"You are the sunshine of my life"

My favorite shot of Mom and Buck
Buck, Gma J and Thunder get to know each other
The Joads arrive at the Howell's (see below)
I think I already posted about the basketball game SERVITE was in as a fundraser
Buck, Ma Joad and Gma J enjoying a dinner out.

** We're just avoiding the swine flu here in Calgary :) It got to a balmy (seriously) 42 today and I have flip flops on. I'm a much different woman now than I was 3 years ago, I tell ya. But my saving thought is that there is less of a chance that we'll get caught in a huge pandemic. There have been 2 cases (mild) here, but I think even the flu is smart enough to avoid the freezing snowy spring weather we're having (please dont' write and convince me of otherwise - I won't listen).
Aside from that, we're just spending a dull day of getting things done here in our home. Buck had school today and so there was time for me to run, but aside from that, we're dull, dull, dull.

RKZ and I are going out for his birthday tonight (it was Tuesday) - to his favorite Bavarian restaurant (yes, I know). He is beside himself with excitement. I am just excited to have some alone time with RK.

On a "name" note, my youngest bro, SERVITE, has convinced me to change my Aunt K and Uncle G's names to "The Howells" (like from Giligan's Island). I have decided to go with the affectionate names: "lovey" (for K) and Thurston III (for G). Just because I can.

I'll try to post some more pics soon as I am not even 1/2 way through the EAster shots. Can't wait to get to Colorado, though we might need to drive if the airplanes are restricted to essential travel only. That is not official, just my ramblings.

"You're my wonderwall"

SPRING BREAK SHOTS CONT. (forget the day count, I'm done with that) The Sugar Shack -the best breakfast West of the Mississippi (ok, maybe not, but we love it)
RKZ and Buck watch the surfers...
Buck, A-man and KK outside of our beach condo.
SERVITE! coming to share in the beach time.
Buck and his Godfather practice catching a wave.
RKZ and Thunder taking a break during our trip to Cal.
A-man and Buck get reacquainted (A-man is Buck's cousin).
We went to an actual pizza parlor that still has a video game section - the boys spent almost the entire time on the side-by-side snow mobile game. They loved just sitting and "riding" the snow mobiles. I think that the dads were having a good time too!
My brother, Coach K, and the cousins share a bath :)
My "appropriate for blog" shot of the boys.

We had a nice weekend where the four of us actually spent time together! It was a nice, plain weekend here - but I have three words that REALLY describe it: SNOW, SNOW, SNOW.

Yes, that's right, it's supposed to snow 15 centimeters tonight and snowed quite a bit yesterday, and it's in the 30's (-1, -2 C). I'm hearing about the nice warm weather in other places - but that's ok if we can avoid the avian/pig flu virus - YUCK. As I watched the snow fall yesterday, all I could think was that maybe the flu virus won't be dumb enough to come to such a cold place (yeah, right).

We're back on a bit of a schedule here in cow-town, watching the hockey play offs (shame on you for not knowing that they are even happening) and hoping our Calgary Flames can pull out another game (they are down by one right now). Funny thing when your 3 year old comes home from school and says, "hey, mom, the Flames won last night!" and realize that he is all things Canada now.

"S-U-C-C-E-S-S, that's the way we spell success :) "

A short morning post today as I am "celebrating 3 small successes" (see the button that links back to the blog which started the idea). The idea is that I post 3 small successes from my life recently. I think the original idea is that I should celebrate today's successes, but it's only 7:30am and so I'll need to celebrate things from last night into today.

1) RKZ and I managed to go on an actual DATE last night. An honest to goodness, dinner and drinks date complete with talk that had nothing to do with Buck or Thunder or the state of the home at this point. That all came up later, but the early talk was about ourselves and how we are right now. It was so wonderful. I've missed RKZ over these past few months with our new little one.

2) Thunder (the same little one), slept 5 hours at one stretch last night! 9pm to 2am!! This allowed me to sleep off the yummy Grasshopper beer I had consumed during the date. Lovely on both counts.

3)RKZ woke up with both children this morning (not necessarily a success of mine, but an "understanding" between the two of us), showered and dressed Buck for school and fed Thunder. Actually, I think this success came 9 years ago when I married RKZ. He really is an amazing husband.

I will get back to the spring break posts later.
There are about 3 inches of SNOW here that all fell yesterday afternoon and last night. I am pretending that the snow never happened.

"I must be one of the wonders..."

Day 5 of Spring Break, 09 - The Joads arrive :) The Joads arrived on the Wednesday of our Spring break and it was awesome. Thy drove the motor home down with Gma J who is a bit fragile these days. It was such a special gift to have them make the long trip to see us! Buck reading his new Superhero magazine to Thunder
Grandma J with the newest grandchild.
My boys and my grandma - such a happy pic.
my fav shot of Ma Joad and Buck
Thunder with Gma J (91)
Buck, Gma J and Thunder in the motorhome
Gma J and the Joads with Thunder
almost the same shot again :)
I have spent the last 5 minutes checking facebook and reading my favorite "mom-blogs" - there are only a few and one that I'm loving is by a woman named Arwen Moshen who has a 3 month old baby. She writes a bit about how much she HATES the first 3 months (the "fourth trimester" it's called a lot) of a baby's life. The confusing crying, the uncontrollable gas and the lack of routine. "Did I mention the lack of sleep?" Although I'm not postpartum, I have to say that I agree about the lack of fun of these last 2 months. I am waiting with baited breath for the 1st of May when Thunder will be 4 months. The "sleep through the" nights, we like to call them.

"Let everything that has breath..."

