From cold to Warm Weather all in one post.....

“It was a little cold but
live 2 ride / ride 2 live”

That was the e-mail that I got from my dad this morning that accompanied the pictures above. Sometimes he just makes me smile and laugh.
First a little cold………I think when you are wearing (reference the fist picture) a Russian fur hat it is more than a little cold.

Again, it makes me laugh often when I see my dad all geared up in his Harley gear getting on his motorcycle. I am not laughing at him mind you, but at the fact that the man who has been my father for the last 30 years has (I wanted to say changed, but I don't think it really has been in a change in the person that he is) transformed into the Harley owner who in his own words “ live 2 ride / ride 2 live”. I am glad that my dad has found a hobby (hmm maybe hobby isn't the right word, I don't think you go out in the cold cold weather for a hobby), something he enjoys so much that it is worth getting out in that cold weather to do. Apparently from the looks of picture 4 and 5 he isn't the only crazy Harley owner in our area!! Love you my biker Daddy!!

Now to the warmer weather....yesterday afternoon was one of the most beautiful afternoons we have had in a LONG time. It was almost 70 outside, the sun was shining, the wind that we have been having the last few days had calmed down. So after I picked up the kids and got home we all went out into the backyard and I let them run around and play. They had a great time. We stayed out there for an hour (it was dinner time after that). The had a blast. they ran around and played with each other and the dogs. I tried to get some pictures, but it is hard when they are running in separate directions the whole time.

J soaking up the sun

B saying "picture mommy"

B being shy

ready to go to new school

One last thing for today, I wanted to tell Nichole and Michael to have a great time being back in Texas! Soak up some of the warm weather and sun. Good to have you back on this side of the "pond". =)

My 100th post!!!! yeah!!!!

Have you ever looked at your two (or how ever many you have) children and wondered how could two kids who have the same parents be completely different? As for their looks mine are pretty similar, blonde hair, blue eyes other than that they really quite different. Here are some examples of what I am talking about:

B: longer legs shorter torso.
J: shorter legs longer torso.

B: will stay up all night and sleep all day if you will let her.
J: is in bed every night by 7pm or gets cranky, up by 7am.

B: had a little bit of a mean streak in her.
J: no mean streak to be found.

B: when she eats pizza will pull all the cheese and toppings off and eat them and will leave the bread.
J: will pull all the toppings off and eat the bread.

B: will sit anywhere and plays by herself, will talk to her dolls, toys. Pretty content.
J: will not sit by himself, is constantly following someone around wanting them to hold and talk to him.

B: more cautious, doesn’t climb on a lot of things, like to be more stable on the ground
J: will climb and try to get on top of anything that is standing still. If you walk out of the living room and walk back in 10 second later he will be on top of something.

They have these things in common though, they both love to read books, dance, sing or be sung to, play outside rather than inside, and get lots of hugs and kisses.
I am glad that they are their own little people and are different, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to go to bed early or get up a little late. =)

Another weather post.......

Notice anything slightly familiar with this picture. except this time there are two 20 degree weather swings in one week. From 60 to 40, and so on. I am tired of having a nice day then having it follow with bitterly cold days.



Notice the wind speeds. Now, I can tell you I know this is Oklahoma where the winds come sweeping down the plains, but read this conversation and you will know how extreme our winds have been.
Jay called me last night when I was on my way home, he was already at home:

J: Have you heard anything on the news about the weather?

Me: yeah there is suppose to be a cold front coming through again tonight.

J: Did they say anything about tornado's, because the wind is REALLY bad.

Me: No nothing about tornado's, it is too cold. Just suppose to be a cold front.

Mind you Jay has lived in Oklahoma most of his life (with the exception of a few years in Texas), and he thought last night we were going to have a tornado!!

Can you help Stephanie??

Participants Needed!!!

