This was before the game!

I think it was an omen when part of Alex's "18" fell off his Peyton Manning jersey today and we discovered Meredith's cheerleading outfit was so short, it would be innapropriate if she was 18. Not a fun game to watch, but at least I won't have to stress eat my way through a Colts/Patriots game.

We had kind of a lazy weekend. Yesterday, the weather was nice and we should have taken down Christmas lights, but instead we went to Bub's for burgers and hung out as a family while Kylene was at a basketball tournament. Kylene will proudly tell you her team came in second! What she leaves out, is the part about there being two teams. The girl should really go into public relations.

We also had a birthday party to go to. This one didn't include jumping houses, lazer tag, or goodie bags full of candy. This was our good friend Dawn's birthday party; and there wasn't a kid in sight!

Happy 29th Birthday Dawn!

We don't have much planned for the week ahead, and that's always a good feeling. I keep telling myself I'll use the time to finish the laundry and get the house back into order, but I'm sure I'll find an excuse so I can end another week in self-defeat.

Band-Aid Chef

Have you ever tried to make meatballs one-handed?


Most of you know my father-in-law took my mother-in-law on the trip of a lifetime to Italy, and I'm on sister-in-law duty. Out of kindness---and the confidentiality clause Kylene made me sign--I'll spare you the details, but needless to say our house is even more chaotic than normal. I wish we were a family that easily absorbs changes in our routine, but alas we are definitely not.


Luckily, Kylene enjoys eating and I enjoy cooking, so I cooked up a storm last week. My kitchen is always a little nutty, but between Kylene's inquiries about when the next episode of Hannah Montana will be on, and the kids every day normal 200 questions/requests it's been every man (or child) for himself during dinner prep.


So, Thursday night I'm answering questions and fulfilling requests for apple juice while chopping onions. Now, I don't really like onions, but I'm not one to deviate from recipes and this one called for onions in the mini meatballs. Maybe because I don't like onions, I don't have all that much practice chopping them. Well, one thing let to another and before I knew it, I had a divot in my thumb. (Yuck! I'm even cringing when I type this, so I hope no one's eating while reading.)


I yelled, grabbed a paper towel, and finished the job one-handed. I've become an expert at silent swearing lately.


What happened next is how our family dynamic usually plays out. Alex immediately comes over to check on me and then scales the laundry room cabinets to reach the emergency kit. He flies in with a band-aid, gauze, antiseptic solution, antibiotic cream, and of course, a roll of medical tape. (To know Alex, is to know his love for office supplies, tape in particular.) Meredith shrieks, covers her eyes, and yells, "Oh no! Mommy! Can you see your bones?! Please don't let me see your bones! I don't want blood on me! PLEASE don't get blood on my dress!!!!" Our house "guest" moseys on down and says "Hey, what's the problem down here?! I can't hear Hannah Montana!"

Equal Time

After a very Meredithcentric post yesterday, I started to have some mommy guilt over gushing over a girly day, which by it's very nature, excludes my other chick. Chick like a bird, not another daughter.

After school today we made a jaunt to the Children's' Museum http://www.childrensmuseum.org/ It's taken me five years of visits, but we finally figured out if we go around 2:00 pm, you can hear crickets chirp. For those of you who have listened to me gripe, complain, and guffaw at Indiana and it's "ridiculous half-day kindergarten program," please forgive me. After having a child in half day k, I've discovered it's precisely the right amount of time for Alex to be in school and away from home. I love the freedom the schedule affords our afternoon adventures. So, pass the salt and I'll now eat my words.


As soon as we got to the CM, we made one of our better discoveries. The large Chihuly http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/chihuly/ sculpture was being cleaned! That may not sound exciting, but for those of you whom have seen it, I bet you secretly wondered how it was cleaned too. (Or maybe that's just a crazy obsession of mine...Sara, don't tell me you wouldn't have the same thought!) The sculpture is made of loads of individual pieces of glass and is two, if not three stories tall. I can barely dust our end tables without breaking something, so I can only imagine. Well, in case you're curious, here's how it's done.............
After that, the afore mentioned guilt led us to Alex choosing where to go first. We headed for the Science area and there we remained for most of the time. Alex concentrates on the details and loves to figure out exactly how everything works. Clearly, he gets this from his father. I just love the look of wonder and concentration he gets when we visit places like the museum. He is a curator's dream. He truly explores each and every element, sometimes painstaking s-l-o-w. Meredith and I could do three floors in the amount of time Alex's brain can spend studying one display.

We also rode the carousel three times, and I was able to get some fun shots of Alex being a little boy, free from the stress of figuring out the world. He and Meredith also had a ball in the mirror area.

The next shot is my favorite of the day, in fact it makes me so proud my chest could burst. (It has nothing to do with the fact that I'm in it.) Alex is fascinated with my camera and really seems to have a love for photography. I was exactly his age when I got my first camera. A 110 at my birthday party at McDonald's. My first ever portrait...Jennifer Cardinal Glover holding a balloon. I kid you not! Now, with my first "big girl" camera, I'm excited to take pictures of her new arrival in May. Anyway, It's just that I see that same spark in Alex, and it's so wonderful when your kids wind up sharing your interest with no arm twisting. So, if you look closely, you can see Alex with my camera in the background. It's wee bit on the dark side, because we don't quite understand the concept of a warming flash, but it's still pretty impressive for five and a half. Watch out Herb Ritz!If there was any thought that I had a favorite, rest easy. I could never pick my favorite chick!

