Influenza Care

We were trying to be careful this year. We got our flu shots on Friday, and planned to get the H1N1 vaccine when it became available. The kids have been listening to the public service announcements given by PBS, and have started to try to sneeze into their elbows.
Somehow we still fell prey. Jamie has tested positive for flu - most likely H1N1, since influenza A is not really showing up in our area. Jamie is getting snotty and Dot is coughing sporadically. Tamiflu has been prescribed (and now they say that H1N1 is becoming resistant, and it won't do any good!). The kids want to "protect" Jim when he comes home, so they want facemasks. Hmmm. Let's consult this chart by the CDC:

Home Caregiver to person with influenza-like illness: Avoid being caregiver. If unavoidable, use facemask or respirator Other household members in home Facemask/respirator not recommended

Read that first recommendation again, if you would:

Caregiver to person with influenza-like illness: Avoid being caregiver.

Yes, the CDC wants you to avoid caring for others within your home. Truthfully, I think that if the kids start coughing and sneezing too much, and really want to be safe, we might rig up some facemasks out of scraps of cloth. As it is, we have already been exposed to each others germs repeatedly. Jim, on the other hand, might want to get a hotel room!

Minding your children

Part of being a parent is to know what your kids are reading. Jim takes this job seriously... (reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid)


Another part of parenting is to involve your children in chores around the house. There are some that they find rewarding - like Jamie's carrots. He planted a whole row, and these are the two that sprouted and grew.
And here are the other things harvested that same day, ready to be enjoyed with dinner.

Secret Agents

After being introduced to "Get Smart" Dot decided to have a spy themed birthday party. We made up the invitations to look like manilla folders with coded messages inside, printed out some fingerprinting forms, and put together a basket full of things to use as disguises. The girls had so much fun becoming secret agents, getting a "badge", and being fingerprinted.
The food was good, the company was great, and the presents were all well received. The party was over too soon for the girls (but not soon enough for Jim!), and the supplies were (eventually) all put away.
You, however, can review the remaining evidence, if you would so desire.
I accept this mission.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

This Friday evening we went to a Bowie Baysox game with a group from our church. Jamie was thrilled to get to hug the mascot, and to collect his "prize" from the kids club. He was also happy to be able to sit with his friends - and be picked to play a quick game between the 5th and 6th innings!



Each of the three kids got a t-shirt and a chance to throw a rubber hoagie onto a large mat. Whoever threw it the furthest (with it still being on the mat) won an insulated lunchbag. Jamie and his two friends waited very impatiently for their game, and when the time came, they each did their best. The first girl got it halfway down the mat, the second girl threw it beyond the mat, and Jamie threw it wide to the left. He wasn't happy that he didn't win - but he finally realized that getting to play the game was a pretty big deal (Dot didn't get to play!!), and that he didn't need another lunchbag anyway, because that was the kid's club prize that night.


The game was long and slow, but it was fun to be with friends. The fireworks at the end were quite nice, and the kids love to get to run the bases after the game.

No haggling!

Jim was quite tense this week, with all the uncertainties that go along with new car shopping, not to mention the cash-for-clunkers program. He can relax now, as we finished it up last night at Carmax. We are the owners of a new 2009 Toyota Rav4!
The kids were extremely sad to see the old minivan go (they both cried!), but are thrilled with the new car, although Jamie wishes it had a moon roof. Jim and I are happy that we don't have to worry about the van breaking down somewhere... and that the van was eligible for the CARS rebate!
Check out more photos HERE.

Kid's summer vacation

Things are busy here, and much more messy since the kids got home. In between dealing with them, their messes, and the possibility of a new car purchase, I posted the photos from their time in Ohio this summer.

Check it out HERE.

Done, done, done!

At the end of our hallway...

The bathroom door is done! We have privacy once again!

What does it take to slow you down?

