Prayers needed...

Please say a prayer for my friend, Kevin. He is currently in the hospital and needs some prayers. Thanks.

Perspective

Before I begin, I just have to encourage you to read my friend Rotorheads blog post. After I posted about A few things I think are just snazzy, he made his own version of what he would stuff in his man-purse. Hilarious!

It's all about perspective:
I sent a text to my friend Sommer today. She is a stay-at-home mom of 3 young kids who lives about a mile from my house. I told her I was enjoying pretending to be a stay-at-home mom this week, as the weather has prevented me from working. She sent me a text back that said, Funny- I am over here wishing I had a job.



At first glance, it may appear that we have cloned Rain, our dog. No worries, that's just "Uncle Biscuit", a gift from Santa.







We headed outside to practice for the Olympic trials...we couldn't agree on Summer or Winter Games.

Here's Megan, practicing her free throw shots...

We are wondering how many points you get when the ball becomes stuck in the ice-covered net...

I made a music corner in the playroom for Emily and all her instruments, cowboy hats and bandanas...

2 questions are on the agenda tonight. Can you write a few lyrics for Emily's song and can you guess who is on the TV behind her?

Have fun!

Good News and a New Blog Feature

I loved the comments from the last post! If you didn't read them, go back and look. If you're like me, you read Stephanie's story and yelled "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" (Just kidding, Stephanie). And whoever left the post about the fishstick allergy, please sign your name!

I also want to tell you some good news. I saw Dr. G this week and she said I can get my port out! I am so excited! I have a consult with my surgeon in early Feb to set a date.

Today, I am starting a new feature on my blog. I used to read Oprah magazine and she had a feature called "A few things I think are just great". So I am stealing her idea, but I'll change the name so she won't sue me and take away my banged up car and very small house and the $1.00 I have in my wallet. However, even though I am stealing her idea, trust me when I say, you will not see a $150 umbrella or a $75 tin of popcorn. My umbrellas come from Walgreens and my popcorn comes from the Boy Scouts. So don't expect any classy items on the list.
So here is Edition #1 of "A few things I think are just snazzy".
1) The Ped-Egg My sister-in-law, Jenni, bought me one of these for my birthday. It sloughs off all that yucky stuff on my feet. Just keep it in the shower and use it occasionally. I love it!
2) Bath and Body Moonlight Path body cream This is, without a doubt, my favorite line from B&B. The cream is the best b/c it's so thick. And the smell...mmm.
3) Dove Chocolate Seriously, is there a better melt-in-your-mouth chocolate out there?
4) http://www.allrecipes.com/ This is where I get all my recipes...thus, the title allrecipes.com. I even created an account so I could store my favorites.
5) Greta Garmin (Otherwise known to the rest of the world as Garmin nuvi). My job relies heavily on getting from Point A to Point E every day as efficiently as possible. Greta is so great about finding the quickest route. Greta's most endearing feature is her ability to tell me EXACTLY what time I will arrive and recalculating, depending on how fast I drive. Greta speaks to me from the Australian Outback. I am still trying to understand why she can't pronounce some words that are vital to navigation. For example, she cannot pronounce "recalculating", which is what she does when I don't follow her directions. She also lets me type in directions and save them under a name. So imagine how cute it was last week when I pulled up to the dr office and she said in her best Aussy voice, "Arriving at Dr. G". I love it!
So, feel free to tell me what you think is snazzy and I will periodically update with new items too.
Michele;

