This is where Maggie had to be when I was helping Owen sort clothes in his new room.
Category Archives: Owen
These are the kind of baths we like in our house.
We didn’t have a special NYE dinner so we’re doing it tonight. #cowboyribeye #samsclub #NYEredo
I might have ended up burning the dressing just a bit but once I picked off the worst of it, it was still pretty good. Owen LOVED it!!!!
Our first time seated apart!
I couldn’t get seats together for the movie so the kids got seats directly in front of us. They weren’t sure when we first showed them but then they thought it was awesome!
I’m not kidding. It’s happening.
King guest bed being torn down.
The junk under Owen’s bed after I had already pulled out everything I could reach before the mattress was removed.
Owen finally broke me today.
We’re moving him to the guest room (half the size) and he’s losing half of his stuff. He’s had at least three warnings over the past six months yet he was surprised I was serious and he wanted more chances. Sorry, no. Mom doesn’t play. ESPECIALLY after the events of the day.
Background:
His room is always a disaster. I only ask that every so often it gets picked up so I don’t have to pole vault to walk in—laundry in baskets, legos picked up, etc. But his laundry is from one end to the other (under the bed, in the closet, in toy bins, etc.) and I am tired of getting clean clothes in the dirty laundry. Things get shoved every place imaginable and he can never find anything. Yes I know this is mostly typical kid stuff, but he gives us unbelievable attitude when we ask that he do something as simple as gather laundry. I’ve gone in with him multiple times (as has Grannie) to clean and organize and he always whines and moans and complains…but agrees to keep it clean. We told him when we moved in he got the big room so he had room for him and Katie (and friends) to play but with his room always a mess, no one can play in there. And he won’t pick it up. So he’s been warned multiple times that if he can’t keep it REMOTELY picked up, he will be losing stuff and moving to the smaller guest bedroom.
So…I’ve spent the last two hours in his room just going through and throwing shit away and sorting stuff to keep and give away. He will be starting with a very small selection of books and a handful of Legos and Pokémon cards. If he can keep his room (somewhat) clean, he’ll earn back more.
#HappyF’ingNewYear #WorstNYEyet #NowMyBackHurts #TimeForMargaritas
Owen broke the wall.
The kids were being loud playing upstairs then we heard a really loud THUNK and soon Miss Tattletale was running down to us to tell us Owen put a hole in the wall. Okay, whatever, let me go see.
HOLY SHIT.
Yeah…. He was doing gymnastic front rolls in the tiny hallway space upstairs and managed to kick his heel through the wall.
This was after a stressful morning during which both kids were amazingly annoying.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Merry Christmas from the little beasts!
Yes, these masks might have freaked them out just a bit hiding in their big Santa bags. 😂
Tom and I were up before 7…but the kids weren’t—their phones were still outside their bedroom doors!! Well, if I was up they were going to be up [dammit!] so just as I was about to get Owen up he walked out, and then we had him wake Katie up!
Santa screwed up a little by using the same paper for our gifts, too, and not making sure ours all had name tags… The kids were too excited to see their paper on other gifts that weren’t in their Santa bags so ended up opening a few of ours. Oh well. Maybe next year Santa won’t start wrapping quite so late.
Both kids were excited to see a programmable robot that they’d previously asked for and forgot about… Plus Santa did bring some things they specifically asked for (ballet shoes and Pokémon cards) so they were happy. All gifts were open by 8am. 🙂
Christmas Eve matching PJs
Christmas Eve Day
We spent the day with Uncle Rob and Aunt Dee at their new house! The kids played with Daisy, played in the snow, Owen shot his new bow (and lost an arrow in the snow!), made snowballs with Aunt Dee, and played games with Aunt Dee while is other three adults might have been napping. 🙂
Margarita buddies!
Santa Daisy
She was a big cuddle bug.
Schwalms and Hudsons
The cousins had so much fun together and we really enjoyed visiting with the adults!!We really need to do this more often!!
These woods are for the birds!!
Uncle Doug and Aunt Marie took all the kids to Hartwick Pines and the kids got to hand-feed the birds! Katie got too freaked out but Owen did it!!
Pysanky Katie & Hatty Owen
Katie wanted Gramma Jean to do Pysanky on her face and Katie REALLY wanted to paint Owen’s face so he reluctantly let her paint Hatty Hattington on him (hilariously yet steadfastly refusing both glitter and sparkles).
And since I had no idea what Hatty Hattington looked like, either… I guess she did okay. 🙂
Gramma snuggles!
Next stop? Dessert!
We don’t always get a chance to stop at Goodale’s, so we took advantage today! And Katie was out of her grouchy phase. 🙂
Trying a new place for lunch and Katie being a poop.
