A Trp Down Memory Lane

I've been thinking about my Grandma Shea a lot today, all because of a jar of peanuts.

Last night at the grocery store, I asked Lexi to grab a jar of peanuts. I didn't realize until we got home that they were "no salt" peanuts. My first reaction: yuck! But, I mixed them with some M&M's, and managed to eat many more than I should have. I couldn't help it....the "no salt" peanuts reminded me of Grandma Shea. Grandma always had pop, candy, and peanuts. The peanuts were in a two tier candy dish, which was either in the middle of the table, or off to the side on a cart. Perhaps my memory is failing me, but after eating a bowl of "no salt" peanuts, I could swear those were the same kind of peanuts my grandma always bought. Thoughts of her, and memories of my childhood had me smiling all day. And that got me thinking....about libraries, television shows, and cookies.

Libraries always remind me of my Grandma Parker. When I was a kid, I would spend at least a week with Grandma and Grandpa Parker. My mornings were spent at the ranch with Grandpa, riding horse and eating lunch in the trailer house...there were always hard boiled eggs and Recess peanut butter cups. I spent my afternoons with Grandma at the library where she worked. I once thought I would become a librarian and think of my Grandma Parker everytime Jake begs to go to the library, or tells me of his future as a librarian.

Television shows are, for me, just as much about who I watch them with as the actual shows themselves. I finally watched the series finale of ER tonight. I cried several times during the two hour program. My tears were not only about the storyline, but also about the friends I've watched that show with over the years. ER debuted 15 years ago. I was in college in Wahpeton. I remember spending Thursday nights watching Friends, Seinfeld and ER. I continued spending Thursday nights in front of the tv for many more years....at one point we even had a Thursday night tradition of Dominos pizza and "Must See TV". Now all those shows are off the air, and I've lost touch with many of the friends I used to spend Thursday nights with. But, whenever I see a re-run of Friends, Seinfeld, or ER I am immediately taken back to 1994....no kids, no job...just Thursday nights with good friends.

I love all cookies but there is one particular kind of cookie that takes me back to high school. I haven't bought them for years, but whenever I see the Keebler Rainbow Chip cookies at the store, I flash back to 1993. Amber Beld and I used to buy those cookies at the Bison Food Store, then drive around town in my 1978 Chevy Nova while we ate them. I'm pretty sure we ate the whole bag while we solved the world's problems and wasted gas and time.

I have even more memories, connected to even stranger objects that I won't share with you tonight. My point of this blog is how sometimes something as simple as a jar of peanuts can remind you of how great your life really is. I am so lucky to have had so much fun with my grandparents and to have always had good friends to share things with, whether it's a night of television or a bag of cookies.

Project Complete...Almost

After nearly six weeks of living with the contents of our basement in our upstairs...our basement remodel is done..almost.

When there was threats of south Bismarck flooding, Brad moved all our stuff upstairs, just in case. Then, when the floodwaters receded, rather than move our belongings back, we decided this was the perfect time to remodel the basement.

Our house was a Trading Spaces house before we bought it, and the previous owners hadn't changed a thing. If you're familiar with the show, you know the designer Hildi. She is over the top. Our walls were covered with purple ostrich fabric from Paris. Papers were hung from the ceiling to the top of the ledge with S hooks. Those came down right away, but we didn't have time to deal with the rest of the Trading Spaces decor at that time.

Finally dealing with it turned out to be a much bigger project than we expected. We had to tear out the corner cabinent (that only took a few minutes), pull down the fabric (that wasn't hard either, but there were THOUSANDS of staples left in the walls...all of which had to be pulled out one by one), and the laminate wood on the ledge had to come down. That meant new sheetrock, texturing and paint. Fortunately, Brad is a handy guy, and has handy friends. Brian and Travis helped with the texturing, Jamie and Kai did the painting. I have no idea how we will ever repay them.

We are still not done. We are still arguing about where to put the tv, so the temporary solution is the tv on an old library table, which isn't big enough to hold the dvd player and cable box...so those are being held on a folding chair. Let me point out, Brad picked out the folding chair....we do have nicer chairs...I'm not sure why he picked this one. But I guess it could be worse...they could be housed on top of a case of empty beer bottles, or a milk crate.

But I am happy with the progress so far. And it's done enough for a big birthday bash today!

Four

There are four quarters in a basketball game, four bedrooms in our house...and soon, there will be four kids under our roof. Yep...our family is growing, again. Baby number four will arrive in mid-November (second weekend of deer season, to be exact).


