Cookie Queen

Collin's Birthday

2012-01-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

Last night my aunt & uncle came over to celebrate Collin's birthday. This is actually the third celebration. We had pizza and chocolate cake and presents. A fun evening overall.

A truly excellent birthday cake!

Opening his first present....

A cool car ramp! It took two women with master's degrees to figure out

how to put it together! I think Conner's Knex are easier!

Second present - new pants! Hooray! (Well, at least Mom if happy about that)

Holidays

2011-12-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

Had a nice holiday - stayed at home on xmas eve and went to my aunt & uncle's on xmas day. Here are some photos:

Collin's holiday party at daycare - singing some xmas songs and getting his gift from Santa.

Remote controlled monster cars from Daddy

Lots of cool presents!

Making gingerbread cut-outs - I think they'll be ready for lefse-making next year with those rolling skills.

These are from xmas morning:

Weekend

2011-11-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

Had a nice mellow weekend - I worked on Friday and Dan hung with the kids. Saturday we ran lots of errands and Collin has a cold, so he was CRABBY! Did get him to take a 2 hour nap, which was nice. Stopped by the McVay's to pick up Dan's laptop and then had a quiet evening at home.

Today Conner had a Science Museum Class about Whales and Dolphins - he said it was good. He made a huge drawing /painting of a whale - not sure where we will put that! He also finished his roller coaster - I'm very proud of him, he did well over 80% of himself, I just stepped in when he asked for help.

Conner's Play - Ninjas

2011-11-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

Conner completed his latest Steppingstone Theater Class today - their play was "How to be a Ninja". He played the ninja master:

He did well - we practiced his lines a few times this week and his memory is amazing. He & his ninja's managed to learn some new kicks & punches; invite a ghost to join their ninja ranks; and defeat the Evil Queen and her fluffy mystical creatures to get their magical leaf back. Did I mention that they write the story lines themselves?

I should have brought my camera with - only had my phone, so the pics aren't as good, but you get the idea.

Basement - complete!

2011-11-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

I think the basement is officially done - or at least the kids' part of it. A few small purchases and some rearranging of existing stuff. Looks much better than it did - good play area for the kids. You can't see that I did staple additional drape panels to the ceiling. Looks nice!

Got a lamp, a boombox for some music and a table for Conner's roller coaster project.

Fall Weekend

2011-11-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

Busy weekend! Friday night I went to a work outing - bowling and laser tag. First time I've ever done laser tag - I stink, but it was fun. Saturday had lovely weather, so I raked the front and back and Conner helped me with bagging the leaves. Of course the boys had to jump in them for awhile first!

Also took the deck chairs and put them on the front porch and put all other summer-type items in the garage.

This morning we went to the MN Zoo for a few hours - not too many people, so it was a nice morning. The boys love playing on the new playground there; saw the penguins; ran into an old friend from work who is at Southdale now and road the monorail. Here is Conner lounging the spider web and below is both of them in the turtles. Conner is being goofy in that one - he's not really angry....

All in all a nice weekend. Basement is coming along - just a few more things left and it should be good!

Cub Scouts - Raingutter Regatta

2011-11-08T15:46:00.000-08:00

Conner joined cub scouts and their event last night was a raingutter regatta. He had a great time AND got second place!

WAFFLES!

2011-11-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Tried out my new waffle-maker this morning, it's awesome! SO easy to use and great waffles.

Basement

2011-11-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

Dad and I started a project before they left to make a little corner of the basement a nice play area for the boys. Silly me thought it would easy to get done in a few hours - HA! But we got a good start and I can keep on plugging along...here are the BEFORE photos....

Halloween Party

2011-11-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

Conner asked to have a Halloween party this year, so we invited several of his friends from school, one friend of Collin's and 5 children of friends from work. We had a full house! Conner & Collin helped decorate to make a "haunted basement" and we had lots of games and food.

This game was donut on a string - they had to eat the donut without using their hands. Note the giant spider over to one side. Friends are Josh (far back); Maddie; Zoe (behind Conner); Max (green lantern); Conner & Soren.

More donut eating - better picture of Zoe and also Charlie.

Here is Amelie with a donut on her head - I think she is just resting for a minute, making sure no one eats her donut.

This is Collin and his friend Harper decorating and eating their cupcakes.

Wrap the mummy

Big kids eating their cupcakes outside!

A mess left over from trying to create haunted gingerbread houses. Didn't quite turn out....but I think fun was had by all!

Great October Weekend

2011-10-02T20:03:00.001-07:00

Had a great weekend - Conner had his first theater class of the Fall season at Steppingstone Theater on Saturday AM (How to Be a Ninja) and later in the afternoon he went to a birthday party for his friend Max. They went to Como Town and had a great time on the rides, to Carbones for pizza (and rootbeer as he happily told me) and then back to Max's house for ice cream cake. Collin and I enjoyed a nice afternoon, played tennis in the evening and then walked to Pizza Luce for dinner. The only dark spot was Dan finding that my car had no transmission fluid - despite the fact that I brought it in 2 weeks ago for a full check and they claim to have drained and refilled it. I have an appt there tomorrow, we'll see!

Today I took the boys to Franconia Sculpture park, off Hwy 8 and 95. Very fun place! They boys had a great time running around, we had a picnic lunch (although we had to eat part in the car due to assertive bees) and then drove along 95 through Marine on St. Croix and Stillwater. Beautiful day for that drive! I'm sure the boys were tired of me telling them to look at the various trees.

This is a playground constructed entirely from scraps - pretty neat!

This was Collin's favorite - it's some type of bomb - not sure why he found it so appealing - hopefully not some type of dark foreshadowing!

This was Conner's favorite - of course, Halloween approaches, so he loves skeletons!

I thought this one was funky and cool - big wooden balls in a cage - wonder if it's too big for my back yard?

Children's Museum - May 2011

2011-05-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

Took the boys to the Children's Museum today - Dan stayed home to work on his lawn mower. It was busy, but could still get to the areas we wanted. Boys had fun in the Framed room and in the Lego room....

Conner Jousting...

Collin giving Conner a chicken-drawn wagon ride.
Or is that a rooster? If it's a hen - I wouldn't want to try & get her eggs!

Conner-Lisa

Collin-Lisa

Easter

2011-04-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Had a very nice weekend - went up to Mom & Dad's place on Saturday and hung out there, played with the neighbor kids and watched all the pelicans - we figured the lake was full of pelicans and cormorands (spelled right?), so there would be no fish left for Grandpa. :-)

The Easter Bunny left a trail of jelly beans from the boys' beds - following the trail....

To Grandma's office - where they found their empty buckets from last year.....

Ready to start looking!

A nice haul this year.....

Later in the day, we went to Chuck & Theresa's. They had about 40 people there - big meal and then an easter egg hunt outside for the kids. I think the boys had fun running around and playing with their cousins. Just before we left, Conner got to help bring the horses in for the night. Below is Collin with his stash of eggs (and Dan looking for stragglers)

My boys hanging out - looks like Conner has to go the bathroom - that's just the face he is making.

The final tally at the end of the day - not counting the extra bag of jelly beans in the cupboard.

Spring Weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's

2011-04-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

I posted about a winter weekend, so thought I should post about a spring weekend! We went up to Maple Lake after Conner's MITY class on Saturday and it was a little chilly! The kids played a bit outside and we went to check out the water - I have to post the photos from my phone, but it's higher than I've ever seen it. The neighbors' have a new inlet stretching onto their property and the lake itself stretches to the tree stump. Undoubtably, the owner will find some way to blame my parents for this flooding. :-) House was in great shape - after playing outside, we went for a drive and ended up at Dan's cousin Angie's place. This kids got to play with their cousins - Savannah (4); Landon (2) and Sierra (6 months maybe??). Savannah got a pony for her birthday (Peanut), so the kids got a few rides; saw/fed the baby cows and played a lot outside. Then we moved everything indoors and the kids played a lot together inside. Savannah REALLY wanted the boys to spend the night, but I didn't know how that would go over, so we left for home about 9pm. A very fun evening! I'd love to buy some beef from them - so if anyone wants to go in on 1/2 a cow, let me know! :-) Big thunderstorm that night, so I didn't sleep well - Conner & I were each in a twin bed and Dan/Collin were on the air mattress. Collin is VERY kicky, so Dan went in search of a more restful stop during the night. I warned him - I learned the last time we stayed there not to sleep with Collin. I think I'm still black & blue! Sunday morning was beautiful - actually warm & muggy! Played outside quite a bit - tried to save some of the gazillion worms that ended up on the driveway after the storm. Then threw a few that were fried into the lake for the fish (not my idea) :-). Went to visit Dan's cousin Sarah and her family for an hour or so. Boys got to see their cousin Kendra (18 months) and newest cousin (Ashley - 4 weeks!). I got the hold the baby for a long time - it's hard to remember mine ever being that small. She is a sweetie - although her tired-looking parents tell us she doesn't sleep much at night. Collin is completely obsessed with a little electric car that Kendra has - he spends the entire time driving it around the living room. Just in case grandma & grandpa are thinking of something for his half birthday - I'll send you the links! All-in all a good weekend. Looking forward to Grandma & Grandpa being home soon!

