Water

You don't realize how often you use water until you don't have it. On Saturday, a water line broke and there are 7 counties, Taylor (the one we are in), is included. They have ordered that no water is to be consumed without prior boiling, for at least 1 minute, and dishes must also be washed in boiled water. Right now I have 4 pots on the stovetop boiling so I can wash a load of dishes before Mom gets out of bed. She doesn't have a dishwasher (we all grew up and moved away!), which I don't think could be used anyway, since the dishwasher doesn't boil water. It sure makes life interesting, that's for sure. Small tasks such as brushing your teeth, take a little bit of effort, thought and pre-planning. Last night the kids, my sister and her kids, and I went to Maryville, MO to go to the movie, Bedtime Stories, and since we were there, we picked up some bottled water at Walmart. We figured that all of the bottled water was probably gone in Creston, which is where the problems are. We probably should have gotten more. They have not said anything about how long this water issue will last, but I hope it isn't long. We only have a couple more days here, but Mom and Dad (and the rest of my Iowa family) will have to deal with this until the problem is resolved.

The movie, Bedtime Stories, that we went to yesterday was really good. I almost think it was better than Marley & Me. There were no sexual content that I was cringing to hear and there wasn't really any bad language that I can remember. The kids really enjoyed the movie as well. I really liked the fact that it was quite a bit cheaper than going to the movies in Bismarck. Especially the popcorn! Who can go to the movies without buying popcorn? The kiddie combos were half the price, and the large popcorn and pop had free refills, even with being $4 cheaper! I didn't realize Bismarck's prices would be that much higher. We enjoyed the movie.

We have been having major meltdowns due to the continuing lack of sleep problem we have. Gage threw a big fit in Walmart yesterday because he found a "Rare" "Limited Edition" Star Wars action figure that I wouldn't let him buy. He made quite a scene and it was embarrassing to say the least. On our walk to the checkout, I told him I was about to lose it and yell REALLY LOUD if he didn't be quiet. After a low mumble, of what I think was, "So." I didn't hear another word until we got outside. Soon we will be home and back into our old routine. I'm sure it will take at least a week to get the grumpies out of him!

We're having a great time in Iowa! Aside from our frequent meltdowns, due to not enough sleep, the kids are having a great time. You can never spend too much time with cousins! Gage and Emma went to bed a little earlier last night, so hopefully today won't be quite so emotional!

I think my whole family is turning into rockstars! The Wii Rockband seems to be quite popular! The kids' new game, Wii Music, is fun too. There is a game where you can play the handbells and I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. It's a lot of fun. I can see a future for Scott in our church's handbell choir! :-)

Our Christmas celebrations are over and it has been great spending time with everyone. Unfortunately the weather prevented my sister Kim, her husband J.L., and my nephew and niece, Ryan and Sara, from getting here to celebrate. We have missed having them here. They intended to come the weekend before Christmas and the weather was bad, so they were going to try again this past weekend, but again, the weather did not cooperate. They live in Illinois and have had the terrible weather that caused all of the flight delays in Chicago. Hopefully we'll be able to get together with them again soon, before next Christmas!

Today is Monday, and is my nephew, Seth's, birthday. Happy Birthday Seth! I'm not sure if there is going to be a big birthday bash to help him celebrate entering the teenage years or not? Good luck Jari Jo! I certainly do NOT look forward to those teen years!

At last, we're here!

We made it to Iowa safe and sound. We left Bismarck around 7:30am Friday and we arrive in Clearfield around 6:40p. Not too bad when wintery weather could be a problem. It seems we left before the snow started in Bismarck and we got here just before the ice storm started! There is a layer of ice outside and they are calling for 1/4-1/2 inch of ice today!

Our trip was a long one, as usual. We're looking forward to quieter trips in the future. I told Emma, "Emma, you have been a difficult person to travel with since day 1! I thought now that you are older, you would travel better?" Emma replies, "Well, I'm sure when I am 8, I will be better!" Hmmm.........I guess in 2 years things will be better? Scott told her he would like to see that in writing, so she got out her handy dandy little journal that Dave and Maggie gave her for Christmas and wrote out a contract that said, "I will be good when I am 8. Emma, Age 5." I put it in the glovebox and told her that if we are still driving this car when she's 8, I will be sure to pull it out and remind her that she is now to be easier to travel with!

