My Frakkin Blog!

Okay - finally - I was wondering if the frenzy was ever gonna end.  Well, Christmas and the New Year festivities finally ended today.  All the decorations came down and were put away.  The house really looks bare now.

Christmas was a big hit with the kids this year.  As stated previously, Ryan was really in to the whole spirit of it this year.  While I totally expected him to get us up at 5am - he actually woke up at normal time - 8:00 and then got us all up.  Mary’s parents came in and were staying with us - they were actually up before Ryan.

Anyway - he came in all excited about Santa coming and all the presents that were there.  Kylie slept through it.  After Ryan opened up a few presents - we decided we really needed to go wake her up.  She had a great time opening up her presents as well - but - she still hasn’t really figured the whole thing out just yet.

I spent Christmas day doing what I usually do - putting together all the toys that Santa brought.  With the exception of about a 3 hour break when Mary’s Uncle’s and Aunt came for dinner - I pretty much spent the whole day doing that - into the night.

But - I got a Wii from Santa.  After everyone went to bed and after I finished with the last of the toys that needed to be put together - I spent the rest of the night playing Need for Speed and Nerf N-Strike.  Wow - time really flies when you’re playing those games.  Before I knew it - it was 4:30am.  I had to just shut the thing off or I would have been up all day.

I spent some serious time on that thing over the past week - so - I wouldn’t say I’m burned out - but - I’m definitely over it and ready to incorporate blogging back in to the routine.

So - I hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Boxing Day, etc and a safe and Happy New Year.  I’m really looking forward to what 2009 will bring!

Also - I see that BSG will be on Jan 16th for those of you that are interested.  Unfortunately, it appears it will be the last episode of the series.  Bummer!

So, on Monday Mary gets a call from her Aunt telling her that they are in the area.  She was wanting to know if it would be okay for them to come visit on Christmas day.  So, Mary’s like - sure - absolutely!  So, her aunt and uncle will be coming.  Then during the course of that conversation, the aunt lets her know that one of her other uncles would be flying in to see them, so, she was wondering if it would be okay if he came along as well - Sure - absolutely!

So - Mary calls her mom to let her know about this news. So, her mom finds out that her sister and her brother are going to be down here - so - apparently, after she gets off the phone with Mary - she talks it over with Mary’s dad - and she calls Mary back to let her know that they’re coming down now too!

Only AFTER she learns that we will be having 5 additional guests did she call me to let me know the story.  It’s not like I was going to say “no” or anything.  Her family is always welcome in our home - but - this is the first time any of her family has ever celebrated Christmas with us.  I’m sure it will be fine.  We’re used to a house full of people…what’s 5 more, right?

Alrighty - got the first set of pictures to show you guys - these are from the inside of the house.  Mary is still buying things to put up on the inside - so - as she continues to add - I’ll take a few more pictures and post them up.

First - a couple different angles of the Christmas tree.  Also - if you take a look at the mantle to the left - you’ll see the countdown calendar that I referenced in an earlier post.  Also - you’ll see that mantle is very bare - well - long story short - while I was putting the Angel up on the top of the tree - I hit the mantle on the way up - which knocked down and broke all the ceramic figurines.  I owe Mary a new Manger with all the pieces, a couple Angels, and one Santa Claus.  Oops!!

I also had to repair the mantle - I knocked it loose!  Also - you’ll notice there are only two stockings - Kylie’s and Ryans.  We actually have 11 - one for each kid, one for Mary, one for me, and one each for the dogs.  But, we figured with a 2 and 4 year old - it would be safer this year if we didn’t put them all up around the mantle.  I would rather have had the stockings up - at least I wouldn’t have broken all the

And - here’s one of the steps.  Mary likes to collect different figures - here’s the beginning of them.  I’m sure there will be more by the end of this Christmas.  Anyway - this is the last of the pictures for tonight - I don’t want to overwhelm you all!

