Monday, November 24, 2008

PTFS and the NDSU Gold Star Marching Band

Chris and I went to the NDSU Bison game on Saturday night mostly inpart to see the NDSU Gold Star Marching Band perform with Post Tramatic Funk Syndrome. It was just like a Superbowl halftime show it was so loud. They drove PTFS out onto the center of the field on a trailer and then half the band was on the East side of the Dome and the other half on the west side of the dome. They played Respect, Vehicle and Soul train and it ROCKED the house. I was lucky enough to see some former members from the club in their seats on the 50 yard line, so they let me sit with them to watch the performance.

It was one of those performances those band members will never forget. Reminds me of a concert I did with Denis DiBlasio in college. He had come to play for our Jazz Fest and played with the NDSU Jazz Band. AMAZING!

As for the team, they lost by one point. Refs made some bad calls, but the team fell apart in the last quarter. Oh well there's next year. Chris and I have talked about getting season tickets. We shall see! We also went to the Gold Star Marching Band Gridiron Concert on Sunday and that was a treat as well. It is fun for Chris and I to hear the songs WE played when we were in the band. Oh the memories!

Congrats to both bands though! Amazing job!

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Katie's 1st Dance recital of the year

Katie had her first Just for Kix Dance recital of the year on Saturday. I like this show because it also has the junior high and high school teams performing in it too. Although the thought did cross my mind that Katie won't be performing on the Bruinkix team when she gets to that stage...she and her friends will be competing against Fargo South's team because she will be going to Davies High School which is set to open the fall of 2011.

Anyway all of the kids did a great job and they work so hard.


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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Twilight

Yesterday for 3 hours I escaped without the kids to go see the movie Twilight with a friend of mine from college. I had read the series by Stephenie Meyer this summer when I had pneumonia. It is the latest craze since Harry Potter and give it a couple of years and the girls will be wanting to read it.

The film was pretty good, although low budget but I laughed a lot and I loved the characters. The theatre was packed with all sorts of people: teens, their mothers, college kids, moms, girlfriend and boyfriends. It was cool to see. It was a good afternoon! Chris has even started to read the books but he will wait to see the movie when it comes out on DVD.



twilight Pictures, Images and Photos

Friday, November 21, 2008

Ryan's Turkey

Ryan thinks this is how the Thanksgiving turkey is made.

You get the turkey from the cubby room. You cook it for 10 minutes and then eat it. You have to drink all your milk.

Oh from the eyes of a 4 year old!

Turkey day!

So I decided to work Thanksgiving again this year. It's double time, but a sucky holiday to work. Members order a full turkey which we carve for them and then serve family style at the table. They get the leftovers boxed and away they go. Good deal for them, enough to drive us all batty. Anyway... I have the bar this year and will inevitably get my ass kicked. I have a 12, 5 6-tops and a 15 all between 12 and 2. AHHHH!

Anyway we decided this year to order a turkey dinner from Hornbachers. It's pre-cooked and we just need to reheat. We get a 10-12 lb turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and cranberries for $49.99! So that's the route we will go. Take about 2 1/2 hours to reheat and then we will cook some corn and crescent rolls and be ready to eat! I won't be home till like 4:30 so it will be nice to eat at 5:30. And Chris doesn't have to cook the big meal and wrangle all the kids that day. After dinner the kids get their new Xmas jammies and we all watch a movie together. This year we will be watching Wall-E.

I will let you know how this all pans out. I am pretty excited about it myself.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Ryan's Check-up

Ryan had his check-up on Tuesday. He is a healthy boy of course and brilliant too it seems. While he was waiting he wrote his name on the chalkboard as well as his numbers - backwards, but in the right order. The when the student doctor asked him to draw a person he did and counted all the fingers to make sure he had 5 on them. Dr. Lien said he would probably be ready for kindergarten next year instead of waiting till 2010. We will wait though, but he loves his school. Every day he asks "Is this the day I go to school?"

Ryan is 39 3/4 inches tall and in the 37 percentile for height and he is 36 lb 14 oz and in the 59 percentile for weight. To me, this translates to a growth spurt soon and he will shoot up in inches. Fun!

No shots either which he was happy about.

I did ask the Doctor about what to do about Aaron not sleeping through the night yet, and she told me she is not above drugging her kids and suggested giving him 1 mg of melatonin to help put himself to sleep at night then to keep putting him back into bed when he wakes up and to not lay with him. Chris and I started 2 nights ago and already it is much better. She told me to give him the melatonin 45 minutes for bed. Well Chris gave it to him in some ice cream and he was out cold in 15 minutes on the first night. Last night we planned better and he fell asleep in his bed with Chris sitting next to him. The key is not to let him curl up with us. I have also not been nursing him at nap time and making him fall asleep in his bed. I have to be there yet, but at least I am not the pacifier. Hopefully he will learn.

Keep your fingers crossed, cause mom and dad are really tired.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Free jewelry!