Oh, what plans we had for these weeks without the kids around! We would clean and organize, we would build things, we would re-do things! And what have we gotten done?
You saw the door. The door is still in the same condition, due to lack of more paint stripper and room to work. And neither one of those is easily resolved. You see, the van is nearing it's death, and it is not willing to go quietly. Last week I found it with a flat tire - so it spent a day in the shop getting a new one. Unfortunately we forgot (didn't think to) tell the shop not to open the driver's window - I had heard a familiar sound recently, the sound of the window's electric drive motor breaking. Thankfully the window was up, and I planned for it to stay that way until we traded it in for a new vehicle. But the tire shop didn't know that, and now the window is down, the van is parked in the garage, and there is no where to set up the door on sawhorses in order to strip the paint off the other side.
Our time is rapidly diminishing, and we haven't finished a single planned job. Oh well.

Summer 2009, project #1

The reason we won't be having guests in our home anytime soon:

It's time to work on the bathroom door! In previous years we have done the walls and the window. The door needed to be stripped (and so does the door jamb, and I'll plan to tackle that as soon as we buy more paint remover), and this seemed like the best time to do it.

Peel Away 6 is the product we used. As promised, it removed the paint - and our door had a lot of paint on it, including 2 coats of gloss or enamel. It didn't have an awful toxic smell (almost pleasant, really!), and I didn't have to wear gloves while working with it. I applied the remover Monday morning, and after 2 hours of removing hardware and scraping (not hard) on Tuesday afternoon most of the paint was gone. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Birthday wrap-up

We finally fulfilled a promise made to Jamie - today he got to use his birthday money at the new Lego store. He was thrilled by the store! I think he could've spent all day (and all our money!) there, but we managed to get out after only half an hour.
His purchase: Anakin Skywalker's ship, complete with R2-D2.

In older news, Jamie's pool party was wet, but not because the kids got to swim. Due to a bunch of rain moving through our area we had the party indoors, which was a bit of a disappointment to all the kids, but they had a good time playing together after all.

Jamie chose the birthday candle himself -a duck? a quail? It has been sitting on our shelf for awhile. He was quite adamant that it be used instead of regular birthday cake candles!

We adults had a good time, too, talking and relaxing together. No one had lifeguard duty!

Eventually it cleared up enough for the kids to play outside a little - but the trees kept "raining" on them as they played, so they didn't spend too much time outside.

A little whining about not swimming, a little cleaning up after the guests left, and we were able to relax the rest of the Saturday afternoon.

Six Years Ago

Six years old must be quite grown up. Jamie decided that he would get up on his own now, dress himself, and pour his own juice now that he is six. He did quite well. But six-year-olds may still need a nap, especially after a long day of playing with friends. I had to wake him up when Jim got home early - but there was no whining; presents could be opened!
And such lovely presents they were! Lego Batman! Indiana Jones game and musical toothbrush! Lego Star Wars shirt! Robot book! Money!!!
What fun it is to turn six!

Cheap summertime fun

We do not have a pool in our yard, we do not belong to the neighborhood pool, and there are no inexpensive city pools nearby. What to do when the day warms up? Slip-n-slide. At Wal-mart you can buy $5 instant fun.
Apparently, though, my kids need a little more homeschool for the year. They don't know how to slide! After a few times of being "thrown" down onto the mat, Jamie has gotten the idea. Dot still needs some practice. Go do your homework - 10 more slides!

Graduation and Memorial Day 2009

Our busy month of May is almost done. We have completed our traveling for awhile, and we are ready to be at home and back to normal. Well, as normal as summer break can be...
The graduation went well, and the work to set up and clean up wasn't too terribly taxing. "Many hands make light work" certainly proved true. The ceremony was a nice tribute not only to Amanda, but also to her mom and family. There were many friends and family members in attendance at the reception, and plenty of good food. It was good to see everyone!
In between preparations we were able to wash cars and do a little yard sale shopping. Amazingly, it was "The Great American Treasure Hunt" weekend in Norwalk, and we enjoyed looking over tables and tables of items in three blocks of downtown. Thankfully, we had a little extra room in the trunk of our car to stash away a few treasures.
On to Columbus, where we packed as much as possible into fewer than 24 hours. As always, Mom and Dad made us welcome, loved and comfortable, and Mike came over to help spoil our kids. Andy and his family came down for the holiday weekend, and Doug and Lori came over to visit for a little while as well. The kids were thrilled to be able to play with their cousins (and it helped them to run off a little extra energy before we got into the car for the long trip home!).
If you are interested, there are more photos HERE.