I never wanted four kids....but there's no turning back now. And, everything happens for a reason. I'm sure God has great things planned for this baby. I also think this baby is sort of a compromise: I wanted two kids, Brad wanted six...four is right in the middle, a compromise.


I must admit, I'm coming around to the idea of having four children. I heard the baby's heartbeat today (in the 150s...a boy?). What an amazing experience....brings tears to my eyes everytime. What an amazing miracle that we are blessed with. We likely won't find out if it's a boy or a girl...we never have, and love the surprise (it's also a great incentive for me come crunch time!)


Keep us in your prayers.... we will need them!

Jake's First Communion

It's not very often you'll see Jake dressed in a shirt and tie. He's been in three weddings and, until yesterday, I'm pretty sure those were the only three times in his eight years he's ever worn a tie. But yesterday was a pretty important day. It was Jake's First Holy Communion. And he was VERY excited and nervous about the whole thing.


Jake was up early and dressed, asking for help tying his tie (I thought he learned that in Cub Scouts... I guess you really do forget things if you don't use them everyday!). He was unusually quiet all morning, but found time for a donut before meeting his classmates (there is always donuts and coffee after the 9:00 mass, we go to the 11:00, but whenever we are early, Jake makes sure to get a donut...the KC in charge now actually makes sure to save one for Jake, just in case!)

We had reserved seats, just a few rows from the front. Jake and his classmates walked in with Father, then sat with us. During the homily, Father Gene had them all sit on the steps with him. It was a great message...I'm not sure about Jake, but I sure enjoyed it! He talkeda bout how now every Sunday is a big deal for these kids, because they can take communion like their parents.

After mass, we had a few people over for pizza and cake. Jake didn't realize he would get presents for making his first communion. He read all the cards

out loud, and made sure everyone heard every word. He especially liked the cards that had money inside! He was busy counting his "Lincolns, Georges, and Hamiltons". I'm sure it's not what you all intended, but we had to go spend those "Lincolns, Georges and Hamilton's" last night.... he bought a Star Wars Light Saber and a Star Wars lego set. I'm sure God would approve!

Too Much Cake!

If you've got a sweet tooth, this is the time of year to stop by our house. Chances are, we've got some cake and would be glad to share. You see, this is a very busy birthday time of year for us...all three kids' birthdays fall within three weeks.

Lizzy is first... April 15th. She turned terrible two this year. We celebrated her big day in grand style. I stayed up way too late the night before, getting everything just right. There were Elmo and Abby Cadabby balloons, an Elmo table cloth, plates and napkins. I wrapped all her presents in Elmo paper, and put the finishing touches on her cake that we made together the day before. In keeping with tradition, we all got up early and celebrated before Brad left for work at 6:45. We had cake for breakfast (a delicious strawberry cake...it was yummy! Lizzy made sure everyone knew it was "mine cake"). It was so fun seeing her enjoy her big day..she loved every present so much, even the one-dollar coloring books were a hit!

There were cupcakes with her friends at daycare later that day, and then before bed, another party with Paul and Grandpa Kerzman. She graciously shared "mine cake" and opened another present...a new wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Shea. You'll have to ask Brad, Paul and Grandpa how easy it was to put together. On second thought, ask Jake..he will tell you the real story!


Then, on Sunday there was more cake. This time for Lexi's birthday. My sweet little baby girl is now TEN YEARS OLD! She and I celebrated her birthday on Saturday night with a girl's night out. We went to supper with some of my friends, then to the Sugarland concert. Her cousin Chrissy came home from Alexandria to surprise Lexi and go to the concert with us. It was so fun! The concert was great (I love Sugarland!) Lexi knew all the words to all the songs and wasn't afraid to sing out! I'm not much of a concert-goer (the last one I went to was Garth Brooks in 1997) but this was a great concert..maybe even better than Garth! If you ever have the chance to see Sugarland in concert, go...you won't be disappointed! Of course, this girl's night out cost me a fortune. There were the tickets, supper, and a $30 t-shirt at the concert. But it's ok, you only turn ten once, right? After the concert we went to Perkins for dessert and to visit with Chrissy. Madonna and Sheena met us there and we didn't get home until 1:30 in the morning!

There were no presents to open on her birthday (Sunday) but she was ok with that. We didn't eat cake for breakfast.. partly because I didn't have it frosted when we got home and partly because my ten year old wanted to sleep in rather than get up early for cake! So we celebrated her birthday with cake (a basketball cake...that's my girl!) at supper. Lexi's very best friend Tess came over, which made the day a little more special.

