Really bad blogger!

Wow! Way to long on the posting front, but I have excuses...many of them! Let's start with the visit from mom! This was a great success and I am so glad she came. She arrived on the 19th and we went to the DIA to see the Rembrandt exhibit-the faces of Jesus, had a large Christmas party, went to the movies, hosted an UNO tourney, went to church, hosted Christmas dinner at the house for our family and Jake's wife Cammy and his baby Cassandra,and many other little moments. I was able to take her for ahaircut, to try to find an easy care style for her diminished hand usage. I coloured her hair a nice shade of medium champagne blonde. I think it came out great! We went shopping to Kohls and I was able to buy her some cute things on my charge. I think she enjoyed sitting around watching the Christmas movies, hearing the stories and visiting when the kids were not at school.
On Tuesday morning we set out for NJ. The ride was so awful! It rained from the moment we left til we got to susan's, all 619.9 miles! But Jerry said that we beat the snow, which was filling in behind us in MI, OH and PA, so I was happy we left when we did. The ride home should be fine, Sunday is scheduled to be clear. I will head out then because Molly wants to watch football with Jerry, and Artie is off that day and I want to get out of his hair!
So meanwhile at susan's we are enjoying relaxing cousin time, shopping,game playing,etc. Life Is Good!

Bad Blogger!

Well Thank Heavens my blog-a-day year is up! Because I failed miserably this week..
Excuse number 1-Jerry traveling
Excuse number 2-Charlotte freaking out
Excuse number 3-I'm lazy
I'm stopping at three and I'll highlight(or low light!) the week...
Charlotte's issues began on Monday with hours of screaming. She refused to go to school and could not stop crying. I took her this week to the pediatrician,internist,pediatric opthomologist and head to community mental health on Monday morning.  This took alot of regular energy and even more emotional energy. Hopefully we are on the right track to help my sweet girl live happy.
Monday Shawne and I had a golabki making party, pronounced gwumpkee, stuffed cabbage in English. We had our book club Christmas meeting/dinner on Tuesday night. The book was The Zookeepers Wife, set in Warsaw in World War Two, and so our dinner theme was Polish. Along with the golabki we served pirogi,wisbiski kielbasa,creamed cucumbers,beet soup,, chrushikki(angel wing cookies) coffee and wine. All members save one were in attendance and we collected money to donate to literacy instead of exchanging gifts.
Wednesday Danny had his 11 year check up, and he weighs 87 lbs and stands at 57 1/2 inches tall. He was not happy at the two shots he had to get. He went to tae kwan do Tuesday night with Jack and on Thursday Master Kil told him he should test. Danny wasn't sure he was ready, but Master assured him he was. Danny had set a goal for himself to get his green belt by Christmas and he succeeded! I am very proud of him!
Molly trooped along. Choir rehearsal on Thursday, BBall Friday and Saturday, snowshoe practice, a school dance...and all her usual sports watching. Tonight she called down to Jerry,Danny and I  "do you want to see my dance?" We headed to her room where she unselfconsciously preformed a 10 minute dance to a Hairspray song. She was so proud of her moves, it was heartbreakingly sweet.
Me..I'm minute to minute, keeping the happy going as best I can. Today I went to Yoga again same class as last week. It was great, but I need to go more than once a week. I did the almost last of my shopping while Jerry took the kids to the U of M game. Then the girls went off to snowshoe and Jerry,Danny and I went to the jewelery store. Nope,can't tell you why!
I'll be back tomorrow to report on the cookie party!

Birthday Baby

Danny reading to Molly

Molly was and still is so excited with her little brother!

Danny is a class mascot in Miss Durbin's 4th grade room

Danny hung out with Nana and Molly at the lake

Swimmer Danny rockin the goggles!

God Bless America, age 1 1/2

Birthday Eve!

I can't believe that Danny will be 11 tomrw! "Where does the time go",the Mom wonders as she watches her babies head off into the world. "I'll be here if you need me!" she says with a smile, but she secretly worries that they won't....

Danny and Jerry went to a great event at the U this afternoon, a wrestling clinic and match. The clinic was run by two young Olympic hopefuls, then U of M went on to beat Wisconsin in dramatic fashion. 
We topped that off with coffee and pie with Karen and Eric. How happy to have the woman who cut the umbilical cord singing Happy Birthday with us...I am blessed.

Danny is more than I dreamed, a wonderful,smart,funny guy, who loves Marx brothers with Dad, HGTV with Mom, and Narnia with Charlotte. He reads like Jake, runs like Molly, and sleeps like Charlotte! I hope this year will be a great one for him! 

Caroling with the Campbells

We went to a Christmas Party! Thank you to Donna and Bob for inviting us. We sang until our lips froze off in the 20 degree temps! The food was great(Danny and I made an apple cake with fresh apples from Hanks trees) and the company was good too. I enjoyed visiting with Donna's parents  her Dad is a funny old Polish guy.
I also got my dupa back to yoga today! Went to an 8am class, while Jerry took the kids to SO BBall. Snowshoe was cancelled cause coach was sick, so we got to hang out and watch a couple of Christmas movies. We went to mass to at 5pm so tomorrow morning we can stay in bed in the cold. Yay!
We also had a nice note from Jake, he got his first Christmas package and loved it!
It was good to hear from him.

A hunting they will go!