Potty Training

2011-03-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Ah potty training - on to the second round! It's actually not so bad, daycare does most of the work. We started last weekend (rough start) and then kept going through the week. Collin is doing GREAT! All weekend he has either let us know when he has to go or gone upstairs on his own to use his little potty. A few accidents, which is to be expected, but all-in-all, he's doing really well. It's a good sign when the first few days, he went through all the extra undies we brought for him and had to use daycare undies and by Friday, he had several of his own pairs left. :-)

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry - this one has nothing to do with the kids. I took the week off for some Spring Cleaning (although I have to say I'm wishing we were in AZ right now!!!). Today I cleaned out every cupboard in the kitchen - pulled everything out, washed the cupboard, determined what I hadn't used in years and should go to the Good Will and put the remaining items back. I also worked on the dining room a bit - throwing out a good # of things.

So far: 4 very full bags for the Good Will; 1 bag for Kyle and 3 bags of trash.

I am POOPED! Who knew this would be so tiring. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the upstairs closets......

Conner's Play

2011-03-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Conner had his 3rd(?) class at Steppingstone Theater this winter and their performance was this morning. They did a scene from The Magic Tree House - Hawaii style. Conner was the father and a surfer dude (this was the second time he wore my clothes as costume - he gets more use from my blue, pin-stripe suit coat than I do!).

As usual, it was completely mobbed and about 100 degrees. But the kids did well - they always seem to have a lot of fun. My old pal, Sidney, from Regions Hospital days, sat next to me. Small world - her son was in Conner's group. She noted that our kids' teacher has a much more "loosey-goosey" style than the other group's teacher. She's more of an anything-goes type of gal, while the other group was much more organized & choreographed. Doesn't bother me - Conner is 7, I'm not expecting high drama, just want him to have fun.

Conner's instructor in the blue t-shirt & skirt below. She's very "Theatre" isn't she?

A great view of Conner's back - but it gives you an idea of the space

Giving their name & saying what their favorite part of the play was.

Getting ready to take a bow....yes, that's my kid in the middle front - can't imagine where he gets that from!

Doing a "silly" pose at the end.

MN Zoo

2011-03-12T20:14:00.000-08:00

Collin's daycare was closed on Friday (teacher conference), so I took the day off & we went to the MN Zoo. Got there right when they opened and it was SWEET! We were the only ones in the Tropics Trail for a long time, so could take our time and actually see things. The gibbons were (according to the zookeeper we spoke to) doing their morning territorial call to get all the other animals/birds riled up. The black one did a sort of keening call and then the white one would join in with a very nasty-sounding snarl & bark, showing all her teeth. Yes, I said SHE. Apparently, it's the male who sounds all sweet and high-pitched and the female who dares the other animals to intrude.

The early AM is also an excellent time to hit the MN trail - all the animals (except the raccoons and who really cares if they move about?) are up and moving and easily viewable. We saw the coyotes up close, one of the wolves and I didn't even know there were two wolverines there. They are usually snoozing by the time we get there. About 10am, the buses arrived and schoolchildren began to swarm - so we went to take a ride on the monorail and left about 11:30am.

Collin does love the train.

Turtle - Tortoise?

I think of this as his "You lookin' at me?" face.

Jackson Street Roundhouse - Collin Only

2011-02-24T19:48:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Dan & I took Collin to the Jackson Street Roundhouse while Conner was at his theater class. We had free tickets from our last trip at xmas time. I was happy to see that it was busy - plenty of folks there and a birthday party as well. Dan had fun talking with the older gentlemen who volunteer there - he helped one guy fix one of the projectors (which was seriously the size of a Honda Civic it was so old!). That volunteer told someone else that Dan had helped him and so Dan was immediately labelled as being "handy" and the chase was on to convince him he should volunteer. Since the average age of the other volunteers appeared to be about 70, I'm thinking they have trouble getting on top of and under the engines to do maintenace these days. I encouraged him to do so, I think he would enjoy it - we'll see!

Collin is driving the train!

Not sure what this does, but it's fun. We were not allowed in this "booth" while he was driving.

Hey - where is the coal?

I can drive this thing!

Weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's

2011-02-13T18:47:00.001-08:00

Went up to Maple Lake on Saturday afternoon with 2 cars loaded with baby stuff. Took everything over to Dan's cousin Sarah's place - she is expecting #2 and Kendra is just a year old. So extra cribs, high chairs, strollers & car seats needed. They made us dinner & we had a lovely night chatting; kids played & Dan and Corey put together Conner & Collin's old crib. Spent the night at Mom & Dad's and played out in the snow this morning - beautiful day! Here's a photo of our work:

Grandma & Grandpa Snowpeople!

Big Boy Bed!

2011-02-09T18:51:00.001-08:00

Last night was the end of an era at our house - last night for sleeping a crib! Or modified crib with no front on it (as seen below).

Collin's last night in his "little boy" bed.

And his new big boy bed!

Very excited about the new bed!

Children's Festival at Landmark Center - Winter Carnival 2011

2011-01-30T17:14:00.000-08:00

Conner & I ventured downtown St. Paul for the Children's Festival at the Landmark Center this afternoon. It was PACKED and somewhat lame. He jumped in a bouncehouse, took some photos with various characters and spun a wheel to get a pencil. The more exciting part was wandering around the building - beautiful! We also tried to see the ice statues, but it was packed with people & impossible to move, so we decided to go back another time...

Here is Conner with what I think is a rabbit?

Being tagged by a vulcan

Conner & a Vulcan

Up on the 4th floor of Landmark Center

Looking down at the Festival from the 4th floor

Collin's Birthday

2011-01-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

The kids are ready to get started with the presents!

First one...being careful

What could it be???

Thomas Circus Train cars!

This one is bigger!

Yeah - more Thomas tracks & stuff!

Putting it all together:

Xmas 2010

2010-12-27T20:02:00.000-08:00

We had a great xmas this year - I think the kids were very happy with their gifts, as were their parents.

Here is the lovely scene before the children awoke:

New play kitchen:

Collin wondering what else could be in his stocking after all those socks!

The mound of trash after gift opening completed:

Check out all the stuff!

Collin likes his new Dora house!

Collin with Santa at his xmas party:

Collin's class singing to the parents - well some are singing:

A creatively decorated gingerbread house:

Jackson Street Roundhouse

2010-12-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun at the Jackson Street Roundhouse playing and visiting with Santa and Mrs. Claus. This year, we even toured the "back room" where they actually work on the big engines. The first picture below is a photo from that area.

BIG WRENCH!

Kids with Santa & Mrs. Claus

Here come Santa & Mrs. Claus!

Katie & the boys on the train:

We're happy riding on the train - and it's sunny!

See - we can get along sometimes....

Conner's Birthday

2010-12-05T17:05:00.001-08:00

Conner had his 7th birthday party at Waterpark of America. Conner invited 4 friends, so 5 kids total. Of course they all wanted to do something different, so I spent the 2 hours wandering the part to ensure no one was drowning.

After swimming, there was pizza and cake in their party area:

Eryn & Conner

Conner & Charlie

Conner & Max

Conner & Evelyn

Then back to our house and the "family" presents. Collin being very patient while Conner opens his cards...

Gift subscription to Spider magazine...

New shoes!

And his favorite - Just Dance Kids for the Wii

Weekend

2010-11-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

Up to Mom & Dad's this weekend - Dan spent much of the weekend with his family. Saturday night we went over the Angie & Bub's place to hang out for a few hours. Lots of babies these days! Angie has 3 (Savannah is 3; Landon is 18 months and Sierra is 2 months); Sarah has Kendra (1 year) and pregnant with another girl. Then our two. Whew - full and busy house!

But, they managed to find time to mess up Grandma & Grandpa's house - don't worry, we picked it all up! :-)

More Halloween

2010-11-02T19:50:00.001-07:00

Time to carve the pumpkin!

Collin looks so serious with his pumpkin guts...

Conner at a Halloween Party at Minnehaha Falls Park...

Collin's Halloween Party

2010-10-29T08:52:00.001-07:00

Collin had his Halloween Party this morning - he's a scary ghost!

Making Cookies!

2010-10-13T20:11:00.001-07:00

Collin helped me make Monster Cookies tonight....

2010-10-03T19:39:00.001-07:00

Went up to Mom & Dad's today - went to the pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins and other sundry squashes and then played in the leaves.

Planting some flower seeds that Mom had.

Jumping in the leaves!

Leaves!!

Sharing Grandpa's chips....

Helping rake leaves.

At the pumpkin patch

Goofy brothers....

Still at an age where this is fun....

stitches!

2010-09-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Conner had his second gymnastics class tonight and somehow fell off a higher-level platform and hit his head on something below. It bled pretty good, but had stopped by the time they came to get me. Took him home and he seemed fine, but when I cleaned it up, it looked like it might need some help. 4 stitches later, he's good to go. Poor kid, we were at the doctor's office for almost 2 hours, but he was a trooper. Found out later that an 18 year old had stitches earlier and yelled so loud that the patients in the lobby could hear him.