So I hosted a Cookie Lee jewelry party today. I don't normally do those, but I like the jewlery and it's always fun to get something new. The last one I had was 3 years ago, so I guess I was due.



I did pretty well and am only $68 away from bringing in $400 in sales for my friend Cathy. That will give me $60 in free jewelry and three 1/2 price items. Hoping I can get a couple of more sales to hit that. Wish me luck!



Thank you to Cathy Gaboury for letting me have a party through her. She's always so nice and NOT pushy and she has nothing over $50 which is great. Especially for budgets these days!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

What am I going to do...?

Today I had the first meeting for the 3rd grade DI team. Five girls. Squirrely little girls. So we got down to business of picking their challenge. They had 5 to choose from. A- deals with building machines that do jobs, B- is more theatrical focusing on how animals communicate ( I thought they would go with this one), C- Is creating a music Video about a piece of literature, D- is Private DI, IMPROV!, and E- is building a structure from wood and glue and having it hold weights.

They voted using each of their top two choices. Narrowed it down to B, C and D. Voted again on those three and the winner is.....D! IMPROV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yikes! Improv, they chose IMPROV! So I told them 4 times what they were getting into and they still want to do IMPROV! They have to research 6 sleuths, 6 film genres, superstitions and they get a 2x2x2ft box of supplies which they will go to tournament with and within 30 minutes, choose randomly 1 sleuth, 3 film genres which they will incorporate into a 6 minute Improv skit. Plus they will have a surprise element which they will be given at the Presentation door and have 1 minute to decide where it will go in their 6 minute skit.

Frickin IMPROV! How the hell am I going to guide them and prepare them for that? Not that I don't have faith that they can do it, because I am pretty confident that they can, but I am nervous as all hell for them. IMPROV! UGH! :)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Spongebob Birthday!

Ryan had his Spongebob Birthday party this afternoon and WOW, he sure is a ladies man!

When we started talking about his party we asked who he had wanted to invite. Noelle of course because she is his friend from across the street. he also wanted to invite his friends from pre-school. We said Ok, who? "well Sarah and Alex." OK, Is Alex a boy? "NO" ok, so we did. Then he said "who is that girl from Dawg's house?" We told him that was Sydney and her brother Ryan too. We invited them all. DO you see a pattern to all of this? Yes, Ryan is a ladies man!

So today Noelle shows up, then Sarah, then Alex. He takes them all upstairs to show them his room. Places his hand on Sarah's back as he leads them all upstairs. Then, Chris saw this and told me to go check it out. Ryan had put on his bathrobe and was walking around upstairs with all his girlfriends. So we have a little Hepf on our hands. Oh my! He did take the bathrobe off though.

They played hide and go seek, put the jellyfish in the net - like pin the tail on the donkey, freeze dance and drop the clothespin in the jar. They also colored Spongebob pictures. What a blast. He loved all his presents and gave all his girlfriends a hug!

What an amazing little man we have!

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Ryan and all his girlfriends -his sisters too of course.
Alex, Sarah, Ryan & Noelle

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Playing hide and go seek

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Ryan taking his robe off!

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Pin the jellyfish in the net

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Ryan getting his groove on!

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Yes he ended up with 3 girlfriends

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Hugging Sarah

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Katie dancing with all the kids.

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Friday, November 7, 2008

Meghan

Meghan had her 10 year check-up today. It went well, she is healthy although a little ticked as I told her she was only getting the flu shot and she ended up with a Hep A booster as well. She weight and height are good. Dr. Lien did request to see her in a year rather than 2 because she has a slight curve to the right in her spine. This could of course could lead to scoliosis, but could also work it's way out. Kind of freaked me out for a second, but I am sure she will be fine.

All the kids got their flu shots today and none cried. The boys however are milking their owies! "Ow!" Aaron keeps saying as he grabs his leg. Schmuck!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

If he were my first...

He'd be my only! Aaron that is. He is such a handful. One track mind, you cannot distract him for anything. If it is naughty he will just keep on doing it. And he laughs if you yell at him. I smack his hand and he cries, but then will go right back to whatever bad activity he was up too.

These are some of the things he does... now mind you these things go on all day long.

* Climbs on dining room table and bats at the chandelier
* Changes the screens on my computer and opens new windows.
* Plays with the printer, turns on and off, prints test pages.
* unplugs lamps and our bathroom heater, plugs them back in - same with the fans in the summer. Child proof covers - no good.
* Flushes various toilets in the house about 3-4 times a day - for no reason
* Can get into the childproof locks on the cabinets - just rips them apart

