There's A Reason They're Called Die

My dad and Tina came over for dinner on Wednesday. It was the loveliest dinner party ever - they brought the food! We all ate until we were stuffed and the kids were adorable. When I put Matilda to bed my dad said that they were going to leave. They didn't want to get in the way of bedtime.

"But Matilda is already asleep!" I protested. "And Eric really wants to play Yahtzee."

Those poor, kind people. They'd never played a game with us before. They happily agreed to stay and play.

We were about four rolls into the game when the trash-talking started. Eric and I are big fans of psychological warfare where board games are concerned. We gave exaggerated sighs of sympathy to bad rolls and openly mocked everyone else's scores. I even knocked my dad's pen across the table just to reiterate that I was a bully.

Dad and Tina remarked politely that they had never played a game of Yahtzee quite like ours before. They ended up getting the two highest scores of the night. There is a lesson there somewhere that I am choosing to ignore.

Next time - Battleship!

Texts From Yesterday

Emilie to Eric, 1:33:34: Sam just swallowed a paper clip. Are those lead? Should I call his doctor?

Emilie to Eric, 1:44:04: Dr. Arndt said to just watch for it. We have an appointment for an xray on Monday in case we don't find it. Sigh.

Emilie to Eric, 1:45:14: Matilda just vomited in the tent!

Emilie to Eric, 1:46:38: Sam is really excited as he has always wanted an xray.

Eric to Emilie, 2:00:51: I step away from my phone for a few minutes and this is what happens!

Emilie to Eric, 2:01:03: It was a really bad few minutes!!

Luci and Abdi's Reception

Eric's stepsister, Luci, is Grandma Susan's youngest daughter. She got married several months ago in a small ceremony. Last Saturday she and her husband, Abdi, had a reception in Plainview for all of us who didn't see the wedding.

Luci and Abdi are Muslims. Luci is the only Muslim in our family so we've been learning all we can about her faith and new traditions. That's why I was mortified to commit a faux pas within seconds of walking into the party. Luci greeted us with a hug and introduced us to Abdi. Eric shook his hand and out of habit I stuck my hand out at him, too. Ugh...of course I had forgotten that he doesn't touch any woman other than his wife. He was kind about it but wouldn't shake my hand and I ended up feeling really stupid. I felt better when I found out that Eric's sister Amy had done the same thing - ha! Leave it to me and Amy to be the big idiots of the day.

Carl, Susan, Wally, and Mike Dailey

Shannan, Luci, and Amy (I love this picture of my sisters!)

Take a good look. Matilda is the spitting image of these two (there will be pictures in an upcoming post to prove it). You're looking at my daughter in 30 years!

Here's Abdi and Luci. Abdi's family was pretty amused by the cake-cutting thing.

The littlest Dailey.

Thank goodness for balloons and an open area for the kids to play!

There aren't enough words in any language to explain how funny this is to me. I can't imagine that Wally or Mike ever imagined a day they would wear kufis.

No matter where you worship, no marriage is complete without a Crock-Pot!

I Blame Obama

Our little family has hit another busy streak. The kids and I haven't seen Eric for a week. We left early Friday morning for Sioux Falls and he left on a business trip to Chicago while we were gone. He was supposed to come home last night. Sam and I were going to stay up to see him.

Eric was at O'Hare about an hour before his flight when his flight was canceled. No warning, no reasons given. He spent the next two hours dealing with the airport, his job's travel agency, his boss, area hotels, and me (and my internet connection). He ended up back at the hotel he had just left but this time he was traveling light. (He asked the airline where his bag was. 'On the next available flight, sir,' they sneered condescendingly. So Eric's bag got to Rochester last night while he was stuck in Chicago.)

At one point during this ordeal, after he had arrived at his hotel, he sent me a picture on my phone. I could tell he was looking out his hotel window and it was a picture of a big airplane. I didn't understand the significance until he explained that Air Force One was right outside his hotel. We're assuming clearance for the President's plane was more important than the evening's puddle-jumper flights. FINE.

We are all exhausted. Sam and I can't sleep when Eric isn't home. Matilda is miserable without her dad. She calls for him throughout the day. She even snuggled with me sadly the last time I tried to explain that he was gone. We don't work without Eric!

He should be at O'Hare right now. We are praying he gets on the 7:50 flight which means the kids and I will be at the airport at 9:00. Cruelly, he has to go right to work. The kids will see him tonight but I have a Board meeting.

None of this would have happened if we hadn't elected someone who wasn't even born in this country.

***Update 1: UGH! The 7:50 flight was canceled!!! Now he's at the airport just waiting and hoping he gets on the 9:00 flight.

***Update 2: The 9:00 flight had a gate change and was pushed to 9:15.

Lime Springs

I'm close to giving up our house and living directly out of our car. Every day is another trip!

Today the kids and I drove down to Lime Springs, IA to see Grandma Colleen's new house. We followed Amy and Sean down and got there in time for lunch. I wasn't surprised when Colleen got home a few minutes after we arrived, blew a small tornado through her kitchen, and had us all at the table with our plates piled high ten minutes later.

