Merry Christmas Eve!

Check out Chloe attired in her Christmas spirit. You may be able to tell she dressed herself and was completely thrilled with her Santa hat, Christmas shirt under the denim jumper, plaid skirt and argyle tights combination. Always a treat and a surprise to see how she dresses herself :)

This is before going to an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Todd picked up the sweaters from Goodwill, but his needed to be modified into a neck-less, sleeveless atrocity. My Dad was over that day and he saw nothing wrong with either sweater....he thought mine was very nice.

I am LOVING these beads and had fun stringing them into a floating necklace. The base bead is made out of a dark Elphaba green (which I just got and absolutely LOVE) and then is swirled in Smoke Rings. LOVE LOVE LOVE these and will probably make more! Taking a chance the recipient won't be on the internet today, but I just had to share a pic of this

It was two days ago when I got the frantic call from a good friend with his daughter asking "Can you please please please make my Mommy a necklace with green, blue and purple beads for Christmas?" I really like how the colors swirled together and there is great veining going on in the greens that I used in each bead. And the purple was fun because it reacted great with the other colors to form different shades and separations. I hope Mommy loves it :)

Oh, the Smell!

In our downstairs bathroom after Thanksgiving was just awful. Awful, I tell you. Had no idea what was causing it, but it progressively got worse each day. Until the 3rd day of December, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was down on my hands and knees, looking in the cabinets under the sink and it smelled even worse. But I didn't see ANYTHING. So I wondered if a small animal had crawled into our walls or under the cabinet and died. It was so heinous. But I had a conference call starting in a few minutes, so the search needed to end for the time, but not before I emptied the trash can.

The trash can is about a foot and a half tall and ten inches wide at the top. Ceramic. Kinda heavy duty. Lined with a trash bag, which appeared to be empty other than a coke can (which I knew was empty, because I drank it all before dropping it in there), an empty roll of toilet paper and a coupla tissues. But the bag felt heavy as I lifted it up out of the trash can. And then I see brownish/yellowish liquid pouring out the bottom of the bag into the trash can. The trash can was filled up HALF WAY with urine.

Oh. My. Gosh.

That's not a little experiment. That's a friggin project for a child's bladder. I'm sure it was around a GALLON of liquid. ewwwwwwww

So all day, Todd and I are debating which child was the contributer. Todd thought definitely Owen because that is a boy thing to do. And I felt certain it was Chloe because she's our little sneaky sneak who will head upstairs to cut herself a mullet unbeknownst to the parental units or sneak downstairs while the house is still sleeping so she can eat food under a table or behind curtains that she KNOWS she's not allowed to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or even a snack unless she's been super good.

And we debate the punishment. Do we deliver red bottoms or draw a picture of a big X over a trashcan or a smiley face with an arrow pointing at the trashcan. We waffle.

Fast forward to the evening. I'm making dinner. Kids are in the midst of art projects at the kitchen table with my Mom. I bring the offensive trash can over to the table (which after multiple all-day soaks & scrubs has finally lost its odor) and ask "Kids. What's this?" And they both answer that it's a trash can in the "Duh" tone of voice.

"Kids. What do we put in trash cans?"

Chloe answers tissue paper. And Owen says trash.

"That's right! Kids. What do we NOT put in trash cans?"

And Chloe says "Stickers!" God love my bizarre little daughter, as stickers are far too valuable to trash. At this point, Owen is looking down in his lap. I ask him directly, "Owen? What do we not put in trash cans?"

He slowly looks up at me and then very quickly looks back in his lap for the answer. Very. Quietly. Owen says "pee pee."

"That's right. Owen, where do we put pee pee?"

"In the toilet," says my very embarrassed & busted six year old, still in a whisper. But I'm impressed by his honesty.

I left it at that.

My Child Cut Herself a Mullet

School started on August 4th. Owen began Kindergarten & Chloe moved up to the 4 year old classroom. That afternoon/evening was a nightmare for both Todd and myself with work/customer outages. I was stuck in my office the whole night & didn't get to eat dinner with them or hear about their first day of excitement. We also missed Chloe's first night of swim lessonss. Thankfully, Todd was able to cook dinner and put the kids to bed.

At some point during the evening, Chloe snuck away unnoticed. When I got off my customer call at 1:30am to go to bed, I noticed six inch chunks of Chloe hair on our bathroom floor. I didn't see much and assumed it was just a little snip here. A little snip there. The alarm went off Tuesday morning and I rolled over to ask Todd if he knew Chloe had cut her hair and he did not. At that point, I breathed in relief thinking it couldn't be that bad. But walking into her room was a different story.