Spring break DAY 4 -True to Kelly form, we all went to a basketball game. I was telling RKZ that my family would be a great Saturday Night Live skit: the family that is so obsessed with the youngest child of the family that we go to an EXHIBITION FUND RAISING game to watch him play!!! SERVITE! was playing in a "priests against police" game to raise money for an elementary school. My Aunt K and Uncle G brought their grandkids (L & k-na). Buck loved it. (I am suddenly aware that I have fallen down in the "fake name" department. I will try to beef up my imagination.
Cousin L and Buck having lunch.
Grandma J, Ma Joad, Thunder and RK in the stands.
The entire crowd with SERVITE! after the big game (they lost)
Buck steals Ma Joad's blueberry smoothy. He loved it!
Buck, Ma Joad and Gma J.

There will be more pics later in another post, but I have to get some mommy stuff done right now. Later!

Say Good-bye to Hollywood - say good-bye my baby!

Spring Break, day 3 - After stitches, Buck only wanted to hit the beach:
RKZ working the David Hasselhoff magic
the doggie band aid covering stitches (3)

Around 8 am, Buck fell and split open his chin on the tile steps of the rental house. The cut was clearly deep, wouldn't stop bleeding and RKZ and I easily surmised that the cut needed stitches. Thank goodness for walk-in clinics. I put in a call to a friend (thanks CB!) and she told me about a clinic near-by.

It was an interesting experience, being with our first born as he received his first stitches. I mean, this is the boy who can't stand using clippers for hair cuts and basically hyperventilated the first 10 times someone tried to even come near his face with a wash cloth. I was not looking forward to a doctor giving Buck the shot to numb his face NOR the actual "needle and thread" aspect of the experience.

Comparisons of Canadian health care to US (we've been in a number of "emergency" situations):
(1) we had to pay (i think around $200, which seemed reasonable)
(2) we only waited 2 hours (compare to our 5 - 8 hour waits for broken collar bone and seizures).
(3) doctors and nurses seemed similarly nice and well trained - really - in both countries I'm always surprised at how young everyone looks.

The actual stitches were a basic nightmare going in. The 24 year old doctor was very patient and even sweet to Buck as Buck threw a GIANT fit anytime doctor Ken (like Barbie's boy friend) came near our hero's face. RK stayed with Thunder as the baby cried his way through the clinic (they eventually went for a walk) and I stayed with Buck as he cried his way through the stitches. Funny that the needle looks more like a fish hook and the stitches were blue nylon. I was thinking that we could use the left-over stitches to catch dinner if we needed to.

Buck was crying so hard, RKZ thought we were done well before we started. Dr. Ken tricked Buck a few times and then showed him he was crying for nothing (touching Buck's cheek and asking if it hurt). Buck was pretty numbed up once the stitches started, so he calmed down in between each stitch. There were three in all and I was just happy that we didn't go to an ER as Dr. Ken said that they would have used "the straps" to keep Buck calm. Yeah, that would've worked.

Mom, Dad (the Joads) and Gma J arrived later in the day as Buck and RKZ hit the beach. Buck loved the beach and told us he didn't care if we didn't do anything else all week. We were thrilled.

In 'real time' today, it was in the 60's here and we were out side nearly ALL DAY! Thunder is sleeping nicely in his car seat and Buck is about to go to bed. A banner day.

"I'm goin' out with my boots on!" Spring Break 09 Day 2

Spring Break Day 2: walk with the family; beach day with the Breens (Thunder's first "nap date"); digging in the sand; lots of family pics!












First, the POOP pictures are RKZ's ONLY picture taking experience. I was shopping and he wanted to document Buck's huge poop. I had to add it because RKZ is still so proud....Men!

The song title I used is on the radio right now (random).

I know, I am late on my "every day" posting, but that's life, I guess!
Our second full day of break was really fun. I have forgotten that Coach K 2 stopped by everyday. He's so much a part of our family that I didn't think to report on his being there (ha.ha.). Anyway, day two was awesome. First, NAME CHANGE ALERT: because I think it is a bit demeaning to name my youngest brother after his older brother, I am changing Coach K2 to SERVITE! (in caps, with the punctuation). Everyone will know why.

Thunder is crying and we're off for his first set of shots (don't ask why he's getting them at nearly 4 months). "Birthmom" is here visiting for the weekend, but she's gotten sick with the flu, so I also need to go see if she needs anything. Such a great girl and such a bummer to get the flu when she only has 2 days to spend with Thunder.

"Vacation - all I ever wanted" Days 1&2

These shots are from Sunday, April 5th (Day 2 of trip) We had to wash the sand off before we went in the house. The kids loved the hose that worked in "winter".
Mommy and Carter. Mexican shirt #2!!
"Auntie" Oprah (I know, you need a better name) with our little guy.
Steve-O and RKZ looking leisurely
All the kids diggin in the sand.
Thunder in his "beach tent" because he can't use sunscreen yet.
My favorite pic of Thunder by far (wearing his rash gaurd)
Buck and Oprah's kids (sorry for the name, Oprah)
Buck and Oprah's son, M
Coach K2 and Thunder (looking very happy)
Welcome to PART 1 in the series of 9 installments of 'vacation' pics. We had such a great Spring Break trip to California. I'm hoping it's the first of many (already TOTALLY miss California).
Our first day, we actually had dinner with my aunt and uncle (I think I need cool names for them). They brought Mexican food, beer and wine! It was so fun to get caught up and spend our first night in the beach condo. It was a fun place right away. Buck was so excited to see the beach. We were shocked! Thunder was a great flyer - he slept the entire 2 1/2 hours on the flight! It was a calm first night and we made calls to organize the week. Good times begin!

Funny boy question of the day: "Mom, what does Superman do when he gets pee on his hand?"