Vacation 2009

We are home from a wonderful vacation. The mountains were lovely, so lovely that our photos cannot do them justice. However, if you would like to see way too many photos of the Great Smoky Mountains and the Biltmore, look HERE.

(It took me a very long time to get the photos ready, so as I find time I will add captions to explain them.)

Day in DC

We spent over 12 hours away from the house on Friday. Most of that time was spent in DC. We watched a Chinese puppet show called, "The Birth of the Monkey King" at the Freer Gallery. Jamie thought it was great! We ate our sandwiches outside on the steps, enjoying the beautiful weather.
A short trip through the Natural History Museum let us see the dinosaur bones (and half the student population of DC, it seemed!) before we traipsed over to the American History Museum to see the Muppets and the Star Spangled Banner.
We hopped on to the trains again to make it over to the National Zoo before we were done for the day. Unfortunately, most of the animals must have been napping or hiding. We did enjoy seeing many colorful and interesting birds, although neither penguins nor pandas were to be seen.
The trains ran punctually and we drove up to Laurel to meet the Ensmingers for dinner. The food at Don Pablos was good, and filling. Somehow the kids all had energy to run after dinner, and there was a nice park behind the restaurant where they could. Jamie found that walking all day without socks can be painful - he now has a burst blister.
Jim successfully talked Dan into heading up to the Family Game Store with us, where we all were tempted by colorful and exciting games of all kinds. We are all on budgets, though, and can't buy everything we wish for, even if it would be educational. We did leave with a new game - maybe you could come by some time and play it with us?

More pictures HERE

More Uncle Fun

Despite a little rain we did a lot of site-seeing on Thursday. The Walters Art Museum was lovely, as always, even if two children let themselves get bored at times. After a quick picnic in the van we headed up to Hampton National Historic Site so Mike could tour the mansion. Dot joined him, but Jamie and I went to the farmhouse to play since he had already done that tour earlier this year. (There is only so much "no touching, no running, no shouting" that a 5 year old boy can take!) The weather cleared enough for some playtime on the farmhouse lawn before we were all tired out. A quiet evening of games was almost enough to finish out the day. Mike introduced his Monkey King shadow puppet to the kids, and before long we had the sheet hung, the lamp unshaded, and new puppets cut out for the show.

Enjoy photos HERE.

How green was my valley

Mike is in for a visit, and we began with hiking in a nearby state park. Check out just how green our spring is now that we have had so much rain!

More photos HERE.

Keep and eye out for more photos as the week goes by.

One down, a few more to go

James has finished his first year of math! We have a few more lessons in phonics, and the caterpillars have yet to become butterflies for science.
We have a somewhat clean house, but some rooms need work in order to be ready for the very-best-loved uncle to come visiting. However, we have a project ready for the kids to do with him...

Easter 2009

Note: this was supposed to be posted Monday.

Easter was yesterday and I liked it. I had to wake up at 6:40 or thereabouts and I had a nice dress. Jamie kept asking if he could have an Easter dress! Mom said he couldn't have an Easter dress but he could have an Easter shirt. Here are the pictures:

Meanwhile school is going on as usual.

love, Dot

New webkinz

Yesterday I got a Webkinz and the day before that Jamie got one. I got a tiger and he got a canary; here is what it looks like. Her name is Tamara. This is what she looks like online. Today is Padme's birthday so Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Padme happy birthday to you. goodbye, Dorothy.