The child had NO HAIR on the sides of her face. She had cut off EVERYTHING on each side going to behind her ears. Chloe had cut herself a mullet. I cut off the back & sent her to school and then trimmed it up that night after dinner so it was stacked up the back. It is just barely long enough to tuck behind her ears from the front and some of her bangs are so short they stick straight up. She gets an A+ for symmetry, as the left was identical to the right side. But an F- for style. Mullets are out, but she likely looked in the mirror to admire her handiwork after snipping away.

The morning she was discovered, Chloe wanted to know how I knew. I told Chloe that I saw chunks of her hair on the floor. The hands immediately went to the hips and she said "Nuh uh! I put all the hair in the trash, see?!" And there in the trash were FISTFULS of hair! Breathe in. Breathe out.

Owen is enjoying Kindergarten, but is not a big fan of homework. He brings it home several nights a week and is not happy about it. We have told him to get used to it, as he's going to have homework for the next two decades. I think his eyes visibly dulled at the thought.

Crazy Weather

Some crazy weather came through here on Tuesday afternoon. Tornado sirens were going off while I was in Publix before picking the kids up from school. Nasty skies driving home. Owen is dancing around, saying intermittent prayers that we stay safe interspersed with random turrets announcements like "Yay, this will be just like the Wizard of Oz". Todd pulled up two minutes behind me to say the Tornado warning has been downgraded to a Severe Thunderstorm Warning.

Apparently, the National Weather Service didn't know what they were doing that afternoon. It was a tornado that came through our neighborhood ripping up trees and knocking down tables. The whole street was littered with leaves, branches and golf ball size hail by the time it was gone. It was loud as hell hearing the hail hit our windows for close to 10 minutes while having Owen burrow into my lap crying. Meanwhile, Chloe is dancing around the living room singing "I'm not scared. I'm not scared. Owen, I'm not scared" as she looks at us upside down being her silly self. I was freaked out about the weather until the hail began hammering our windows and then I just felt calm and peace. Strangest feeling, but I was thankful for it. Specially since our oldest was in my lap terrified we were going to be blown away.

Todd paced around most of the time muttering "dammit, we should have had MY car in the garage!" while he tried to get a good look out the windows to see his car. But it was raining too hard with too many leaves & branches blowing around to even see as far as our driveway. Anyway, we came out safe. About 8 trees snapped in half or uprooted completely behind our house. Many houses were damaged by falling trees and one neighbor had the upper half of their chimney blown off. It was laying on the ground about 50 feet from their house. The fences around the tennis courts were blown around pretty good, too.

Season's Greetings ~ 2008

It is now Mother’s Day 2009 as I sit down to write this letter to you. A sign in itself that 2008 passed way too quickly & the holiday season swept by like a storm, whisking us into the spring before we knew it.

Last year, Todd supported Verizon Business & Wireless as a Service Director, but got his fill of 3am wake-up calls and outages. When the opportunity arose for a Sales Engineer position, he leapt at the chance to say YES! He has wanted to be an SE for as long as we have been in telecom (now over 10 years!). Todd is still a tennis junky & spends as much time on the tennis courts as he can. His USTA team went to the state champion-ships last November & I had the fun of getting to tag along with the guys to watch him play! Another one of Todd’s teams will be going to the state championships in Rome over the weekend of May 16. Go Todd!

Owen started Kindergarten last fall & has learned to read very well by himself. It is exciting to see him point to billboards or pick up books & read all of the words. Owen picks up his tennis racket every chance he gets & spends hours banging a tennis ball against the garage or the back door.

Since last August when Chloe gave herself a haircut (a mullet would be a more accurate description in cutting more than six inches off the front/sides), has grown up & we have watched her hair grow back. She likes to practice writing out the names of everyone in the family and all of her friends names. For a four year old, her handwriting is excellent!

Kelley spent the last part of 2008 & first quarter of 2009 taking 150+ hours of training courses in preparation to become a field tech in Durant, Oklahoma if the AT&T union went on strike when their contract expired in April. She was very thankful to not be sent on strike duty to climb phone poles & descend into manholes to fix phone/circuit troubles! Kelley was super excited to move her studio from the garage into her office last September. No more bugs in the flame, roasting in the summer or freezing in the winter! Her Kelleysbeads Etsy shop has helped her beads travel to the UK, Canada, Peru & even Australia!


All the best to you & yours in 2009!
TOCK
Maggie, Foster, Abbie & Henry

Snow in Woodstock

We got about two inches last night while we were eating dinner. Afterwards, we went out and played in it. Got the neighbors to join in after pelting their front doors with snowballs, or their cars as they were driving home from work. Built a 3.5 foot tall snowman from the snow in three yards. Owen and I made snowangels. When we got inside, his feet were frozen red. The boy had no socks on! This morning, most of the snow has melted but all the public schools are still closed.

