked him if had been practicing lately and he said he hadn't. And just like that, my little bird found his wings and learned to fly.

Weekend with the boys

Not long ago, Fred and I saw Elton John in concert. After the concert I regretted not taking the boys. Sure, they only knew some of Elton John's songs from Gnomeo and Juliet, but they would have had fun. So when it was announced that he would be performing in Grand Forks, I had to get tickets. I wasn't really looking forward to driving to Grand Forks just for a concert, but sometimes I'm just not willing to say, "We'll do that someday, but not today." Plus how cool is it that the boys can say their first concert was an Elton John concert? Since the boys and I went to Grand Forks and Fred had to work, Cordelia stayed with Grandpa and Grandma for the weekend. That was nice for her since she doesn't get to spend a lot of time alone with them. And as much as I missed Cordelia, it was nice just hanging out with the boys. I always find it funny how removing one person from a group can change the dynamics. I especially enjoyed my time with Rion. We don't get to spend a lot of time together. Mostly because his brother and sister are such attention hogs. There were moments over the weekend that I looked at Rion and couldn't believe how big he has gotten. He's already changing into a young man. And he's such a smart, creative, thoughtful guy. Sometimes I forget that because he's often the source of my frustrations at home. It was great having that time together.

The boys really liked the concert. They started to get tired about 9:30. I figured we had to be getting to the end of the concert soon so I told them to hang on a little longer. Plus we wanted to hear "Crocodile Rock" before going. Well, he finally sang it at 10:40. It was the last song before the encore so we stayed to listen to the encore as well. The best moment of the night was when Elton John sang "The Bitch is Back." I don't think I've ever played that song for the kids. Not only because of the word bitch in the title, but it's not on either one of the Elton John Cd's I have. The kids might not have noticed the offending word if it had just been sung, but the word was also flashed over and over on the giant screens behind the stage. I looked over at Rion and his eyes were huge. "Mom, he said the "B" word!" We had a lot of fun and I'm glad we went.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

It's finally winter

It was bound to happen. Winter finally arrived. For February it was still really nice out today. Anytime you don't have to go out in multiple layers, hats and gloves in February is a good day. It has been nice without the cold temps, but I was still hoping for a little snow to play in. We finally got that last week. We got 2.5 inches and it was nice enough to go outside and enjoy. 

 Cordelia has a Rugrats umbrella that she takes everywhere. She took it to church one morning and a couple had to stop in the middle of the parking lot to tell us how cute she was. The snowpants she is wearing are a little big for her. I got them for next year, but she insisted on wearing them.

When I got outside Rion was shoveling the driveway. What a nice guy.

Wordless Wednesday

Last night I had a bad dream...

...a very bad dream.

Football Fumblers

Torii invented a new sandwich. He calls them "Football Fumblers". I have no idea why they are called that, but I think it's a great name for a sandwich. It's basically a breakfast sandwich. Football Fumblers are a  sausage patty, bacon, scrambled eggs, and cheese on a biscuit. They are tasty!

Wordless Wednesday

Pinewood Derby

The boys had their first Pinewood Derby about a week ago. They did good for their first time. They didn't win a race, but they still had fun. I think they have now some ideas for next year. 

 Rion's Tim Tebow car.

 The boys and their trophies.

Torii's Steelers car.

Fred helped Cordelia make a car that she got to race. They even gave her a trophy.

The tooth fairy

That damn tooth fairy forgot about my son again. We need a new tooth fairy because this one is terrible.

So, Torii lost a tooth yesterday. When he went to bed he wanted Fred and I to go to bed too so the tooth fairy would stop. Rion told Torii he would stay up, just so the tooth fairy wouldn’t come. I told Torii not to worry about it and we all would be in bed shortly. This morning as I was getting the boys up and getting their clothes ready I heard Torii, “you stayed up last night.” When I looked over Torii was holding the bag with his tooth in it and had a really sad look on his face. I felt terrible. The only problem was that I couldn’t apologize without telling him the truth about the tooth fairy. So I lied. And that made me feel bad too. I told him the tooth fairy was probably really busy last night, but I was sure she would stop tonight. So Torii put the tooth back under his pillow. Hopefully the tooth fairy shows up tonight.

Role models

Charles Barkley role model ad

There will probably come a day when at least one of the kids, probably Torii, will look to an athlete as a role model. I really don’t want my children to look at an athlete as a role model, but it will probably happen. There have been times when Fred and I have used athletes as examples. Torii seems to think that he can go to high school and be so good that he can immediately go play for the Steelers. We explained to him that all those players went to college first (we didn’t tell him how many didn’t graduate), and that they all worked really hard, academically and physically, to be a professional athlete. And if there’s ever a time when my kids think they can’t do something, I don’t have to look far to find an athlete that never said he couldn’t do something. Jim Abbott was born without a right hand, but he played in the major leagues for 10 years. Now you think you can’t do something? Conversely, there’s many athletes that can serve as an example of how not to behave. Recently a Chicago Bears player was arrested for allegedly dealing drugs. Why would you do that? You’re making at least six figures a year to play a game and you blow it all by dealing drugs? Unfortunately, athletes behaving badly seems to be a more common teaching moment and just one of the reasons why they shouldn’t be role models. I’m sure there are many decent human beings playing professional sports, but that doesn’t mean they should be role models. I want my kids’ role models to be their parents, teachers, relatives, and any other person who has a direct positive impact on their lives. I won’t stop them from looking up to an athlete, but we will certainly use that as a teaching moment. And if they do choose an athlete as a role model, please, please let it be Tim Tebow.

Wordless Wednesday

Praying for a Tebow playoff miracle

I don’t know if Torii just likes to disagree or he has to be an individual. Either way, he decided that he wasn’t going to like any sports teams that his parents like. Therefore, he picked the Steelers as his favorite football team. I asked him why he picked the Steelers. “They look tough,” he said. They went on to win the Super Bowl that year. For Christmas I bought Torii a Steelers calendar. It has this year’s schedule on it and he noticed the Broncos and Steelers did not play each other this year. That quickly changed as the Steelers are set to play in Denver in the first round of the playoffs this weekend. The smack talk began immediately. In the spirit of the game Torii and I have made a friendly wager. If the Broncos win, he has to get down on his knee, and Tebow in his Steelers jersey. And I get to take a picture. Torii decided that if the Steelers win, I have to do a Vikings cheer. And he gets to video it. So look for me singing Skol Vikings soon. That kid is evil.