Get A Life

I was going to write about another one of my brushes with greatness but I am too tired. Instead, here are some links to check out-see if you can figure out who I met. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you all about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywctCOwfk4M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtPGdOs7zOM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMuScu9OpfA

Thank God We Have Insurance

If you had spent the previous afternoon in the emergency room and had been diagnosed with influenza A, would you wake up at 6am this morning and drive to Boston? My answer would be no but that is exactly what Tim did this morning. Yesterday he was laid out flat on the couch almost delirious with fever. I actually left work around noon because he was sounding so strange on the phone that I got worried. We took him to the doctor and they sent him over to the ER to run additional tests. At the same time he had to be at the hospital, Grace had a birthday party on the other side of town that I had to get her to or her life would be ruined. The ER trip turned out to be a very expensive visit for some Tylenol and Advil and Grace still made it to her party. The Boston trip is a 2 day Internet forum at MIT that I know he was very much looking forward to so I don't blame him for going. I just worry that he is going to sicken everyone around him and not get enough rest to really recover. He swears though that the doctors said it was OK for him to go so I have no choice but to believe him. I had already taken today off as a vacation day so it was jut the kids and me home with no car. I have a bunch of projects to get done in he next 3 days. I finished 3/4 of the leaf raking this afternoon and hopefully I will be able to lift my arms tomorrow to finish the rest of the lawn. I actually cooked something today too. I made a beef stew in the crock pot and I made a batch of Magic Bars. My picky kids will never touch the stew and the bars have nuts and coconut which they think are poisonous but at least I will have something to eat. I also have to start the switchover from winter clothes to summer clothes. That means a lot of time in the basement trying to find the kids clothes from last summer and then packing away the boots, sweaters and winter coats. I never judge this right every year. Inevitably as soon as I do it we get one of our annual Spring blizzards.

Milestones

Two big events in the McRoot household last week. McRoot is what you get when you combine my last name with Tim's. Since I kept my name we can never really be called "The ______ Family" so sometimes we just use McRoot but only to ourselves. Although I suppose I just put it out there so now everyone knows. Anyway, Declans big boy bed is in place and as you can see in his picture, he is very pleased with it. As you can also see in his picture, his room has blue flowered wallpaper because he and Grace share a room and she came first so it got the girlie wallpaper although I will point out it is blue. You can see he has butched it up by adding a car calender. They actually love sharing a room and have never really complained about it. I expect that will change in the next couple of years which will mean Tim losing his computer/guy/everyone stay out room. He was bursting while we were putting the bed together and couldn't wait to "decorate" it just the way he wanted. All the important stuffed animals made it on there as well as his Lego and Hot Wheels books. His new favorite books are the going to Kindergarten books I got him last week. This is the first interest he has shown in it so I'm hoping he's starting to get excited about moving past pre-school. He said his first night sleeping on it was comfy and like sleeping on a cloud. The cats like the new napping place too. Lots of white cat hair on that dark blue comforter.
The other big event was Graces official induction into the Brownies. She been going to the meetings for a few months now but the big official ceremony was last week. She was very excited and even invited her grandparents up in Rangeley to come even though she knew they probably couldn't. My mother ended up surprising us the night before by calling and saying she was coming. I think the 9 months of winter and snow up to the 2nd story got to her and she had to get out of there. Tim is actually one of the den mothers or assistants to the mother? Not sure of his exact title. Originally we assumed her meetings would be right after school so Tim did the training for it since I'm still at work at that time. Turns out her meetings aren't until 6pm so I could have done it but too late now. Tim says the Brownie moms don't know what to do with him like the pre-school moms. I hear there are a lot of stay at home dads but we don't seem to know any and some of the moms still think its strange. I should point out that Tim works nights 40 hours a week-no way could we live on just one salary. I think having their Dad around so much will be great for the kids in the long run because you hear how important the fathers relationship is to kids, especially girls. It just makes me sad to miss out on the little stuff like taking them to school or getting them off the bus. I've been trying to talk Tim into getting 2 jobs for about 7 years now but no luck so far.
As you can see I've been playing around with the options in Blogger. I'm not sure what I'm going for and I'm not sure this is it yet but I was bored tonight. Stay tuned, it could look completely different by my next post.

Have You Seen My Front Porch?