Season's Greetings ~ 2007

This year has passed quickly, spending time with those we love the most.

Todd enjoyed his time supporting the Sales organization and learned more about various roles withing Level 3. Recently, he accepted a position as a Service Director and is now supporting Verizon Wireless. Within two weeks, his dedication to customer satisfaction turned the customer perception around from a previous declaration of not giving any more business to the company to placing new orders with Level 3. Todd continues to impress his upper management with his ability to accomplish tasks which have challenged coworkers for weeks. This has been a great year for Todd in returning to TENNIS. Although a calf injury kept him from playing for three months, he had a strong return to the courts in his first match the second weekend in December. He participates in four different tennis leagues and is always looking for practice time on the courts with friends after the kids are in bed.

Owen started pre-Kindergarten this fall and is LOVING his class. His teacher says he is at the top of his class for learning to write his ABCs and counting to 100. Owen still enjoys the gymnastics on Tumblebus at school each week, but has picked up his Daddy’s love for the game of tennis. Owen knows all of the top tennis players and can even tell you what kind of racket they use. He is very excited about going with his Dad to see Andy Roddick play at the Gwinnett Arena this month.

Chloe has grown up so much this year! She tries to do everything Owen does, she loves Tumblebus and even participates in a Ballet/Tap class each week at school. This summer, she moved up to a real Bi9 Girl bed and got a ton of shelves added to her room as a headboard to hold all of her books and dolls. For her birthday, she received every set of sheets imaginable with princesses, Dora & Hello Kitty; she was in heaven! After dinner, she loves to ride her Dora big wheel in the cul-de-sac with Owen & Preston.

Kelley still enjoys working from home for the new AT&T as a Service Manager. So far, there have been very few changes that have affected Kelley’s position, although she expects to support different accounts in the coming year. Kelley still loves to spend all of her spare time melting glass & making jewelry. At the end of March, right after having lasik surgery Kelley had a booth at the Down the Street Bead Show at the Galleria mall and sold a TON of beads and some jewelry. She has really beefed up her website and now has her own domain name --> www.kelleysbeads.com Some nights, when Kelley is lucky to have company, her friend Wendy comes over to melt glass too!

Our family expanded by one cat this year...we adopted Henry who is a beautiful white & tabby boy around 2 years old. Maggie is approaching 7 years and feels a little arthritis kicking into her hips in the colder months. Sammy the ferret celebrated her 8th birthday this October...her continuing health has surprised us all. Foster is approaching 15 years, is a little thinner, but still quite the trouble maker when he wants to be. Abbie is close to 7 years old and fat as can be. All of the cats LOVE to spend time laying in the sun in the backyard and birdwatching.

Todd spent a huge amount of time traveling for work this year in Denver, Los Angeles, DC, Miami, New York, you name it. Kelley’s travel for work was virtually nil this year, although she did get a customer trip into DC and got to spend the night at the Paynes. This summer we took family vacations to Minnesota to see Todd’s folks (both kids really got into fishing when we were Up North). We even got to see the WHOLE Barber clan! We also flew out to Phoenix again to see Kelley’s family with the bad dogs. We drove up to the Grand Canyon this time, which was a first for Todd & the kids. Kelley flew out to San Diego for a long weekend with her friend Sara, and then spent another long weekend with her Mom, Grandma, Uncle Mike & Aunt Judy driving from San Francisco up through Wind Country to Portland to see her Grandma’s friends & family. Bonuses for Kelley were sightseeing with her old friend PG in SF & then visiting with her Uncle Stan & Aunt Barb in Portland! Kelley drove the kids down to Naples at the beginning of October to visit Michele & Cecelia. It was wonderful getting to swim in the ocean in October! Hopefully Todd will be able to get away from work next year to go, too.

As we near the end of 2007, we are spending much time counting our blessings of health, family and the friendships we see growing stronger. We wish you all the best of everything in the New Year.

May you find peace, contentment & health
With much love,
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all!
TOCK
Maggie, Foster, Abbie, Henry & Sammy

Maroon 5 - Makes Me Wonder

I just bought their new CD this weekend and popped it in the car while I was driving the kids around. They paid no attention to the first track, but Makes Me Wonder came on next. Immediately, Chloe's head was bobbing with the beat and her hands were bouncing in front of her. Same movement as raising the roof, but just pushing it out from her chest. Owen calls it "Chloe's song" and asks me to play it over and over so he can watch his sister dance in her car seat.