For Christmas, Gage received a book titled The Tale of Despereaux. We brought it along for Gage to read. He had read around 5 chapters and had put it away. At one point, well, after I spent close to an hour balancing the checkbook, I picked up his book and looked at it to start reading. I read a couple of sentences, then asked the kids if they would like for me to read it to them. They both said "YES!" I started reading and I couldn't put it down. This is a fairly decent sized book and we read the entire thing on our trip. I had to read fast towards the end because it was starting to get darker and hard to see. I finished up by the light of the little mirror on the sun visor. My throat was sore and my voice was starting to crack, but it was worth it. It was REALLY good. Even Scott was into it. Emma, on the other hand, couldn't stand being quiet for that long and was begging me to stop after each chapter, even though she said she liked it. She tried her best to get a few peeps in between chapters. If you're looking for a good read for your kids, I highly recommend it.

We have plans for Christmas today at Scott's parents and Christmas at my parents tomorrow. I've been challenged to a game of Wii tennis, so I'm just waiting for my nephew, Seth, to get here so I can kick his little patootie! :-)

This Christmas, Heel the Love!

And I thought 5:45am was early? Ha! Boy was I wrong! I WISH the kids would have slept til 5:45 this morning!

I got home from the Candlelight Service at church around 12:20am and Santa had already made it to our house!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, and it's quite evident, by the bulging, that St. Nicholas was there!

It looks like Gage and Emma were pretty good this year.................or at least Santa wasn't watching when they weren't.

After I got to bed, after church, I tossed and turned for quite a little while. I had some restless leg stuff going on and it was keeping me from falling asleep. I don't know what time I finally dozed off, but at 2:45 am we were startled awake by Gage AND Emma. They said Santa had been here and they were ready to open presents. Emma had her stocking in hand and when I realized what time it was, I told them that we HAD to get more sleep. I told Gage that I was aware that we said we would get up when they did so they wouldn't have to wait around to open presents, but I didn't mean at 2:45!!!!! I pulled Emma into bed next to me, Christmas stocking and all, and Gage crawled in next to Scott. We were certainly packed in the bed like sardines. It kind of reminded me of when I was a kid on Christmas Eve when all 5 of us kids would be packed in the bed just waiting for morning to come and open presents! I could not fall asleep, and I was having a hard time with my darned leg being so restless and it was hard to move around. I think I had just fallen back to sleep when Emma yells out, "It's time to get up and open presents now!" I looked at the clock and it was 3:45am! UGH! Our alarm clock projects the time onto the ceiling and I asked Emma if she could see those numbers on the ceiling. When she said "Yes", I told her that when the numbers read "five zero zero" we could get up. She fell back to sleep fairly quickly, but I was having a hard time. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer so I told Emma I would go lay with her in her bed, intending to lay there for a few seconds, then go back to my own bed. When we got down the stairs, Gage scared me nearly half to death when he jumped up off the couch with the mantel clock in his hands and said, "I'm watching for the clock to turn to 5 o'clock Mom!" OMG! I thought he was in our bed that whole time! If I had known he wasn't even there, I would have shoved Scott over to the edge of his side of the bed so I could have had some room to kick my restless leg around! Gage went back to bed, and I fell asleep in bed with Emma. When I woke up and went to my own bed, I think it was actually around 7am!! I was surprised that they had fallen back to sleep and stayed that way! It wasn't long and they were back upstairs, so we got up with them to go downstairs to rip open presents!

They couldn't wait to tear into the presents!

Emma got a new set of "girl legos" that she immediately had to open up and start building houses with.

Gage was thrilled to death with his new Clone Wars Wii game, and he even got some light sabre attachments for the Wii remote!

After Gage was done playing, he said his arm was killing him! I believe he got quite a workout! LOL!