Also - small world - the doc's fiance works at Ridges in the ED and she goes to my clinic! Was just there this morning actually. I asked if she liked it - hoping she would say yes, as she was about to put stitches in my kid's head! :-)

Ren Fest

2010-09-26T16:55:00.001-07:00

Dan, Conner, Mom & I went the Renaissance Festival today - beautiful weather for it. It was the wine & chocolate weekend. No free chocolate samples, but we purchased some that was yummy. We did get to try some free home-made wine samples - some were good, some dumped into the grass.

Here is conner riding one of the war horses:

Dan in the stocks - he was arrested for being "aged". I was the witness against him.

You can see Conner's offense...

Doing the rock-climbing wall - he did great!

Playing "Dunk the Wench". She got some good jabs at Dan....it was entertaining.

Riding the elephant - total rip-off. $5 for once around half the pen. Oh well, at least he can say he's ridden an elephant.

Huzzah! Conner with the King.

State Fair - Round 2

2010-09-03T13:38:00.001-07:00

Took Conner to the State Fair - Mom/Son day since Dan broke his toe and can't walk that far. We were there for 7 hours! Didn't eat too much, just went on a ton of rides. Well - I should say that Conner went on a ton of rides - I went on two. The pirate ghost ride in the kiddie section (lame-o. I do not recommend it) and a giant swing ride that made me somewhat ill.

The one celebrity siting will thrill my mom - we were about 4 feet away from Sven Sungaard - the channel 11 weather guy. He was trying to get ready for what looked to an interview in the eco building and some ladies interrupted him for a photo. He initially looked irritated, so I didn't ask for a photo - sorry Mom!

We stopped for a bit to watch a ventriloquist show and Conner volunteered to be a helper. Their job was to keep the beat while some adults were rapping:

These are some rides he went on - started out with the giant slide - a little sunny in the AM!

Something called "The Viper":

The Scrambler:

And a snowbug/ladybug, some dang bug ride:

Finally, a fun-house type of adventure - he went on several of these:

We also went on a skyride, the sky-tower ride and the River Raft ride. I was pooped! Conner fell asleep in the chair about 6:30pm.

Children's Museum

2010-08-31T12:51:00.001-07:00

Took Conner to the Children's Museum this morning. I have to say, the Wizard of Oz exhibit is pretty darn cool. I enjoyed it immensely - where else can you make your voice sound like a munchkin without needing helium?

Conner at the entrance to the exhibit.

Conner under the rainbow we built. Two seconds later, a little kid knocked it over. Oh well....

Riding the witch's bike!

Climbing the wall of the witch's fortress....watch out for flying monkeys!

Nice ink!

State Fair

2010-08-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

This year we are hitting the State Fair twice - once with each child. Figured it was easier than taking them both at once - they are far enough apart that the youngest can't do everything the oldest can and this seemed a recipe for disaster. So we dropped Conner off at Gopher Camp and took Collin to the State Fair.

An amusing fact - we parked at a business on Larpenter and Snelling that rents out it's lot for Fair goers - not so unusual, but we laughed at how they have different prices (and signs) for different times of the day. When we arrived, about 8:30, it was $10. When we left, about 12:30, it was $20. Then as I returned to pick up Conner about 4:30, I noticed $15. I wonder if they have an alarm clock that goes off and reminds them it's time to change the signs??

Here's Collin on his tractor at the Little Hands Farm.

Dan and Collin - it's the cows man!

BIG Sunflowers! And a pail full of stuff.

He liked the merry-go-round....

Not so sure about the motorcycle.....

But definitely liked the race car. We didn't get a photo of him on his last ride - the airplanes. He DEFINITELY didn't like that one. Cried through most of it. But then we bought him some french fries and all was right in the world again. He asks to go back every day. "Fair???"

Boys

2010-02-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

Here's the new art from Jen's dad Larry - we like it! Also our new dishes that we bought this weekend - Dan decided we should get square plates, since it provides more space for food. When I asked him about it, he was taking measurements of our old round plates and trying to figure out circumference, etc. Finally - two fun videos of the kids. One of them doing kids yoga together (Dan in the background talking to his sister on the phone) and the other of Conner trying to give a lesson about dinosaurs to his brother.

Collin's 2nd birthday

2010-01-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

A few photos from Collin's (very small) 2nd birthday party:

Cool magnet/tinkertoy type things from Joyce & Kent (you'd think I would remember the name, since I suggested them!)

Another shot of them and the musical blocks - very cool. Grandma & Grandpa - he did get very excited about the Thomas trainset and DVD. We have already watched it a few times.

What you don't see from this photo is the screaming fit that happened when we first put the cake with candle lit in front of him. Conner blew it out to calm him down. Then Collin realized it wasn't so bad and wanted to try again. The second time was much better.

As you can see, Collin likes the cake! As does everyone else. And yes, we still have xmas lights up!

Happy kid! That's his "Joker" face, as Dan dubbed him. Frosting from ear to ear.

xmas photos

2010-01-05T19:47:00.001-08:00

Goofy kids - I got rid of some old wrapping paper and the boys unwrapped it and wanted to be "wrapped up"

Collin wearing Conner's New Year's Hat.

Children's Museum day - just Collin & Mom!

Not so sure about the big ant....

Workin for a living....

Water experiments

For grandma & grandpa - obviously they both liked it!

Ah - now to keep him interested in doing that!

I tried at least 6 times to get a good photo of Collin and his friend Avery at their xmas party. This was the best I could get.

Seeing Santa

2009-12-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

This morning we took the kids to see Santa, Mrs. Claus and Jingle the Elf at the Jackson Street Roundhouse (thanks to Allison for the referral!). It was fun - lots of old trains inside to walk through and a chance to see Santa arrive on the caboose and then take a short ride on the train.

Don't you wish you could do this?

2009-12-13T20:44:00.001-08:00

Ah, to be so limber again....I like the way I caught photos leading up to the actual event:

I'm BACK!

2009-12-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

At last we have DSL and it won't take me a million years to upload photos!

Had Conner's birthday party on Saturday afternoon at Grand Slam. He had 8 friends come, out of 13 invited, which was just fine with me! You wouldn't think it's a lot of work trying to coordinate a birthday party at a place where the kids can just run around and have fun, but when 2 parents drop off their kids and then both decide to be anti-social at various points and I spend time wandering around trying to be sure they are still in the building, in addition to checking on my own kid, the other parents, getting the pizza order in, cake cut, presents out, pictures taken, etc, I was pooped!

Conner claimed to have a good time, which made it all worth it! Sort of.... :-)

Here's Conner on the Krazy Karts

Birthday cake time

Pirate Mini-Golf - he really played hockey with that golf ball...

Tubes!

2009-01-21T19:39:00.000-08:00

Poor Collin - Yet another ear infection! This time the doctor gave us a referral for tubes - I've talked to some folks at work and daycare and apparently it is more common than I thought. So we have two good recommendations and now I just have to call.....

Here are some cute pics - second is from the Children's Museum...

Ouch!

2008-12-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

This morning, as we were getting ready to go, I was thinking to myself, gosh, things are going so smoothly this morning. Kiss of death - Collin and Conner came racing into the kitchen and Conner bashed his head against the corner of the kitchen counter. It was loud enough that I actually said Oh my God! and jumped. He of course burst into tears (as would anyone) and as I hugged him, I asked him where it hurt. He pointed to a spot that looked free of blood and I thought, whew, just a bruise and maybe a bump coming. So I hugged him some more and then he put his hand to his head and said it was wet. Sure enough, the ACTUAL area of injury was bleeding, so there was also blood all over me!

I cleaned him up (and then me) and it looked okay - just a bump and a forming scab over it. We went to school and I thought all was well. Then daycare called about 10am to say that it started to bleed again, so after some time applying pressure and checking with the school nurse, we agreed I should call the pediatrician. For whatever reason, they didn't have a doctor available between 11-2. Seems odd to me, considering I manage a clinic and can't imagine why I would ever stay open during that time period without a provider. No revenue coming in, but I'm still paying for staff time? That's fairly dumb!

I decided not to wait and walked down the hall to ask my lovely friend Allison (a nurse practitioner extraordinaire, although a little obsessed with boobs) if she would see him. She was nice enough to say yes, so I drove from Eagan to St. Paul, picked up Conner and drove back to Eagan. She took a look, said it was good - no glue or stitches needed, just a little spray-on bandaid and he'd be great. I took Conner to lunch at McDonald's (the bribe for being good) and then drove back to St. Paul to drop him at school and finally back to Eagan again. Whew!

Apparently, Collin also bashed his head today, but he just has a bruise - no gaping cuts.
Time for the christmas picture!

Shots and Haircut!

2008-12-12T19:05:00.000-08:00

Conner had his 5 year well-child check today. He did very well - although sometimes I think the doctor must think I'm a completely controlling mom, because he always looks at me before answering any of her questions. And of course Conner told her that his favorite foods are pizza, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries, etc. No mention of all the fruit and veggies that he eats.....The end of visit had 3 shots and he did great. No crying - just tried to grab one needle - who can blame him when they shove 3 vaccines into one needle - OUCH!