Also - you’ll notice a gate around the stairs - some of you may remember the whole Kylie saga last April when she broke her arm.  For those of you that are new - she fell down from the third step there and broke her left forearm.  I’m kinda lazy and don’t want to hunt through the archives to post it up here - but - if you follow the tags for Kylie - you’ll find the broken arm posts.  Anyway - that gate is now our and her protection.  She can’t get up the steps any more on her own.

Well, of course, what is the next thing that happens all around this country after Black Friday?  Yup - the Christmas decorations start going up.  Well, I always do mine in two phases (mostly because I only have one day a weekend to do it.) - Phase I is all the outside ground ornamentals and decorations and Phase II is Outside lighting and inside.  Mary always does the inside work and decorates the interior.

So, like I said, I completed Phase I today.  I will put the lights up around the house next Saturday.  So, rather than post pictures of a half-complete decorated house - I will take all the pictures next weekend after I’m done.  I’ll take some pictures of what it looks like during daylight - and a set of what it looks like at night all lit up.

So - if I actually have any readers who follow this blog - you can expect to see some pictures next weekend!  Now that there are some decorations up - Ryan is getting extremely excited.  Kylie likes the decorations - but - she still doesn’t have an understanding of it yet.

Can you believe it’s less than one month from Christmas already?  Holy Frakkin’ Cow!

Well - better late than never!

Mary had to work today - so - it was just me and the kids all day.  We’re actually going to celebrate our Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.  The day is going to be quite busy.

Anyway - Mary tells me that working on Thanksgiving day in a hospital turns out to be the same as any other day - extremely busy.  I can attest that hanging out with the kids on Turkey day isn’t any different than any other day I have them when she’s at work - extremely busy!

We had a good time today.  However, I realized that this is actually the very first Thanksgiving where I did not watch any football games!  And..you know what?  I hate to say it, but I didn’t miss it like I thought I would.

Considering how busy tomorrow is going to be, I’m not entirely sure I’ll get back out here - but - we’ll see.

Hope everyone had a great  Thanksgiving.

Well - like I said, I took tons of pictures at Saturday’s concert.  I figured I would share a few more of them here tonight.  I have so many to share - but - I promise, I will spare you all!  I don’t want to be known as that guy that shows the vacation pictures every time you visit the blog!  LOL - kinda reminiscent of the old slide projector vacation pictures thing, eh?

Here’s the first one - this is Murray saying hi to the audience

And..this one is Anthony.  I’m not entirely sure exactly what he’s doing there.

This one is Sam.  They were doing Rock-a-bye Your Bear.  If you don’t know the history - this is the guy that took Greg’s place.  Sam was one of the Wiggly Dancers and Sir Singalotta before they passed the yellow shirt on to him.  Apparently, Greg became too ill to continue performing.  That’s too bad.  I really liked that guy.  He had a great voice.

And..this one is Jeff.  Ryan really likes him…especially when he gets to wake him up!

This one is Henry The Octopus.  He’s kinda creepy if you ask me.

And, finally, here’s Dorothy the Dinosaur

Well..that’s it.  Between yesterday and today - that is all of the Wiggles and The Wiggles Friends!  We really had a great time there!

Hi All - as promised - here are a few of the pictures I took at The Wiggles Concert this past Saturday. I’ll only post a few up here tonight - I’ll post more up over the week - I got a lot!

First up - We got one really happy and excited boy here!

And..if you recall from yesterday’s post - I mentioned that Kylie started coming down with something just as we were leaving…here she is at the start of the concert - she laid in my lap the whole concert

And…here’s The Wiggles coming out in The Big Red Car

And..then I got a really great shot of Wags The Dog

And - this last one here is of Captain Feathersword. He slid down these silk …whatever? As you can see - by the time he got to the bottom - he ended up head first…that guy is a nut!

You can also get a good look at just how close we were to the stage! Way to go Mary! She bought the tickets. Anyway - that’s it for today. I don’t want to fill up the whole page today with pictures.

Like I said, I have many many more - but - I’ll go easy! LOL. I’ll just post up some of the really good ones. And..as I said yesterday, if you have young ones and haven’t experienced it yet - I highly recommend catching a Wiggles concert when they come to or near your town. These guys are great and the kids just love them!

