making his case

Jack: Can I have some more jelly beans?
Me: No, Jack, you've already had enough.
Jack: But I want some more jelly beans!
Me: I'm sure you do. But you already had some this afternoon and you just had some Skittles. You are not having any more candy tonight.
Jack: But jelly beans aren't candy!
Me: Oh? Well, what are they?
Jack: (pause) Dinner!

makes you wonder what the other fourth was thinking

We've been having some bus problems lately. When the school year started, our school district was short about 80 bus drivers. The kids are scheduled to get home at 4:00pm (which is totally ridiculous given that dismissal is at 3:30pm and we live 5 minutes away from the school and we are the first stop...don't even get me started on that!) But there's a bus shortage, so usually when the kids are dismissed, they go to the gym and wait for their bus to show up at the school and then they board it and come home. Sometimes, however, their bus doesn't show when it's supposed to and they end up sitting in the gym much longer. During the first several months of school, they were only late a handful of times, but in the last couple of months it's been about once a week. Today was the worst. My neighbor called at 4:20 to let me know that she had already called the school and all the kids were still sitting in the gym, so she sent her husband to pick up her son. Doug happened to be working from home today, so he called the school shortly after our neighbor's call and was told that a bus was on it's way and the kids would be home in a few minutes. They finally showed up at about 4:50pm.

Ryan, of course, was extremely annoyed.

Ryan: What time is it?
Me: It's almost 5:00pm.
Ryan: I think Emily and I could have walked home faster.
Me: I'm sure you could have.
Ryan: Seriously, I had three-fourths a mind to go tell the principal to let us walk home!

too cool for school

shopping for his birthday will be a breeze this year

At The Home Depot yesterday...

Jack: Ooohh, a door. I need a new door. Can we get a door?
Doug: Um, no, I don't think we're getting a new door today.
Jack: Well, maybe I will get one for my next birthday!
Doug: You want a new door for your birthday?
Jack: Yeah!

A few minutes later:

Jack: Oh cool! An oven! (opening the oven door) Awesome!

And a few minutes after that:

Jack: Ooohh, carpet. I love carpet! Can I get carpet for my next birthday?

vicious cycle

Doug asked if I would make brownies on Saturday night and I told him I would. Well, then we needed to get some ice cream to go with the brownies. And then, as a family, we ate all the brownies, but there is still ice cream left over. So today I'm making more brownies to go with the leftover ice cream. Most likely, we will eat all the ice cream and still have brownies. So we'll go get more ice cream. And then we'll have extra ice cream and will have to make more brownies. Sigh.

Guest Blog - The Charlotte Anthem

The lights dimmed, the fans rose and put their hands over their hearts as Ryan & 9 more classmates stepped onto the ice. Then, as one, the classmates sang:

Oh say can you see, By the Dawn's Early Light

What's so proudly we hail, At the twilight's last gleaming

Whose broad stripes & Bright stars, Through the perilous fight.

O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming

And the rocket's red glare(-BOOM!-)

The bomb bursting in air, gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there

Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave over the land

of the free & the home of the brave?

Singing the National Anthem at a hockey game was the scariest thing ever for me! What made me even more scared was the fact that for about 5 sec., my face was on the big screen. "I almost fainted," I told my dad. "I was really weak-kneed"

The rest of the game was fun. There were 2 fights and the home team won 4-0(YEAH!!). Emily and I also got to wear our new Charlotte Checkers jerseys to school for going to the game (our school has uniforms, so we were excited).

by Ryan Miller

lunar eclipse

Did you see it last night?

There was actually a great view of it from our deck. And despite my initial annoyance that everyone was still awake when I got home from the grocery store at 9:30, once I saw it, I was really glad Doug took the kids out with the telescope and binoculars and let them all watch. He took some pictures, and here are the best ones. It was kind of hard to capture it with our lens, but I think they are pretty good.

Doug took this one last night too, and although it doesn't really have anything to do with the eclipse, I think it's a great picture.

why it was only $1

Doug and I don't normally make a big deal out of Valentine's Day. This year, he picked up dinner so I didn't have to cook and I could not have been happier. We do like to do a little something for the kids, and Doug took care of that this year too. There were some new things in the $1 spot at Target and so he picked up this Cars poster and sticker set for Jack:







Pretty cool poster, huh? And if you're not familiar with the movie Cars (meaning you haven't seen it 5,785 times like we have!) you might not notice anything is amiss. In fact, Doug and I both missed it until we looked at it closely the next day. But when you do look closely, you will see this:




and this:




Even though it very clearly says Lightning McQueen on the bottom of the poster, this red car is actually the Ferrari, not Lightning McQueen. Now, Jack could totally not care less, because he thinks the Ferrari is pretty awesome too. And there are some actual Lightning McQueen stickers on the sticker sheet, so he wasn't even the slightest bit disappointed. But I couldn't help feeling a little bit ripped off.