Also today: Collin got his first "real" haircut. He made through the first half without any drama, but there was quite a bit of screaming during the last half. I can understand how scary it must be to have scissors right above your eyes. But he looks very cute!

Cutie!

2008-12-01T19:52:00.001-08:00

He's pretty cute!

school photos

2008-11-11T19:56:00.001-08:00

We got the school photos back - for those related to me and who want photos - take a peek and tell me which you like best. We aren't fond the one one with Conner and Collin together - we were going to try and have a different photo taken later this month.

Addendum to flu shots

2008-11-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

I failed to mention that on Friday, Collin got his second flu shot. The nurse we had was really amazing - I didn't even know she had given it, she was so fast. I was holding Collin's arms and she gave the shot and he got that funny look on his face - the one babies get when something hurts a bit, but they can't quite figure out what in the heck it was - then it was done, I picked him up and distracted him onto something else (like mother like son!) and he didn't cry a single tear. Amazing!

Especially considering the screaming 5 year old that was outside my office today - I am hoping she was freaked out about the coming 5-year shots, but the absolute fit she was throwing because she didn't want to get on the scale was quite impressive. I was starting to google SuperNanny, but then my phone rang and I had to actually work.

I was unimpressed with Mom's attempt to handle the situation - "If you don't take off your shoes by the time I count to three, I'm calling your father! That's it, I'm calling your father and he won't be happy!" After each comment like this, the girl would shriek in fear and scream even more - I can only assume that dad is going to do something like get out the belt - the way my husband's father did for many years. It made me think that in almost 5 years of being a mom, I have never once said - just wait until your father hears about this. Why would I teach my sons that their father is the "mean enforcer" when I am perfectly able to handle the situation - and vice versa for my husband. That would be very unfair to him. Sigh....there should be laws forcing people to take parenting classes before they can have children.

Weekend

2008-11-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

We had a busy weekend - time flies with two young kids!

Sunday was the most memorable, I took the kids to the local rec center that has a kid pool and regular lap pool. Conner LOVES the place and is always begging to go there. We were the only ones there for at least an hour and then another young girl came and he just latched onto her. I apologized to her mother later for my son stalking her daughter. But Conner did great in the bigger pool - he used one of of their life jackets and swam around quite a bit. We went back and forth between the pools several times and the last time he went in by himself and did really well.

Collin wasn't so sure about the whole thing - he spent the first 90 minutes clinging to me - no smile, no talking, nothing. Finally, in the kiddie pool, he started to enjoy himself and let out many screeches of delight. He dunked under once, but did just fine.

When we got home, both kids passed out and I realized how tired I was. Carrying around a 20lb kid for 3 hours can really poop you out! So I took a nap as well!

Flu Shots

2008-11-08T04:42:00.000-08:00

Ocassionally the nurses put the flu clinic next to my office, which stinks! I just hate hearing the kids scream. And I'm always amazed at the older kids who throw absolute fits and literally have to be held down for their flu shot. I understand there may have been some trauma at some point in their young lives which makes them terrified of needles, but I have a suspicion that most are just being brats.

So I am happy to say that our two kids - ages 4.5 years and 10 months, were very good for their shots. Conner sat on the exam table with me holding him and he didn't flinch, shout or cry a single tear. Collin cried the first time a little, but yesterday he had his second shot and not a peep. He looked a little surprised, but then he was fine. Must be our extraordinary parenting skills....

Here are some cute photos of Collin:

Happy about chewing on a big chunk of apple.

I'm not entirely sure what diet deficiency this represents, but it's funny. He was crawling around the floor with his brother's sock in his mouth.

The Baby's a Liberal!

2008-10-27T19:17:00.001-07:00

Collin was entranced by Stephen Colbert tonight - he quit jumping and stared at the tv for a very long time.

I'm BAAAAAACK

2008-10-27T18:05:00.001-07:00

Hi all - I know, been a long time since I posted anything. My parents noted this weekend that they can only look at an ultrasound photo for so long - even if it is their grandchild.

So for the 6 of you who actually look at my blog, I'll try to keep more current.

Here are some photos of Conner and my foray into halloween cookies. I cheated considerably - buying a kit from Michael's that included the pre-baked cookies, candy and bags of frosting. In my defense, I did have to mix up the frosting and put it into the supplied bags - so it was sort of like baking.

Here's Conner doing the decorating....

Here's a lovely bat - looks like I used black olives for eyes (actually gumdrops).

And my favorite - I think it's Conner's attempt at modern art.

Conner and I had a great time decorating - and while he ate part of a cookie, I took a bite and pitched it. Pre-made cookies from Michael's are not so tasty.

Fetal Echo

2007-08-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

Besides finding out we are having another boy, we also found out at our level II ultrasound 2 weeks ago that I have a two-vessel umbilical cord instead of a three-vessel. I don't know all the medical facts surrounding this, but I'm told it occurs in 1-2.5% of pregnancies (got this from my IM/Peds physician friend) and usually it's not a big deal. They watch for a few things, one, that the baby is growing adequently - so we'll be having more ultrasounds than usual and two, that the heart developed normally.

So this morning, Dan, Conner and I packed up and headed over to the U for a fetal echo. Luckily we were in the children's hospital side of the U, so there was plenty for Conner to do, including toys in the exam room - they do kids there, so they are prepared! A big thanks to the receptionist who went out of her way to show Conner the "trained" fish in one part of the lobby and let him feed both tanks of fish.

After a LONG time with the ultrasound machine looking for just the right views - this kid does NOT sit still for anything during ultrasounds, you poke him and he's off and running - the pediatric cardiologist came in, spent approx 1 minute looking at the scans and said everything looked great.

So another big sigh of relief! They certainly are cautious these days about ensuring things are okay - I suppose considering OB/GYN physicians are probably the most highly-sued docs, they have to be.

Now we just hope that the kid grows as he should - I asked my OB if I could help things along by eating MORE :-), but he said no. There's nothing that I can do about it - and if he doesn't grow - EEK - it's recommended bedrest. Apparently, laying around on your side somehow gets more blood and nutrients to the fetus. After hearing that, I asked my boss if we could set up a couch in our conference room for me.....

Ultrasound Today

2007-08-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry haven't blogged much for AGES. Busy, busy! But here's a quick one - for those who don't know, we are pregnant and expecting in early January. We had the Level II ultrasound today and things are just fine. This time around, we decided to find out the sex....see if you can figure it out from the picture....it's REALLY tough! :-)

Miscellaneous...

2007-03-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

Just some fun pictures:

Conner and Elmo having a stare-down with Artemis the cat from next door.

We had a slight mishap and Sleeping Beauty lost her head. No fear, a little crazy glue and she's pulled herself back together.

And finally, Dan has let Conner watch a little wrestling (it's usually until I come in and turn off the tv) - here's his big move. Honestly, our dog is a saint.

Is it Easter yet?

2007-03-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

This morning we went down to Ebenezer Ridges for their annual Easter party for kids. Ebenezer is the long-term care arm of the organization I work for. The Ridges campus is a combo of nursing home, assisted living and apartments. This was my first time there and I can tell you the assisted living and apartment side is NICE!

The event was a trek through the facility giving the kids opportunities to see the Easter Bunny, play games, see animals and collect 6 plastic eggs. Once they got six eggs, they could select a prize to take home. And you could sign up to win a $75 gift certificate to the MN Zoo and got a free Abdullah chocolate bunny. I haven't decided if I'm giving that to Conner or not. It looks pretty tasty!

Here he is out front with the big pink bunny. Wasn't there a movie about a large pink bunny??

Below are pictures at the petting zoo. I don't think I've ever seen a real hedgehog before. It's crawling on the arm of the girl with the blue tank top....

It's the Easter Bunny's cousin - Lazy Bunny.

Chicken - oh, they had two HUGE roosters too. A woman I work with was there as well - we were both amazed the roosters just sat there and let the kids pet them. She thought they might have been drugged. A little valium in the grain maybe....

Here's Conner with the Easter Bunny - we have a polaroid with pretty much the same facial expression and him getting his face painted - a rainbow. He picked it out....

To make grandma and grandpa proud - mini-golf. I think he got a triple bogey on this one.
And then the egg and spoon race - clear spoon, if you look closely, you can see it.

Baby Shower

2007-03-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

No - not for me!

We went to a baby shower for Dan's cousin today in Maple Lake. Lots and lots of Dan's relatives and their friends there. What a hoot!

We played two of the requisite games you play at baby showers - first, the lovely "guess the baby food" game. I lost big - only got 3 out of 14 right. I guessed bananas, pears and applesauce correctly. The rest I tanked on - good lord that "meat"-flavored baby food smells digusting! We never bought it for Conner....it all looked exactly the same to me, chicken, beef and ham. Brown, slimy and all with a distinctly BAD odor. What baby is dumb enough to eat that??