I promise to have the pictures up tomorrow and Wednesday.  This past Saturday we took the kids to see the Wiggles in concert.  Both of them were absolutely excited the week leading up to it.

First - I have to admit - we’re Wiggles Groupies!  This is the 7th concert we’ve been to over the last 2 years.  In fact, the very first concert we went to was over in Orlando.  Kylie was only 6 weeks old and Ryan was 2.  One year, we went up to Carlisle, PA for my 25th reunion - yup - we planned the trip so that we stopped in Richmond to catch a Wiggles concert on the way up.  We’ve actually seen them in 3 states! LOL.

The very first concert we went to - we were up in the nosebleed section.  We’ve actually become insiders now and we get early release tickets.  We’ve been down on the floor every time since then.  This time, we were in the 3d row from the stage.  Wait until you see these pictures!

Ryan had a really great time.  Unfortunately, for Kylie - she wasn’t able to enjoy it.  She was fine on Friday.  When it was time for us to leave, she was just laying on the couch.  We knew she was starting to come down with something.  During the whole concert, she just laid her head in my lap.  By Saturday night - we ended up taking her to the ER at around 10:00pm with a 104.7 temp.  Poor thing - they had to catheterize her to get a UA sample.

Apparently, she caught some kind of virus.  She was fine on Sunday - and - apparently, she was able to get more of that concert than we realized.  All she could talk about was The Wiggles and Wags and Dorothy and Anthony!  Mary took her to the Pediatrician today for the follow-up.  She was talking up a storm with the Doc about seeing the Wiggles.  So - while it appeared she was out of it - she did in fact see and remember a lot more than we thought.

We don’t have any pictures of the kids because they didn’t get out in the aisles and dance this time - but - I will put up some of the pix over the next couple days.  If you’ve never been to a concert and you have little ones - I highly recommend it!

This goes back to that age old problem between men and women, husbands and wives, regarding leaving the toilet seat up or down!

Only, now it’s getting really interesting!  It happened again this weekend! This isn’t the first time he’s done this to me!

I’m sitting on the couch, minding my own business, studying for my finals.  My son, Ryan (4 years old) is sitting in the office playing his games on the computer.  There is a bathroom off the office.  Mary comes walking by and says:

Honey.  You left the toilet seat up again.  Could you please make sure you put it down when you’re done!

To which I replied:

What?  It wasn’t me!  I wasn’t even in there.  It had to be Ryan.

Ryan doesn’t even look up from his game or the computer - cool as a cucumber:

It wasn’t me.

WHAT?  Now my 4 year old is lying so as not to incur the wrath of the DOWN TOILET SEAT rant?  Since when did it become MY fault ALL the time?  I know I taught him he had to put that toilet seat down when he’s done.

Okay - back up a second.  I still don’t even understand why it’s ALWAYS the guys’ job to put it back down.  I’ve heard the following excuses:

Well.  When I go to the bathroom at night - if the toilet seat is up, I fall in the toilet. To which my response is - so turn on the light!

or

It’s a courtesy for the guy to do that for the girl.  To which I reply - so, in that case, isn’t it also a courtesy then for the girl to put it back up for the guy?

and, my all time favorite

You would do it for me if you loved me!  WHAT?!?!?!  Couldn’t the same thing be said for you?  Since you won’t put it back up for me…does that mean you don’t really love me?

Anyway - back to the issue at hand.  I know darned well that Ryan was the last one in that bathroom and that HE left that seat up!  So, I marched right in that office - swung that swivel chair around, knelt down beside him so that he was looking at me eye-to-eye and asked him:

Okay - look - you and I BOTH know you were the last one in there.  You left that seat up didn’t you? 

He just smiled at me.  That rat!

So, I asked him:  Why did you tell your mom that it wasn’t you?

He said:  Because you always get in trouble for it.

