happy halloween

we don't celebrate halloween. we don't go out trick or treating, and we don't dress up. (go ahead and judge, because i don't have time to explain why right now.) we do hand out candy though, as you should very well know...

but this year i changed my mind.

some people dress up. some people dress up their kids. some people dress up their dogs. but me? i decided to dress up my house! and this year, my house is gonna be a dirty, messy house for halloween.

that's right. i made sure the beds weren't made, the carpets were dirty, the bathrooms far from sparkling, and the dishes unwashed. i went the extra mile to make sure there was dust on every flat surface, used diapers rolled up on the the living room floor, sticky spilled soda spots in the kitchen, and even an unusual stench coming from somewhere.

and the 2 liter of root beer i just emptied into my cup? my better judgement told me to just leave it on the counter instead of throwing it in the nearby garbage can.


and the bad part?! my house actually doesn't look as bad as it has in the recent weeks!

maybe next year i'll try to dress it up as a clean and tidy house—whatever THAT is!

moving on...

we* have moved on


*ryan

from a love of ketchup


to a love


of


barbecue sauce!

not to worry, though. ketchup has not totally left the picture. ryan can still be found dipping his apple slices into ketchup...

what are your eat-out-of-the-container, can't-live-without, must-have favorite condiments?

not me! monday

last monday i did NOT spend the whole day cleaning for family that was going to come for a visit, only to take a break to go to the grocery store. i did NOT end up coming home with 23 bags of groceries!! and in the 3.5 days that my family visited, we only ate here twice. uh huh... i do NOT have a lot of food in my house!

this past week i did NOT have a blast with my parents and my three nieces (9, 7, & 4 years old) who came for a visit. we had only a couple mishaps while they were here... it was very warm the second night they were here, so i did NOT decide to prop the front door open to cool off the house. we got the girls to bed, dealt with some homesickness, and then got the girls settled in bed again. we were sitting around chatting when i did NOT hear screaming from their room. i bolted upstairs and as i was running down the hall a black cat did NOT come running out of their room and out the front door!!! nope, a stray cat did NOT come in our open front door, go up to the kid's room, and scare the panties off 3 almost asleep overly tired little girls. needless to say, the door stayed closed from then on...

while my family was here ryan slept in our room with us. so he would NOT wake up when ben got up for work. since then his sleep habits have been way off. instead of getting up at 9-9:30, this morning he did NOT wake up before 8am. i am NOT dreading the time change this saturday and having him wake up before 7AM!!! (here is your friendly reminder... daylight savings time ends on sunday, november 1st. don't forget to set your clocks back one our this coming saturday night!)

i have NOT forgotten to give ryan his medicine about 4 nights this week. ugh. i will NOT have to start writing notes as a reminder. and speaking of ry, his neurologist did NOT fail to call me this past week, or the week before with the results from his EEG. and because i don't enjoy calling them and leaving a message for them to call me back, i did NOT decide that i'm just going to wait until his appointment this week to find out the results. besides, dr. h has an accent and i'm NOT afraid that i won't understand her over the phone! so for those of you who have been waiting for results, i will NOT get them at his neuro appointment on friday!

on saturday night we (yes. the whole family. ben included.) did NOT go to joann fabrics to get a couple things. (we were NOT there until closing time!) after we finally left the store, walked to our car, and unloaded our purchases i did NOT decide that i would give the cart a shove toward the store and let it roll there so i didn't have to push it back. well maybe it was the slight breeze, or maybe it was the downward slope of the parking lot, but the cart started going straight towards the store and then did NOT veer way to the left (right in the picture) and was headed right for one of the 5 cars in the parking lot. ben did NOT see what was happening and did NOT sprint over to the cart just to grab it right before it plowed into the side of the lady's car. the lady that was NOT just walking out of the store... i was NOT laughing my head off at what happened, and i'm sure the people that were sitting in their idling car did NOT get a good laugh either! and no, i did NOT draw a picture again just to better explain it...!

happy monday y'all. go visit mckmama for some more not me! monday fun!

wordless wednesday

would you rather

if you could pick only one,

would you rather have



a maid to clean your house and do your laundry,



a chef to cook your meals,



or a live-in nanny to watch your children?




because my mom is here now so i have all three!!!

i ♥ my mom.

not me! monday

monday monday! it seems that i have done 400 loads of laundry this week. so now it's time to air the [not so] dirty laundry...



on saturday, ryan did NOT somehow change the snooze on my radio alarm clock from 10 minutes to 1 minute. so yesterday morning when the alarm went off and the radio came on, i hit snooze and rolled over. and then it came on again playing the same song. i hit snooze. and again, the alarm went off still playing the same song. in my tired state of mind i did NOT wonder why in the world the radio station kept playing the same song over and over again, and then did NOT feel stupid when i realized what had happened. i did NOT then turn off my alarm clock and go back to sleep!

