by Sarah | Oct 27, 2008 | All About Denver
I spent (approximately) $200 in gas and travelled over 1,000 miles to teach my 10 year old a science lesson.
What science lesson is that, you ask?
Why, the meaning of “Lake Effect.”Â
On our way TO Buffalo, a band of very low-lying clouds hovered in a perfect arc around the edge of the lake…disappearing into brilliant blue skies just a few miles off. I pointed them out and explained to Brandon the meaning of ‘Lake-effect’ and how he’d hear PLENTY of that phrase when we were in Buffalo…and how it ties into tales of snow and storms.
On our way HOME from Buffalo he got to see the proof of my lesson first hand. From the minute we hit Pennsylvania until about 10 minutes outside of Cleveland we drove through variable levels of a snowstorm. From a mix of rain and snow, to flurries, to a windy-snowy mess.Â
I suppose it was worth the science lesson since he missed three days of school to go on the trip 😉
by Sarah | Oct 25, 2008 | Holidays
Five years of Christmas together under our belt. The first year was good – big, lots of presents for all. After that our money troubles really started to form. Two jobs still didn’t allot too much for Christmas. It went down to buying for Brandon, and being happy with that. When Riley and then Angel were born, we satisfied ourselves with a few small presents for them since they wouldn’t remember and attempting to make Brandon’s Christmas’s big.Â
Last year we managed to pull together the money for a big Christmas. Piles of presents under the tree, wrapping paper everywhere. Then getting together with teh family and MORE presents there.
This year we could do that again if we wanted to. We could spend hundreds of dollars and put piles of presents under the tree – toys that would be destroyed by el-distructo (Angel), toys that would be ignored and forgotten like every other toy in the house. Boxes of clothes that would get an “oh” from Brandon and thrown aside.
But we’ve talked about it…and we don’t want to do it. We’re going to let Brandon know that our plan for the holiday this year is this:
1. The kids will each get one ‘big’ gift this year. For the girls it will be something smaller, for Brandon it will be one big gift. He can give us some options and we’ll figure it out.
2. Brandon will pick a charity and we’ll donate $50-100 (we haven’t set the amt yet)Â to that charity in his name.
3. Handmade gifts will be encouraged…even if it’s something silly.
4. Archie and I will get gifts for each other this year – but we’ll have a spending limit of $20 and it should be meaningful.
5. We will find something charitable to do for the family.
It just suddenly hit me the other day that just because we HAVE the money doesn’t mean we need to SPEND it…not on a bunch of stuff that will go by the wayside or get torn up. If we put some of our money and time to things and people that need it we’d appreciate it more in the end.Â
Now I just have to get some motivation inside of me to have the patience to sit down with the kids and do crafts with Christmas in mind…and use THOSE to decorate my house instead of spending tons of money on decorations from the store.
by Sarah | Oct 22, 2008 | Random
To BUFFALO!
Today at approximate 9AM all my kids and I will be packed into the Explorer and heading out East.Â
Yes. That’s me. Three kids. No husband.
Insane? Possibly. Excited? A little bit (okay, a LOT).Â
The drive will be tough, but I’m taking my time – and my camera. I’m going to let the kids get out and run. I’m not putting a time limit on this drive…”We made it in EIGHT hours!” will not ring through my grandmother’s house. I’m hoping this will help their, and my, sanity.
We will have competing sounds as the girls watch hour upon hour of Dora on our (new – the old one broke right before the trip, of course *pout*) portable DVD player…while I listen to show tunes and Brandon plays DS…ALL.DAY.LONG.Â
We will stop for puke-donald’s. We will stop for potty breaks.Â
And we will get to my Grandmother’s.
I haven’t been HOME in two+ years. The last time we went, Angel was 2 months old, and Molly took her first steps at the park across the street from my grandmother’s. My niece is turning 5 while we’re there, and we get to go to her party.Â
I will go shopping for real food (Sahlen’s hot dogs, Webers mustard, REAL salt&vinegar chips, Loganberry,  placek and sponge candy). I will have Anderson’s custard & Beef on ‘Wick. I will eat my grandmother’s goulash (should i say yum? not feeling that one), and listen to her rant on every topic imaginable.
Archie isn’t coming…the one sad note about the trip. I wish he could come and see my family again. Celebrate my niece’s birthday with us. I’m sure I will talk to him often, but only as often as work and life allow.
I will probably start experiencing computer withdrawals tomorrow. Today I’m driving, and distracted by kids. Tomorrow will be fun and exciting for a few hours, but as a work day for most of my family it will be quiet for us. By 11AM I’m likely to be texting Jess left and right…but I will survive without a computer somehow.
I’ve preset posts for the weekend, because I won’t be home until Monday night. I’ll take time to edit pictures, but I’ll post an update at the very least on Tuesday.Â
Keep me in your thoughts today, though…as I drive 526 miles with 3 kids and just one little scrap of sanity to begin with.
by Sarah | Oct 20, 2008 | All About Family
The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity. I leave in two days for Buffalo…so we’ve been a little swamped…
~ I’ve shopped ’til I dropped – TWICE – at the resale shop. Making sure the kids drawers were full…and we’d have enough cute clothes to take w/ us to NY.
