I am sitting here literally waiting for water to boil.  It is 7PM and I am about to boil some green beans and am waiting for my chicken to get done roasting.  It smells sooo good! Brad is home (that's a first for a long time) and is on the couch working from his laptop.  Alex and Ryan are playing on the computer.  They must be really distracted because I haven't heard a single "Mommy!  I'm starving!" yet. I have to make a cake for my mom and wrap her birthday prese...

When I got home from picking up kids from school today I noticed a new message on the machine.  It was the art class mom and all she said is she would like me to give her a call.  I immediately thought "uh oh.  What did he do?"  I think most moms of boys can relate to that mindset. Similar to other jobs, in motherhood you hardly ever get a call that is positive feedback.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised.  She just wanted to let me know that Alex is an exceptiona...

I often hear people say "man, that was a wasted day".  I have felt that on occasion.  To me, a day is wasted if you have spent it doing nothing that you enjoy.  If you didn't get to enjoy the company of firends and loved ones and had to spend that time doing tedious, pointless stuff (like standing in line at the DMV) it is a wasted day.  If you spend the day sick as a dog, wishing you would fall asleep and not wake up, it is a wasted day. Any day that you got the chance to...

I was glad to see snow when I woke up this morning.  I knew snow was in the forcast but it has been so warm I didn't think any would stick.  It had been so gloomy over the last couple of weeks that the snow is nice to see again. Here in the Detroit area, the weather has been highly unusual.  Temps in the 40s and 50s in January!  Bare trees and green grass along with rain made it feel more like Spring but without the flowers and birds.  It wasn't a good thing other tha...

Lately I have had a lot of difficulty getting in touch with the part of my brain that holds my vocabulary.  It is making me very frustrated!  I am able to form thoughts in my head but am having difficulty communicating them. I remember having this problem with my other pregnancies and referred to it as "placenta brain".  I think all my blood is going to the baby and my brain is suffering.  I have heard it is pretty normal and I know it gets worse after the baby comes. ...

I recently surprised a few JUers with revealing my true identity.  I will probably surprise even more with this news, Brad and I are expecting a baby this Summer.  We are excited, and scared, but mostly excited. I am just in the beginning of my 3rd month so I am in what most deem the "Too soon to tell people" part of pregnancy.  I have decided that is not a system that works for me.  I had two miscarriages between our two boys.  The first one everyone knew about and i...

The time has come where I feel the need to be totally open about who I really am.  It has never really been a true secret but I never used real names before and was cautious about what I blogged about. The reason I started blogging with an assumed name is because I wanted to see how I did on my own merits.  I didn't want any unearned fans or enemies due to who I am associated with.  Also, it has been kind of fun being Jill. Most of you here have seen pictures of me and my fa...

I had just washed my pretty table cloth and put placemats out for everyone to hopefully contain their breakfasts on.  My sons were having chocolate chip toaster waffles.  Everything seemed to be going well. A couple of minutes into breakfast I heard some rustling and a flash of a hand in my peripheral vision.  My 5yr old then innocently asks "Is chocolate washable?"  I then ask "Did you just get chocolate on the table cloth?"  He said "I thought I licked it off but I ...

We entertained last night and our last guests left at about 3AM so we had a nice big mess to wake up to.  Our whole family slept in until about 12:30.  I fed everyone then got to work on the mess. I didn't end up getting dressed until about 2:00.  I got a "Happy New Year" call from my mom and gave one to my sister.  Next thing I knew it was dinner time.  We had sandwichs since noone really felt like having a "real" meal. So 1/1/06 has basically been spent cleaning ...

I don't know about other JUer's children but I think my children really don't take notice of the color of skin.  As an example, my 9yr old was talking about the different holidays and mentioned that one classmate celebrates kwanza and another celebrates Ramadan.  I knew the girl who celebrates Ramadan but had to ask who celebrates kwanza.  I expected he would either name a name or have a physical description.  Instead he responded "the kid who's allergic to peanuts". Our a...

Today really should have been a snow day but our school decided instead to only cancel PM kindergarten.  Oh, but they didn't let me know until about 25mins before I was supposed to drop my son at school.  I was supposed to go to a Dr appt so I then had to scramble to find someone to watch my son. After several unsuccessful calls to friends and neighbors, my husband said I could take him to his office.  I was all set to do so but was wise enough to call the Dr to see if he was r...

I think the saying that only you hold the key to your own happiness is true.  My problem is, it seems like everyone else on the planet seems to have the key to your unhappiness.  That doesn't seem fair! I am generally a happy person.  I don't know if it is ignorant bliss or I am just a simple person.  Maybe I have found inner peace that other, less happy people haven't.  It doesn't usually take much to start me off on a happy note. My problem is how others affect m...

To any of my friends that usually email me, I am not ignoring you.  My computer is hosed and totally wiped out my email again.  I am hoping my hero, a.k.a. my husband, can get it back for me eventually.  I feel lost without email.  It is usually my connection with people I wouldn't be able to contact otherwise. Luckily I can still get to the internet and post on here....for now.  I am expecting this laptop to completely die at any time though.  The hard drive has...

My "big" boy is 9 today.  I just can't believe it!  He asked me last night about the story of his birth.  He is such a little smarty!  I told him that his big brain made things difficult but he sure was a cutie!  He asked how big his head was and when I said 38cm he said "Wow!  1cm = .5 inches.  That is like 19 inches!"  I said, "Yep.  It was a big Wow! for me." I told him how excited everyone was to meet him.  What a cute, sweet baby he was.&...

For anyone who isn't familiar with Michigan, there is a saying here, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute."  It is so true!  Thanksgiving day it was 17 degrees and we had plenty of snow on the ground.  Two days later it was up to 62!  Now it is back down to 29 and falling. I am one who would prefer the snow over rainy gloom any day.  My problem is what the back and forth weather does to my sinuses.  I think any sinus sufferer will agree that they don't l...