* * * * *

remember that 47+ pounds of candy that we ben bought last november? well we do NOT still have about 4 unopened bags of it. and ben certainly did NOT suggest passing it out to the trick-or-treaters this halloween. after i vetoed that idea, i did NOT consider opening a couple of the packages to see if it tasted okay to hand out to the kids...

* * * * *

i have NOT been busy cleaning my house for the arrival of my parents and my three nieces later today. samantha has NOT been begging me to have the house clean so that she can impress them. i may NOT take a video of my clean house as proof. because this (a clean house) does NOT happen only about 2 times a year!

* * * * *

remember how i checked the mail in vain last monday? well my mail lady did NOT do the same thing! i did NOT laugh (and feel so much better) when she told me that last tuesday!

* * * * *

samantha has NOT started writing in a notebook-turned-diary recently, and last night she did NOT tell me i could look at it. she does NOT have the pages numbered like she's having a spelling test at school. and this is what i did NOT read:

1. I;m fablus. [yes, she used a semicolon instead of an apostrophe. and don't you love how she spelled fabulous?!]

2. God loves me.

3. I love you.

4. I have a boyfrend.

i did NOT gasp when i read #4. it is NOT our neighbor boy! and she has NOT told him that she loves him already.... we are NOT in trouble!!!

* * * * *

i did NOT cook a real dinner for my husband 3 times this week.

'nuf said.

* * * * *


happy not me! monday!!

inevitable

i realize that i haven't really talked a whole lot about how i met ben here... or about how exactly i ended up in missouri. so today, i put your burning curiosity to rest. that, and my friend mary is having a bloggy carnival about first dates. join along if you'd like!

it was 12 years ago this coming november. the year was 1997. i was a minnesota born and raised 15-year-old green bay packer fan and lover of brett favre. i had recently discovered chat rooms online, and one inparticular chat room that i occasionally visited was a football chat room. one afternoon i happened to start a discussion about the packers with an 18-year-old missouiran and rival minnesota vikings fan. at the end of our conversation, for some reason, he gave me his email address, benk1@thisisnolongerhisemailaddress.com.

so i emailed him.*

and he emailed me back.

and thus my friendship with ben started. we emailed back and forth and chatted online for 2 years. and then one lovely afternoon in august my friend jessica and i were watching a movie at my house when i got a call from john henry with the internal revenue service. (remember that jess?!) mr. henry informed me that he had 6 documents stating that i hadn't paid my taxes for the past 4 years and if i didn't cooperate that he would hand the case over to the authorities. my parents weren't home, so i was kind of freaking out. and then he said something like, "so this is what you sound like." yes, that mean mr. henry who wouldn't believe that i'd never had a job was actually ben calling me for the first time. (and yes, he had written out his whole speech prior to calling me...)

and that was the beginning of our endless phone calls and tons of money spent on phone cards. eleven months later, in july of 2000, ben came to minnesota to meet me in person for the first time. i was 18, ben was 21. and at the airport it was love at first sight! he stayed at our house for nine wonderful days. we toured the city, went bowling and mini golfing, went fishing, had a pizza picnic, soaked each other in a water fight, and played a ton of games! i don't remember exactly what our first date was, but i do remember that we kissed the second night he was there. i gave him a hug goodnight, and then it sort of awkwardly but wonderfully turned into a kiss.

it was inevitable and unavoidable. and incredible.

and thence our relationship set sail.

our first ever picture together. please excuse my big looking head and my extremely white face. and the quality of the picture—it's from our scrapbook.

it was also inevitable that ben had to leave after our nine-day venture. but i will save that for another post! after all, this was only supposed to be about our first date!

hop over to mary's blog to read some more first date stories, or write your own and play along!