We have an enclosed front porch that should be much needed extra space in our small house. For the last year and a half though, we have been using it to make extra money. Some back story here-Tim and I both worked in bookstores in college and for a few years afterwards. The end result of this was we got a lot of free books in exchange for our really crappy jobs. When we moved into this house-before kids-we made what was labeled a "family room" but wasn't really, into a library by buying 8 bookcases and setting up our books in there. Of course we had fiction and non-fiction sections arranged alphabetically by authors because any other way would be unthinkable. Fast forward 8 or 9 years and the toys were taking over and the books were collecting dust. We finally made the decision to turn that room into a playroom. The only problem was what to do with the two thousand or so books we had in there? Tim found the perfect solution at half.com which is part of Ebay. You list everything there and people just buy it without having to go through the bidding process. So now every week poor Tim has to package books up that have sold and take them to the post office. The Portland post office is very huge and busy and it says something that all the workers there now know Tim and Declan by name. Of course we couldn't give up all our books so we keep 3 bookcases and now its a half playroom/library. Another bonus to this was I finally got to cover up the 1980's pink and gray sparkly wallpaper that was in there. All the bookcases had mostly covered it and with most of them gone, it had to go. I discovered paint able wallpaper which I had to use because underneath the gross wallpaper was the 1970's wood paneling. But that's a whole other post because the stuff is awesome but time consuming. We decided to just stack everything in piles on the front porch so we could move forward with the room. That was last year and although we have sold hundreds of books since they have been out there, the piles never seem to shrink. I actually think the weights done something to the porches foundation. Sales have started to really slow down so we are thinking of just having a garage sale and being done with them. I would just like to have my porch back.

A Long Overdue Big Boy Bed

I have a 3 day weekend and I was never so happy to be off when I turned on the news at 6:30 this morning. Some freak was setting fire to cars and buildings around Portland all within a 2 hour period. The story was unfolding while we were on the air and I knew the newsroom would be in chaos. I just smiled to myself and changed the channel to old Roseanne reruns. Of course once I saw all the coverage on our 5pm I actually regretted not being there for the story. Its this sick obsession with the news that has kept me there for 10 years even though I fantasize several times a day about quitting. We're all like crack addicts in the newsroom. We hate to be there but hate being out of the loop more. Plus live TV is really cool.
So anyway, Declan and I had major plans for today for a Mommy and Declan day. He's been talking about it for days. Another fine example of my lazy parenting is that Declan is still sleeping in this toddler bed and he turns 5 next month. Its not that I didn't realize he needed a bigger bed but one day he was 3 years old and suddenly hes almost 5. After we got Grace on the bus we made our trip to the furniture store and picked out his bed. He really wants the bed but had no interest in the process of picking it out and paying for it. Luckily the store has a free cafe full of candy and cookies and a fish pond full of goldfish. We'll pick it up next Thursday and I can tick one more thing of my list of things to do for him. Now I just need to remember to make him a dentists appointment. He still has never been and I need him to go before he starts losing them.
Our other part of the plan for today was to go to the beach and collect some sea shells for his collection. Declan is big on starting collections. Another fine aspect of my parenting is that I hate the beach during the summer but love it during the spring and fall so my kids only see the place when its sort of cold and windy. I just don't like heat and I sunburn within 5 minutes of hitting the sand. I also don't own a bathing suit and have no interest in buying one. Thankfully my parents live on a lake so the kids have access to that. That's probably my problem because there are ocean people and lake people and I am definitely a lake person. We brought along a pail and went to Cresent Beach State Park. Its not actually open yet so we had to walk almost a mile down to the beach from the road but Declan was a trooper. I forgot to bring the camera and some tissues which we soon needed with the sea breeze. We walked the beach and found more rocks to bring home than shells but he had a good time. I'm going to try to go again this weekend if it doesn't rain too much. I really want some pictures of them there and Grace wants to be able to go too. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures from it soon. I know my friend Heather would like to see pictures of the Maine coast.

TV Shows You Need To Watch

I'm having a bit of blog-block so I thought another list was in order. I know I should write posts about spending time with family, my work or my kids but really all I want to talk about tonight are my shows . Here, on no particular order, are shows everyone needs to be watching. And remember, it will do you good to watch as much TV as possible.

1. Friday Night Lights
This show has been perfection since the first episode. Now I hate football and haven't been to Texas unless the Dallas airport counts but I love this show! The first season was so real it was like watching a documentary. The second season got a little off track but they had to do something to keep from getting canceled and it worked. Of course you also get to watch Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton spot on portrayals of a real married couple.

2. Men In Trees
Now this show is almost canceled and I can't understand why. Its Sex & the City meets Northern Exposure-where can you go wrong?

