Update and our Va-K

Israel finished his second year of medical about a month ago, and for us that meant a move from Kirksville, Missouri (I just barely mastered the spelling of that word, and now we don't even live there anymore....) to Trenton, Michigan. The first two years of his school were done at the site of the school, and were basically all class work. Now he begins his rotations, which means he'll spend six weeks each with all the different kinds of doctors. It's a pretty exciting move for him. For me it was kind of sad, it means starting all over with making friends and finding things to do. It's also farther from "home." Funny, but I grew to love Missouri so much that it feels like home too. I sure to miss everyone there. Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped with our move - especially Katherine and TerriLynn for helping with our kids - and my mom and dad for helping with everything else. I have been blessed with such great friends and family. Anyway, we got here and the house was gross - seems to be par for most of us moving to Michigan. I actually thought to myself 'should we just keep the truck loaded and go look for something else right this minute?'. After several hours of cleaning and scrubbing (thanks for that too mom) I started to feel like we could make things work out. Now we're settled and enjoying our new place. I'll write more about that later....maybe.

Israel had almost an entire month before rotations began, and after we kind of settled in we started to get board. Most people in our situation headed out west to visit family, but we hadn't made any plans. It started to feel like we were just "spending" days, but not really doing anything or having any plans or purpose. I hate that feeling. So on Wednesday morning I told Israel he had 24 hour notice - we were going on vacation. We've never really gone on vacation before - anyone who knows me knows that I don't even count our honeymoon to Alaska as a vacation. So we spend that day looking at our atlas and deciding what to do. Here's what we came up with:

Our first day we drove from home to a little town called Carlisle, Pennsylvania - aka Charmingtown USA. I am in love with this place. We chose it because I got a good deal for the hotel on hotwire.com, and it was close to where we wanted to visit Friday - Gettysburg. I am so happy we found this little place, just by chance. I loved it. I would have stayed there a week, but we kind of ran out of stuff to do there. Anyway, it really reminds me of England where I served my mission. Here are some pictures. I hope that we go back to Carlisle sometime. (Besides - Carlisle is one of my favourite Twilight characters.....)

So the second day of our trip we visited Gettysburg. I was surprised by my experience there. I enjoy history and historic things - and can you get much more historic than Gettysburg? We stopped at the visitors center and bought a cd that you can use to have a guided tour in your car. Then we drove around the battlefield for the next couple of hours listening to a dramatization of the events that took place there. The longer I listened, the more I just felt sorrow. So much pain occured in that place. So much life was taken - for a noble cause, I know, but it is still sad no matter how noble. I can't help but think that if I had lived in a different time, those stories of suffering may have involved my Israel, or my Max. When we visited the gift shop, and I bought a bag of candy, I couldn't help but feel that all these people, talking soo loud and acting so lightminded were desecrating a place that that should be hallowed and sacred. In the Gettysburg address Abraham Lincoln said "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

The Devils Den, where the worst of the fighting took place. Got it's name because it was like a Hell on Earth.

After this experience we needed something a little lighter, so we spent a couple hours in Hershey Pennsylvania - yep, the home of the chocolate bar. It was fun - and we got the most delicious piece of cheesecake. Quincy enjoyed her cupcake.

Ok, it's late, I'm going to have to make a Part II to this post.

"You Don't Have To Write Anything, Just Put Some Video's On," OK

Do Your Kids Have These Toys?

I've mentioned Quincy's facination with moles before. No, I'm not talking about the little animals in the ground, I'm talking about the kind on people. I have one on my wrist, and one on my chin. Here's a picture of the one on my chin, it's on my right side. I show the picture to demonstrate that's it's not some giant gross thing. My mom has one on her face too. Quincy loves to rub our moles. Usually, it seems like she's doing it kind of unconciously. I'll be laying by her, and think she's asleep, and she'll reach up with her eyes closed and her little hands will go straight to the mole and start rubbing. As I've said before, it is both endearing and annoying. Well, here's a conversation that I think I'll chuckle about for a long time. It happened the other day when I was drying Quincy off after her bath (it's written in Quincy vernacular, for the full effect):

"Mom, I love your moes"

"You do? Why?"

"Dey are like toys foe me."

"Really?"

"Yea, I can rub dem whenever I want."

There you have it, I have toys for my kids growing on my face.

Happy Birthday Max!