*in no way do i condone 15-year-old girls meeting boys online. he did not know my first name for months and did not give him my address or phone number for years. and yes, we will be coming up with a different story to tell our daughter someday...!

wordless wednesday — "hide-n-seek" style

puh-lease tell me!!!

why is it totally okay and acceptable for a husband to pass gas in front of his wife?!

but when the reverse happens and wifey is a little flatulent, it is gross, nasty, and absolutely disgusting?


there is definitely something wrong here!

not me! monday

happy not me! monday. not only can we admit our imperfections without guilt, but this month there's also a chance to WIN! check out mckmama's blog to play along or for some hillarious reading material!

this week...

i did NOT take ryan to scary target the night before his EEG. i did NOT buy him $50 worth of toys to play with. and i certainly did NOT make him leave them in the boxes so that we can take them back...!

i did NOT clean the majority of my house on thursday (and it looked great!!), just to have my husband bring stuff home from the auction on friday. there is NOT a little path through my living room again.

in an effort to get out the door to make to church in time, i did NOT totally dump half of my mug of chai on my pop tart. and because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, i did NOT still eat it. and although i would never recommend a soggy pop tart, i am NOT trying to figure out how to make chai flavored pop tarts. because YUMM!!!

today i did NOT check the mail about four times and was NOT surprised to find nothing. on my fifth attempt to check the mail i did NOT remember that it is a holiday today. my retired mailman father is NOT laughing as he is reading this!!

i did NOT almost forget to call about ryan's EEG results today. the nurse told me that dr. h wasn't in today, so if she didn't call me this afternoon that she'd call me next week. hmmm.. (i wonder if she thinks it's friday?!) so our results are NOT that we have to wait for the results! i'll let you know when and what i find out!

ryan did NOT accidentally hit the enter button and post this before i was done. i am NOT scrambling to fix it before any of you see it!

happy columbus day monday!

thankful thursday

if you read yesterday's post, i think today's thankful thursday should be rather obvious!

today i am extremely thankful for all of you, my dear friends and family, who lifted up ryan, ben, and myself in prayer yesterday. what an amazing experience it was to feel those prayers and see them answered!! i can't say thank you enough!

* * *

ben and i were able to take a little bit of video yesterday while ryan was getting the electrodes attached to his scalp. many of you have seen them on facebook, but i thought i'd post them here too, so that you could see a little bit of the process. and yes, that's max screaming. now see why i'm so thankful for your prayers?!





* * *

what are you thankful for today?!

priceless.

elmo live: $60



fur real duck: $13



bubbles: $2

many prayers on ryan's behalf to stay awake and happy this morning: priceless.

and i really do mean priceless. because after only 4 hours of sleep NO toddler should be this happy!

ok, so the elmo live was on clearance for $30 and it is going back...! i thought i'd prepare for what would seem like a long night and morning with ryan and buy him some returnable new toys to play with. but in all reality, i don't really think i needed them. after a few tired tears this morning (from ryan, not me!) we managed to breeze through the morning with some cartoons, toys, a bath, and breakfast.

then we were out the door on our way to the children's hospital. ryan stayed awake the whole way there (at the exact time a few of you were praying. coincidence?? idon'tthinkso.nope!!) and was pretty much rearing to go.

when we got there we chatted with a mom who's little boy (let's call him max), a little younger than ryan, was also going to have an EEG. she had an awful time keeping him up until midnight and waking him up at 4. it sounded like they had a total opposite morning than what we had.

ryan got called back very quickly for his EEG at the same time max did. amy, the technician, asked a few questions about ryan and then we got started. first she had to take a lot of measurements of his head and then she marked on his head with a red marker where each electrode would be placed. after that she had to clean each spot with a toothpaste-type gel.

then it was time to attach each electrode. amy placed one on his scalp, put a piece of gauze over it, then brushed some smelly let's-get-high glue on the gauze. then she used very cold air to quickly dry the glue. the whole time we could hear max in the next room crying and crying. so i was relieved that ryan was exceptionally good during this process. he was busy playing with daddy's phone, and every now and then he'd say "owie." and after each electrode got attached he'd say "thank you!"

