It seems that we always remember the big things for which we are thankful.
On the second day of Thanksgiving break with my darling children, I suddenly realized the only break I was going to get was a break from carpool lines.It was also evident that my sweet children were set on recreating battlefield scenes reminiscent of Little Big Horn.
Thankfully, my very own superhero came to our rescue.Super Daddy left work early and suggested we go paint some pottery!!! Now, why hadn’t I thought of that?Oh yeah, I know why!I would have been Custer, out-numbered by angry Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, in a small studio with pottery all around.Hmmmm…
Well, I am thankful that we had a nice afternoon as a family, being creative and laying the groundwork for another fun tradition.
Last week we discovered that our cool hamster, Hammy, passed away. I didn’t think it was going to really affect the kids because they had not paid much attention to him as of late. But, I was wrong. The kids, during this little ‘teaching moment,’ were not as cavalier as I thought they might be. Gillian still prays for Hammy and asks daily if we can get a new little hamster. Hayden took it very hard. He seems to be internalizing a lot of it. The other day at the grocery store as we walked down the pet aisle to pick up some dog bones, I caught my sweet boy staring at the hamster food. “Mommy Auto-Pilot” kicked in and I wanted t o scoop him up and love him. But I respected the fact that he didn’t open that door. Instead, he flashed me his tender little smile as if we understood each other’s thoughts.
Zippy is still a sweet pooch and he has come a long way. He loves attention and is quite jealous of his canine brother.? Zippy truly ‘zips’ around our yard — chasing rabbits, catching birds and running up and down the fence playing with the neighbor dog. He also loves to be vacuumed. Whenever I vacuum, he follows me around until I vacuum his coat.
Bennett is a wild child. He is so fast and loves to annoy the entire family. He steals socks, toys and toilet paper. He is so soft and loves to be held. He is really fitting in nicely in this crazy home. He looks very handsome right now as he just got groomed.
It wouldn’t be appropriate to forget sweet little Kady. The 28th of this month marks three years that she left us. I think of her often and I really miss her. I know she would think we were insane if she were here now.
Not long ago the Toys-R-Us, Target, Lego (and Staples) catalogs arrived and the memories rushing in…
Fun were the days as a kid when that GINORMOUS toy catalog arrived in the mail. Hours flew by while I poured over it, dog-earring the pages and highlighting almost everything while I made my Christmas wish list.
Now as I write this, my kids are, well… being kids. Circling and marking and dreaming away.
Gillian has circled everything PINK in the Target and Toys-R-Us catalogs! This includes horses, dolls, stuff animals, play huts and dress-up clothes. With every page turn I heard “Ewwww Mommy, I want this too!”, “Ohhh, isn’t this cute, Mommy?”
Hayden has studied each and every page of the Staples catalog. Each time he goes through it, he circles one of the few items that were left un-circled and re-circles the ones he wants the most! He gets so excited when he sees the “Free Delivery” printed on the front. My poor children, I have apparently failed in teaching them that NOTHING is Free! Especially not leather desk chairs, mini fridges, floor lamps, shelves, over-head projectors or wall mount pencil sharpeners.
It is so cute to see them dream and anticipate it all and I really hate to burst that bubble. But, while some of their dream will come true this Christmas, I’m afraid my son is about to learn the hard way that “Free Delivery” does not mean “Free Shoppng Spree!”
Due to the extraordinary amount of spam hitting our comments section of our blog we have had to implement a quick one-time registration on the ‘comments page’. Please take the time to register, we love hearing from you. We apologize for the one-time inconvenience this causes. Thank you again for being part of our ‘Daily Grind’!
After a few days of horrific coughing by Kimberly, it was time to try something different. So, while I was standing in front of the Cough/Cold section of the drugstore wondering which one to try this time, the pharmacist walked by and I asked, “Do anything of these things actually work?”
She pointed to one I had never heard of before. Buckley’s. I looked at it, noticed it had the same ingredient as every other cough suppressant out there, but took her at her word and bought it.
I took it home, grabbed a teaspoon and called Kim in to take her medicine.
When we opened the bottle, we immediately knew something was different. I thought it smelled like ammonia. I’m not sure what Kim thought it smelled like, but she would later say it tasted like Drano. Hayden thought it smelled like Vicks, but that is way too generous.
Knowing it was going to be bad, Kim pinched her nose and took it like a trooper.
The only problem is that she only pinched her nose for about 5 seconds (we’ve since learned that it is best to hold your nose for at least 60 seconds).
“It burns!”
She immediately started doing a weird sort of dance/shuffle/hop around the kitchen.
“It tastes like Drano!”
She put both hands on the counter, shook a little, hopped over to another side of the kitchen and repeated the same thing. She made a few weird gurgling and squeaking sounds, her eyes watered. She spoke in tongues for a few seconds.
“I’m never taking that again!”
Honestly, I got a little concerned. I wondered if we got a bad batch or a tainted batch. I mean no one would intentionally make a medicine that was so nasty it was practically unusable. So I hit the source of all information, the internet (Yeah, I know… why didn’t I do this before I fed it to my wife??).
Here’s what I found: http://www.buckleys.com “It Tastes Awful. And it Works.”
It’s unique combination of herbs is nasty and awful. Truly, truly horrible.
After spending about a half hour online reading about this stuff, I noticed something, though.
“Kim, ummm. You haven’t coughed since you took it.” We both laughed.
And she only coughed 1-2 times over the course of the next four hours. Then, forgetting the pain experienced earlier, she took another spoonful. This time she held her nose for a full minute.
After a few days of horrific coughing by Kimberly, it was time to try something different. So, while I was standing in front of the Cough/Cold section of the drugstore wondering which one to try this time, the pharmacist walked by and I asked, “Do anything of these things actually work?”