I know it's been a while since I've blogged, so some day I'll do a catch up of the last two months, which have been pretty eventful. In the meantime, Max will be officially one-year-old in exactly five hours, but we started celebrating early. Here he is with his presents. Quincy picked out the blocks.....I wonder who she really wanted them for :)

Could He Pass?

The other day at the wading pool I had Max in nothing but a white onesie. A lady there, who doesn't know us, said something like "Oh, he's such a boy. I can tell he's a boy even in just a onesie." I've gotten comments like that before. So, to test it, yesterday I dressed him up in one of Quincy's princess dresses, just to see how he looked. What do you think? Could he pass as a princess, or is he all prince? I promise not to be offended if anyone thinks he's a delicate little lady.

In other news, poor Quincy, she kind of has a bad deal for her birthday. It's on November 22, so it's always the week of Thanksgiving, sometimes, like this year, actually on Thanksgiving day. Who throws fun Thanksgiving parties? Little girl birthdays should be in the summer, with swimming and sqealing and running. Not the week of Thanksgiving with gourds and turkeys, and pilgrim clothes. Anyway, the last two years she's had birthday pumpkin pie - not so fun. I always feel kind of bad when I take her to other kids' fun parties and this year I'm really going to try to make her bid day fun. Anyway, so last week when she asked if she could have a birthday cake, I gave in. I made her a pink cake with pink frosting. I didn't let her know what I was up too until we were ready for dessert and I brought it out with a pink candle on it. She was thrilled. After we sang to her and she made a wish and blew out her candle, she insisted that we do the same for all of us - so Israel and I got a candle and a song too. It was pretty fun. The next night we went through the same ritual with our desserts. I have a feeling that these un-birthdays are going to become a regular thing around our house.

Quincy's World

I wonder if this little friend of mine while ever stop cracking me up - I hope not! Here's a few of the latest little things.

Yesterday we were driving out to the lake to meet some friends when this conversation took place.

"Quincy, I see Melissa, Adalin, and Kira behind us!"

"We've gotta lose 'em!"

"We've gotta lose em? What's that mean?"

"That means faster....with more POWER!"

......a few minutes later, after a few curves in the road.....

"Mom, you're driving CRAZY! Did we lose 'em?"

Then last night we had this conversation -

"Quincy, I'm going out with Heidi tonight, so you're going to hang out with dad."

"I don't want to hang out with dad, he picks on me."

"He picks on you? What do you mean?"

"He makes me do my homework!" (remember, she's not in school)

Then this from a few weeks ago. My dad had e-mailed a picture he had taken of a brand new baby buffalo to us and after Quincy saw it she called him to about it:

(Grandpa) "A few minutes after I took that picture, I went by again and saw him drinking milk from his mommy, you know, like Max drinks milk from your mommy."

"My mommy's not a buffalo!!"

Here she is with her rendition of Mary Poppins, "My Favourite Things" - wish I would have remembered not to turn the camera!

Of course, no post would be complete without a picture of handsome Maxwell.

Just Some Pictures

Tick Talk - Movie Game

OK, it's been a while. Lisa got the last one, it was Ratatouille (I wish I didn't have to get the movie out every time I wanted to spell that world), it's my all time favourite animated movie.

The next round of move game is inspired by the tick that we found on Quincy last week. Israel had taken the kids for a walk after church on Sunday while I got dinner ready. He didn't go in the woods or anything, so we didn't have reason to check for anything. Monday morning she walked past me and I just kind of tickled her head, and I felt something. I took a closer look and though she had a gash of dried blood, then I looked closer and realized it was a massively engorged tick - it was so full of my little girls blood that it was almost black - otherwise it looked like this little guy.Totally disgusting! I called the pediatricians office to find out what to do (hoping they would tell me to bring her in), and they told me just to carefully pull it out. Ticks are fairly common here, so I guess it's not that big of deal to them. Luckily Israel hadn't left for school yet, so he took it out, and there have been no ill effects.

So, here's the next clue for the movie game - good luck!


"Maggie, it's just a tick. Get a match"
"I'm not gonna burn him, Jordan!"
"Well we have to get it to back out, you can't leave the head in."
"Well we can't just be burning tick heads!"
"Well then just get some alcohol."
"Ok, well no, I don't have any."
"You don't have any alcohol?"
"No. Well I don't operate here Jordan!"
"Okay, well how about some olive oil."
"Okay, alright. Which kind, Jalepeno or Rosemary?"

........sigh........

