Happy Birthday, Abby!

Abby turned 9 on Saturday. I had rehearsal all day and didn't make it home until after dinner. Fortunaltely for me, the fam saved cake and presents until I got home. Yummy cake for me! Abby and I were going to make her cake, but Grandma picked up a yummy strawberry ice cream cake for the birthday girl. Abby lovedher cake.

My friend Shannon called that evening and talked to Abs. Shan informed me that Abby "feels -much- older" now that she is 9. She feels more grown up.

We have an Abels family tradition of letting the birthday person pick out what they want for dinner. Abby decided she wanted pizza. Mom remembers making personal pizzas on english muffins when she was younger, so she picked up pizza making goodies and let the kids make up thier own individual pizza works of art.

Abby got some very grown up gifts for such a grown up young lady. Gammy picked out a ring and watch set that Ab loves. Her mama gave her some perfume, which is lovely. And her uncle John picked out some fun iron on decals which will make a nice grown up project and personalize a t-shirt or two.

We will see you again soon,
love,
Amy & the gang at Owenland Park

Are you kidding me?

I started rehearsals for Little House on the Prairie this week (Jack is again desperate to go to work with me) and so have not been home in the evenings. I asked the other grown ups to feed me a few snippets from the week and so we have the following;

This from my mother:
The boys love their Otto books. They have Otto Goes to Camp and Otto Has a Birthday. Jack has both books memorized.
Not long ago, he was having a bit of a meltdown, so I (Gammy) picked up his Otto Goes to Camp and started reading it. But, instead of reading, "Otto was worried about going to camp," I read, "Otto was excited about going to school." Jack stopped crying to tell me, "No, Gammie, it's, "Otto was worried about going to camp." Then he proceeded to continue his meltdown, but with a little less fervor. I continued reading the book, but changing one word every few sentences, I said "Otto took a sleeping bag" instead of "blanket" and was corrected by Jack. I said "Otto packed an apple pie" instead of "a cherry pie" and was corrected again. Soon, Jack was rolling with laughter, correcting me every time I read a word wrong. He has started asking for me to read to him and Wyatt at bedtime now, and he always wants Otto. We have a very good time with Jack correcting me every other sentence.

Last week, Jack proceeded to "read" the book to his mama (Gammie's way, of course.) I must say, he was quite inventive in the things he brought into the book, insisting that mommy correct him as he went along. John had me creep up the stairs to listen, and Jack was having a great time "reading" his Otto book to Mama.

From my sister Devon;
My story for you is that Jack helped me clean the porch of the many leaves by using the snow shovel to pick them up and then dumping them into their wagon. When the wagon was full he would tell me it was time for me to dump it into the pile in the yard so he could keep working. While working he started telling me a story about Thomas and Hero train and their race with Spencer, of course to pass the time. Accidentally he hit Wyatt with the shovel and the little man got very upset. Well the only thing I could do to get him to calm down was to take him to a separate part of the porch. There I picked up handfuls of leaves and as I was pouring them over Wyatt's head I sang "Leaves raining on Wyatt!" Over and over I sang and poured leaves on him as he soon started to laugh and couldn't stop. He then joined in my game and started pouring leaves on my head!

And a bit from John;
Last weekend, Wyatt and I were in our living room, watching a Thomas movie. I got up to get something. When I came back to sit down, Wy was was sitting in his rocking chair telling me that he's made a spot for me to sit with him! "I made a spot for you, Daddy!" He was very proud of himself.

A few weeks ago, I was going into the bathroom, and asked Wy to go in with me. I blew my nose and it made a full, loud and honking noise. Wyatt looked up at me and said, 'Daddy, you farted your nose!'

A few weeks go, I finally remembered to have the boys try on their Thomas Costumes to make sure they fit and what not. I soon realized I should not have done this just before bedtime; they both were laughing and desperate to wear them as pajamas... Oy. (Now you all know that Jack has worn the same costume for the last few years. It doesn't look bad. But poor Wy - he has grown so much this past year. We are going to let this mini costume ride this year and try to pick up a larger Thomas on clearance.