after amy got all 28 electrodes attached, she wrapped gauze around ryan's head and then it was time for him to fall asleep. i sat by his bed, prayed that he would quickly fall asleep, and watched his brain waves on the computer. he fell asleep very easily. again, three people (that i know of) were specifically praying at that moment!! awesome!

he slept for about 15 minutes and then amy woke him up. she put a strobe light about 12 inches above his head and did about 8 different tests with it. ryan loved it. i could tell he's had his picture taken plenty of times because he kept saying "cheeeeeessseeee!!!!!!" and each time she'd turn it off he'd say "all gone?! more??" after a couple more breathing tests it was time to take off the electrodes. amy used something that smelled like nail polish remover so we had to cover his eyes with a towel. this was actually the hardest part for ryan. he did NOT want to play peek-a-boo!

she combed some of the glue out of his hair (he has quite a bit of glue left in his hair and he'll be flaky for a few days. but it's all good—ryan loves taking baths) and then took him to get a treat. he got goldfish, elmo stickers, and a bugs bunny blanket! all in all it was a fantastic morning. on our car ride home i was thinking about poor max. we heard him cry so much before and after his EEG. which made me realize how much prayer can make a difference and made me appreciate all your prayers so much more. because without them i'm sure it would've been possible to have a bad experience like max did. so thank you!

we have to wait three business days to get the results. ryan didn't have any seizures that i know of during the procedure. although there were some very funky looking brain waves at one point while he was sleeping that she kept looking back over. but i obviously don't know how to translate anything that i saw on the computer, so i'm gonna leave the worrying up to God and just pray for answers!


thanks again for all the prayers—i'll hopefully post about the results early next week!

T minus 4

it's T minus about 4 hours here.

in a few short minutes, ryan will finally get to go to bed, and i'll be right behind him! he has his EEG in the morning, and for this test he needs to be sleep deprived. so we have to keep him up until midnight tonight (which has so far been a breeze!), and then at 4am we have to wake him up and keep him awake until his appointment at 7:30am tomorrow morning.

if you're still awake and are so inclined, or if you're awake at 4am (why on earth would anyone in their right mind get up that early though?!), please say a little prayer for us that we'll have a good early morning with ryan and that we'll be able to keep him awake! i have some tricks up my sleeve to hopefully help in this endeavor (including a $60 elmo toy that was bought tonight with all intentions of returning it after we play with it tomorrow morning!!) so hopefully all will go well!

thanks a million!

not me! monday

thanks to mckmama, there is now a reason to love and look forward to mondays! hop on over to her blog to join in on the not me! monday fun!!

* * *

sooo.... now that we all know the difference between pt and ot, i have to get this off my chest: when ryan's pediatrician told me that he needed physical and occupational therapy, i did NOT immediately think to myself, but he's not even remotely close to being old enough to have a job... nope, i am NOT that blonde!

* * *

while cleaning out the closet the other day, i did NOT find my bridesmaid dress from my sister's wedding 11 years ago. i did NOT proceed to try it on.... and it did NOT fit!!!! (ok, granted it was a slight bit more form-fitting than it was when i was 16, but it zipped all the way up. and i could breathe!!!) i was NOT so excited that i did NOT wear the dress for about 40 minutes while i called my sister to tell her.

* * *

during one of my coughing fits this week (due to this wonderful head cold) i did NOT cough up a big gob of phlegm and it did NOT go flying out of my mouth and land on my arm.... ummm, no. that really couldn't have happened because i always cough with a tissue. well, at least i do NOW!

the same thing did NOT happen to samantha. and she did NOT come and show me the glob of mucous in her hand...

* * *

since i now have a somewhat clean pantry, there is absolutely no way that i bought another jar of peanut butter at target last night. it was NOT on sale and i did NOT have a coupon. so of course i was NOT obligated to snatch up a good deal. and on top of that, we most certainly did NOT buy 3 more boxes of cereal...

* * *

happy monday y'all!

musings from the pantry

i don't know how this happens or if i'm the only victim, but somehow my pantry has a way of devouring my groceries and hiding them in every crook and cranny until it's bursting at the seams and demands my attention.

so i cleaned it out the other day. and had this lovely conversation with myself while organizing...