I love that Grayling has some cool breweries (I don’t like beer but I love food!). I can’t even remember what she was being grouchy about, but she refused to be in the picture.
The exciting part? Owen discovered he likes Reubens and Bang Bang Shrimp!
One guess where we stopped for dinner.
Me and my super handsome boy
He found out today that he gets braces at his next appointment!
You can never be complacent.
Just when you get complacent thinking your 9yo is self-sufficient in the mornings… You find out he put a plastic container in the oven to heat up pancakes. 😳
You see, Katie came up to ask me how to toast the pancake pieces. I told her to have Owen help her (since he heats up pancakes in the toaster oven regularly). She said she knew but they were (cut up) pieces (instead of full pancakes) so it was different. True, good point. So I told her to put them on a tray and we discussed which tray to use.
Owen came up a little bit later and told me that they put the top in the refrigerator because it was hot. Huh? What? Top? What top? What was hot?
A quick check of the June oven cooking replay shows the entire plastic container in the oven. Top and all. Slowly melting.
I asked Owen how he thought that would toast the pancakes (being inside the container) and he says “BUT I DIDN’T KNOW MOM!”
I asked how it was so different from how he normally does pancakes and he stands there like he can’t understand English.
Stuff like this is so frustrating… How can he not have common sense? I suppose that’s normal for a 9yo boy. Right?! 😣 At least he noticed and took it out and didn’t burn the house down.
We’re Pokémoning again!
Since the kids got their phones back on a limited basis, we’ve been going out Pokémoning again. We stopped at a park today and went down to a frozen pond. I didn’t want the sun at our backs but it was a little bright.
Fine.
Blizzard!
They were predicting a blizzard Sunday night but we didn’t believe them.
And then it started snowing thick, wet heavy snow.
And then the kids went to bed.
And then school was cancelled Sunday evening.
And then Tom got the call he had a late start.
And then the power flicked off and on about four times over an hour.
And then it went off for good about midnight. Hoo boy.
Katie woke up during one of the brief outages because the backup power supplies were beeping and we were running around trying to turn things off… So we told her there was no school and she could sleep in…and that daddy would be here in the morning.
The power was still off in the morning so Tom built a fire in the fireplace and it did a decent job of keeping the living room comfortable (70°). Unfortunately the fireplace is meant for looks and not heating so the flue doesn’t really work so the fire burns fast and hot and we went through wood like crazy (thankfully we had lots of wood from the free stuff I got this summer). We assumed that everyone was without power, but all our friends had power. Turns out, there were about 250,000 people in the greater metro area that lost power!
I hadn’t seen snow this heavy and wet in a long time—these bushes are normally chest-high and completely away from the sidewalk. This morning? About knee-high and covering most of the sidewalk!
The kids played outside most of the day with friends…moving from yard to yard and house to house. They had to dry their snow gear in front of the fire.
Katie kept trying to use things that needed electricity and wondering why they didn’t work. I cooked on the gas stove. As time wore on, we eventually brought out a cooler to put some of the refrigerator stuff in outside since it was getting warm. (It was freezing outside so the stuff would be just right in a cooler.) The freezers were okay because we hadn’t opened them.
The day wasn’t too bad while it was light out—there was lots of animal cuddling warmth—
but then once it got dark (at 4pm!) we had to go pull out all our candles!
We kept checking our power status on the website and this is the only thing we saw all day:
It was frustrating. But I was glad I was still able to use my phone and stay connected. (Using Low Power Mode and turning the Brightness way down reaaaaally conserves battery life. Plus I used one of our external battery packs.)
You know the animals are desperate for attention (or warmth) when they cuddle together on me. Usually it’s one or the other because one kicks the other one out.
At bedtime it was a chilly 52° upstairs so we got out lots of extra blankets and sent the kids to bed a little early. A friend invited us to her house the following day if the power didn’t come back on. Just as we were getting into bed under our six layers (and me in top and bottom long johns, pants, and a hoodie—complete with the hood up!) the power came back on about 9:30! So we had a mad dash throughout the house to make sure everything was turned off (somehow both of Owen’s bedroom lights were on?!) and the furnace turned on. It had been about 22 hours without power.
I don’t think we’ve ever been without power for that long…and we lived through 25 years of Michigan winters and a few hurricane systems in North Carolina. I don’t want to do it again.
I could get used to this new Thanksgiving tradition!
We had dinner at a friend’s house (they invited anyone who didn’t have anywhere to go—and that’s us!) and then came home for a family cuddle and movie…complete with fire in the fireplace! 🦃👨👩👧👦🐶🐈📺🔥
First day of Thanksgiving break.
Everyone is happy and smiling at the beginning… watching a bit of Sesame Street together while we cuddled.