Tonight I put the kids in their jammies and then got ready to head back downstairs. I needed to carry down Max, a bag full of laundry, and a quarter pack of diapers. I didn't want to make two trips, so I stuck the diapers in the laundry bag and took that with one hand and the boy with the other. When I got downstairs I deposited Max on the living room floor, and headed to the washing machine. I unloaded half the bag and started the load. A little while later, when the spin cycle began, the washing machine sounded like it was drilling a hole through the wash room floor. I went in to find this:

Yep. That's 30 waterlogged Luvs. Each one weighs 1.5-2 pounds (yea, I weighed a few). This poses a disposal problem, since the garbage truck will only pick up 40 pounds of garbage a week. Luckily you can pay $1 each for extra bags, so I split them up into two bags and attached the appropriate tags. I'm trying not to think about the fact that each box costs $17.99 and I washed 1/4 of the box to the tune of $4.49 plus the extra $2 for the trash. It was a little embarrasing when Israel came down and asked why the washer was making so much noise - especially since he had offered to carry the diapers down in the first place, and I had said "no, I can get them"....

It's Funny How You Change

I was just logging on to blog about a trivial happening in our household today, when I saw for the third time the news about the earthquake in China. Every report I've seen mentions children being trapped in a crumbled school. That has really bothered me today, and I can't hardly bring myself to play the Movie Game when I know so many people are suffering. I don't think that this kind of news used to affect me a percentage as much as it does now that I have children of my own. I think that I used the hear of these things and think to myself "That sounds really scary, I hope that never happens to me." Now when I hear of them I really feel it in my heart, and I wonder how anyone could live through something so horrifying. I can't imagine being one of those mothers, dropping your kid off at school in the morning, going about your day and getting ready for them to come home, and then having this happen. I can't imagine trying to remember how they smelled the last time you kissed them, or trying to remember what the last thing they said to you was. I can't imagine waking up from a dream where you were with them, and then having to face the reality of what has happened. I cannot fathom how those people are feeling right now, and my heart goes out to them. I held Quincy a little longer this afternoon when I put her down for a nap. I had her look me in the eyes and I said "You know what," "I know" she said "don't get out of bed." "No," I said "I really love you, you were my first baby and you will always be so special to me." I hope that someday, when I say "you know what?" the first thing that comes into her little head is that she knows I love her.

Max's 'Hawk

Here's the pictures I promised Juls and Laura. Everywhere we go lately, Max gets compliments on his sweet Mohawk. It's funny, but the genre of people who notice it most are middle aged, biker-type men. Honestly, everytime we go into Walmart a different "tough guy," type (you know what I'm talking about, rolled-up sleeves, leather vest, goatie and braid) will break into a smile, point at him, and say "I love the hairdo." Somehow this style just fits my little sweet guy. I guess a good mom would have wiped off her baby's face before she took the pictures...

Isn't It Ironic...

...I'm up and blogging at 4:30am and it's not because Max is awake? When you have a baby (actually a few months before you even have a baby) you anticipate the night that you'll finally get a good nights sleep - then when you get the chance it's so dang hard to do it! Tonight my problem is that of supply and demand - there's no demand but there sure is supply, so uncomfortable. Nursing moms will know what I'm talking about. Anyway, enough of that. I sure am begining to enjoy Quincy again. We've had a rough past year - the terrible two's and threes. It started when she was nearly 2.5, and now that she's nearly 3.5 I think she's coming out of it. I'm crossing my fingers. She's started saying the funniest things lately - some of them I can definetly tell are from me or Israel, others I have no idea where she got them. These are a couple bits from Saturday morning that made me laugh.


"Quincy, we're going to the Farmers Market this morning, won't that be fun"
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" ok, as I type that it doesn't sound that funny - but it was the way she said it, like it was the most outragoues idea she'd ever heard.

A few minutes later everyone was done eating except her so...
"Here Quincy, I'll feed you, you just have to eat it."
"Yea, but that's not the point." - That's definetly something she's heard me say to her dad a few too many times.

Earlier this week we were outside and she found a feather on the yard. I think feathers are 100% disgusting, but she loves it. I washed it with dish soap as well as I could, and let her play with it for a few days. Then one night I hid it after she'd gone to bed, and I think she's forgotten about it now - we just won't be watching The Rescuers Down Under for A While. Here she is playing with her feather when she didn't know that I was watching. The way she's stroking it makes me think she'll grow up and have a cat and be one of those people who sit and pet their cat from nose to tail while they watch TV. The problem is - we are dog people.

