Another ten on Tuesday...

Okay, I'm not off to the greatest of blogging starts for 2014, lol. Still. I'm here. Nothing huge to report just now, so here's some randomness to share:

1. I got a new parka for Christmas. As I was trying them on and asking boys for opinions, Micah declared that one in particular made me "look too English." What?! No idea where that came from. :)

2. Last Friday, my boot camp instructor got this wild hair to have us do pull-ups. Pull-ups! Folks, I honestly don't think I've ever done a pull-up in my life. I was rather darn impressed with myself for getting up there and managing a few sets (not great sets, by any stretch, but you get what I'm saying). Course, then I spent the weekend making entertaining achy sounds every time I tried to lift my arms, lol. (Yeah, Nathan and the boys found this hilarious.) Yesterday, at boot camp, we did four sets. Oy. I don't like the trend but am supremely proud to say that I've not made any achy sounds today. ;)

3. Yes, I know I didn't post my new word of the year yet. I was having a really hard time settling on one. I have one now, finally. (It's different than the one I thought I had last week, lol.) I'll post soon. Honest.

4. Boys all had cavity-free check-ups at the dentist last week. Whew. :) (Since it was just a check-up, no drama from Micah, lol.)

5. I cut the boys' hair last weekend. It's interesting to me how different their hair and heads are. For the record, Noah's hair and head is the most like mine (big surprise, right?)...full and dark and evenly colored (when you don't count my white hairs, lol). It grows very evenly and is straight-forward and easy to cut. There's just a LOT of it. :) Asher's head is his own...lumpy and large. ;) His hair is also his own...coarse and close to his head. He has some lovely swirly spots, courtesy of Nathan. His is the most tricky to cut. Micah's a mix between his brothers...with thicker hair like Noah but swirly and tricky spots like Asher (actually, Micah's most like Nathan now that I think about it). He also has a very hairy neck like Nathan. Now that he doesn't have the mohawk any more, though, it's easier to cut. 

6. There's a reason we don't give Micah Mountain Dew. Just FYI. :) (Yeah, we'd never offered him any before but he snagged some on his own last week and went a little berserk. Entertaining, lol.)

7. Also last week, all three boys used their various Christmas monies and allowances to buy themselves the Nintendo 2DS dealios that Santa and parents refused to buy them for Christmas. ;) (Micah had a whopping $1 left over after his purchases, lol.) Since last week was still an off week from schoolwork, they got most of the playing out of their systems before our normal rules went back into place. So far this week it's going okay. They're happy, so I guess that's good. 

8. To put it out there for accountability purposes, I've signed up for the Colorado Half Marathon again this May. This will be my third year running it. I'm trying to sort out how to balance a running training plan with doing boot camp also but feel that doing both will definitely be better than a running plan alone or a half-hearted running plan alone, which is what I've done so far. ;) Wish me luck!

9. We started back to homeschooling full time today. (Yesterday was Options.) Met with the expected resistance and grumbling. Fun times. :) 

10. As of this afternoon, our decorations are officially put away for the season. Yay, us! 

Ten on Tuesday

In efforts to catch up...

1. Christmas. It went really well and was declared "the best yet" by the younger two. :) I already covered most of that but wanted to mention also that this is the year I renewed my clothing tradition. Growing up, my mom always got us all new Christmas pajamas each year, to be opened on Christmas eve. I continued that with the boys for years. Then, they stopped wearing pajamas, lol. (They sleep in their clothes because they're weird like that. Don't say anything. I've given up trying to convince them otherwise, lol.) So, I stopped with the pajamas and was sad. 

This year, though, I changed it up and got them each a new shirt...one that speaks to something about their individual year or personality. Noah got an archery technical tee (from one of his preferred archery brands/companies), Asher got a ninja tee (of course), and Micah got a tee that we had made just for him that simply says "hug?" on the front. ;) (The boy adores hugs and asks for them without reserve, lol. He LOVES his new tee. In retrospect, we probably should have made one for Noah that said "no hug zone" or something similar, lol...but he wouldn't have worn that.)

2. Anniversary. Nathan and I celebrated our 17th anniversary! Though Nathan did have to be reminded of the number of years, lol, we had a lovely time celebrating a day early on the 30th...spending the afternoon hanging out and shopping in Boulder then enjoying a seriously wonderful meal at The Melting Pot in Fort Collins. (Big thanks to Nathan's parents for entertaining boys that day!)

Here's a picture of the dessert portion of our evening...bananas foster with dark chocolate. Oh. My. Yumminess. (Plus, since it was our anniversary, they put out rose petals everywhere and had little floating candles and all...fun!)

3. Archery. As is becoming tradition, we took John & Nancy to the archery range while they were visiting between Christmas and New Year's. 