Danny and Jerry headed up to Posen to go to the hunting camp and visit Aunt Reg.  She is in the rehab facility and doing very well. The guys headed up after mass this morning and made their first stop the camp.  They trooped around in the woods, hung out at the deer blind(didn't see anything) and just enjoyed the outdoors. Late in the afternoon they headed off to Roger's City to visit Aunt Reg. I had suggested that Danny bring his piano music in case the facility had a piano and guess what? They had a piano!! So after a bit of visiting Danny got his music and the nurses wheeled Aunt Reg into the dining room. What a surprise for her when Danny began his concert. The nurses station was just across the way and Danny heard them complementing him. He was very proud!

The girls and I went out to Wal-mart for a bit of Christmas shopping. I like to focus on the girls and their abilities and I tend to not focus on their intellectual disability. So sometimes it takes me by surprise and breaks my heart. Example: I dropped the girls at Wal-mart and scooted to Lowes to do a return.  The girls each had their list, which they had made, and I suggested they each get a cart and start shopping. Molly had put Claire,Jamie and Allie on her list, along with the family and Nana and Aunt Reg. When I got inside, about 10 minutes later, Molly proudly came up to me with a huge Easy Bake oven that she had picked out for Allie! Oh was she excited. I praised her for finding such a cool gift, and gently mentioned that it might be a little young for Allie. We looked at things for the "Grandma's" and then headed back to the toy area. When I told Molly that Allie was too old for the oven she burst into tears, it was all I could do not to cry myself. She was heartbroken. But we hugged and I made a couple of suggestions for other gifts, and we moved on. It was a reminder to me to tread gently with her, she has a heart of gold and less understanding than I sometimes remember(or choose to remember) Father Karl had a homily today that was aimed directly at me..and one of the things he said was "when you are tempted to give in to the struggles of parenthood, perhaps with anger or depression, you need to say, "No, more love here!" and of course ask GOD to help you with this.

So that is my prayer tonight. That I look at the girls and instead of feeling frustration I say,

More Love here!

Sewing Lessons Wednesday 12/7/11

Karol our fearless sewing teacher/friend has returned from her Thanksgiving family visit/babysitting job. Can you imagine how lucky her son and his wife are...she and Don watched the 7.5 and 3 year olds while they went on a NINE day cruise! Which they do EVERY year! Seriously--how nice is that?!  Anyway I digress..Karol came today for a sewing lesson and Danny finished his PJ bottoms! He did such a good job. He is so meticulous and patient. Karol even had him do the hem with 2 turns and ironing in between. He learned so much. And they even got me on the machine, finally! I finished my first project, which is a Christmas gift, with Danny's help. It was fun.
Danny went to Rollerama with Ryan and his family. He saw a bunch of pals from St. Pats and really had fun. I was super happy that he had a chance to hang out with his buds. :)

White Christmas Crunch Squares recipe

White Christmas Crunch Squares recipe

Boars Head Christmas Festival!!

Danny with two of the three Kings

Ed Bedner, his engineer pal as the jester,Jer,Danny,Molly,Hannah,Mollie the jesters daughter,Charlotte,Sophie

Ed,Laura and Hannah Bedner invited us to join them at their friends Church up in Saginaw this afternoon. The church is in it's 27th year of hosting a Boar's Head Festival. Rooted in pagan times when the boar was the fist dish served at a Roman feast,, the colourful ceremony of the Boar's Head became part of the Christmas celebration at the great manor homes of the middle ages. In medieval England, the boar was a ferocious beast and sovereign of the forest, a danger and a menace to man, and, therefore,  the symbol of evil. The presentation of the boars head, carried into the great hall on a procession at Christmas time, signified the triumph of the Christ-Child over sin. The begin of the ceremony is not known, but the first one recorded was at Queen's College, Oxford, shortly after the founding of the University in 1340. It continues there to this day! The festival came to America in colonial times, performed in Episcopal churches and schools.
The church we went to has an amazing congregation. The many musician, including harp,bagpipe, heralding trumpets, and more are all members of the church. A full choir sang from above, while actors dressed in elaborate costumes danced and sang for us. The Christmas story was told, complete with live new born baby, three Kings and their entourages, and bewildered shepherds. Good King Wenceslas, court jesters and wassailers added to the fun.  What a fantastic, different way to kick off the Christmas season!!

Friday 12/3 A Great School Day

Danny and I had a great day of learning. My unit on Afghanistan went really well.  We viewed a DVD on families ,one from the country and one from the city. Danny did an online scavenger hunt and we read a bunch of books. I learned alot and I hope Danny did too!
Danny had Ryan come over after school, those two are so much fun to listen to. They never stop laughing and goofing with each other. Ryan is taller again, check back next month-they keep seesawing back and forth.
Shawne came over with Leah. Jerry and the kids headed off to Bball and she and I watched a movie together. Well, actually we talked so much we hardly got through it. I needed that!

Worked my monthly schedule at the library..in one night

oh my- my auto-deposit bank account will be empty soon at this rate. My hours for the month of December are 4 hours, and I worked it tonight! So I guess I'm grateful that Jer is the breadwinner because the hours at BDL are bad and getting worse.  The library will be closed on Thursday's now and it will be challenging for the regular staff to get their hours, never mind us subs. Well, I can't do anything about it, so I need to start thinking about my next career move..ideas are welcome!