I thought I would include a little e-mail John sent to me: "Jack loves to wear my glasses, he doesn't care which ones, my old pair of Safety Glasses; a pair of Garmin sunglasses Poppy passed on to me, the sunglasses that were in the truck when I bought it, or my current sunglasses. So one morning, I'm driving the littler ones out to Aunt Beth's house, (Hi Beth!), and Jack has been wearing my safety glasses for nearly half an hour, (he also puts on my work gloves, and holds his hands straight up in front of himself- and rotates his hands when he is talking and holds them still, [but upright], when he isn't talking), and he asks for one of the other glasses, and then another, then another, and another still. He was putting them all on, one on top of the other.

A little tidbit from me;
Mom and I took Wy shopping the other week. As we were loading groceries into the trunk Mom responded to a comment I had made. "Are you kidding me?" she said. Wy piped up "No, I not kidding you, Gammy."

Wy loves to read. I was sitting on the stairs flipping through a cook book, Wy snuggled up next to me and picked up my 2nd cook book. Each page he turned to, he would sit up very straight and say "Huh." Then he might comment that "strawberries is yummy." then flip to another recipe. "Huh. I wike vis one, too." It was very funny. He got upset after a while and demanded that I read my book to him, so there we sat on the steps reading about how to turn the turkey carcass into a lovely stock. Maybe I have a budding chef on my hands?

Finally, here are Wy and I dancing together one night after I got home from rehearsals. I stood him up on the counter, he wrapped his arm around my neck and started to sway. It was happiness in my heart.

Now, friends, it is my day off again, and I have promised to take the boys to what Jack refers to as "Old MacDonald's" for some olde chicken and fries.

love and blessings,
Owenland Park

A visit

John's sister Jeanette came in for a visit last weekend. The boys (and Connie) made fast friends with her. Monday morning Jack was busy telling Jeannette all about the musical Into the Woods. (That is the show John just did at the Rep.) Jack spent a great deal of time detailing through the show and finally asked if we could just watch the movie. (I had borrowed the DVD from one of my colleagues.) We went downstairs to put in the movie and Jack turned to John and said "Daddy, can you leave us alone?" He wanted to sit downstairs with Jeanette.

We also had the good fortune and timing for a day visit from John's sister Sue and brother-in-law Steve while Jeanette was here. They brought remote control cars and dogs for all the kids. It was a remote control party here a the house. The kids could barely contain themselves with all these new toys. I finally had to banish all noise making toys to the upstairs so the adults could visit - and I'm usually not bothered by noisy toys. I think they did bring the boys some of the best presents they have ever gotten; 2 paint brushes. The boys tote these things around all over the place. Jack often sleeps with a paintbrush under his pillow.

Wy is obsessed with "Ring around the rosie." He runs around singing it all day long. Jack on the other hand is obsessed with Into The Woods. He is constantly singing or humming one of the songs. He asks to listen to the CD. He has been asking me about the DVD - I think we are going to have to buy the movie on line because I have already returned it to my friend.

I don't know about anyone else, but Jeanette and I had a lovely time. (I think we were the winners of the whole trip.) Poor John had to strike Into the Woods, so Jeanette and I left all the little kiddies with my folks and we went out for Thai. That was yummy. Then we scooted down to the Crown Center to get a sneak peek at the zombie show Maul of the Dead. We made super easy triple layer chocolate pie and chocolate chip 'ice cream' cookie sandwiches!



More updates soon,
love from Owenland Park

Lord have Murphy.

Devlyn had her 4th birthday this week. Happy Birthday, Devlyn! Devon, John and I stayed up the night before making a cute/ugly little Spongebob cake. Family tradition says the birthday person gets to pick what they want for dinner, but Devlyn kept selecting thing like Chili, spaghetti and fries! I don't remember what we had for dinner, but the kids tore it up. Why? Because they knew Spongebob cake was waiting. I think I could have fed them sardines and they would have eaten it that night! If you want to see more pics - slide on over to the linky dinks and click on shutterfly. Then select Devlyn's birthday album.

I mentioned last week that Dad and Devon went to Alabama for Jude's Baptism. Here is a snapshot of the reception. If you look to the sidebar, you can click on the link to my shutterfly account to see more Baptism day photos. (My mama made Jude's gown, which you can see if you visit the Shutterfly. Isn't it beautiful?)

Devon has decided to go through RCIA and has asked me to be her sponsor. It looks like we will be going to meetings every Thursday. Dad is heading up to St. Joe each Wednesday evening for RCIA meetings with my brother-in-law.