* * *

why in the world do i have five jars of peanut butter in here? and why are three of them opened?! man, sara would be proud of me.


eww... best by april of 2006?! *trash*


chick peas. why the heck did i buy a can of chick peas?!


oh yipee—the mouse hole is still successfully patched up! gee, i hope we don't get another mouse this winter. *knock on wood*


jello anyone? you'd think i was my mom or something! i don't ever make jello so why do i have 31 boxes of jello?!


oh my goodness!!!! i almost bought three packages of jello the other day because i had a coupon...


blech! cheez its. (go ahead and judge my disliking of those cheese flavored crackers...)


oooohh! ketchup! we're almost out of ketchup!.... and jelly? why are they right next to each other? then again, why not?!


mmmmm.... ramen noodles. i bet those don't ever expire.... oh! they do expire! man, you can learn something new every day!


man, that was a great sale special k, fiber one, and pop tart sale at target. which reminds me, i still need to blog about couponing.


wow i have a lot of random thoughts. i should grab a pen and paper and write them down so that i can blog them.


note to self: don't buy special k or fiber one bars for about 3 years. or pop tarts.


i wonder how long the orderliness of this pantry is gonna last?


oh! iced animal crackers!


27 boxes of cereal in the pantry.... 27 boxes of cereal.... take one down. throw it away. 26 boxes of cereal in the pantry....


well it's good to know we won't be dying of starvation anytime soon.


note to self: don't buy anymore cereal either. or jello...


wow! i got rid of a lot stuff!! i better throw it all in the dumpster before ben gets home otherwise we'll probably end up keeping half of it!


dang, i wish i would've taken a before picture, cuz this looks WAY better now!

* * *

and now, more cleaning. tune in next week for musings from the bathroom.*

*totally kidding!

all righty

it has been a do nothing, medicine taking, soup eating, nose-blowing, nap taking, vitamin C chewing, sick week for us. ryan and samantha both had the coughs and sniffles on monday, samantha had a high fever for three days, ben and i have been trying to fight it off, and now we (ben, sam, and i) all have bad head colds. ryan has been fine since monday—i've been praying the crud away from him—and samantha was pretty much back to her normal self today. hopefully this will be the extent of our sickness this winter....

oh, who am i kidding?! now starts the continuous need for puffs plus lotion tissues!

——————————

last thursday ryan had his first therapy session to help improve his motor skills on the right side of his body. he's doing both physical and occupational therapy. the general difference between the two is that occupational therapy(ot) works with the body from the waist up, while physical therapy(pt) works with the body from the waist down.

our first appointment was more of an assessment for ryan. i talked with both therapists about ryan's weaknesses in his right side and they played a few 'games' to see what they had to work with. they said he has a lot of potential, so hopefully our weekly therapy visits will pay off!

yesterday ryan had his second appointment. amy, who will be working with ryan's arm and hand, said that he has good movement in his hand and she was encouraged that he could actually open it. amy taped ryan's good hand so that he would be forced to use "righty." and she sent two rolls of tape home with us so that we can do therapy at home with him as well.

andrea, the physical therapist, told me that ryan has good range of motion in his right leg and foot. but he needs to build strength and muscle. and to help with that, next week we'll look into getting a brace for his right leg/foot or, as ryan also calls it, "righty."

we're all righty around here now. show me righty, get it with righty, use righty, and so on. it definitely would've been easier if we would've started this a long time ago. but thankfully we're finally on the right track!

——————————

in other news, ryan's EEG got way bumped up from november 18th to october 7th—this coming wednesday. he needs to be sleep deprived for this test, so the night before—tuesday night—we have to keep him up until midnight. then we (me AND ben) have to wake him up at 4am and keep him awake until his appointment at 7:30am. he'll have about 22 electrodes glued to his scalp (no, they don't have to shave his head) and then he'll have to fall asleep for 10-15 minutes, then they'll wake him up and do some tests to try to figure out what has triggered his seizures. this will take about 2 hours, and then we'll come home and SLEEP!

i've had trouble with how i should pray about this. i don't know if i should pray that ryan will have a seizure while he has the test, or if i should pray for normal EEG results, or what. so i'm just praying for answers. i know y'all will be praying for answers along side me, and i will definitely remind you to pray, but please also pray that we'll all stay awake on wednesday morning and that ryan won't be too crabby!

ok, i'll be honest here. please pray that i won't be too crabby either!!