However, I kicked at the poopy diaper game! Remember that one? Melted candy bars in the diapers and you have to guess what kind of candy bar it is. Got all 8 right - although I'm not exactly sure that is something to be proud of - apparently I know my candy bars a little too well! Although I am proud to say I didn't taste any of them, as one of the other contestants did. Yuck!

It was down to another woman and me (I was up against "the taster"), so we had a sudden-death match. And, as at any self-respecting baby shower, the sudden-death involved who could put a baby diaper on a stuffed animal faster. My opponent (whose husband's name is also Dan Carlson - although related through the non-Becker side - how freaky is that???) has kids who are 8 and 9, so she hasn't changed a diaper in awhile. I, on the other hand, had just changed one within the last hour. So you can guess who walked away with the prize! If you ever need a diaper put on a stuffed horse, I'm your gal!

Note to anyone who attended my baby-shower over 3 years ago THANK YOU for not playing any of those games!!!!!

Playing in the snow

2007-03-04T19:47:00.001-08:00

After the big snow storms last week, we got a very nice weekend - quite sunny and fairly warm.

I feel like I didn't accomplish much, but we did play outside a lot....

Here you can see the icicles on the back of our house. Probably not a good thing - I assume it means we have a lot of heat loss. I won't tell you what our latest heating bill is - SCARY!

Here's our backyard - decent amount of snow, eh? Yes - there is a doghouse hidden back there. Dan had to snowblow out a place for the dog to do his thing.....

And here's Conner playing King of the Snowpile. And a snowcave that Dan dug for him.

Bobby Flay in Ireland

2007-03-04T19:42:00.000-08:00

I watched a show on Food Network last night that was quite enjoyable - Bobby Flay in Ireland. I found it interesting and fun because my husband and I took our honeymoon in Ireland and it was fabulous. If I could choose anywhere in the world to live, I would be hard pressed to choose between Hawaii and Ireland.

I was able to relive fond memories while I watched - since we visited the Jameson Whiskey factory and the Ballymoe cooking school (featured stops on the show). It's coming up again - so if you watch it, it will be like you were on our honeymoon with us! Wait, that's a little creepy.....

Anyway - watch it! Scooter - where else can you learn to make Dingle Pie???

March 10, 2007 5:00 PM ET/PT
March 11, 2007 6:00 PM ET/PT

Lots of Snow!

2007-02-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Okay - I have to apologize to the weather folk I blasted in my previous post. We did get quite a bit of snow this weekend, although it didn't start exactly when they said it would. I just returned from the grocery store - not really wanting to go, but it wasn't bad. Roads were fine - although they haven't plowed our side street yet, so it's a little tricky getting from the alley to the main road. Pictures below show the amount of snow around our place and Conner having fun in the snow. We're not sure how much we got - because some drifts are a few inches and others are at least a foot or more. You be the judge......

Snow Day

2007-02-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

The Twin Cities are forecast to receive at least a foot of snow this weekend - I don't know that I believe it. They said I would wake up this AM to 4-6 inches - ah, not so much. Maybe 1/2 of sleet pellets, but that's about it. The morning was mainly a mix of light snow and ice pellets - looks like it has finally switched over to snow. But I still don't think we'll get as much as they predict. What is it with weather people these days? Every storm has to be the BIG ONE - do they think this will improve their ratings? It only makes them look like complete idiots when they are wrong - AGAIN.

Although I have to admit we fell for the hype - I went to Target and the grocery store last night to ensure we had diapers, milk, juice, etc. As did everyone else - both places were very busy.

It's been a nice day at home though - Conner and I went for a walk to the park in the AM, didn't last very long with the wind. We got across the street to the park, Conner felt the full blast of wind and said "I want to go home". So we went up and down the alley (out of the wind) for awhile to get our fresh air for the day. Exciting part was when we were on our way to the park and a young dog - looked like a black shepherd, came RACING across Marshall, making a beeline for Conner. I wasn't quite sure what to do - so I kept pulling the sled Conner was riding in - thinking that if the dog attacked, he had enough clothing on to protect him until I could kick the dog away. Dog was very nice though - just excited and jumping around. When I figured it was safe, I grabbed his collar, and held on until the owner came over. He apologized and explained that the dog loves kids. Whew! At least he didn't love the TASTE of kids. Conner didn't seem to mind - he's used to big dogs.

Then we made some cookies - gingerbread boys and shapes with plenty of sprinkles - the ONLY way to make cookies

And we got a little silly - note the lovely earrings:

He does eat.....

2007-02-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

This is for Joyce & Kent - thanks for lunch today! Just so you know, Conner does eat - he had 1/2 a sloppy joe, a cup of fruit, a handful of chips, 3 pickles, 1 carrot and milk for dinner. It's just the "when" of eating that is sporadic.

Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T20:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Valentine's day and also Dan's birthday. Since it's impossible to find one of our usual college students to babysit, we stayed home. We usually try to celebrate Dan's birthday another night - since it's always insane to find a restaurant that isn't completely jammed on the actual day. He did buy me flowers, which was very nice - he waited until later in the day, thinking it wouldn't be as busy - but the place was still mobbed. As he was going in, he saw a woman sitting outside, having a smoke break. She looked exhausted - not surprisingly. Dan felt bad for her, so he walked by her, handed her a few bucks and said "here, you dropped this". He said the look he got was like he had given her a million dollars. She must have told her boss, because when he got inside, the saleswoman told him she was going to give him a good deal. So he bought me this:

Very pretty, isn't it? Notice the flowers in the heart shape? What would you pay for something this lovely? $40? $70? How about $125??? Yep, that's what they were charging for this. Luckily, the saleswoman liked Dan and gave it to him for FAR less. And they say florists don't jack up prices for Valentine's Day. I heard it was the bad weather this year....yeah, that's it!

A few more pics for you - Conner and I in the traditional "look what daddy bought me to give to you for valentine's day mommy" picture.

Conner opening his valentine's day cards and gifts:

Nope - hasn't eaten the cookie yet. He only gets a few treats each night (a whole bag from daycare!), so this is still "to be opened".

And finally Dan opening his gifts. Note the xmas lights still up in the background. We left them up for Conner, but they haven't been on since January....maybe a to-do for this weekend....

The New Favorite Story

2007-02-12T19:32:00.000-08:00

Conner's new favorite story is The Brave Little Tailor or The Valient Tailor - depending on the version you read. We have both, but Conner reads the kid-ified version with fun pictures. We read it several times per day and nothing will convince him to read any of the other stories in the book. I'm tempted to say the Tailor and Giants went on vacation.

Someone else thinks my kid is a genius!

2007-02-12T19:27:00.000-08:00

Of course Dan and I have believed our child was gifted from the moment he was born. But today we received confirmation of that - from someone who is NOT a relative, I might add. When I picked Conner up at school today, Ben, one of the college kids who works in Conner's room, said "he's a bright one!" I thought he was being sarcastic, because Conner had just showed me the mailbox and told me that "mailbox stuff" goes inside it. But he was actually serious. Apparently, earlier in the day, Conner had been lining things up and Ben asked him to count them. So Conner did, 1-10 in English and then 11-20 in Spanish. Ben was very impressed that Conner was able to switch between the two languages and even be accurate. Personally, I think it just means he forgot how to say 11-20 in English at that point in time.

Thank you Muzzy!

Playtime with Eryn and then Sick Again

2007-02-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

Poor kid is sick again - came down with some sniffles yesterday and today he was a full-fledged coughing, sneezing, runny-nosed, crabby mess. We took it easy today and he's now out cold, so hopefully he'll sleep through the night and feel better in the AM.

Before he started feeling icky, Eryn came over on Saturday to play for a few hours. They decided it would be fun to sit in "boxes" and watch Dragon Tales for awhile......I'm not sure why Conner has that look on his face - it's not like he hasn't seen this DVD 5 million times - maybe some subtle, scary nuance that he finally noticed.....

When Daddy is in charge....

2007-02-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

I came home from a meeting late last Tuesday and found a Dan who had been trying to clean up and keep tabs on the 3-year old. Didn't work - Conner came running over and Dan said - "Show Mom your surprise". Conner unzipped his pajamas and had colored all over his stomach with marker. This is the residual the next day.

Giving up the living room

2007-02-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have finally admitted that the house no longer belongs to us. It took us three years, but we at last decided it was time to buy a toy organizer for the living room. It was just a big pile of stuff, which we tried to organize into plastic bins and pails - not so good. You can see below what it was like....

And here's what it looks like now. Much better!

AND!!!!!

2007-01-25T20:06:00.000-08:00

It drives me insane that the CEO of Gillette Children's Specialty Services makes so much money! In 2005, she made $517,727 with revenues of $98.8 and an excess of $7.3 million. I don't dispute that they do good work, but they are TINY in comparison with other health systems and it has always made me nuts that they have all these fundraisers and radio-a-thons to raise money for "the Kids". They're not raising money for the kids - they are raising money to pay her salary!

Whew - got that off my chest.....it's been pissing me off since I worked at Regions and would walk through Gillette's area periodically.