Now we are just about done with this cake, and I believe there are two cupcakes left over from what Lexi took to school. But our days of eating cake are not over yet. Brad just ordered a cake tonight for Jake's First Communion, which is Sunday. God bless my husband for ordering a cake.. I'm not sure I can make another one yet! And then.. on May 6th...we'll have more cake...when Jake turns eight. In our house... you *can* have your cake and eat it too!

Casting Call

I never expected Lexi to be the first. Nope, when I thought about broken bones, Jake was the first kid to come to mind. So imagine my surprise upon hearing her wrist was broken!

What's even stranger...is the story behind this break. Lexi finished a six month long basketball season last Sunday. She made it through that entire season without a single injury..not even a skinned knee. But on Thursday, she tripped in the parking lot after school, and caught herself with her wrist. She called me at work to tell me what happened, but assured me she could move her hand and fingers, leading me to believe it wasn't broken. I instructed her to ice it and promised to look at it when I got home. She ended up running errands with me that night, and carried groceries into the house. If I remember correctly, I snapped at her for only carrying one bag at a time. I feel a little guilty about that now.

Friday morning I asked her how it felt, she assured me it still hurt, but it felt a lot better. I told her to keep icing it and left for work. Because it was Good Friday, Brad and the kids were home all day. I had only been gone for about an hour when Brad called me at work....with bad news. Lexi could no longer move her wrist or fingers. I made an appointment with our family doctor (who didn't really have any openings, but told me to send them over anyway...that's why we go to the same doctor for everything!). After several x-rays Dr. Smith confirmed her wrist was indeed broken. He splinted it, instructed her to ice it and take it easy over the weekend, and come back Monday for a cast.


The biggest decision of the whole ordeal: what color of cast to choose? Pink, blue, red or purple. Lexi finally opted for pink, thinking that the autographs would show up best on that color. She was right. I had dibs on the first autograph...good thing, because the cast is quickly filling up. The neighbor kids, Dad, Jake, even Grandma and Grandpa Kerzman have already signed it.

Lexi will wear the cast until May 18th. She will get it off just in time for her first basketball camp of the summer. Cross your fingers she makes it through that without any more broken bones!

In the meantime, I'm learning lots of interesting facts about casts and broken bones. For example: Lexi's cast is made of fiberglass, with three layers of padding underneath to protect her skin, bathing and showering are going to be a huge pain for the next month, and you're not actually supposed to stick a coat hanger in your cast to itch your skin.

Happy Easter!

Back before life got so busy, I used to make sure to dye Easter eggs wtih the kids. I realized a few days ago that we hadn't done that for several years. It started when Jake called his buddy Ben to see if he could play last Sunday. Ben's mom said no, because they were dying Easter eggs that afternoon. She called me later, still laughing at Jake's response of "I don't understand". She put me on a small guilt trip, and I decided to suck it up and dye eggs with my kids this year.

I managed to put it off until Saturday night. I finally ran out of excuses so we mixed up the dye, found an old sheet to protect the table, and divided up the 13 eggs I had managed to hard boil. Lizzy didn't really get it, but she acted like she knew exactly what she was doing. At one point, she put the stickers for the eggs all over her belly. She did eventually figure it out and her eggs turned out beautifully.

Jake turned the project into a science experiment: he put his first egg in the blue, then left it until the very end, to see how dark it would get. For the record, and the science journals, it turned a gorgeous shade of blue.

And for Lexi, the whole project was a test of just how much one can do with only one hand! Her left hand is in a splint (tomorrow it will be in a cast) after she broke her wrist on Thursday (long story, perhaps for tomorrow's post!). She had big plans to make fancy eggs...they eventually turned into tie dye eggs!

As for me, I was right. This project was a mess, a pain, and not something I would have done had I not been guilted into it. But, it is something I'm so glad we did. It was fun to see how each kid tackled the project... from the scientific to the artistic approach. I realize my big kids have grown up a lot since the last time we dyed eggs. And I realized that Lizzy is getting big enough to do fun , and messy, projects. Most important, the 30 minutes we spent dying eggs set the tone for the rest of our Easter celebration. We had a great day together today..doing nothing in particular, but spending quality time together. We have been far to busy to enjoy each others company lately. But now, thanks to a project that I didn't want to do, we had a great weekend together, just the five of us. Now, to find someone who likes hard boiled eggs... I've got 13 beautiful eggs to get rid of!