~ Along with one of those shopping trips we went out to eat.
~ I’ve been doing laundry – also to be sure we had enough cute clothes to take w/ us
~ I’ve been doing cleaning so Archie has a halfway decent home when we leave.
~ I’ve been doing laundry – wait, did I say that already? Yeah, well, it’s taking over my life, it might as well take over my post.
~ I’ve been pre-writing posts for my absence. I may actually post more when I’m gone than when I’m actually here – scary.
~ Oh, and we’ve done a little of this:
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~ And have I mentioned that I’ve also been doing laundry?! Yeah…THAT much. Family of 5, you know…some of whom really need to start wearing clothes more than once before they end up in the laundry.
~ Getting as much chat and play time in w/ my best bud Jess as I possibly can before I leave to the land of no computer (I can feel my withdrawals starting already)
by Sarah | Oct 17, 2008 | All About Family
For the past two months one of our neighbors has been taking Brandon to Wednesday night church with her kids. We don’t attend church and I have my own beliefs, but I believe my kids should make their own choices with religion, so I don’t mind him going.Â
Two weeks ago I was driving into my neighborhood and I saw this family across the street from their house in the large church yard. It’s a common sight. The family goes over and plays football or baseball, or plays basketball in the street. Any neighborhood child that comes along is welcome to join.
The mother is ill with MS and cannot work or play with them as much, but she is always outside sitting down in a chair, blanket on her lap in the cold, watching and cheering them on.
As I drove past them two weeks ago playing ball in the church yard I remember clearly thinking, ‘What a wonderful family. They are always out doing that.’ They have always been nice to Brandon, and while kids will be kids (and therefore sometimes be not-so-nice) – the kids have been nice to Brandon, too.Â
Like all families they’ve had their struggles and problems, but watching them play ball in the yard you could see that things were good.Â
Last night their father was killed five miles from our homes. He was driving home from work when a guy (with a .21 blood alcohol level) raced through the intersection he was crossing and all but demolished his car. He died in the helicopter on the way to the hospital.Â
The word was passed quietly from neighbor to neighbor last night, and I was faced with telling Brandon. In typical Brandon-style (so like my own) at first he was fine, calm even. I knew it wasn’t sinking in, he wasn’t getting it. But when he came out a short while later, the tears were quick to fall. This man had been nice to him, was the father of his friends.Â
I’m still trying to figure out how to help Brandon deal with it. I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with it, myself. I wasn’t close with these people, but they were our neighbors and they were good to our kid. She still has children to care for, and her own illness to deal with. I’m certain that our friends and neighbors will get together and figure out a way to help out…but right now I’m just stunned…
And left realizing again that every moment is precious and to treasure it.
by Sarah | Oct 16, 2008 | All About Kennedy
Sorry for being MIA the past couple of days. I was working my arse off to complete a group of purses for a mom in my playgroup. Today I come back, not with a continuation of the story of Riley…but what happens to be strong on my mind tonight…the land of Angel.
***
My Nana was a hypochondriac. She had 5 doctors that knew nothing about each other, that each perscribed her different medications. It killed her in the end, though her official death was listed as a heart attack. When I was younger and frequently getting sick my father said to em in a fit of annoyance, “You keep this up you’re going to end up like your grandmother – a hypochondriac.”
It was one of those moments that stick with you – and become your greatest fears. I never take pills/medicine because of this (and my extreme difficulty in swallowing them), I hardly EVER go to the doctor because of it. It has always taken me a lot to take my kids to the doctor.
Then the girls came along and I learned to be an advocate for them. I brought up all of my concerns with the doctor’s. I found a doctor that listened, that understood the challenges, and it bolstered my need to advocate for my girls. In the back of my head was always the concern that I’d gone one too many times to the ped with a concern. That she’d think I was Munchausen or something, but she was always understanding and took my concerns seriously.
But then it happened. The LOOK. At Angel’s 2 year checkup I brought up her extreme temper again (I had three months prior), and my beloved pediatrician gave me…The LOOK. It was full of doubt and the ‘you’re nuts’ factor as she said, “Are you sure it’s not just her being a two year old?”
My faith in my knowledge as a mother was shattered. The fear that I’d tucked safely away came rushing back with a vengeance. I once again fear mentioning anything to the doctor.
First, I want to get a second opinion on Angel from an orthopaedist. I was seriously uncomfortable with what the last one had to say, and the problem is not ‘correcting itself’ as he’d suggested. Watching her day to day increases my concern. But I can’t pick up that phone. Daily I think that I’ll call, I’ll get that appointment with a new ortho…but I can’t dial the number.
Second, I want to bring up a possible cause that I’d passed over briefly before and dismissed…but then Archie brought to me tonight.  It is not a happy diagnosis, and one that would likely be disqualified…but it’s a valid question…but I fear mentioning it to anyone on the medical profession. Fear that they would look at me as a person with far too much google-time.
I hate feeling like this. Like I need to be asking, but frozen with fear and self-doubt. Knowing, deep in my heart, that there is something more. Something else that explains everything…something THEY are missing.
