February 21, 2013

Wow, it has been a while.  I have thought of posting often and started a couple that I then deleted.  I simply have not had much to write about lately.  Today we had something funny happen though that I want to write down.  It is a lot of fun to come back in a couple of years and read the funny things the boys did and said when they were younger.

We had a pretty good snow storm yesterday (pretty good for this area) and the boys had a ball playing in it.  It was a very wet snow so it was great for building huge snow boulders, snow men and forts and such.  The boys also really enjoyed sliding down the back side of the pond bank across the street from where we live.

While they had a wonderful time, at some point during the day, Mr. Nick. somehow misplaced his glasses.  We have looked high and low but have not found them.  We are soon leaving for a 2 week trip (driving) to AZ to visit family and friends so we wanted to get his glasses replaced before we leave.  Today I took him to a local fast place, where they make your glasses within an hour or so.  Since it had been 7 months since he had his last eye exam, we decided to go ahead and have another one.  The lady was checking his eyes and had him standing in front of this machine with his chin in a little cup and his forehead against this bar.  He was staring into the machine and the lady said "open wide".  I happened to look at him at that moment and saw him open his mouth really big.  It was so funny, it took everything I had not to burst out laughing.  I quickly and quietly told him to open his eyes real big, not his mouth.  It was really cute, although it may have been one of those moments when you just had to be there, in the moment, for it to be funny.

Ben has had a very hard time with Nick having glasses and him not having them.  He has wanted them since Nick got them and we never hear the end of it.  He has tried very hard to make due with sun glasses, even wearing them around, inside of the house.  Today when we were at the cheapie eye glasses store I asked them if they sold any really cheap frames with plastic lenses for children who just want to pretend.  They did!  I was so surprised and Ben was so happy.  So now he is sporting these black plastic round-ish, somewhat Harry Potter-ish looking glasses and he absolutely loves them.  He actually looks pretty cute in them too, but then I am kind of biased.

Nick's new glasses look really nice and they were quite a bit cheaper than his first pair.  Hopefully these will last for a year this time.  His eyes had gotten a bit worse so he kind of needed an updated script anyway.  He was impressed with how much better he could see now, although some of that is probably because he was without any glasses for about 24 hours or so.

So, we are getting ready to leave for a vacation and we are in desperate need of one.  Thankfully my brother has agreed to house/cat sit for us while we are gone.  We are driving through New Mexico and planning to stay over in Albuquerque and then on to Flagstaff where we are going to stay for a couple of days.  We are hoping to give the boys a chance to try their hand at skiing or snow boarding and we are also planning to take a day trip from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon.  Then it will be on to Phoenix and Tucson for visiting with family and friends.

The husband's practice has picked up quite a bit and he is also still working full time at the urgent care job an hour and a half from here.  There are times, when he is scheduled to work the weekend at the urgent care, that he will work almost two full weeks without a day off.  It is very tiring and stressful at times for all of us because, when he is working that many hours, I am too and I don't have a break either. So it will be good for all of us to take a nice long break and then we will be one step closer to spring time when we return.

We have had a really mild winter here though and it has been really nice.  The boys have been able to play outside most days, which they love.  They are both doing very well in school also.

We have had some cold nights and have really enjoyed our fireplace this winter.  We didn't use it much last winter but we are using it a lot this winter and it is so lovely.  I love having a wood burning fireplace.  I love the smell and the warmth it adds to the house and the lovely ambiance.  Yesterday evening I built a fire around 5:00pm and added some wood to it around 8:00.  It was still going strong when I went to bed and Dancer-the-cat was sleeping in front of it on the basket of pillows and blankets.  He likes it a lot too.

I can tell that Dancer-the-cat is starting to go down hill a bit.  He is getting a bit slower and I can tell he is not making his jumps as well as he normally has in the past.  He is definitely getting weaker.  He is about 15 years old now though, so I guess that might be fairly normal.  He sure is loving being able to go outside and goes out every chance he gets.  Yesterday was the first time he has been out in the snow and he didn't care for it a bit.  He loves sunny days though and, even if it is cold, he will find a protected spot in the sun and sleep out there.

Tinkerbell-the-cat, a.k.a. Tinky or Tinky-Winky, is still her naughty self about attacking Dancer.  She is doing a bit better about it though and she actually minds pretty well a lot of the time, for a cat.  She is getting a bit tubby but she only eats dry cat food so I am thinking she is just going through a phase and will grow out of it:).  I hope I am just going through a phase and will grow out of mine too.  She has become very sweet to me, most of the time, although there are times when I pick her up and she does not want to be picked up when she will try to bite me.  She is a little less tolerant of others than she is of me though.  She is not very tolerant of the husband at all and I am not quite sure why.  She tries to bite him almost every time he tries to pet her.  I told him maybe he needs to give her a few treats or something.  Maybe it is because he is not around as much as the rest of us and, when he is around, he stays pretty busy so he does not pet her or interact with her much at all.

We have new neighbors next door and they seem really sweet.  They have a one year old daughter and a three year old son and my sons love playing with their son.  They all had fun in the snow together yesterday.  The boys are so sweet with their son and they really enjoy him.  He was throwing snowballs at Nick yesterday and Nick would pretend it knocked him over into the snow.  Their son thought that was so funny.

School is going pretty well overall and we started 2nd grade in January in most subjects.  We are still in 1st grade math because it has taken me a while to figure out which math curriculum I liked best and which one worked best for the boys.  I'm still not quite sure we have it right but we are trucking along and they are both learning a lot.  In everything else the boys are now doing 2nd grade work, although Nick really does not care for writing much and that is not changing as quickly as the writing requirements for 2nd grade is changing.  I try to adjust it a bit for him when I think I need to but he can really do much more than he cares to do so I try to find the right amount.  His handwriting is actually quite nice when he wants it to be.

I can hardly believe the boys are now 7 years old.  The husband and I just had our 8th wedding anniversary also, which seems impossible.  Time goes by so quickly, it seems.  My birthday is coming up in a couple of days and I will be the big 50 this year.  Yikes!  I don't feel 50 inside of my head/mind but I think I do look it when I look in the mirror, especially on days like today when I am not wearing make-up. 

I know I really need to post some updated pics of the boys.  I have a new little laptop though and I have not yet loaded any pics on it so I need to do that first.  Hopefully I can get some uploaded sometime soon.  I need to go now and get some things done but I will try to start updating more often, if I have anything to report:).