Abby had a follow up eye appointment to see how her eyes are adjusting to her glasses. The glasses are helping, but they aren't fixing her problem: Her eyes don't work together. We have to do exercizes with her 3X each day at 5 minutes a shot. We have popcicle sticks decorated with stickers for her to focus on. We hold the stick about a foot away from her face and slowly bring it closter to her nose. At some point, her right eye will pop out of focus. We tell her to blink and focus. If she can't bring her eyes back into focus after a blink or two, we start over. We have another follow up in 2 months to see how her eyes are doing. I think she is already doing better after 1 week of exercises. I'm excited to see how she will be doing in two months at her next follow up.

Melanie, Shelby and Noah came down for a day visit last weekend. Noah spent the afternoon with the boys, Devlyn, John and my dad. The girls came out to see Tell Tale Electric Poe with Gammy, Devon, Abby & Connie. This show is a series of 3 Poe poems and 3 stories all linked together, underscored and accented by electric guitar. Our middle and high school audiences have been enjoying it. Jack even came out one day to be with me in the booth. He got tired of listening to all the talking though and spent half the show engrossed in how the light from my mag-light made funny patterns on the carpet when pressed up against the carpet tiles... If you want to check out the Coterie, you can find a link over in the side bar under Linky Dinks.

Devlyn cut her bangs the other week. It seems she was in John's bathroom and decided to root through his cabinet. She found a pair of scissors and grabbed a handful of bangs - front and center. Then she lopped them off. Mom did her best to fix her up until we could get her out for a full on hair cut. (And here is a better picture of Devon with her new short do.)

Did I tell you Mom got a new car? She and Dad bought it a few weeks ago while John and I had the boys in Chicago. Mom called to tell me about her new car. I asked "What did you get?" She replied with "A tank." Wouldn't you know it, that name stuck. The kids love to ride in Tank. Every time we get ready to go somewhere, they are asking if we are going in Tank. Tank, Tank, Tank.

Did you know our washing machine bit the dust? Let me tell you that it was not pretty at our house the whole week we went without a washing machine. That was laundry for 10 people, yo. Anyway - John and I bought that washing machine and dryer with wedding gift money and for an odd reason I nearly cried when the thing died. Did I cry because I knew a replacement was going to run us $700 or more? Did I cry because it was a wedding gift? Did I cry because I felt gloomy and thought "This is an omen..."? Did I cry because this was just one more item in the stress bucket? Or did I cry because it was one more thing we got to charge on the olde credit card? I'm thinking all of the above. Well, the new washer is slightly amazing. It is one of those energy efficient front loaders. You should see these things in action - the tub spins faster than the drum in your dryer. The clothes are nearly dry when they come out of the wash. The thing has so many buttons that I am glad John is in charge of laundry. (We made a deal YEARS ago that I will not do laundry at home -unless we are desperate- because I do laundry at work.)

When I was little, my mom would use her finger to write love notes on our palms or back. She would always tell us what she was writing. I always called this "softing". I would ask her to soft me. She has started this up with the kids and Wy especially loves it. He asks if he can write on my hand, my face, my toes. He always writes "I wuv Mommy" while scratching a jagged nail across the sensitive flesh of my palm. That child always has a split nail. Do I ever notice that he has a split nail until he softs me somewhere like the top of my toe? Does it matter? I'll take the softing and deal with the nail.

Jack went to Sunday school with Abby and Connie last Sunday. This was the second time he has gone out with the rest of the kids. I think he is the youngest in the group, but I don't worry about him. He is a really well behaved little guy and he was with 2 of his cousins.

We are getting started on the little ones doing homework. Mom picked up a few books geared towards teaching Pre K kids skills to prepare for reading and writing. Jack is very excited each day about starting his homework, though he is quick to say "I can't do it." I keep telling him it is ok if you can't do it, but you always have to try. And after a try or two, he has completed the task! Devlyn could sort of care less about the homework. She is good to sit down with you if you want, but she is just as happy playing somewhere else. Here we have artwork by Jack & Wyatt. I can't believe how good Jack's hand-eye coordination is getting.