The kids were so excited to see that Santa left each of us a ticket to go to the movie, Marley & Me! (We didn't realize the theater wasn't open yesterday, so I made up some tickets on the computer that looked pretty darned good!) They were very proud of the tickets and handed them to the lady in the booth, attempting to get in "free". I was trying to get her attention so I could motion to her that the tickets weren't real, but she never looked up. Finally, I just said, "Santa brought those movie tickets!" When she said, "That will be $25." Gage wanted to know if his ticket was free. I assured him that his ticket was valid. :-)

I couldn't resist taking the kids' picture next to this big fat-head-like picture of Marley. I wish I could have that thing when they are done with it. It is just so darned cute!

The kids had their own little combo boxes and were thrilled to death to be at the movies on Christmas Day!

Emma had to bring her new Webkinz Sea Otter, "Popcorn". She named it that because Santa had put it in a plastic popcorn container with the Marley movie ticket.

Everyone was all smiles.................well, until later in the movie, that is. I forgot my darned box of Kleenex. I was planning on taking one, as I knew I would need it after the time we had when we were reading the book. I had such a hard time getting through the book, I knew the movie was going to be bad. I have never been to a movie before when the whole theater was sniffling and crying. It took everything I had not to break out into sobs. It was a really good movie, however. I even heard Scott sniffling. It was just so very much like Branta, towards the end of her life.

After we got home Emma was dying to make something in her "Bake Over".

She said it was "scrumptious!"

After supper this evening, we sat down to play the Wii Rockband game. We had played it earlier, but not all at the same time with each of the instruments and microphone.

Scott jamming away to "Wanted, Dead or Alive", by Bon Jovi I believe. It is so much fun!

Emma was manning the camera and taking pictures of our "drummer".

I always wanted to play the guitar!

Don't quit your day job Scott!

Gage finally took over the microphone and was doing a pretty good job. Here's a little glimpse of us playing together.

Of course I procrastinated all day long and started packing tonight at 9pm for our trip to Iowa tomorrow morning. Scott has a Biolife appointment at 5:30, so I suppose we'll be able to get on the road by 7am. I hope I have everything! I suppose I should quit blogging and get to bed where I can lay awake thinking about the things I still need to pack!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

(In case you're wondering Mom and Dad, the Rockband is packed and in the car, along with our Wii remotes! :-)) See ya tomorrow night! (If the weather isn't looking good, we'll call you to let you know what our plans are.)

Merry Christmas Eve!

Our day started out VERY early! For the past few mornings, Emma has been waking up before anyone else, running up to my room asking, "Is it Christmas Eve yet?" This morning was no different. Well, I guess if you count the time, it was. Just before 6am Emma comes running up to our room and says, "It's Christmas Eve, can I open my present now?" NO EMMA! There have only been 2 presents each, for Gage and Emma, under the tree since the trees were put up and decorated. One for each of them was labeled, "Open Christmas Eve". For the past 5 years we all have gotten a new pair of pajamas to open on Christmas Eve. I started this tradition after I read about another family doing this in the journaling of a scrapbooking idea book. I love pajamas and the idea of everyone getting a new pair of p.j.'s to wear to bed Christmas Eve sounded like a great tradition to me. Apparently Gage and Emma have not yet caught onto this yearly tradition! They have been hounding me about these presents the past couple of days and I continued to tell them they could open them on Christmas Eve. Emma knew when she woke up this morning that today is Christmas Eve, so she wanted to open them, RIGHT NOW, at 5:45 this morning! We told her that she wasn't going to be able to open them until after supper tonight. Boy did that ever make her mad! She says, "Uh, but it's Christmas Eve!" Gage was awake soon after that, and they made trying to sleep in, impossible! I had an eye appointment this morning at 9am, so I had my alarm set to get up earlier than I wanted to anyway. It just so happened that I didn't even need my alarm! How about that! I continued to tell the kids, all day, that they couldn't open the presents until after supper. I told them that I thought they were too excited about it and that they were probably going to be disappointed. Gage replies, "What could it possibly be if it isn't something to play with?" Just wait and see Gage!



Gage and Emma couldn't wait another minute to open up these Christmas presents, and they did end up talking me into letting them open them up just before supper.