My name is Stephanie Capshaw, and I am a pediatric occupational therapist and professor in the Occupational Therapy Program at the University of Texas at El Paso, a doctoral student in Occupational Therapy at the University of St. Augustine, as well as a fellow adoptive parent of a child adopted from Guatemala (whew!). I am interested in looking at the prevalence of symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) in children adopted from Guatemala. I am looking for parents of children who were adopted from Guatemala and whose children are now between the ages of birth to 3 years old, regardless of whether or not they have been diagnosed with SPD or demonstrate symptoms of SPD.

If you would like to participate in this study, please email me your name, address, and child’s date of birth. I will mail you the research instrument with a pre-paid return envelope. Based on the results, I will be happy to make recommendations for a consultation with an occupational therapist in your area, should the results warrant such a recommendation. Strict confidentiality will be maintained at all times throughout the course of the research project unless law requires disclosure. A random code number, rather than your name, will be used to identify information you give us. Only members of the immediate project staff will have direct access to this information. Reports at scientific meetings or in scientific journals will not include any information which identifies you as a participant in this study. Your research records, just like any hospital records, however, may be subpoenaed by court order or may be inspected by federal regulatory authorities.Please feel free to pass this invitation to other adoptive parents from Guatemala.Thanks so much!Sincerely,Stephanie Capshaw, MA, OTRDoctoral Candidate, University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences(915) 747-7269scapshawotr@hotmail.com

Fellow bloggers, would you mind posting this, or something about this with a link to my blog, on your blog? Thanks!! :>)

Potty Training Problem...........

So my little love Breanna is 2.5 years old and I think it is time to get out of Pampers and into big girl panties.

Breanna wants to wear panties, but the problem is I can't get her to go to the bathroom in the potty. I have tried books, bribed her with stickers, candy, and the lure of the elusive panties. Nothing will get her to go potty. Not even the Dora potty seat. She says she wants to go potty, but nothing ever happens.

I have spent hours in the bathroom with her, showed her how, and as soon as I get her off the potty and put her diaper back on she goes in the diaper.

How can I convince her that using the potty is the right thing to do? Any suggestions? Really I mean it advice from anyone and everyone is appreciated!!

On a better note........we can now flush our toilets and take a real shower. They got the sewer line fixed yesterday!! YEAH!!! Breanna has seemed to have recovered from her weekend cold/fever.

Here are some pictures of the kids from last week playing in their new backyard.

Our weekend..............

Tax return reject by the government(breanna's ssn is being used on another tax return)............BAD.

Breanna running a fever and laying around all weekend.......BAD.

Sewer line running from our house to the sewer broken........BAD.

Mom and Dad coming to our new home to have a Sunday dinner of smoked brisket, baked beans and sun dried tomato and basil pasta.........GREAT!!!

Thanks to Mom and Dad for bringing a little sunshine into our weekend!!!

Paw-Corn

That is what Breanna calls popcorn. Every night we have a little mommy/daughter bonding time. We sit on the couch and share a mimi-bag of our favorite paw-corn. the Kettle Korn is her favorite, it is a little sweet. We talk about her day at school...usually the conversation goes like this:

Mom: Did you have a good day at school today:
B: yeah

Mom: Did you learn a lot?
B: yeah

and so on.




Last night we were in our back yard and someone was driving around looking at houses on one a motorcycle. Breanna said "I see Gan-dad" (Grandad).
I said "no that isn't Grandad, that is someone else on a motorcycle".
B: No Mommy that Gan-dad Harley
Mom: No Grandad is at home.
B: Mommy go find Gan-dad.




Finally something from this weekend. My Mom and Dad were watching the kids on Sat while we moved, and she sings a song with Breanna to help her learn to spell her name. When I went to pick up the kids, my mom said Breanna can spell her name. She has sung the song and can spell out her name. she then attempted to get Breanna to sing the song. If you know anything about my little Breanna you know she likes to sing on her own time and most of the time not on command. So my mom said well sing it to her and see if she will sing it back later.
So we got in the car and headed toward our new house and I started to sing the song to her, she promptly started yelling at me "no mommy, gran-ma's song" I said well don't you want to sing it with mommy? "No mommy that's gran-ma's song"
So I got shut down. No song, apparent'y that is a song only gran-ma can sing with Breanna. =)

From the mouthes of babes.......