Changes at Work

2007-01-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

This is a sad week for us at work - the president of our caresystem is leaving for a job with HealthEast. It's a wonderful opportunity for her, but we are VERY sad to see her go. She was a wonderful leader, not to mention the only woman at that level. We have 7 caresystems and she was the only woman. I am hopeful they find another woman to take her place - I think it's amusing (or SAD!) that at least 80-90% of the workforce in my company is female, yet we have very few women in high-ranking positions.

One interesting item - in the Jan 14th Star Trib, the nonprofits in MN were ranked. They listed the revenues, excess (profit), CEO and their pay. Looking at Healthcare: First of all - for running non-profits, these folks do okay. Maybe I should apply for that open President job! Secondly, notice how Fairview's revenue is just slightly less than the revenues for #3 and #4 and more than #6, #7 & #10, but our CEO's salary is far less. (For those of you with Blue Cross insurance - now you know why they don't pay for anything - all the money goes to their CEO!)

Not to mention our CEO has an excess that is higher than all but one of those 5 organizations. Either our CEO did not do his homework when setting his salary, or he really felt the $$ should be going to providing care for patients. What a concept! He is retiring the end of 2007, so it will be interesting to see what the new CEO gets for compensation - if the trend continues.

Rank Organization Revenue (millions) Excess CEO Pay
1. Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN $7,115.3 $10.9 $3,365,811
2. Mayo Foundation $6,118.3 $512.2 $1,619,184
3. HealthPartners $2,459.6 $24.4 $1,140,194
4. Allina Health Services $2,279.6 $136.9 $1,575,955
5. Fairview Health Services $1,910.4 $83.1 $788,076
6. Medica $1258.6 $2.8 $1,012,510
7. Park Nicollet $1,069.0 $45.7 $956,123

10 HealthEast $685.6 $13.9 $1,029,323

Sick - but getting better.....

2007-01-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

Sick

2007-01-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

Conner is sick - bad cold. I got a call from daycare today around noon saying he had quite a disgusting diaper and a fever of 100.6. They put him down for a nap and said I could come get him in a few hours, which was nice. Apparently, one of the rooms at his daycare has had quite the stretch of illness - strep, flu, colds, one kid has been in the hospital for three days! I was a little paranoid when I woke him up - he gave a few barky coughs, which made me nervous. I had just read a fax from Dakota County Public Health saying a 3-year old had died of pneumonia. Yikes! But we got home and it appears to be just a bad cold. Poor thing! And have pity on his sweatshirt, which has several layers of snot on both arms where he continually wipes his nose. Kleenex is apparently just not good enough!

Future contest winner?

2007-01-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

Dan and I are constantly trying to get Conner to eat - he seems so skinny to us and I REALLY want to get him a new carseat that goes in and out easier than the one we have, BUT he has to be 38-40 pounds before we can make the transfer. He's about 5 pounds shy of that.

The last few days he has had some nasty diapers (nope, not potty-trained yet!), so we're assuming his stomach isn't feeling the best and so he's eating even less.

There is a story behind all this - Dan said when he dropped off Conner this AM, one of his teachers said the day before, Conner had let out a belch that was louder than anything she had ever heard from a preschooler. Dan claimed he got it from me, but the intelligent woman knew better. So all I can think of is those really tiny people who always win the food eating contests - don't you wonder where the heck they put it all? Maybe Conner will someday win belching contests - lulling the much larger participants into a false sense of security with his skinny build and then blowing them away with the power of his gaseous might. What a proud mother I will be that day.

Mermaids???

2007-01-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

Conner was taking a bath tonight and pretending a blue washcloth was a mermaid (I prefer to see this as an indication of a great imagination). I asked him what the mermaid's name was - he said "Marsha". Must be the memory of those turkey cupcakes??

Going to the Zoo

2007-01-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

Dan and I took Conner to the MN Zoo today (I still call it the "new" zoo - wasn't it built in the 80's?). Clifford and StellaLuna were there - Conner loved both of them. Then we went outside and were pretty much the only folks silly enough to go out there. But if you want to avoid the crowds, this is the time to hit the outside trails! The meerkats have been moved in with the Aardvarks - we got into the building and the meerkats all popped out of their holes and stared at us the entire time we were in there, no matter where we went. I think they are lonely! Aardvarks are apparently boring roomies.

This last one is harder to see, but if you look hard, you can see the big fish eyeing Conner for lunch....

New camera! And baking....

2007-01-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

At last! A new digital camera! Our old one died several months ago and we decided to wait for the xmas sales. My folks gave us a gift card to Best Buy, so that helped immensely! We went back and forth between the Canon A530 and the A620 (about $100 difference) and decided that the A530 was just fine for what we needed. It works quite well - although the shutter speed is a little slow.....

Here's a picture of Conner in the kitchen - we were making chocolate chip cookies - his favorite thing to bake. But this picture looks like we are making "funny" brownies....

A new version of an old favorite?

2006-12-16T05:01:00.000-08:00

I think the teachers at Conner's daycare were getting desperate for something to entertain the kids with yesterday. As we were leaving, one of the teachers said "Conner - make sure you sing the Rudolph song for mom in the car". I was thinking - isn't that nice, they taught him Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. So on the way home he sang it for me. He continued singing it for most of the night - we have it on video for anyone who is interested.

It's not EXACTLY the traditional version: it goes something like this:

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose - like a light-bulb!
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose - like pinocchio!
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose - like Applebees!
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose - like George Washington!

After each line, Conner would laugh more hysterically. Especially after the George Washington line. We're not entirely sure how Applebees and George Washington relate to Rudolph's red nose, but it was fun to watch him sing it!

Another Class Done!

2006-12-16T04:45:00.000-08:00

At last, I am done with my latest class - final was on Wednesday. Whew! and Woo-hoo! I think that was the longest one so far - at least it seemed like it! I want to go back to the quarter system - if you have a hard class, this whole semester thing is WAY too long.

I was reading another blog by a friend who is also in school and is done for the semester - she talked about how her family apparently loves school, because they have masters degrees all over the place. Lately, when I tell coworkers I am in school, they ask if it's for my (initial) masters degree. When I tell them I already have one and this will be another, they look at me like I have 4 heads. Then they put on an that pseudo-interested face and make a comment like - oh, isn't that great? But I know they are wondering what's wrong with me! Guess I'm one of those folks who really believes in life-long learning. And if you aren't thrilled with your current job, go back to school for something you like!

We had some drama right before the final - our professor gave us a list of 9 questions the week before and said she would choose 4 of the questions to put on the final and we could choose 2 of the 4 to answer. Then there would be (1) 10 point question that wasn't on the list of 9. So, not bad, I reviewed the notes and articles and books and answered all 9 questions and studied from that. She also said we could bring in a copy of the table of contents from our book o' articles (she is the queen of citing, so this would help us remember the 5 million author's names while taking the test) and we could use the back to jot down our notes prior to answering the questions. Sounds straight-forward right? WRONG!

Several of my classmates interpreted this as "You can bring one page of notes into the test". (HUH??) The professor sent out an email a few hours beforehand (which I did not see) saying nope, that's not what I said. So several folks were really ticked off. One girl actually said to me (angrily) - "I'm so mad! Do you really think she can go through with giving this test?" I replied, "Yes" and then said something about how I never heard anything about being able to bring notes to class. She decided to move on to someone else who might be more sympathetic to her cause. It was an interesting example of how people hear exactly what they want to hear in stressful situations.

So the professor handed out the final, answers to two of the questions popped immediately into my brain, so I whipped out a page on each and was done within an hour.

Hello Again

2006-12-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

Holy smokes - it's been AGES since I've blogged! Seems working full time, having a toddler-husband-dog-house, and going to school doesn't leave much free time. Amazing, isn't it?

Two weeks left of class - one major paper due on Wednesday (taking a break right now) and then a "final" the next week. Definitely NOT taking a class next semester....I need a break.

Lots going on at work, Dan is busy at work and Conner moved to the preschool room. Trying to get pregnant - I'm sure the stress and not seeing each other much isn't helping.

Digital camera is broken, so no new pics. Waiting until holiday sales really pick up. :-)

Back to work....

Eye Doctor

2006-08-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

I went to the eye doctor this afternoon - hadn't been in 2 years, only went because I'm starting to run low on contacts and my script is expired. I went to an optometrist in Eagan - mainly because our insurance plan pays 80/20 for eye exams and I could pay less out of pocket seeing the optometrist. I have to say, I was quite impressed - it was the Yankee Eye Clinic on Duckwood Drive - I always get a little concerned going into a strip mall clinic, but they were very professional, did a ton of tests, and were quite speedy. AND heck - I could have gone next door to buy a gift basket, had the urge struck me. What more could I ask for?

My biggest concern was the glaucoma test. My grandmother had glaucoma, so I always want to be sure my eyes are in good shape. Well, as good as they can be, considering I'm blind as a bat! They have a new test for glaucoma - some fancy scan that will take a photo of your eye and allow the doc to REALLY see what's going on in there. It's $35 and insurance doesn't pay. When you sign in, they have you sign something that says you either want the test or you want to talk with the doc more about it. Initially, I was against it, but then thought to myself - if I have the drops, I'll have to wait around until they go into effect and then I won't be able to see well for hours. I have errands to run, so the extra time and ability to see may be worth $35. I had this long argument with myself during the entire visit and then he never even brought it up. They did the air test (think Rachel on Friends - it made me smile) and he did lots of peeking at my eyes - and said everything looked fine, so I didn't need the other glaucoma tests. So all that rationalizing for nothing! What a waste of good brain time.