Look Mom, new pajamas! You can just see how "thrilled" he was! He actually was excited because they were Jedi Knight flannel p.j.'s. He stipped his clothes off right then and there to put on his new p.j.'s.

P.J.'S! Emma loves her p.j.'s and there are many times when we get home from school, when she knows we don't have any activities going on to leave the house for that evening, she will put her pajamas on. She too stripped her clothes off immediately to put on her new, cuddly-soft p.j.'s

I'll bet that next year they remember that they will be getting a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve!

Even Scott got a new pair of p.j.'s. He was quite surprised when the Life is Good box actually contained Life is Good merchandise! As soon as he removed the wrapping paper he replies, "Oh! A Life is Good box! Do you think there's actually Life is Good stuff in it?" Ha ha! Surprised ya Scott!

Grizzy was just thrilled with the empty box!

Cheese! We take a family picture every Christmas Eve with our p.j.'s on! In case you were wondering, I had to get my own p.j.'s. I like it that way anyway, because that way I get just what I want! :-) It only took 2 attempts with my camera timer to get our family photo!

Gage and Emma had to take the reindeer dust that Emma made at school outside to sprinkle on the lawn so they know where to go! They tried hurrying as fast as they could since it's -4 degrees outside!

Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright

Santa's reindeer fly and roam

This will guide them to your home

If you would like to make your own Magic Reindeer Food here is the recipe. Mix together in a small bag: oatmeal, sugar and shimmery glitter. On Christmas Eve, remember to take this magic reindeer foor and sprinkle it on the lawn. The sparkling glitter and the smell of oats will guide reindeer to your house before dawn! If you watch the video carefully, you can actually see the glitter sparkling! I think Santa will definitely be coming to our house tonight!

Emma is never going to be able to fall asleep tonight! I am planning to go to the 11pm Christmas Eve church service, and if I'm lucky, she will be asleep when I get home so Santa can come! Keep your fingers crossed!

Top Five things that you can do with food, other than eat it!

1. Hollow out your rock hard breadstick and pretend it's your finger. A light sabre is an even better idea!

2. Mashed potatoes look very much like a snowball, let's pretend it's one!

3. If I stick my fork into my mashed potatoes, how far up in the air can I lift it before it falls off?

4. Let's spread out our mashed potatoes and cover it with gravy and pretend it's applesauce!

5. Hey, a chicken drumstick can be used as a light sabre too!

God Bless the teachers and aides that work at Corpus Christi! Today I had the pleasure of subbing for a gal who works in the lunchroom from 11:10-12:40. This lady caught me in the hall at Northridge about a week ago asking me if I could cover for her, as she had another thing she needed to do and couldn't find a replacement. She was told that she HAD to find a replacement if she was going to be gone. Now I know why no one wanted to sub in for her! Believe me, 1.5 hours is enough time for me to figure out that working in the library is WAY BETTER than working in the lunchroom, even at it's worst! I told the ladies that work in the lunch room that if Emma ever acts up, they better let me know. They assured me that she is very well behaved and a good eater, and almost always eats everything on her plate. Most of the kids don't have time to eat because they are too busy coming up with other ideas for what they can do with their food. I'm sure there are many kids that come home after school starving to death. I think it should be a requirement for every parent to come in and volunteer 1.5 hours of their time in the lunch room. I think it would be an eye-opening experience for many parents. I asked my good friends in the library to start a rumor that I am library property only, and am not allowed to do lunch room duty in the future.