It was such a nice day. Sam, Matilda, and Sean ran from room to room chasing each other with dog toys. When they finally got tired Colleen set them up at the table with paper and markers. I almost passed out when Matilda ran into the kitchen with her artwork and managed to leave a pink marker trail across the front of the refrigerator. Colleen couldn't have been less worried about it but I'm so stressed, imagining her there trying to scrub it off! She said she misses having a house full of marker swipes and grubby fingerprints. I think I'll bring her a Magic Eraser just in case.

Colleen has been like a mom to me since I was 15 years old. She gives of herself endlessly. I couldn't be happier knowing she is in such a lovely home in a safe little town. Even better, she is just under an hour and a half away - the perfect distance for a day trip. The kids and I will be able to run down to see her whenever the mood strikes.

I truly love my husband's family - what a wonderful gift!

Geography Humor

I'm pretty impressed by Sam's awareness of his surroundings. I was 15 years old and I didn't know how to get to Eyota from Rochester. Seriously! I spent my whole life with my nose in a book and didn't care at all about what was happening outside the car windows. Sam knows when to turn right at a light to get to the store or how to get home from downtown. I think it's awesome.

Today I tried quizzing him again. When we were a few lights from our house, I said, "Sam, do you know where we are?"

"Yep," he said. "We are in Mexico."

"What?" I said.

"Mexico," Sam repeated, and then laughed until he got hiccups.

Once he calmed down, I said, "Sam, you were pretty silly saying we were in Mexico. Where are we really?"

"Ha ha ha, Mom!" Sam said. "Mexico is funny. But really, we are in Colorado."

That sent him into another fit of giggles that didn't stop until we were home.

I wish I got the joke.

The Storyteller

The kids and I just spent the weekend in Sioux Falls with Tali, Chad, Beckett, Liam, and Joy. (My favorite people - woot!) I thought I'd try something different and asked Sam to describe our weekend.

"We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. Then we played played played played played played played played played played played played and slept. Then we played played played played played played played played played played played played played played played played played and slept. Then we played played played played played played played and watched a show and drove and drove and drove and drove and we are home."

While totally accurate I don't know that he captured just how fun it was. I'll wait to relate my view of the weekend until I get pictures to go with it (hint, hint!).

Aiden Is Four!

I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out how old Aiden was when I met him. I am really, really bad at this, but I think I've figured out that if he turned 4 in July 2010, he turned 1 in July 2007. I feel like Karen and I became friends in the fall but I've always thought I met Aid when he was 10 months old. Well, no matter if he was 10 months or 14 months old, he was a teeny tiny thing. I will never forget the little jeans and flannel shirt he was wearing when Karen came over to our house for our first playdate. He was sooooo cute!

That cute little dude is four years old now. Four! All grown up and calling me "Mrs. Mom." Sam and Aid have gone from diapers and naptimes to preschool and dinosaurs, but they have a relationship that knows no bounds. People at Aiden's birthday party were even commenting on their infatuation with each other. They LOVE each other.

(Speaking of that party...it was at 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon. Eric was on call and that is dangerously close to bedtime. I was 50% sure we would be going. Then Karen, that rat, said, "I asked Aid what he wanted for his birthday and he said, 'A bucket of dinosaurs, a bucket of dragons, and Sam.'" How could I not go to the ends of the earth to make sure Sam was at Aiden's party?!)

Karen took these pictures of my kids at the party. It was a huge backyard blowout and my kids were naked for most of it. It was awesome! Sam couldn't have been any more excited about Aiden's presents than if they were his own. What a great party!

We LOVE the Bures family!!

Bargain Victory

Matilda LOVES her babies. I've watched her cover them with a blanket and shush them, share her Cheerios with them, and pull her own Nuk out of her mouth to cram into theirs. It is truly so sweet.

I got out my old doll highchair and cradle several months ago. It was a nice set meant for older kids and Matilda destroyed it pretty quickly. She sat in the highchair and in the cradle and soon they were in pieces.

I wanted to find doll playset furniture for Matilda to play with. I've been looking online a lot trying to get an idea as to what was out there. Imagine my complete elation when I found the Graco Baby Doll Playset yesterday - at Goodwill! It was new in the box and the pieces were still in plastic. I spent $9.99 on it. That is a lot of money for one of my scavenging trips - I usually allot just a few dollars for garage sale/thrift store treasures - but this was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up.

I put it all together as soon as the kids and I got home. Sam and Matilda played with it for hours. I'm pretty sure this set will be destroyed, too, but I know they'll get more than my $9.99's worth of playtime out of it.

Shading My Eyes

Well, hello.

I'm emerging from my emotional hibernation like a bear in the springtime. I'm groggy, disoriented, and hungry. It isn't a literal hunger (though I could really go for an entire package of Peeps right now), it's more of a hunger for normalcy. I still don't feel like myself. As I read through old posts yesterday I was surprised to see that I was feeling like this as long ago as April.

I now know that avoiding the blog doesn't help anything. It actually gives me guilt as this is the only record of Sam and Matilda's lives. I'm not good at taking pictures or journaling. This is it. I'm going to try my best to catch up.

Bless all of you who have told me that you've missed my posts. Bless all of you who never said a word.

I'm back, y'all.