Remember I told you about Murphy cat? The one we took to a farm? Well, the boys bless Murphy in our night time prayers. Wyatt goes a little further than night time prayers though...We were at mass last Sunday and when we say "Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy." Wyatt said "Lord have Murphy. Christ have Murphy. Lord have Murphy." I know wander around the house sighing "Oh, Lord have Murphy."

And with that, I leave you until next week friends. Love and blessings to you all.
Owenland Park

Frozen Nuggets

Devon cut over 12" off of her hair. It now falls to her shoulders. She came over to the house after having her hair cut. After about 15 minutes of sheer puzzlement Jack finally piped up with "Who are you?" She said "I'm your Aunt Devon." You could see that he still didn't believe her. She finally had to pull her hair back from her face like she was putting it into a pony tail. He looked her up and down said "Oh" and made a raspberry at her.

I have debated this, but finally decided it is simply too funy... There is a little Thomas song that goes like so "Thomas, you're my number one! Working hard and having fun. Thomas you're the leader! Thomas you're the leader!" Wy substitutes many other things for the word Thomas in that song. Some days it is Mommy or Daddy or Libby (one of the cats.) My favorite days are when he alters the lyrics altogether and sings "Mommy, you're my sweetie peep! Mommy, you're my sweetie peep!" Well...Mom was helping Wy get changed one morning and he started to sing "Penis you're my number one! Workin' hard and havin' fun!"

Poor John has been working long long days and a few extremely late nights (even one over nighter) in order to get his show up. The boys hadn't seen him for a few days and one morning he was heading out with all of us and Wy got so excited. He yelled "Daddy, did you have a good nap?" He seemed to think that John had been asleep for a whole week...

Wy crawled into bed with us one morning this week. I cuddled him up and said "You are so handsome." He put his hands behind his head and (with his passer in his mouth) said "Yeah. I am."

We had chicken nuggets one night last week. John was taking a turn cooking dinner and was on the verge of putting the nuggets in the oven when Devlyn cdame through the kitchen. She started flipping out. John finally manged to calm her down so she could explain her problem. She didn't want her nuggets cooked. Devlyn insisted on frozen chicken nuggets. She freaked out until he promised her he wouldn't cook them. She ate them frozen. Who eats frozen nuggets?

Abby and Connie stepped in it deep yesterday morning. Let's back up a titch. Dad and Devon picked up a rental car last week to go to Alabama for Jude's baptism. They wound up getting a cheaper price to rent the car for a week. That meant they would return the car Thursday evening. In the mean time - Devon took the girls to school a few mornings this week. Thursday was one of them. After Dev got out to the car, she realized she didn't have her glasses. She pulled the car into the driveway and parked behind me so she could run inside really quickly. I was in my car getting ready to pull out, but said it was no big deal to wait. As I sat in my car, I suddenly saw the windshield wipers on the rental car going back and forth. I turned around and couldn't tell much through my rear window. I got out of my car and saw two dark humps quickly dart into the back seat of the car. I went over to the rental car and opened the driver's door. I asked the girls what they were doing. Connie said "Abby turned the key." I'm not going to lie - I lost my biscuit. I don't even know what I said, but I pointed out that if she had knocked the car into gear they could have rolled backwards into our neighbors house. Or she could have rolled the car backwards into a NEIGHBOR. Or they could have been hit by a passing car. Mom suggested the girls come up with their own punishments. They liked the punishment of no computer for a week. Mom didn't agree. She settled on a 30 minute earlier bedtime for a week as well as no participation in this week's family night.

Jess is currently sicker than a dog. She has been staying a few days at my Aunt Johanna's house so she doesn't expose all the kids in her host family. Jess got in to see a Dr. today and was told she doesn't have pneumonia or swine flu. She just has a very bad cold.

There is a long haired cat in the neighborhood who adopted us a few weeks ago. I never see this cat anywhere except on the back porch screaming at me to feed her. Dad says he sees her running from other houses to ours when we come home. Anyway, she is a very pretty cat and with 5 kids in the house we have not been able to simply ignore the cat so we are now feeding her in the mornings. For a few minutes we called her Ginger due to her coloring. Jack somehow managed to morph Ginger to Danger. And a few days later she suddenly became Murphy. Devon did all kinds of checking around the neighborhood, shelters etc and we could not track down this kitty's home. She finally took Murphy to a friend of hers who lives on a farm. Devon said Murphy was hanging out on top of hay bales by the time she and Devlyn left for home that afternoon. One of the daily chores for the littler kids is to take turns feeding the cats. They are all sad that Murphy doesn't live with us anymore.