Owen and George Michael

Owensk told me last night that he has a new favorite song. I'm finding his favorites are short-lived at times, although "Had a Bad Day" was at the top of his list for months. Then it was "Life is a Highway".

Now. It is "Last Christmas, I gaaaaaave you my heart. But the very next day, you gaaaave it away." He's singing it more than Rudolph or Jingle Bell Rock or Winter Wonderland. He's probably going to get Chloe to start singing it, too. She still goes nutso when 'Bad Day' comes on...Chloe only has to hear the first five notes and her little hands are waving over her head to get our attention that Owen's previous favorite song is on the radio. And I must say previous, because we are quickly corrected by the boy if we call it his favorite song now. It is no longer. Perhaps I need to plug in a Manheim Steamroller CD to play in Owen's bedroom, instead of leaving the radio on all night long. All I need is a four year old running around the house singing George Michael.

Season's Greetings ~ 2006

Another year has passed and we are looking forward to celebrating another Christmas with those we love. We have all been in school to learn new things, enjoyed vacations with friends & family and watched new milestones be attained.

Todd went back to school for Project Management certification. He spent many grueling hours every night in front of his laptop, study books and in a virtual classroom after the kids went to bed to learn everything needed to become a certified Project Manager. He doesn’t have enough documented work hours to complete the certification process by taking a very intense exam, but should be there soon. He also started a new job in the Sales Organization two months after accepting the new position. Although Todd enjoyed supporting two of Level 3’s top 10 customers over the past two plus years, he was wanting to learn something new. Over the past two weeks in his new job, Todd knows he’s in a perfect fit position and is extremely excited about what he will be doing supporting the sales teams and meeting with customers scattered around New York City, Miami and our nation’s capital.

Owen moved up from his fire engine toddler bed into a big boy bunk bed with a tent of stars over the top. He loves it and also the new light he can turn on/off right over his head. Owen’s favorite activities are weekly Tumblebus visits at school where he and his friends board a schoolbus remade into a gym for kids where he gets to jump on a trampoline, hang from monkey bars and do gymnastics. Although a weekly Friday trip to Dunkin Donuts before school is normally at the top of his list of prayers every night of what he is thankful for. J This year, Kelley’s dad took him shopping and let Owen buy Christmas presents for the family. Owen even helped wrap the presents and is so proud of himself for picking out Christmas presents for his mom, dad, Chloe and Maggie.

Chloe is talking more and more, with new words and better pronunciations being added to her vocabulary on a daily basis. She is our little songbird, always singing surprisingly on tune with the right melody. Chloe’s favorite song right now is the ABC’s. We removed the front of her crib, so she can climb in and out of her ‘big girl’ bed à she doesn’t even have a guard rail and stays on her mattress without falling out! After two years of having very little hair, it seems to finally be growing in as a beautiful blondie girl. Chloe is also using the potty…shouldn’t be long before we’re done with diapers for good!

Kelley has taken a full load of classes every term over the past year and is now ten classes away from completing her bachelor’s degree in Business Management. She has picked up lampworking, a new hobby she learned from her Aunt Gail last summer. Kelley is spending much of her free time behind a torch melting rods of glass into beads and is having a blast doing it. She has really enjoyed being able to make necklaces and other jewelry out of the beads to give to family and friends.

This summer we took family vacations to Minnesota to see Todd’s folks (Owen keeps asking when he can go back and fish some more on his Papa Wenzel’s lake) and Phoenix to see Kelley’s aunt, uncle, cousins & the bad dogs. We also traveled to North Carolina in April to see Leslie, the younger sister of Kelley’s good friend Mary, get married to the love of her life. We really enjoyed spending time with the Payne family during this trip to the coast. Also in the spring, we drove over to Alabama and spent a weekend with the Cox and McCord families at a lake home and loved watching the four kids play the time away. We took long weekend vacations to Amelia Island, FL in September and in November to Helen, GA with our good friends Martin/Carolina and their two kids AND Christal/Daniel and his two girls. Christal was one of Kelley’s good friends from high school whom she hadn’t seen in over ten years and just got back in touch with….it is great rekindling old friendships and seeing that some things don’t change over time. Our vacations to Ohio to see the Barber family, Florida to see Michele/Cecelia and DC to see the Paynes didn’t happen for various reasons, but we hope to visit them in this coming year.

As we near the end of 2006, we are spending much time counting our blessings of health, family and the friendships we see growing stronger. We wish you all the best of everything in the New Year.

May you find peace, contentment & health

With much love,
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all!

TOCK
Maggie, Foster, Abbie & Sammy