* Walks into the shower just so he can get his feet wet, then whines cause his socks are wet.
* Climbs on the piano and plays it - not bad but that usually escalates to playing with the lamp and then playing with the phone and base unit that we have on top.
* Takes whatever phone he can and plays with that. House phone, old cell phones, my cell phone.
* Climbs on my desk and takes my small camera then procedes to try and take pictures with it.
* Empties my purse and wallet, finds phone and knows that if he slides it open he has more buttons to play with.
* Uses his toys to climb up on things - to reach the counters, light switches, jump on the couch.
* Finds a pencil - writes on the wall
* Goes behind the entertainment center opens DVD player, takes out disc and throws it.
* Takes off couch cushions.
* Dicks with the volume on TV
* Changes the channel on the TV so it is snowy
* goes in all bedrooms - even when his siblings are sleeping - last night he went in Ryan's room and stole his Leapster off his bed, shut the door and came out
* Plays with the washer and dryer buttons. When washer is open spins the drum
* if he busts into the kitchen, moves chair and plays in the sink, licking his fingers
* When done eating throws plate on ground
* Rolls his milk cup across the table.
* dumps laundry on the floor to get basket to climb on
* Chris was down in the entryway one day and saw my bedroom light go on and off. Aaron was beside him. He had taken the remote switch off the wall in my bedroom and was turning the light on and off.

If I could easily distract him, I would get a lot more done, but he knows he is being bad and just keeps going right back to it no matter what we do. If he weren't such a lover and a cuddler I swear he would have been tossed to the curb a while ago. But he loves his momma and his daddy and gives them hugs and kisses all the time. Even when he is a naugthy boy. Sisters and brother gets lots of hugs too.

If he had been my first...he would have been my last.

Bugging Ryan as he sleeps.

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Sunday, November 2, 2008

Harry Potter Rules in this house!

Well we are trying to recover this morning from Meghan's Harry Potter sleepover for her 10th birthday which is Monday. I was gone most of the day for DI training in Hunter, ND but Chris and the kids worked the whole day getting things together. Chris dressed up as Professor Snape and I dressed as Professor McGonagal. Thankfully the weather was still beautiful so they played outside a bit on the trampoline.

We had pizza and then sent the kids on a scavenger hunt to find Meghan's big birthday present from us. We had gotten her all the Harry Potter books and wrapped them in brown paper and then hide them all over the place. Each had a clue to the next and some of the clues were tricky to read. One they had to use a mirror to read because it was backwards, another they had to use a marker to color on because the clue was written on white paper with white crayon. Anyway they were all found and the last clue led them to the their Potions class with Professor Snape.

The kids did about 4-5 potions, experiments including making lightning in their mouths with Wint-o-green Lifesavers and making a volcano with a balloon. Afterwards they played the Harry Potter DVD game and hide and go seek in the dark. Ryan and Aaron got so much attention and they loved it.

The party was not without tears of course and over the course of the evening 4/8 of them cried, including the birthday girl, but it was her party so why not.

I think they slept last night but I don't know as I put my earplugs in at 12. They were up though and on the trampoline at 6:30. Not sure the neighbors were thrilled, but oh well.

I have 3 extra pairs of socks and a headband left at our house. Overall it was a great party. Happy 10th Birthday Meghan!



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Reading the backwards clue

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Professor Snape

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Snape's special potion

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Making a volcano

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The Birthday girl

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Happy Halloween!

Halloween was fun! All the costumes looked great and I was very pleased with all the hard work I put in. We have candy galore. Went went around to our usual stops - the Brenan's, Oscar's, the Harrington's and Tanie's. We went to some houses on Tanie's street and then again on 7th Street. There were some spooky houses on 7th Street for sure. Even one where the guy was running around with a chain saw. Meghan loved that. Aaron even got into the whole trick or treating thing and even darted into some of the house. Once we got home we did our cul de sac and the neighboring two. On the last cul de sac is where Chris got interviewed for the news.

Anyway here are some pictures.



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Chris and the kids were on the news!

Chris took the older kids trick or treating Friday night and they were stopped by Lisa Budeau from KVLY-11 news and interviewed about the warm weather and trick or treating. We were very excited to see them on the news that night. I can't find the video link, but here's the story.


Our temperatures turned out to be a real treat on this Halloween. Were you with any of the candy seekers, who were treated to nice weather as they went door to door? Most of the trick or treaters are already at home eating their treats, but it's still pretty nice out. At five it was 54 degrees and it stayed in the 40's for most of the night.
Chris Andreachi says the mild temperatures make it easier for his kids Megan, Katie and Ryan to enjoy the traditional door knocking. He says they like being outside even though the indoor Halloween activities are growing in numbers and popularity. Kim Dahl thinks the nice weather brought more little kids out. She bought extra candy this year to be ready for more kids, since she knew the temperatures would be mild. Kim Dahl/ Fargo: "This year I bought the same as last year, I bought enough candy for 120. But then it got nice outside I ran out and bought two more bags." Chris Andreachi/ Fargo: "You don't want to cover up your costume with warm clothing, so when it's really nice like this everybody's out." The fact that Halloween fell on a Friday this year also made it easier for a lot of families to go trick or treating. No school tomorrow means little ghosts and goblins could spend more time collecting their candy.