Last night:

Mommy: Does Breanna have pretty toes? (I painted her toenails last night)

Breanna: YEEESSSS, pretty toes.

Mommy: Does Mommy have pretty toes?

Breanna: YEEEESSSS, pretty toes.

Mommy: Does Daddy have pretty toes?

Breanna: NOOOOOO!!!!

Another weather post

Just have to say I am not sure what is going on but this is the 2nd week in a row that the weather on Monday was above 70 degrees and on Tues/Wed we get snow!!
We go from spring right back into winter in a matter of 24 hours! YUCK!!!

The Shoe war!

I'd like to start with saying to anyone who knows my family that you know that some, no make that all of us have a pretty strong will and are very certain that we are right most of the time. So let me tell my mother now I am sorry, and yes your hopes have come true, I have a child just like me.
This morning as I was attempting to get Breanna dressed and ready for the day, she on the other hand had another plan.....sleep. So I said "Don't you want to get dressed and ready to go to new school?" "NO!"
So I had to basically get her dressed while she was sleeping. Then she layed back down on the floor and went to sleep. I got JJ up and he on the other hand was in a great mood and let me get him dressed and ready without a fight.
Then it came time to get in the car and go, so I told Breanna it was time to put on her shoes and get in the car. I attempted to put on her boots (which would look VERY cute with her little sweater dress) and she threw a HUGE fit, tears, screaming, I got the works. She wanted to wear orange and black swimming shoes. (They would look great with her purple and white dress). We got in the car without shoes, got to "new school" and fought about it there too. Finally I told her that she had to put them on if she wanted to go to school (for the 100th time) she turned her head away from me wouldn't look at me and stuck out her foot.
OK this child is ONLY 2 1/2 years old. I am in BIG trouble with this one!!!

They got me in a lot of trouble once upon a time......

Ok so this is a sort of embarrassing story to tell, but it is also a little fun, and now it is relevant to the current news. So here goes........

Back in my younger days I did some not so smart things. One of them was to make more than a few phone calls to a certain 900 number (no not one of THOSE numbers). I was in junior high and my best friend Jordan had come over to hang out (or play as we use to call it back then). We had gotten a hold of what we thought was the jackpot, the best thing that had happened to us all year...............a phone number where if you called it the New Kids on the Block would talk and you could listen.

Now we decided that this was perfect we could call and listen to conversations, and I think you could actually choose to listen to your favorite "kid". That meant that Jordan could call and listen to Danny, and I could call and listen to Joey. Well we called and called and called.

Not only did we call from my house, we then went to her house and called from there too.

We had SOOOOO much fun. We laughed and laughed..........until my parents got the bill. Then the fun was ALL over. My parents had NO idea that we had ever called the number until the bill came. Let me tell you that was not a happy day.

Let me tell you we had a rather large backyard at that time. My punishment was that I had to mow that lovely yard every weekend until the bill was paid off. My payment for mowing the yard a whopping $5.00, yep that is right $5.00. Let me just tell you it took me more than one summer to pay off that bill! (It is the house with the fence around the back yard)

So where is the relevance to current news...........the New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) are making a comeback. That's right folks get ready they are getting ready to release a new album. After all of the years they are getting back togethter. So it is time to get out those NKOTB sleeping bags, posters, shirts, buttons, cards, pillow cases, and relive the greatness that was NKOTB! (there is a little bit of sarcasm in that statement). Although my mother might still have my sleeping bag somewhere.

This time I can tell you 100% I will not be making phone calles to any 900 number that they put out, and luckily my daughter is not old enough to dial or care about calling. Ummmmm but I will admit that I did sign up for "exclusive news" on their website..........