The kids both got glowing reviews!
Parent teacher conferences were tonight and both teachers had glowing things to say about the kids! Katie’s teacher was surprised that she balks at reading and doing math homework because she does awesome in class. Owen’s teacher said he really could not be doing better. We are so proud of them!!
The veterans thank you wall at Katie’s school.
And at Owen’s school:
And some of Owen’s work hanging in the hallway (maybe my favorite part of conferences).
And from Katie’s meeting:
I like the sound of the air because it sounds cool. I had pumpkin donuts at the pumpkin patch. I bought pumpkins at a pumpkin patch.
The pathetic snowman
It looked a little better when it was built fresh, but I forgot to get a pic then…so we get this pathetic view.
2018 Marine Corps Birthday Ball
After last year’s ball (that was 20 minutes away and we were home by 11) we decided to take the kids this year because it would be quick and easy. Ha. HAHA. Of course, best laid plans, right? This year the ball was being held AN HOUR AWAY in Milwaukee! But, we still decided to go through with it. Owen wasn’t thrilled with his new “dress clothes” (really just a nice black shirt and pants…and a bow tie that I bought on our cruise)—and I didn’t even make him wear dress shoes (he got a new pair of Vans!). Oh, he also had to wear a belt. THE HORROR, right? Katie was SUPER excited about the whole thing, but was really VERY excited about the new heels I bought for her, being able to wear a fancy dress, and wearing PANTY HOSE for the first time (I warned her that was not going to be the best part).
Prepping the playing field…
I have to do a before.
And not too terribly long later, the after. Yes, I wore the tiara!
She would have worn her dress and heels in the car on the way there if I’d let her.
I only had one pair of clip on earrings—thankfully they matched, but unfortunately they were too heavy and kept coming off her ears. (I didn’t even THINK about getting her clip-ons before packing for the trip!)
Owen was completely flummoxed at how to put on and fasten a belt. This was the first time he’s ever had to wear one (we borrowed it from a friend!).
Owen not able to get his new shoes tight enough. Poor kid. (That said, I did have to help Katie put the nylons on so she didn’t punch a finger through them in the first three seconds.)
Total cuties.
A quick snap before we got on the elevator. It looks much more striking in black and white so there you go. 🙂
Once we got to the lobby, we grabbed one of Tom’s co-workers to take a quick pic in front of the tree. As it turned out, I am SOOOO glad we did, because the official pics did not turn out well…and this might be one of the best family pics we’ve ever taken!
Open bar! So we got the kids some fancy virgin drinks. Yeah…neither one liked either one we tried. They liked the cherries and that was about it. So much for treating them to something special!
The kids were AMAZING during the ceremony (totally boring speeches to them, I’m sure). Afterwards, before dinner, we went out to use the restrooms and…RAN INTO OUR NEIGHBOR! Ha! She was there for a girls night with her college friends. I mean, what are the odds? Then we took a few pics. Because me.
So, the official pics. Ugh. I totally appreciate that one of the local Marines offered his time and equipment to take photos, but what’s the point when they’re not good? I’d rather pay for a good picture. Remember, the same thing happened last year (with a different photographer). Here’s an edited version (which is better but still not great).
Oh well, right? At least we got our Christmas tree pic.
THAT SAID, the kids were poops. They love dancing at home. They do it all the time. But here? When dancing is expected? Nope. Not happening. To his credit, Owen did eventually go over to a kid his age and they were doing some type of dance off (it was soooo cute and Tom thought he got a video but he didn’t).
We even asked them to dance a slow dance with each of us. Nope. There were lots of kids out dancing. NOPE. We finally told them they had to dance at least one song before we’d go back to the room. Katie seemed to be having a blast doing it so we thought she’d stay out for another song. Nope. Oh well. We likely won’t do this again, so at least we did it once. 🙂
Spontaneous push-up contest
I can’t quite remember why, so I’ll just say… Boys.
A post-errand trifecta.
When we got home from errands Tom grabbed a beer and I jokingly grabbed the test of my margarita bottle… And took a pic.
Then Owen wanted to photobomb us…so I let him (he thinks he was being sneaky).
And then we got a family pic.
Owen has needed this for a long time now.
A damn haircut is what! He’s been so scraggly, but we wanted to wait until we were closer to the birthday ball… Of course he whines every time but ends up loving it.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
No. No no no. NOOOOOOOO!! It’s too early. I mean I really don’t ever want it (maybe two weeks around Christmas and New Year) but 11/9 is way too early.
That said, the kids were EXCITED. Owen woke me up to tell me and when I woke up Katie and told her, she literally jumped out of bed and ran to the window.
If you need me, I’ll be bundled up under blankets on the couch with the dog.
This happened by accident tonight.