This is why I normally don't ask them to pose!

Another Milestone

Looking back, I'd say a haircut was definitely in order!

Every once in awhile when someone compliments Meredith on her outfit she'll shoot back with, "Thank you, and what about my hair?!"

Merdi loves her curls, almost as much as she loves attention.! Brandon and I love them too, and so I've had, what turned out to be a completely irrational fear, that the curls would drop to the floor if we so much as trimmed her hair. The longer her hair grew the more scraggly it started to look, so I started to suggest we get it trimmed. It's hard to say who was more shocked by the idea...Daddy or Meredith.

So, after much cajoling and bribery, I convinced Meredith it was time for a trim. I had to dangle the promise of a manicure before she bit. She said, "Oh yea! A manicure! Wait, what's a manicure, Mom?"

Today was the big day, and Merdi was so excited about the idea of a manicure, she wanted to get her hair done before breakfast. Our appointment wasn't until noon, and you haven't experienced frustration until you try to explain the idea of an appointment book to a two year old.

We had the "salon" all to ourselves, and when Meredith found out she got to sit in a Princess Jeep, there was no holding her back. The stylist was great and the receptionist chatted us up the entire time. The haircut was pretty fast, but the manicure took awhile. I couldn't believe it, but she sat very still so she didn't goof up her nails. The three of us, were rolling listening to Meredith talk with the stylist as she did her nails. It seriously sounded like a 25 year old just having a run of the mill conversation. I kicked myself for not bringing the video camera.

Afterwards, we had to make a trip to my old office to show off her manicure and new 'do to Meredith's good friend, Miss Barbara. Miss Barbara, according to Meredith, has beautiful nails and would want to see hers. Meredith loves to visit her because she always has multiple lipstick tubes which she allows Meredith to try on.

We stopped for drinks at Starbucks afterwards and she was sitting on a big leather couch just saying one hilarious thing after another and holding my hand. I was almost overcome with love for her right there in front of half of Hamilton county. I know how fast these moments go by, and I wish I could keep her little forever. Maybe it wasn't the curls I was afraid of losing after all.

Clare and Kendall

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend some time with our friends Jill and Scott and their precious little girls. It was my first indoor shoot at someones house...in the winter, on an overcast day. I'm afraid of heights, snakes, and indoor lighting. With the help of my new external flash and a great lens, I'm overcoming my fears. Of indoor lighting, at least.

The pictures turned our really well, but the sharing part is turning out to be more of a challenge. I spent a little time editing some shots, only to find they can only be viewed within a specific program, unless I re save them in a different format...blah, blah, blah, my eyes started to glaze over. So, until I can figure out how to show you the rest of them, here is a little preview.

Boy did I miss them!

After a salt-pelting drive to Nashville, I was so excited to see the kids! It was hard not to drive 90 down the road to my parents' house. It was nice to have some time to myself for a couple of days, but I'm kind of lost without my little sidekicks. I must have asked Brandon 20 times if he "missed the kids," but then it dawned on me, he has to leave them every week, so it was pretty routine for him.

GramPam has some sort of bug, so the kids and I went out to see a movie and grab some dinner at what Alex considers to be one of the finer restaurants in the world... http://www.theolivegarden.com/. (I blame our trips to the OG on Alex, but secretly I still harbour the same love for their salad and bread sticks that I always have. Foodies be damned!) We wound up eating at Chick-Fil-A, because, get this there was a 50 minute wait at the afore mentioned culinary gem. Someone apparently still likes the angel hair with marinara too.

Now, if we'd gone to eat when we originally planned--at 4:45 pm, the wait wouldn't have been an issue, but if you think I'm paying anything aside from a matinee price for a movie, you don't know me well! There was a 4:50 showing of The Waterhorse, which I thought was going to be a cute little story about a creature from the sea who happened to be raised by a little boy....In my defense Alex picked it, but I wasn't really prepared for the story of the Lochness Monster and how he became violent as a result of Scottish bombings! Meredith claimed to not be scared, but she watched most of the movie through her popcorn-scented hands. http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thewaterhorse/

Before bath, Alex put his new best friend "Robancha" to work cleaning the baseboards. If only Robancha could pick up Lego's and grocery shop. Then, he would be my best friend too.

I grabbed my camera to capture Alex's budding engineering skills, and Meredith put on her own show.

In case you ever wondered what Sally Jesse Raphael looked like in her early years...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Yes, that's the same "champagne" we've been drinking since our Bradley days. Why bother with perfection...at $10/bottle?!

Hope you all had a fun and safe night welcoming in another year.

Brandon and I had a great time in Chicago, and we were asleep before the ball dropped. I think that's the first time I've not made it to midnight since 5th grade. We had dinner at a new "coastal Italian" restaurant; "Prosecco."

They've only been open a month, so it was newer than we thought and better than we expected. "Coastal" is apparently Italian for seafood and cream. The meal took us 2.5 hours to eat and I probably ate somewhere in the neighborhood of my Weight Watchers point allowance for the year. That didn't stop me from cramming a Portillo's http://www.portillos.com/portillos/ hot dog into my mouth before we made it home.

I'm off to watch the Fighting Illini beat USC in the Rose Bowl! I may be a Hoosier captive, but I can still sing Illinois' fight song by heart. Just ask Brandon, I sang it for him in the car, much to his delight.