I amazed my husband by then running 5 errands in an hour and still getting to pick up our son on time. He's one of those folks that just doesn't multi-task well - he does one job at a time and granted, he does it well, but it still drives me crazy some days.

Great minds think alike!

2006-08-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Just before I put up the posting about Conner and slide-jumping, Scooter posted some video of it...go to his blog to see it!
http://nodtonothing.blogspot.com/

Cabin, the cabin and slide jumping

2006-08-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

My folks sold their cabin yesterday - so I'm posting a picture from our last visit there.

I think our digital camera is toast, so the pics for the next few days/weeks will be old ones - sorry! The poor thing is currently in pieces near the A/C - we thought maybe it got too hot or got some moisture in it, so we're letting it air out.

Finally, Sunday night we were at the Poo-Tee-Weet/Scooter household and the kids found a new game - leaping off the top of the slide into a pile of pillows & blankets. There is video somewhere....don't worry, we were monitoring and it was perfectly safe and they had a great time - I'm no a bad mom, really!

Education and now healthcare....

2006-08-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

My parents are both retired teachers and it constantly amazes me how many people believe it is up to educators to teach their kids to be "good" people. Don't worry honey, we don't need to talk to the kid about sex, they'll learn in school. We don't need to pay attention to the kid or stop that bad behavior, they'll take care of it in school and teach them everything they need to know about life.
Now it's falling on healthcare providers to take responsibility for ensuring you are healthy. I just read a story about Governor Pawlenty's new plan to hold physicians accountable for making people healthy. So the government will start measuring how individuals with chronic conditions are doing and then hold the physician accountable. We are already tracking this info where I work, as are most provider groups - it's already being measured by every healthplan in town. I think it's a good thing, but I worry things like physicians being measured on whether their patients quit smoking, whether they come in for their clinic visits and whether they are meeting the goals. There will always be patients who just don't care and refuse to take responsibility for their own health - look at all the obese people in our country. Everyone KNOWS it's not healthy to be obese, but they just keep on eating and not exercising - heck, I'm guilty myself! I lost 17 pounds and have gained 5 back.....time to put that chocolate away!
My point is - people need to take responsibility for themselves and their own health - yes, we in healthcare will certainly be happy to help you reach those goals, but don't hold us entirely accountable, because in the end, it's your decision.

Weekend

2006-07-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

We had a good weekend - I'm actually exhausted! Bought a new gas grill this weekend that Dan put together - he HATES it when the directions say - "no tools required". That means he will always need some type of tool and it's going to take forever to get together. In the end, there were a few spare parts (as there usually are), but it worked great. We had our friend Charie over for dinner and the neighbors stopped by as well. So we had quite a nice barbecue and after dinner, sat around and chatted. I made two desserts for the evening - one was a flop, a chocolate, banana, peanut butter ice cream pie thing. Just trying to find a way to use up those old bananas! The other is something I got from the Penzey's catalog - it's a big cookie with fruit on it. Doesn't look too exciting, but dang, it's good! Basically, it a big sugar cookie with a mixture of cream cheese (reduced fat of course), sugar & vanilla spread on top, then tons of fresh berries sprinkled over that with just a touch of raspberry jelly drizzled over everything. Our neighbors loved it and named it "CookieQueen's Juicy Cookie". They decided I could sell them and market it as such. Hmmm....

Then Dan, Charie and I watched Narnia. Not bad - I wouldn't say it's the best I've seen, but I enjoyed it. Charie also brought the Corpse Bride, but we didn't have time to watch that one.

Conner was very good all day - he entertained Dan and I with his flirting. First with Charie and then our neighbor Liz. He would give them a cute little smile and tilt his head ever so slightly....golly are we going to be in trouble in 13 years or so.....

This morning was breakfast at Louisiana Grill with the Scooter family and Dan ran into his boss there. What a small world.....the Scooters' came back to our place for awhile and we all lazed on the deck with our caffeinated beverage of choice and chatted while the kids played. Then Conner and I both took a nap, although mine was far shorter than his 3 hours.

In general, a very good weekend! I'm working Mon/Tue, then have Wed-Tuesday off. Totally looking forward to it, although I have a million things to do so I don't forsee much relaxation.

This afternoon, Conner and I made gingerbread men cookies from the leftover sugar cookie dough. I know, it's supposed to be MADE out of gingerbread, but that's the only cookie name he knows and I had leftover sugar cookie dough so deal with it!

Cute pictures:

Isn't he getting to look so big???

Here's the finished product - think of it as abstract art....that you can eat!

Why do cookies take so long to cook? Why can't I open the oven? Why is it hot? Why is the oven white? Why can't I bang on it? Are they done???

When they were finally done, they tasted very good! I think Conner ate at least 3 and maybe 4 of them. Don't worry - we made him eat dinner!

Ah....our son - isn't he lovely....

2006-07-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

For awhile, Conner has been obsessed with dresses. We'd pick him up at daycare and often, he's be wearing one of the play dresses and having a wonderful time. The teachers tell us that the toddler boys actually fight over who gets the wear the dresses, so apparently, it's not just our kid. Dan finally broke down and bought Conner a gift at a garage sale - good for him in being so open-minded!

Scooter Clan Pics

2006-07-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

Just to see if he's actually reading my blog - some pics of Scooter & his clan....

Picture #1 - Easter at their place & Picture #2 - Scooter partying at our place - what a hoot!

Pics of Conner

2006-07-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

One of Conner's favorite games is to be swung around in the laundry basket, up in the air of course. I have trouble doing this, but Dan can get him going. After a few rounds, Conner said it was Dan's turn, but after having some trouble lifting Daddy up, he decided to join him and sing a chorus of row-row-row your boat!

HOT!

2006-07-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

It was darn hot this weekend! Of course it looked pretty hot across the ENTIRE country - 90's and 100's everywhere you looked. But hey, global warming isn't real - just something made up by those darn tree-huggers. Dan was telling me about an article he read regarding scientists doing research on vines to see if they can get rid of carbon dioxide and help us keep the planet from burning up. Apparently, when scientists fed straight CO2 to the vines (including poison ivy), they went nuts and grew like crazy. So there's our choice - roast like chickens or live in a world of vines and poison ivy. We could all be like Uma Thurman in that batman movie. Maybe the government would pay us to have a vine farm.....

I actually went to work on Saturday for a few hours - sucks, I know, but I have to say - I go into work on the weekends far, far, far less with this job than when I worked at Regions. Actually, it was nice to be able to work on some things with minimum disruption.

But I have a question for the miniscule number of people who read my blog - if you went to the urgent care for low back pain, would you want the doctor to give you the option of getting up to see your xrays or allowing you to stay seated & have him explain what he saw? I was in my office and heard a patient saying "ow, ow, ow" in the room when someone was checking him and later, the doctor went in the room and I heard him say - let's go look at your xrays. Patient had to get up and go around the corner, stand there and listen to the doctor explain what he saw. Call me a wimp, but if my back hurts enough to go into the urgent care on a Saturday afternoon when it's pushing 100 degrees, I don't want to have to stand around and listen to the doctor explain my xrays. Just tell me what's broken and what I need to do to fix it.

I'm obsessed with providing the best experience for patients, so I'm thinking it would have been better for the doctor to say - the xray viewbox is just around the corner from your room. Would you like to get up and take a look or would you be more comfortable staying here and I'll tell you what I see? Any comments???

Anyway - rest of the weekend was nice. We hung out on Saturday night with the Scooter/Poo-Tee-Weet clan (and Kyle too!) and today we did the usual chores and my folks came to visit for awhile. They went to dinner with my aunt & uncle at Kincaids (LUCKY!), so to make us feel posh as well, I bought some steaks from Kowalski's for dinner. I thought it might be better cuts of meat - Dan said I shouldn't buy steak from Cub anymore - yuck! But while he said I cooked it perfectly, it still didn't have the taste he remembered from childhood. So next time around I'll buy organic beef. We'll see if the "natural" stuff will make him happier.

Plants - Green Thumb?

2006-07-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't really planted anything since we bought this house several years ago....so this year, I decided to try some tomato and pepper plants. I initially put them in pots, but the tomatoes were looking sad, so Dan replanted them in a big planter that he built me. My mom designed a nice combo of flowers/plants to go in it, but I never got that far. Maybe next year.....

The tomato plants are going crazy - although there are only 2 that appear to be ripening at this point. And Kyle - here's a picture of the purple pepper I was telling you about. I'm just not sure when to pick and eat it!