She's made friends with the little boy, (well he's not really little, he's 11) who lives next door to us. He'll knock on the door and he doesn't say hello or anything, he just says "does she want to play." My grandma had given us this wagon a few years ago and we hadn't used it too much - but now it getting lots of love. In this video I'm talking to my mom on the phone in the background (not narrating to myself).

I'm kind of a "people watcher," I think it's so fun to just sit and watch people as they go about their business. Quincy has become one of my most intriging subjects. Here she is just coloring, but it's so fun to me to watch. I've noticed that her hair is rather unkempt in alot of the things I post - in my defense, it usually looks nice between the time she gets dressed in the morning and the time she takes her nap in the afternoon. Of course she always must wear somekind of costume or gown.

Max is as sweet as ever. He really gets around these days. He loves to play with balls, he'll kind of swat one around and chase after it. I was hoping to catch that here, but he had other plans.

For You, Grandma Young!

I've been lucky to have the best grandma in the world - so Quincy and Max have the best great-grandma. She always spoiled me (she bought me my only pair of Girbaud jeans in Jr. High, and my leather jacket). She still spoils me, but now she's spoiling my kids too. She's always sending us packages, and Quincy loves them. It's too bad she can't be here to see how much we enjoy them. More importantly than all the things she's given, she's been a friend, one of my best friends. She's a great example to me too. For a long time she was a big Diet Coke drinker, she'd get her big 64 oz mug filled in the morning and sip it through the day. We never would have thought that she would give it up, but then one day she just quit cold-turkey. She likes to quote an old radio drama - Helen Trent. She says that sometimes she's "dashed against the rocks of despair, but she fights back bravely." These are for you Grandma, we love you!

One of the things that grandma sent this time was a cute mini-lunchbox. She also sent a bag of gummi bears which Quincy put in the lunchbox. Yesterday I went up to find Quincy in bed with the lunchbox full of gummies.

If you and Julia go to "Bed, Butts, and Beyond" today, think of these little butts :)

What is wrong with me?

This morning Quincy and I were downstairs. After a while we heard Max playing in his crib. He was just babbling, not crying or anything so I kept reading the blogs that I was checking out. Quincy kept reminding me that Max was awake and I should go get him - I kept telling her I would in a minute. Finally in a tone of complete exasperation she says "Oh, get him! What's wrong with you?" What a perceptive little girl.

Parmesan Italian Chicken

On Sunday Israel caught me taking pictures of food in various stages of preparation. "What are you doing?" he asked - he really seemed perplexed. I felt a little sheepish, I am by no means a chef, but I just said "Cooking blogs are really popular right now." The answer seemed to satisfy him. Anyway, here's on of our favourites for chicken. It's a hybrid of two different recipes - Parmesan Chicken from a church cookbook, and Weight Watchers Cheesy Italian Chicken. I don't have exact measurements for most of it - it just depends on how many pieces of chicken you want to make. The coating mixture will cover at least 12 breasts, so I make up a batch and use what I need, and then store it in the fridge for next time. To make just plain Parmesan Chicken, mix up the crust and just put it on the chicken and skip the rest.

Crust

3/4 Cup Corn Flakes - Crushed ( I like them quite finely crushed)

3/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese (the kind that comes in a tubular container)

1 pkg Original Ranch Dressing Mix

Mix all ingredients (I do it in a ziplock bag) and set aside while you prepare the chicken. As follows:

Cut a pocket in the chicken breast. As with humans, some chickens have flatter breasts than others, so sometimes it's hard to make a pocket - but do your best. The Weight Watchers recipes suggest you hammer it flat and then roll it all up, but I hate doing that. Fill the pocket with the following:

A sprinkle of salt

A sprinkle of dried oregano

Chopped Mozzarella Cheese (the orginal recipe called for a "cheese stick" but I like using regular cheese cut up in cubes - I'm not sure why.....)

Chopped Green Pepper - 1 to 2 tablespoons per breast

Once the pockets are stuffed, melt a little butter or margarine ( I usually do 5 or 6 pieces of chicken, and for this I use about 2 Tablespoons of margarine) and brush or drizzle it over the chicken.
Sprinkle crust mixture over chicken to coat.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Thanks for Being Honest Julia......Finally

Tonight I was talking to my sister Julia about the Cafe Rio Pork I had made for dinner. I have actually never been to Cafe Rio, but she has and she really likes the pork - so every time I've made it for her I thought I was doing something really nice. Anyway, I was telling her how I know of like three different recipes for it, and I was thinking about trying a different one than usual. That's when she said "Oh, that's good, because the one you make doesn't really taste like the real stuff." She then let me know that she had never told the truth because she didn't want to hurt my feelings - Ok, Julia, thanks for being a sweetheart. Next time, you can just be honest though. Now that I think about it - I probably would have done the exact same thing....like how I didn't tell mom for forever that I don't really like her spaghetti sauce....
One thing I'll be real honest about - Julia is an AWESOME aunt.
ok - got a spamish comment......republishing this without it....

