BNL - kids music

It is so very hard for me to find kids music that doesn't drive me up a wall - but the Bare Naked Ladies is one of our family favorites. I have very fond memories of Triangle Man from my college years and here Come the ABC's is a regular in the car. thanks to the lil’ mommy that could I came across this number version called snack time. click here and you can download a free tune... thanks lil mom!

horses

I still think it is wrong that people in this part of town keep horses in their back yard, but Charlie and I have decided they are fun to visit...

wordless wednesday

drink recipes for SATC party

Check out these great drink recipes from "the Mom"

sleep study

Ever since I was in college the people sleeping in the same room with me have complained about the noises I make, and how I stop breathing when I'm asleep. 20 years ago we just laughed about it... My hubby doesn't even notice anymore... he's usually got earplugs in or as previously reported sleeping somewhere else. I do however still have to share a room with coworkers about 2 or 3 times a year when at sales meetings or trade shows and the snoring and noise making has gotten so bad that my roommates have been forced to evacuate.

totally embarrassing! because you know how sales people are... where there is a story people will talk.

so I'm thinking I'll go to the "sleep Dr" spend the night get a magic device to keep me quite and it will be done in a week. Not so. Took 6 weeks to get an appointment, took another month to get my sleep over appointment and then I have to wait until the 19th to find out what I did in my sleep. The doc thinks I have sleep apnea, but I'm convinced that last night I did nothing and they will just tell me to loose some weight and all will be better.

For now I just have to wait and see...

excuse the scary picture... I had to sneak in to the bathroom to capture the moment on my cell phone. Too bad you can't see the 10 wires that are stuck in my head with this strange substance like peanut butter and gauze or the EKG monitors on my heart, and the sensors on my legs. It got better when I actually got in bed and they attached 2 other senors to my nostrils to see how much air was coming out and what the temperature of the air was. I only made it a few hours in to the night before I ripped those off and she came back in to tape them to my face... remember they were also watching me via video monitor.

Rouse House

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

2nd annual Burbs BBQ

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pizza Night

a night of celebration - Sarah's mom found out her cancer treatment is working and the tumors are shrinking!!

thinking that bringing the kitchen to the play room would minimize mess was a silly idea. they just moved the contents to another room. Why is it that the appliances seemed to get abandoned?

super star...


Let's empty the toy box so we can play with the food in here...

freakout on Friday

BPA - BISPHENOL A

I've decided that the rest of the world is trying to drive me crazy. It used to be just the nagging of Lars not to heat things up in plastic, then the Today show has a story about it and freaks out all my customer who start calling about BIC water bottles containing BPA. That gets me Googling and we know what that leads to... self doubt. After too much reading on the subject and deciding that the kids are most likely going to feel the effects of this I buckle down and decide I'll make better choices for them.

Charlie still has a bottle at night before he goes to bed... I know you are thinking you are supposed to give that up on your first birthday, but it's what he does, his teeth are fine and he's not walking around with a bottle hanging out of his mouth all day. And yes, he can drink out of a cup just fine :) I will not take it away, and I must admit it is a nice little cuddle at the end of they day. We use Dr. Brown bottles with Charlie. They may have a million pieces, but I will say that they were much easier on his tummy than the Advent ones we used with Ben.



Naturally these have BPA... why wouldn't it... thru the world and wonder of Google I find this new blog Z recommends that turns out to be a great resources for finding more on the subject with respect to kids items. That is how I learn my bottles are going to do harm (should I believe the conflicting stories) but that there are glass alternatives for Dr. Brown.

I break down and decide I will head out to babies r us to get the glass bottles. I really only need a few and it will give me piece of mind right? Guess what all the glass bottles are broken in their packaging (that is why we went to plastic in the first place) but then I notice a BPA version of the bottle on the shelf below and am satisfied.

Now what do I do with all the "dangerous" bottles I have. My concious won't let me donate them, since I've convinced my self they are bad, can I recycle them? I don't think so. So now what do I do? fill the landfill with them? Is that any better?

wordless wednesday

Tuesdays thoughts

Wisdom of Ben
"It's easy to get the simple words on your spelling test wrong. They are so easy you just forget how to spell them sort of like how easy it is to miss a basket when the net is so low. You are so sure you'll make it you miss"

sad day

It is a sad day in our house... Ben came in to our room this morning holding a stiff and cold Lexi (gerbil) asking if she was dead. His eyes filled with tears! It was horrible. We've decided to have a funeral after school, and thankfully we now have a reverend in house - :)

Good Travel Karma

It happened again! 2 free tickets after offering up are seats, a room at the Hilton at O'Hare which meant another night together before we came home to the Paklets, and first class seats on the flight we were re booked on.

So was all the bad travel Karma worth it in 2007?

If it gets me free tickets and time with the hubby you bet!

Now we can bring Nate and Nancy on summer vacation - this is great for many reasons...
1. Nancy and Nate love it in RI
2. Nonni love having them around
3. Ben will have a play mate and someone to help with the ecosystem (read... more time for me to have with hubby)
4. Charlie loves to have Nanna around
5. Nancy deserves it!!

The Reverend Lars Pak

I think that Lars put it best to my mom when he referred to himself as a "Swiss army knife"

hard to believe that when I met him he was a VW bus driving snowboard guy who was inventing bindings that I like to believe changed the face of snowboarding (naturally I'm bias, but I couldn't do it until the Link came in to my life) Then came the custom Kayak building, and information technology business followed by window installer, tax preparer and of course the RoboWaver. Now he's added his latest title... Reverend Lars Pak.

We headed to New Hampshire as the reverend and his wife so that Lars could marry John and Leann. It was a beautiful ceremony and something tells me not the last time Lars will use his credentials from the Rose Ministries of Las Vegas, NV.

backyard nature

The back yard here has been alive with creatures this spring. A few days ago we had lots of woolly looking caterpillars climbing up the side of the house, and today Charlie found green frog in the grass. Charlie could spend every minute outside looking for worms, frogs and caterpillars and be happy as can be.

it's all in the hips

Poor Ben seems to be missing from my blog entries lately, so here is a most excellent video of hoola Ben from "pizza night" with his side kick Nate.

wordless wednesday

escaping the snoring wife

Pizza Night

There is something so great about finding true friends. And friends with kids is a bonus, because as many of you moms and dads know the kids your friends like don't always come with parents that you like. So what does this have to do with Pizza? For close to a year we've been having an almost regular pizza night with our neighbors The Mack's on Fridays. What started out as a a "hey want to come over and have pizza" has become a great friendship and perfect way to end the hectic week. In fact things just seem off for the weekend when we don't. Not only does Charlie now have 2 great friends in Hannah and Caitlin but Lars and I have found great friends in Kevin & Sarah. And with summer just around the corner I'm more excited than ever!

hope you too can make time for Pizza night!