3.Gilmore Girls
OK-this show ended last year but in case you missed it, its on ABC Family everyday at 5pm. I record it during the week and watch all 5 episodes on the weekend. Don't judge me.

4. 30 Rock
Brilliant.

5. Lost
Even when Lost sort of sucked after they blew the hatch up it was still better than 98% of the shows out there. Plus this season has come back awesome. Every episode ends with you saying "WTF!" And I love how Desmond's Scottish accent keeps getting thicker and you can barely understand him but it OK because you can just enjoy looking at him.

6. Jeopardy
Now this is sort of an old school show but if you have as bad a case of the Mom-nesia as I have then its important. You need to have something you can concentrate on so you can answer before the contestants. Tim hates to watch this with me because he knows the answers too but I read faster than him and Alex Trebek.

6. Top Gear
I'm only recently into this but you must check it out if you have BBC America. 3 British guys test out new cars and think up ways to crash up old cars. I could care less about cars but I like this.

7. How I Met Your Mother
Its nice to see how Doogie Howser turned out. Plus I want to find out who the mother will be.

8. TLC's A Baby's Story
This show is always good for a laugh. I love the first time mothers who think they are going to go through labor without drugs because they have taken pre-natal yoga or some crap like that. I laugh my ass off when they end up screaming for drugs and having c-sections.

9. Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
I have not watched Conan since Craig started. I know its on late but you don't have to watch the whole show. Its like Regis, you only have to watch the first 15 minutes. Its unscripted Craig just talking about whatever he wants and its always something fantastic.

10. Jon and Kate Plus 8
I understand they have 8 kids under 7 but this mother is a nightmare. She causes most of the stress in that house and her poor husband! Anytime you feel bad about not being nice to your husband jut watch this show and see how much worse you could have been.

So that's all I can come up with now that its after midnight. I will be going to bed as soon as I watch Craig Ferguson.

And The Oscar Goes To...

Not much to write tonight-took a Tylenol PM so whatever I wrote wouldn't make much sense. I love them a little too much but the bottle says they're non-addictive. Instead of writing, here's a movie Grace and Tim made when she was 4. Its very cute but I am biased. Hopefully Declan will be making one soon since we just got a Mac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHL_AoLoew

What I Do When I Am Bored

Well, I tried to take some better pictures of my stuff but the camera and the sun were not cooperating. Since we had kids and got on our strange work schedules I have found that I can never really leave the house so I have ended up crafting. I have said before that I hate that word but I haven't come up with a better one. Its not that I was ever artistic. Art class was always a real stresser for me. I just need to do something that doesn't involve kids or cleaning up. For a while I was on a real jewelry making kick but I have found that I can't justify spending the money for the beads I really like so I end up making things out of the cheaper beads from the craft store. As a result they have sort of a church sale quality to them. They are very easy to make. I just found myself standing in the bead aisle one day and I bought what I thought I needed and figured it out myself. The photo above is all of the necklaces I have done and I couldn't get any good shots of the earrings I have done but I have about 50 pairs of those. I have actually sold some of my jewelry. My neighbor Becky is an actual artist-she's an elementary school art teacher by day but she is also a potter with her own kiln in her basement. She had a studio sale at her house this winter and she invited me to set up some of my stuff. I made about $30 but I was embarrassed to have my stuff next to her professionally made pieces. I have been looking at putting some things at www.etsy.com. She has started a side business selling her things there at http://dirtgirlbecky.blogspot.com/
Now I'm sort of tired of jewelry since I can't make what I want. I have started knitting but nothing beyond scarfs. My mother taught me when I was little but I had no interest in in. Then I saw my niece making a scarf a few months ago and I thought I would try again. I had to Google instructions with big illustrations so I could figure it out but it came back to me. Now I have made 4 scarfs. The first was a test scarf that is now used to keep one of Grace Webkinz warm. The 2nd was a scarf for Grace but I made it too wide so its more like a small baby blanket. She mostly sleeps with it. I finally got it right the 3rd time with one I made for Declan but he doesn't want to wear it. The one in the picture above is for me and I finished it a few days ago. It just looks gray in the picture but it has purple and pink running through it. I have looked at the directions for blankets and hats but they are beyond me-its like they are written in Arabic. I have to find something new for summer because it doesn't make much sense to be knitting scarfs in July. I might go back to counted cross stitch but it gave me carpal tunnel. One other thing I noticed in my necklace picture. See that clear box in my bureau with the black lump in it? That is an actual piece of coal from the Titanic. I should write soon about my Titanic obsession and yes, it started long before that damned movie even though I've seen it about 100 times.