I think someone must have had too many margaritas on the job.

new specs

new 'do

whew!

So, the saying goes that time flies when you're having fun. But when you're not? Crawls like a snail! The past three weeks have just about been the longest of my life, but now that we're home and it's behind us, I've been able to get a little perspective. And so, here is the good news:

• Ainsley's surgery went just as it was supposed to: The ENT doc put the tubes in her ears and was able to remove lots of grossness (eyeroll! I'm sure it's a word!). The plastic surgeon harvested a piece of her rib and the oral surgeon used that piece to form a brace between the two pieces of bone in her upper gum with the expectation that the new cells from her rib will help to fill in the gap between the bones and form one alveolar ridge. She now has a small incision on her ribcage and her upper gum line is in one piece...and she was able to keep all of her teeth!


• Our hospital stay was not fun, but just like last time, once we were able to leave the hospital, Ainsley made remarkable improvements. I'm sure that had almost everything to do with having 4 adults at her beck and call, endless walkabouts, and a wagon made from a laundry basket and a belt.


• At her follow-up appointment yesterday Ainsley got a glowing report. The oral surgeon said her mouth looked great and gave us the okay to take off her arm immobilizers! Then the plastic surgeon said her incision had healed nicely and she was cleared for tub baths! And she had another tympanogram and the audiologist said there is definite movement in her eardrums (She didn't actually "pass" this test, but they usually don't do a post op test until 4 weeks and it had only been 12 days...movement is definitely encouraging and we'll take her in for another test in a few weeks).


• Ainsley's killer cold/cough is starting to wane and she actually slept for 5 1/2 hours last night. ALL. AT. ONCE. (Unlike 2 nights before when she woke up every 45 minutes...Sorry Quandts!!)

And so that's that! Two down and one to go! We should be getting the call soon to let us know when her next surgery will be...the plastic surgeon told us yesterday that it should be in 3-4 months, so May or June. And the really fun part? Ainsley needs to be weaned from the bottle and sippy cups before that surgery. Basically, when he creates her new palate, for the first 6 weeks it will be like wet toilet paper. Just about anything can puncture it. No sucking on bottles or sippy cups and no eating anything with texture (just level 1 baby foods, pudding and applesauce!). So, we started tonight having her drink from a real cup, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She was able to drink a few sips without choking or gagging or giving me a shower, so I think that's a good start!

A few other items of note from the past few weeks:

• Ryan ROCKED at singing the National Anthem. He'll be blogging about that soon and maybe we can even load the video for you to see.


• Ryan and Emily both got straight A's on their 2nd quarter report cards. I think this is the first time they have both gotten straight A's at the same time. Fantastic!


• The kids had a great time with Grandma Mary...and she left a spaghetti pie in the freezer that I think was the best she has ever made!!


• I got my hair cut. It's Katie Holmes before she got the cut with the bangs. I like it. I could actually be Katie Holmes. Without the killer legs. And the ridiculous amounts of money.


• Ainsley has a new tooth...on the bottom...#7 if you're counting.


• And last, but certainly not least: Congratulations to my fabulous sister Kate and her equally fabulous boyfriend John, who is not her boyfriend anymore...but her fiance!! They got engaged on Valentine's Day. We are all sooooo excited for them!

And now I'm off to bed. Sorry for the absence. It's good to be home.

Happy Birthday Dad!

another one bites the dust

Well, here's the update from Germ Central:

Ryan is still home from school (day 5 for all of you who are counting). I took him to the doctor yesterday...she took one look at his face and said, "Look how congested you are! Poor thing!" Yes, his face was totally puffy from his overflowing sinuses. Then she took one look at his throat and said she would bet the farm it was strep. Nope. Hmmm...the flu? Nope. Turns out, just a nasty sinus infection, so she put him on an antibiotic and a heavy duty decongestant and today he's feeling much better. He actually asked for food this afternoon, which hasn't happened all week.

Emily is also home today. She complained of a sore throat when she got home from school yesterday, so I pumped her full of Gatorade all afternoon and a dose of Airborne before bed. She woke up at about 4:30 am completely frustrated because, "I'm blowing my nose and nothing is coming out!!" She felt a little warm too, so I gave her some Motrin and told her to turn off her alarm, because she wasn't going to school. Mostly, it's just her congestion that's bugging her today...throat doesn't feel as bad and she doesn't have a fever right now. So, again, pumping her with fluids and bed rest today and hoping that we nip this in the bud.

So far, Ainsley is doing well. A little bit of a runny nose, but the doctor took a look at her yesterday and said everything else looks good...her weight is good, her chest is clear, her ears are full of fluid, but not infected. She said as long as she doesn't get a fever, she'll be good to go for her surgery next week. Of course, now she has a small indentation on her forehead from me pressing my lips against her, checking for fever every 30 seconds. But I'm sure that will go away.