Handsome Maxwell

We've had a rough week with this little guy - he had three teeth come in within the space of about 6 days, and he's got one more that's almost there. As you can imagine, he's been a little grouchy. Good thing he's so cute to balance things out. I do believe he is proof that men are wimpier than woman - I don't recall it ever being this bad when Quincy was getting teeth.

I did find the perfect "teether" though. I was sitting by him eating a piece of celery and he seemed so interested that I handed one to him. It was cold, and he seemed to really enjoy it.

Here's the boy doing what all mothers love - saying mama. Ok, so he's probably not really saying that on purpose, but I'm going to count it anyway.

Prayers

Quincy's starting to understand prayer a little more - she's started to really grasp that you can ask for specific things that you need. This morning I was getting ready to take her to her little preschool group, and we were talking about being nice to her friends. She was being a little ornery, as she sometimes is, so I said:

"You know Quincy, everyday I say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help you be nice to your friends."

She promptly went to the table, bowed her head, folded her arms and said:

"Heavenly Father, please help me be mean to my friends."

She made up for it tonight though, when she gave this one:

"Heavenly Father, please bless me that I love my mom. Please bless me that I love packages. Please bless me that I love visiting grandma and grandpa. Please bless me that I can be nice to my friends."

Looks like there's a little package hint for you there grandma! I really had to try hard to hold in my giggles.
Here's Q-U-I-N-C-Y makin Max laugh.

Movie Game, Expanding the Genre

Lacey's awsome. She got the line from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I live firmly by that idea - that the neck can turn the head any way it wants to.
Now, I've decided to expand the genre a little bit, because, lets just be honest - Quincy rules the TV now, not me. So her type of movies are playing much more frequently than mine. DON'T PANIC - I will still specialize in chick-flicks, but every now and then I'll throw in something different to mix it up. Here we go:

"This much I knew, if you are what you eat then I only want to eat the good stuff. But to my dad....."
"Food is fuel - get picky about what you put in the tank then your engine is gonna die. Now shut-up and eat your garbage."

Good Luck!

Behavioral Breakthrough

Yesterday I took Quincy to childrens story time at the library, as I always do. After story time, Quincy headed straight for the game box and grabbed the little tin of dominoes, as she frequently does. She brought them over to the table and began playing - things were going well. Then a little girl spotted the dominoes, and came over to take a closer look. I began to feel tense. I saw her watching with interest, inching closer and closer. My palms got sweaty. Eventually she took a seat at the table, and began talking about the little rectangles. My heart started pouding. I began to visualize what was about to happen. The little girl would make a big deal of trying to get some dominoes, and Quincy would make a bigger deal of not sharing the dominoes - a deal involving calling names, scowls, and general bad behavior. I knew how it would play out. We've been working on sharing skills for a long time now, but as with any child, it's been a hard concept to grasp. I dread these kinds of situations, because I am never quite sure how to handle them, and I always end up feeling like I did a bad job. Usually I force Quincy to share, kicking and screaming the whole time, and then think to myself - 'I was just nicer and fairer to this other kid, what about my own kid?' What to do....Quincy did have the dominoes first, and she was playing nicely by herself. As I was frantically trying to compose a battle plan in my mind, Quincy grabbed a handful of the dominoes and said "Here mom, hand these to her." I nearly fell out of my little toddler-sized chair. In a total state of shock I passed over the dominoes. When the girl asked for a few more, Quincy kindly obliged. Wow. I'm still bursting with pride for her.

As I haved started along this path of motherhood, I have been struck by the little "nobody told me" moments. Nobody told me that I would cry the day Quincy outgrew her "coming home" outfit. Nobody told me how much I'd miss the 'just the two of us' closeness I had with her, once another baby came along. Nobody told me (or more likely I didn't believe them) how hard it is to teach about sharing. Nobody told me what a happy day it would be when I would realized that the concept was finally grasped.

I know there will probably be more sharing fights, on days when she's just not in the mood - but for now, I'm just so happy to know that she'll do it sometimes. Way to go Q!