The Game of Life

One thing I've noticed about kids is that they pick up on and remember the things you would most like them to forget or ignore. Why is that???

Last night I was playing Life with Alex. For anyone not familiar with this game (just in case you've been hiding under a rock since 1985), your game piece is a little car with a small peg in it- blue for men/boys, pink for women/girls. You also get married in this game. You then get to put a second peg in your car to represent your spouse. As Alex landed on the "Get Married" space and grabbed a pink peg for his wife, he said, "Wait a minute. I'm going to move my guy over, my wife gets to drive". Thinking maybe he was demonstrating what a great, equal opportunity kid he is, I said, "That is nice of you". To which he responded, "Yeah, I've been drinking beer all day and I'm drunk, so she gets to drive me around". Oh. My. God. Apparently, the few times Chris has allowed me to drive were when he had been drinking beer. And, obviously, drinking beer makes you drunk. And the kids have picked up on this. I'm only thankful we didn't attempt to play Life when Anna's teacher came for a visit. This most certainly could have ended up in a social work referral.....

Oh well, at least we are hopefully raising kids that know drinking and driving are not acceptable :)

Memory Walk

As many of you blog followers are aware, my grandma has had Alzheimer's for the past several years. This year, though, has been the hardest by far. They live in Florida 9 months out of the year so we only see them during the summer. Each year we could see small changes in her memory and behavior. But this year, most days, she doesn't really know who many of us are. It is hard. It is heartbreaking. Alex and Anna are sad about it. Anna cried for a long time the first time she saw grandma this year and grandma asked her what her name was. I will never forget Anna's broken little voice, "Mom, grandma forgot me". They have always loved spending summers with grandma and grandpa sucker (so called because they always bring a bag of tootsie roll pops with when they visit). And the last several years we have made a very big effort to spend as much time with them as possible because I knew this day would come. You can't even describe to someone how crushing it is to look at someone you have known and loved your whole life and know that they don't have a clue how important they are to you. It feels like someone is taking them away, but painfully slow. Fortunately for grandma, my grandpa has been an excellent caregiver, very patient, very kind. She still recognizes grandpa, which is such a blessing.

So, as my aunts and cousin have done in years past, I will be joining the Memory Walk for the Alzheimer's Association on September 25th. You are welcome to join us. Or, if you can't do that, perhaps you could make a small donation. So much more needs to be done to combat this terrible disease. This is such a small part that I can do, but I will try to make a difference. If you can, please follow the link on the side to learn more about it and help do whatever you are able. We all thank you for it.

Sarah's First Cookies

Yes, she has eaten cookies before. I'm referring to her first time making cookies. I love to bake and cook with my kids. I have made a point of including them in all things kitchen related whenever possible. We even have kid safe knives that actually cut. You can get them at Creative Kidstuff if you are interested and I would HIGHLY recommend them. So, today I introduced Sarah to baking. She added all of the ingredients as I handed them to her. Of course, she ate quite a bit of the chocolate chips and smeared around the sour cream on the counter, but I think she had fun nonetheless. She was especially excited to eat the final product :)

The After....

So, this is long overdue, but here are the final after pictures of our home renovation project. It has been done for a couple months now but everytime I thought about taking the after pictures the house was literally a disaster zone. I figured it needed to be semi-clean before I take any pictures! This is the best you are going to get : )  As a reminder, here are the before pictures  http://tveittales.blogspot.com/2010/03/living-in-chaos-and-looking-on-bright.html

And....here are the after...

Why I'm glad we have a dog

Ok, confession time. I didn't really want a dog. Growing up we had a dog, but it didn't end well and I just didn't really want the hassle of it. When Chris and I first got married, we had a shih tzu. She was our baby, until our real baby (Alex) came along. Then she kind of went crazy and started peeing all over our house and nipping at Alex. She found a new home :) After that, I didn't really want one. Chris, however, grew up with dogs, and really wanted a "big" dog. I've been glad we have him on several occasions. However, Sarah has made me appreciate him the most. I never realized the benefit of having a dog until I noticed the difference between Sarah and Alex and Anna at that same age. Sarah is an absolute animal lover. She is not afraid, is brave, but cautious. She loves them all, every animal she meets. It is so fun to watch. To anyone who is considering it, I would highly recommend it.  Look what you might get to experience....

Yep, she is a true animal lover and for that, I love my dog :)

Alex Can Swim!

Swimming lessons finally pay off :)

Leech Lake 2010

Good times were had by all!