Parenting 101

Congratulations to my sister Linda for starting her own blog!
Over the holidays, I bragged to Linda about how rarely we get sick in our house and when we do get sick, we never pass it on to one another. In other words, never in the history of the Peters household has there been more than 1 sick person at a time. I must have forgotten to knock on wood! Last Friday the stomach bug hit our household and 3/4 of us were very sick!!! Can you guess who has the strongest immune system and the biggest handwashing obsession??? ME! (Ok, I'm knocking on wood right now so I won't wake up tonight and find myself sick). Thursday night, after the girls went to bed, I was reading one of my favorite blogs Mrs. Dirnberger. Her blog is upbeat and fun. She was talking about how badly she wants children. She would gladly take the long nights, the postbaby body, all the stuff that goes with parenting. As I am reading it, I hear THE COUGH come from Emily's room. I immediately go into PARENTING DENIAL. See, our kids have a unique system for letting us know they are about to puke. They have a certain cough that comes about 10 seconds before it hits. So denial kicks in. That is NOT the pre-puke cough...it was just a cough...then I hear it...there's no denying the sound of a puke. Now, I have to stop right here and tell you I have been a parent for 10 1/2 years and I have NEVER in all that time seen vomit like this. It was the most violent and graphic act of vomiting I have ever seen. I screamed OMG, how many fish sticks did you feed this child for supper!!! Scott swears she had 8 so I must tell every parent out there an unknown fact. FISHSTICKS REPRODUCE AFTER CONSUMPTION. There were at least 54 fishsticks laying in a pile. But there were also fishsticks on the wall, on the floor, in her hair. I took her to the bathroom, at which time more fishsticks began to fly around the room. So we get her cleaned up and PARENTING DENIAL kicks in again. Parents, you know what I'm talking about. You're tired, you want to go to bed, so you look at each other and say, Oh, it was probably just a one time thing, she's fine. Let's put her back to bed. She'll be fine. Then she pukes again and you start the whole process all over again.
What makes this story really funny is that my sister Linda who seriously does have the healthiest kids I've ever known, just texted me while I am writing this and told me her son is puking. Go figure.

I did NOT...

I did NOT promise a blog about Greta Garmin. She is NOT my best friend in the world right now...nah, it would be ridiculous to be best friends with a computer-generated Aussie that tells me what to do every day. But I am NOT going to break the promise to talk about her, for a dose of "Not Me Wednesday".
I did NOT walk in a home today, say hello to the 2 yr old and get greeted with "Kick Ass!" No, that would never happen...I am NOT wondering if she really needs speech therapy...This is NOT the same child who told me awhile back "My butt stinks".
I am NOT off to a bad start with my blog giveaway. I have NOT forgotten to mail Katie's gift card...Katie, I am NOT very sorry!!! I did NOT forget to mention that Kara and Linda were the winners of the "guess the movie quote", that was NOT like a hundred days ago that I posted that blog.
I am NOT going to mention Cash Cab on my blog again, even though I know you are NOT already sick of hearing how much I do NOT like that show. As a matter of fact, I am NOT watching it right now. It does NOT air for 2 hours every afternoon. Seriously, how cool would it NOT be to get in that cab and see those lights start flashing. I would NOT take that 2 yr old with me so she could greet Ben Bailey...

How I Spent My Winter Vacation

Tonight you get a glimpse into our Christmas...Santa came and then we headed out for an 8 day adventure.
There was a whole lotta jumpin' goin' on when Megan saw her presents

Emily got her wish...Biscuit the Fur Real pup...In cryptic talk, he was known as Canine Pastry.
I tried a new look for the holidays, compliments of my nephew Dylan.

After a few days in Arkansas, we headed to Branson. Along the way, we played Cash Cab, our new game show obsession. Haven't seen it? Go watch it NOW; well, finish reading my blog first.

Scott does a good job playing Ben...he even drives like Ben.

We saw a comedy show full of almost-famous actors. Emily got all of their autographs. The guy in green is Apple Jack.

Then we shed a few tears watching the famous dog...

We snagged some hikers to take a family pic...

Megan took some nice pics.

We saw evidence of a long ago love...a heart carved in a tree.

Saw a sign named in Emily's honor...

Then we all braved the 30 degree weather and sat in the outdoor hot tub. We did NOT enjoy it, as you can see from the pic.

This was NOT the most relaxing vacation we have ever taken.

Hope your holidays were merry and bright.

Next post: Greta Garmin, my new best friend.