Okay - he KNOWS already!  I immediately swept him up from that chair, put him over my shoulder, brought him in the bedroom, put him on the bed and tickled the snot out of him!  Go ahead - tell your mom who left that seat up - tell her!

I guess he had a hard time spilling the beans considering he was being tickled.

In the end - all is well.  But, hindsight is 20/20.  I don’t think I taught him a lesson there at all.  If anything, what he got out of it is that he can continue to blame me and all I’m going to do is tickle him again.

One of the great things about living in Florida is the great weather we have in “the winter.”  The weatherman says our high for tomorrow should be in the low 80’s!  Gotta love it.

This past weekend we went to Ryan & Kylie’s pre-school Fall Festival.  It is a fundraiser and festival all rolled in to one.  The kids had a really great time.  There were two big bouncers, a balloon guy, a karate exposition, a fire truck, lots of crafts and games, and lots of food!

The biggest draw was the raffle.  Since the beginning of October each of the classrooms have had the parents of the kids bring in items for the raffle.  Each classroom had a theme.  Kylie’s class was camping outdoors and Ryan’s class theme was cooking out.  There are 9 class rooms so there were 9 different things to choose from for the raffle.  Each raffle ticket was $5 apiece.

I bought 5 tickets and later Mary let Ryan buy another ticket.  I placed 3 tickets in a raffle for Toys for Girls and Boys - there must have been close to $300 worth of stuff in that one.  I put one ticket in A Day at the Spa - hoping to win something for mommy - and then one ticket in for Family Fun Night - which included lots of games, tickets to movies, gift certificates to places like Chuck-E-Cheese, and other family fun stuff.

The ticket that Mary let Ryan buy went in to the Toys for Girls and Boys.  Well, when the raffle started we were hanging out next to that table with all the toys on it.  At each table they went to they chose the nearest kid around that table to draw the tickets.  When they got around to the table with the toys - they were reaching for Kylie to come up and draw the ticket - she wasn’t having any of that!!!  So, they asked Ryan to pull the next ticket.

Ryan so much wanted to win all those toys that when they asked him to draw the ticket I was preparing myself for the big let down.  I was thinking - how could they possibly ask a 4 year old little boy to pull the ticket and then have them announce that some other kid won all those toys.  My chest was already tightening up just thinking about the look on his face as some other little boy or girl came up to claim that wondrous prize.

They held the bucket up above his head - he plunged his little hand in there and fished around a bit trying to grab on to one.  He pulled it out and was getting ready to look at it - mind you - he’s still 4 - so - he can’t really read yet.  He didn’t even get a chance to look at the ticket he just pulled out.  The head of the school grabbed the ticket from him before he could pull it down.

As soon as she looked at the table, her jaw dropped.  The D.J. with the microphone didn’t even get to put the mike up to her to announce the winner.  She just turned and looked at my wife and I with a stunned look.  Mary looked at her and said “Is it us?”

Yup - that’s right - Ryan pulled his own ticket in the drawing!  My first reaction was - whew - what a relief!  Then, it hit me too - Holy Cow!  He drew his own ticket!  Not one of the three that I put in there - but, the one that he “bought.”  Talk about a lucky boy!  He instantly became the most popular kid there.  Mind you - there had to be close to 50 or more tickets in for that raffle.  That was the biggest and most popular prize going.

I could list everything that was on that table - but - it is a VERY long list.  There was a sheet that came a long with the prizes that detailed everything on that table.  It filled up a full 8 x 10 sheet, single-spaced.  There were some toys that were beyond Kylie and Ryan’s age - we’ve already talked to Ryan and told him we were going to give those away to kids that don’t have toys - he was perfectly fine with that.

Now - on to the subject of this post - it was a beautiful day - not too hot, not too cold - sun shining all day long.  Later that evening while I was getting read for bed, I looked in the mirror.  I actually did a double-take.  Was my face a little pink?  Funny, I didn’t feel flushed.  Then I looked at my arms - and looked closer at my face - yup - I actually got a bit of a tan - on November 8th!  Awesome!  I’m never leaving Florida!