Asher and Nathan stuck with their compound bows but the rest of us shot with recurves. Noah challenged me a few different times and, well, I won. ;) Ha! Afterward, he made excuses about how he was using a smaller target, so it shouldn't count. But. At the start, he made a point of telling me that the smaller target would "simply offset his awesomeness" or something very close to that. Smartypants. ;) 

4. Pyros. After we got home from archery, in true boy style, my guys set about trying to burn things in the driveway. (Back story. For Christmas, Noah and Micah each got lighted magnifying glasses to keep in their quivers...to help read/score arrows when they're on the line. Reminded of this at the archery range, they set about to see what else they could use them for, lol.)

Um, okay, this picture is of Asher and does not use the lighted magnifying thing I was talking about. But. Look how pretty it is. ;) (Here's something similar to what we got them if you're curious.)

5. New new year's eve tradition. During our scrumptious dessert at The Melting Pot the day before, Nathan and I decided we need more fondue in our lives. ;) So, on New Year's Eve day, we set out about town to find a fondue dealio. Ended up in Loveland but scored this:

Yup. We started a new tradition of chocolate fondue on New Year's Eve, and it was awesome. We dipped strawberries, apples, asian pears, pineapple, pretzels and ruffled potato chips. The strawberries and potato chips emerged as the favorites. ;) 

6. Snow. After John & Nancy had flown home, we got more snow. Yay?

Well, at least a couple of us thought it was good. ;)

7. Wunderlist. I started using this app in the new year and, so far, am ridiculously happy with it. I, um, make a lot of lists. ;) To date, I've had varying versions on my computer, my phone and my planner all simultaneously. I didn't really mind (I like lists) but am now realizing how much time I was squandering trying to synchronize them all. With Wunderlist, I can see the list on my phone and on my computer and can print it out if I need to keep it in my planner. Sweet.

8. Boot camp. Yup, still going. Still pretty darn happy with it. If, though, you see me today and I attempt to wave and grimace while doing so, know that it's not personal. I just can't lift my arms since yesterday, lol.

9. Break. For what it's worth, our homeschooling is still on break even though most of the local schools started back today. We'll start back next week. In the meantime, I'm thrilled with this particular perk of homeschooling. ;)

10. Word. I'll be back tomorrow-ish with my word for the year and all that. ;) In the meantime, you can revisit my previous words here. 

Whew. I think that's mostly caught up now. Mostly. ;)

A very Pokemon Christmas

1. You might not know this about me but I have a mean streak. ;) Truly. As a wee example of this, I wrapped all the boys' gifts in plain kraft paper this year. And I didn't label a single one. Bwahhaaaahhaaa. It was *hilarious* to see how disconcerted this made Noah, in particular. Hilarious, I tell ya! I highly recommend it. ;)

2. Despite my shenanigans, Noah did a lovely job this year at getting into the Christmas spirit. We ask the boys to make or do something for Nathan and I rather than shopping. This year Noah made us both a tin of handmade caramel with sea salt. Oh my yum.

(He also even made gifts for his brothers without prompting and spent a decent amount of time working on them.)

3. I don't pretend to understand the world of Pokemon, but my boys are quite taken with it. Quite. :) And so, we had a rather Pokemon heavy Christmas. I'm not exaggerating when I hang my head and say that more than 1000 new Pokemon cards found their way into our home.

(On the flip side...not one single new Lego. Not one. Is it wrong that that makes me a little sad?)

4. Asher didn't go as Pokemon crazy and, instead, got a new Wii game...the classic Super Mario Bros. Wow. That's entertaining. ;) (May I also just say that their personalities totally come through in their playing styles? So funny!)

5. And, the younger two welcomed a number of new stuffies this Christmas...a giant chimp (Bob), a baby hippo (Adam), a zebra (Jigaziga), and a Pokemon character (Piplup) for Asher...and a not so giant chimp (Jackie), a pig (Bacon), a penguin chick (Jingle), and a Pokemon character (Pikachu) for Micah. Micah also adopted the little stuffed cow (named Dinner) I got for Noah, lol.

And that, in a nutshell, was our Christmas. :) Hope yours was as merry!

Round 3

FYI. Yes, indeed. The incubation period for walking pneumonia is about 2-3 weeks. Micah can attest to this.

Fun times. 

Fortunately, knowing the symptoms so well, we think/hope we caught this one early and have already taken him to see the doctor and get a prescription for antibiotics. Considering that he's doing much better today, I think we called it right. (As in, the meds are working so we seemingly got the right thing diagnosed even though when I took him in the doctor said his chest was still clear. She agreed, though, that all the symptoms sounded like walking pneumonia, and ruled out most everything else, and was happy to call in the prescription for us the next day after the fever had come back and the coughing had worsened.)

Bleh. 

Do you suppose there's any chance we won't see a round four in a couple weeks?

Like a toddler with a box...

A package arrived this morning from my mom...with Omaha steaks to feed our starving teen and chocolate cakes to make the younger two squeal. :) In putting everything away into the freezer, though, the jewel of the gift was discovered...dry ice:

Yup. Nathan was as happy as those boys...dropping the dry ice pieces into a pan of water and commencing to play for the next half hour or so...blowing it, freaking Micah out, ladling it onto Asher's head... (I'm counting it as an impromptu science lesson, lol.)

Nothing like the packaging to make one's day. :) Thanks, mom!