Mom bought a blue beta fish for Jack. (Though we treat it as the family fish.) Jack has named it Buster. I am amazed that the fish didn't wind up with a name like Thomas or Gordon - because those are blue trains...

Jack fixed the screen door this week. Devlyn and Wy were playing at the door and pulled or knocked out a little pin that holds the tension arm thing together. Before I had the opportunity to go over and fix it, Jack walked up, assessed the situation, picked up the bolt, put the arm together and dropped the bolt in place. Then he looked at me and said - "Devlyn and Wyatt broke it. I fixed it for you, Mommy." I took it apart again so I could take a little video of him fixing the door - unfortunately - I can't get it loaded here...ARGH. It's real cute...

Lastly, John and I took Jack to see Into The Woods at the Rep this week. Jack was mesmerized. He wouldn't sit through all of act I. He wouldn't even look away from the stage. He sneezed a globule of goo onto his hand at one point and without missing a beat simply held his hand out to John to clean it off. He didn't look away from the stage - just held his hand out to Daddy. At the end of Act I, Jack thought it was over and we were going home. He was so excited about taking a break and watching more. Then the show got dark and grim. He curled up in John's lap, but didn't make a peep about being scared. When it was over he said "I fink it was good. I liked the cow." (There is a large fake cow in the show.) All I could think was "All the hard work that went into this back breaker of a show and Jack likes the cow..."

That's it for me peeps. Love and blessings to you all. More next week!
The gang at Owenland Park.

Come on, baby! Let's do the Twist!

Well - it has been hectic as usual around here. Let's see - Beth's daughter Helen was diagnosed with Swine flu. Beth was taking care of Helen so we rearranged things so that Devon would watch the kids till everyone was feeling up to par. Both Beth and Helen had the swine flue before everything was said and done. The ladies are back to normal health and the kids are back to spending their days with Aunt Beth.

Jack is still desperate to go to my work. He cries himself to sleep at night because he wants me to take him to my work. (I haven't been able to take Jack with me because I have been in rehearsals.) I have promised him that once the show is open I will take him on Saturdays - and of course after the show we will go upstairs to play with the Thomas table. I'm not sure how this is going to go over though - I think the show is going to be too scary for him. He refuses to believe me. AND the toy store got rid of the Thomas turn table.

Wy is into hair. He is constantly asking if he can pet my hair. He asks me to pet his hair. Some nights he can't even fall asleep unless I am touching his hair.

Connie joined Daisy Troop 3010 this week. At their next meeting, the girls are supposed to talk about ways to help save the planet. Connie was stumped over how she could help the planet until we reminded her that we recycle. That got her very excited.

Abby has a walking program that she is supposed to participate in for school. It counts as 2% of her grade each semester so we are heading out for a 1/2 mile walk after dinner each night. I am worried about being out so late once the weather begins to change. Maybe we can move it up a titch and do the walk before dinner? We'll see how it all shakes out.

Jess is very busy in Omaha. She says she enjoys her classes and is surprised by the fact that English is her favorite class. They were supposed to begin reading Romeo and Juliet the other week. I gave her the helpful hint of reading it out loud to herself. I can read and read Shakespeare until I am blue in the face, but if I don't read it out loud I have NO idea what in the world he is saying. I told her you look and sound like a crazy person - so be sure to hide in a closet! She had a very bumpy start her first week, but I think things are smoothing out.

She had a terrifying incident this past Sunday; she and Maggie (one of the daughters of the family she lives with) went to the park. A car pulled up and out jumped a handful of adult men who grabbed a teenage boy and began beating him with guns. The girls ran across the park to join another woman and her kids. Jess dialed 911 but hung up because she didn't want the men to see her talking on the phone. She and Maggie ran home. Someone called the cops. From what we have been told, the cops caught the fellas who beat up the boy, but we don't know how the boy is doing. Please say a few prayers for him, the children who witnessed this violence and though part of me doesn't want to - we should also offer up a prayer for the men who hurt that boy.