Grizwald

2006-07-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

Our dog, Grizwald, has developed some type of skin condition over the past weeks. He is shedding EVEN MORE than usual, which is bad enough, but he also has extraordinarily dry, flaky skin and occasionally, chunks of fur with dead skin attached come off. Very disgusting. We took him to the vet and they said it's just dry skin and give him baths with special shampoo.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but we're trying! He doesn't get crabby when bathed, but he tries to get away, so Dan puts on his collar and leash and ties him to the fence. How pitiful is that face??

4th of July

2006-07-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

We had quite a nice weekend - 4 days off is quite lovely! We spent part of Saturday cleaning, not so much fun, but Conner and I went to Scooter and Poo-Tee-Weet's place for some slip & sliding in the afternoon. See Scooter's blog at A Nod to Nothing for video. Sunday we went to my parent's cabin in Wisconsin for a few days. Might be the last time we are there, since they sold it. It's not final yet, but looking like it will be. We took many trips down to the "beach" as Conner calls it - definitely got a workout with all those stairs. He loves to throw rocks in the water, but we also went swimming, took a ride in the paddle boat (with me shoo-ing away the Daddy Long Legs spiders that have been living on the boat for several years) and several rides in grandpa's fishing boat.

Dan and I saw some great fireworks on Sunday night - the cabin folk up there really go all out. Dad said one neighbor bought $1,000 worth of shells last year & had so much fun, he bought $2,000 worth this year. Personally, I can think of much better things to do with $2,000 (3 tickets to Hawaii is only $2,400!), but to each his own. And we enjoyed watching the show from our dock & not having to go anywhere. It was like 3 groups were battling it out for top fireworks show honors, so we actually won in getting to see them all. The next day, we let Conner take a 4 hour nap and then stay up for more fireworks, but he was truly uninterested. Oh well, maybe next year.

A short vacation - thank goodness!

2006-06-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited - I now have 4 days off from work (sigh), which means some time to regroup and not have to listen to constant talking at work. Damn that open door policy of mine anyway! It can be really annoying when you are actually trying to get work done and people stop by every few minutes to chat, complain, tell me something is broken, or my personal favorite - the salespeople who just "stop by" to see if you are busy.

Although there is one funny story from one such interruption this week - one of the newer providers to the clinic, Dr. Jason, as Scooter and Poo-Tee-Weet know him, stopped by to say we really need an auto door opener for our doors leading into and out of the lobby. I assured him that I was aware of this need, but unfortunately, money is tight and we didn't have enough to do it this year (see yesterday's Star Trib business section for the woes of healthcare organizations). He then came up with the idea to hire a bellman (with one of those funny hats) to stand at the door and open it for folks. I suggested a monkey in a little hat, thinking this would be cheaper - no salary, just bananas. He ran with that and thought we could actually make money on the deal by sending him out to work kids' birthday parties. I have to say, some of the folks I work with are certainly good humor!

Musings regarding Mrs. Brady

2006-06-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I was channel surfing the other day and watched a bit of the Brady Bunch. So nice to go back to those simpler days. But it got me thinking - what did Mrs. Brady DO all day? Alice was the live-in help - she did the cooking, shopping, cleaning, etc. You see Mrs. Brady hanging around, but never really doing anything except bug the kids and say "Oh Mike!". Sheesh - how did she get that gig? Sign me up!

New laptop

2006-06-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I know, been gone for ages - I know there has to be at least one person out there who missed me.

I am happy to report that I finally convinced my husband that a laptop was essential for me, so I got one last weekend. (Of course it may have been his guilt for buying several expensive tools as his father's day gift, but who am I to question?)

Took Conner to Izzy's tonight for some ice cream. I asked what flavor he wanted and he said "pink". There were several pink choices and we ended up with Strawberry. I didn't think the one with alcohol in it would be the best choice and I really couldn't bring myself to get Bubble Gum. Disgusting! Note to Scooter - they have an Oatmeal Stout currently - have you tried that? Anyway, luckily I made the strawberry our "Izzy" because Conner took one bite & declared it "icky". He took several bites of the chocolate I had chosen and that was it - the rest was for me. It's so tough being a mom.....

The highlight was going a few stores down to the train shop - they have 4 train tables set up in the back and it appears they are there for kids to enjoy. There are two benches for the weary adults to sit and rest while their kids play and they even have a room for birthday parties. I never realized those train sets were so expensive! I thought of buying him a little something from there, but decided against it when I found the cheapest set was over $100. We'll let grandma/grandpa or Auntie Joyce & Uncle Kent spoil him with that someday! :-)

Happy Birthday Joyce

2006-04-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

It's my aunt Joyce's birthday today and since we won't see her until next weekend - I thought she would like some pictures....

Gingerbread Boy

2006-04-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

Conner has developed a love for baking - and he is VERY serious when he does it. His new favorite book is the Gingerbread Boy - so last weekend, we made gingerbread boys. He helped me make the dough, roll it out, cut out the shapes and decorate. Here are some pics.....

On Vacation

2006-03-06T18:50:00.000-08:00

Dan, Conner and I are in Arizona right now, visiting my parents. It's quite nice - high 70's, low 80's, although it's supposed to cool down on Wednesday. Which is okay - it's still nicer than MN and I'm not at work!

The flight down was good - Conner only had a meltdown about wearing the seatbelt - I snuck it on him when he was fascinated by the plane moving down the runway, although on landing, he was exhausted and crabby, so I hid him a bit and luckily the flight attendants didn't notice. All the people around us thought he did great - and considering there were two kids crying throughout the flight and another dad who was walking the aisles with his child, I count us lucky that Conner was content to sit and watch Shrek. He slept on me for about an hour, not enough, but it was okay.

Went swimming once - it was a little windy that day, so kind of chilly. We'll try again tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday, Dan and I took off after lunch and visited the town of Tubac, between Tucson and Nogales. It was fun to walk around and look at the overpriced stuff - we went back today so Dan could visit a shop run by Native Americans and he was unimpressed with their stuff and the high prices. He's used to living near a reservation and being able to get everything at cost!
We had rented a hotel room at the Esplendor Resort at Rio Rico - if you look it up, it looks very fancy and Hotels.com gives it a 3 out of 5 rating. I would NOT rate it that highly, definitely not worth the $100 we spent for the night there. I had rented a deluxe King room on-line and when we got there, they sent us to a room with 2 double beds. I called the front desk and they told me that guests who place their reservations on-line are NOT guaranteed the room they select, only that they get a room. Excuse me??? So why is it that someone who uses up staff time by making a phone call for a reservation gets preferential treatment over someone like me, who is saving them money by doing the transaction on-line? Obviously, I was NOT happy.

In addition, they had cleaned our room right late (we had to sit in the bar for an hour until it was done) and they must have used a whole bottle of cleaner because it stunk in there. Our eyes were watering and not kidding, my eyes have been red and I've been stuffed up all day. We had to open the sliding glass door & leave it open most of the night , just so we could sleep.

We went to their restaurant for dinner and I can say that was very good. So go to Rio Rico to play golf (Robert Trent Jones course) and eat, but don't get room there.

Today we tried to go to Bisbee using a map that we got from the hotel and ended up hopelessly lost. We had to go through the local Army fort and my dad didn't have an up-to-date registration in the car, so they ran the plates to be sure we weren't terrorists. (I keep telling Dan he looks shifty) I kept expecting them to pull their guns and cuff us - saying, "Sure, it's your parents' care...right...."

But, in the end, they gave us a pass and we made our way through to a road we knew. Not exactly the nice time away we were hoping for, but it was childless for 24 hours. Good thing - Conner would have learned some nice words during drive. :-)

Dan's birthday II

2006-02-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

Scooter from A Nod to Nothing decided on a very irritating gift for Dan this year. He ran into a blog posting where someone made an enormous bacon sandwich - I believe it was 1 pound or more of bacon. So, knowing Dan has a weakness for bacon, Scott gave him 3 (or was it 4) pounds of bacon, a packet of pre-cooked bacon, a loaf of Wonder Bread, 2 beers, anda ring sausage (not entirely sure what that was about). LissyJo - are you feeling sick just reading this???

Today, Dan took on the challenge -and although I think he probably could have eaten 2 pounds, he stayed around 1 pound. You'll notice from the pictures that he ignored the bread, added an egg and some lettuce as a garnish. I asked if he ate the lettuce later and he laughed at me.

Dan's birthday

2006-02-22T20:03:00.000-08:00

My husband's birthday is Feb. 14th- Valentine's day. Since it's such a crazy night at restaurants, we usually wait to go out on another night. Scooter and Pooteeweet were night enough to watch Conner so we could actually have a dinner alone and not have to inhale our food - just in case the 2 year old got antsy.

My parents sent him a shirt with gift certificates for Black Forest Inn - cool! Initially, my mom had purchased a medium shirt, but I told her to get a large. Even though he's not tall, Dan has a broad chest and shoulders, so larges always fit better. Before you see the picture and doubt my logic, Dan agreed with me that he does usually wear a large.....

Can we bring it AZ and return it there? Mom?

New Pics

2006-02-22T19:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been remiss in posting pictures of the boy - here are some recent ones....

Conner helping Dad put together his new table. Ikea rocks!

Conner helping Mom in the kitchen. Yummy!

Oh no - not the sci-fi channel again??!!!