The kids are SO EXCITED for Christmas. Emma couldn't sleep last night because she was too excited for her Christmas party at school today. Around 8:30-9pm the doorbell rang and it was our neighbor across the street. She brought Gage and Emma each a bag of surprises and a big bowl of snack mix. That was so thoughful of them. The bowl of goodies was wrapped up in a cellophane Christmas bag and it was so pretty. I am definitely going to use that idea next year. Emma had heard the doorbell ring and she was hollering from her room, "Who was it Mom?" I told her to go to sleep. A little later she came upstairs because she was complaining that her lips were chapped and were hurting. That was a good excuse, because they were actually quite red and cracked. She noticed the new bag under the tree and asked what it was. I told her that LeeAnn, Lyla and Linda, the sisters across the street, brought it for them. She peeked inside and saw there was some make-up inside. Great! Emma has been wanting make-up and even wrote it on her Christmas letter to Santa that she wrote at school last week. She saw the exact set she wanted at Walmart the other day, and I think it contained about 100 different items. I'll kill Santa if that shows up under the tree! This morning Emma couldn't wait to get up and check out her gift from "the sisters". The "make-up" that was in the bag was actually a set of lip glosses. What a perfect thing for chapped lips! She was very busy this morning checking out everything that was inside the bag. As always, I was trying to hurry this morning to get them out of the house so they wouldn't be late for school. We got quite a bit of snow last night and it was quite a workout walking to school this morning since only a few people had shoveled their sidewalks before school. When we finally made it down to Corpus Christi Emma asked, "Mom, does my make-up look okay?" I obviously did not look at her face on our way out of the house. She had lip gloss smeared all over her face, above her eye and across her nose. Apparently she thought lip gloss can double as eye shadow as well. We were too late to walk back home and wash her face, so I used that "Mom spit" that works quite well at getting most things off the kids' faces. It didn't work so well on lip gloss above the eyes and nose. I just did the best I could and sent her on her merry way. There is never a dull moment as far as the Stephens' are concerned!

Pictures

I had an email from Sears Portrait Studios that said if you have your portraits taken by 12/21, you can still receive them before Christmas. I've been wanting to get a family picture taken because it's been awhile since we've done that. I remember being so excited to take Gage to get his first portraits taken when he was 2 months old. What a nightmare! No one ever told me how much stress that was, trying to get your child to smile in a picture, or sit still..............no matter what the age! Even though they are now 8 and 5 years old, I still have the same problem! Only now it's not that they won't smile, it's that they give a fake, cheesy smile! This portrait will tell you how much fun this was for me! AARGH!


The gal taking pictures wasn't the best, as she couldn't seem to get them to smile "naturally". Scott was trying behind her, saying stuff like "Chicken Butt!" and dumb things like that, only it would cause crazy laughter and Emma would shrug her shoulders every time. They finally told the lady that if they could just do one crazy picture, they could cooperate better because it would get the silliness out of them. The photographer didn't know what else to do, so she took the photo for them! I asked both Gage and Emma last night what the photographer did during their school pictures to make them smile so nice, and they both said he had a puppet that was sitting on his shoulder saying silly things. Hmm................I should have asked that during the photo session and see if the gal could have done something like that?

We did actually get a couple photos that were okay. It's actually a good thing that they didn't all turn out, because we wouldn't have been able to afford them. Since we were after a family photo, we just used a coupon we had for a $9.99 package deal, plus our $14.99 sitting fee. We made it out of there in fairly good shape. Now that I scroll through the pictures, there were a few more that were not too bad, that I probably should have ordered. I guess I'll just publish them on my blog. :-)

Man was I ever bummed out tonight. I discovered that this book I just started reading, which wasn't mine to begin with (I went out searching for a book that my sister's friend was looking for and couldn't find, and actually found it) is number 4 in the series and I haven't read 1, 2 or 3! UGH! It was really getting good too! I had to put the book away and will now have to go get #1. Scott tells me not to do that, because I never know what could be under the tree. I don't know how he could have known to get that, because I didn't even know the series existed until I went out 2 weeks ago and found this "hard to find" book! It's the Twilight series. Have any of you read it?

It was a pretty cold walk to school this morning. My legs felt like someone was poking me with needles by the time I got home. I should be smarter and dress warmer, like the kids. They always have their snowpants on and are quite bundled up. I am pretty bundled, all except my legs that is. We are getting more snow tonight. We are 1 inch away from breaking the all-time snowfall record for the month of December, which was back in 1916! I can't remember what the grand total needs to be before we break the record, but it's somewhere around 24-27 inches of snow! Wow! That is ALOT of snow! I've been waiting to see a "real North Dakota winter" for 6 years! Finally!