Speaking of violence; I took a self defense class the other weekend and am determined that the women I love participate in the next class. I feel much more confident about avoiding or getting out of a threatening situation. And I have already made some changes - I make sure I have my keys in my hands before I exit a store. I no longer put my keys on the hood of the car as I buckle the kids in just so I can keep them handy. If it is just me going to my car - I only unlock the driver's side door instead of all of them. So ladies - when the instructor lets me know of the next class - I'm going to strongly urge you all to go with me, because nothing is more important than each of us coming home safely at night.

Finally - we have begun to implement a big chore chart with assignments for everyone large and small. We have also added a weekly family night to the mayhem. I thought you would enjoy a few snapshots from our night of fun. We introduced Twister to our Family night festivities. Don't let Grandma fool you - she is the silly old lady who brought the game home from the store. Well, it looks like Abby is have a great time.

Somehow I got dragged into this foolishness. The kids thought this was hysterical. John refused all attempts at being dragged into the mayhem. My father simply ignored everything and pretended he was alone in the room. Gammy gave in and you can see where that got her...

Well friends - you tell me: is the party over or is it just getting started when you dogpile your grandma?

For a few more shots of the Twister insanity - visit our shutterfly account - the link is on my sidebar...

OK - hopefully it won't be so long before I catch up with you again. Much love and many blessings. Love.
Amy and the gang.

Old Chicago!

Last weekend John, the boys and I took the train to Chicago to visit Nana & Papa (their grandparents on John's side). The boys thought the train was amazing. Jack sat down, looked at me and said "Mommy, it's sooo beautiful."

The boys had a great time getting to know their Chicago grandparents. Nana and Papa live just behind Lake Shore drive so we had beautiful views of the lake. And the boys loved theh fact that we were within walking distance of a great park! Wy was climbing all over everything and insisted on doing it without help from anyone. That child is fearless.

We took a trip to the Sears Tower - The Willis Tower now. Did you know they now have 3 retractable glass rooms? In good weather these rooms stick out from the side of the building on the 103rd floor. Glass ceiling, glass walls, glass floor...You heard me, glass floor. And the boys just walked right out onto that glass floor. Jack sat down to tie his shoes and point out the cars 103 floors below his feet. Wy stood there banging his train Whiff on the glass wall. After the tower we headed out for a late lunch with Papa.

He took us to the zoo the next day. I'm telling you - go visit the Lincold Park Zoo the next time you are in Chicago. 1 - it's free. 2 - it's amazing. We a had a wonderful time. Jack was in love with any fish we passed. He also refused to look at any of the bears except the polar bear. He was so beautiful I nearly cried. I just couldn't believe how amazing that bear was. I truly could have sat there all day and watched him swim around. After I finally tore myself away from the polar bear, we went to a sea lion exhibit and then the boys pleaded for a ride on the kids zoo train. Pretty cute.

We went to a housewarming party that night and the boys were delighted by the 4 little kittens parading around the house. And then the big event - Nana and Papa took us out to A Day With Thomas. And the Chicago Day was much better than the one on KC. The boys got their Thomas tattoos. I got a Rosie tattoo and I was going to make John get one too, but when it was his turn Wyatt decided to make a break for it. Then it was off to play with the ever popular Thomas turntables. Then it was the melt downs over leaving the turn tables. I had to remind the boys there were trains and trolleys everywhere. We could look at real trains, see Thomas and go back to the turn tables. Then we came across the pull cars for kids - the boys LOVED the pull car. Jack asked me to take special pictures of EVERYTHING for his room. (We are moving towards a Thomas room.) Of course there were lots of tears when it was time to leave - but it was a big day and mommy was prepared, so I offered up pizza to anyone who could stay calm. Bingo!

Our train home left late in the afternoon so we had time for a lovely stroll in the morning. We walked past the marina, which the boys loved. Then we spent a great morning playing in the lake. Jack had fun, but Wy was on cloud 9. He had so much fun at the beach. He just loved running back and forth through the water. He thought it was the best thing ever.

You can visit out shutterfly account for the pictorials. Look over in the sidebars for Linky Dinks and click on Shutterfly. Then go to the Chicago album.

I'm going to head out. I'm fading super fast. I know this is a bit choppy - but I wanted to get something out to you all about last week. Love and blessings and you'll hear from me in a few days.