Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year, everyone! Anyone setting resolutions this year? I usually don't but I've been thinking that I've got several things I should to do help improve my life. Stuff like, take steps to minimize yelling at the boys, making it easier for them to listen and not get in trouble, spend quality time with the hubby, spend time doing what I like and want without feeling guilty... I need to spend some time reflecting on this stuff and try to come up with a plan to get things going.

What are your resolutions? I think someone once told me that it takes 6 weeks to create a habit, good or bad. I guess I should revisit how things are going in the middle of February once I figure out what I'll be doing.

Update on Dad

My dad was released from the hospital yesterday and is glad to be home. He sounded good and said that he had an infection or inflamation of his stomach. He's still on several different meds and has promised me he'll complete the entire round. He's got a bad habit of not finishing antibiotics and "saving them for later". I think many seniors tend to do this, but it drives me crazy!

My mom has an ear infection and will be going to see her doctor soon. She'd been running a fever and wasn't able to visit my Dad in the hospital. My older brother was able to visit with him and bring him home. My other brother in the area was busy taking care of his family, who caught a stomach bug shortly after we left. They're also all recovered.

Been busy...

It seems like I've been running at top speed ever since it snowed. We did get out and sled and had a great time. We ended up with a total of about 7 inches, which is really a lot of snow for December around here. The news said that it was the 3rd heaviest December snow on record. We tried to build a snowman, but the snow wasn't sticky enough - I couldn't even get a decent snowball...

We went to Chicago for Christmas and had a pretty good time. It was a very short trip, but we left at a good time. My brother and family all came down with a stomach bug last night and we're all still healthy (knock on wood).

We're still celebrating Christmas. A good source tells me that Santa will finally make his visit to our house. He left the boys a couple of gifts when we were in Chicago, but said that he'd make a late run to our house later. Of course, Matt realized that he hadn't left the special Santa Key out for Santa (we don't have a fireplace) and we never left cookies either. We rectified that situation tonight, so we'll have to see what the morning brings.

I've spent a lot of time on the phone with family today. My dad was admitted to the hospital last night. It turns out that he has some sort of inflammation of the stomach lining which has been causing him some problems. It's serious enough that he's still in the hospital tonight, but my dad thinks he'll be released tomorrow. I'm glad that it's not life threatening. I think they wanted his fever to break before they release him and maybe run a few more tests. Thank goodness that he's at a good hospital. It's the same place that he transferred to when he had a heart attack and bypass surgery back in 2003.

I'll post pics of the snow and others when I get the chance. It's just been a bit too crazy around here for me to spend more than a few minutes at the computer.

SNOW!!!

Yahoo!!! We're finally getting a significant amount of snow!! As you know, I'm a big fan of the white stuff. This storm is perfect, since it's over the weekend and we can all just play. Or we could if we were all willing to put on our snow gear. For some reason, Matt decided that he didn't like his snow pants or his boots this year. He's really been out of sorts lately and won't listen, so he ended up staying in most of the day. We did all go out this evening and it was really coming down quickly. I'm glad that we can all just play around tomorrow and not worry about having to go anywhere.

We'll be sledding down the big hill in the back yard tomorrow. I hope we really have a nice deep base of snow - makes it more fun. I'm wondering if Matt would like snow skiing... He really took well to ice skating, so I'm wondering if he'd do well with skiing. Maybe we'll stick to skating for now. Well, sledding, too.

I'll get the camera out tomorrow and take some pics. Everything is so gorgeous with the white stuff on it. I'll make up some nice soups for meals - hot and easy, too. That way, I get to have fun outside as well.

Man, was that fun!!

One of Matt's classmates had a birthday party yesterday at the ice rink! Since Lee doesn't skate, I got to take Matt and teach him how to skate. After about an hour, Matt was going off on his own. He still had plenty of falls, but he was balancing on his own and doing really well. It was the first time he had ever been on ice skates (and he doesn't rollerblade either). I had the best time!! It's been a long time since I've been on skates. I think the last time was when there was an outdoor rink in downtown St. Louis one year. A bunch of friends and I would go on our lunch hours.

Matt's all set on going again. He also says that if he could learn that quickly, so can his Dad, so he has to come along, too. I'm not too sure Lee's that willing to try it, though. We'll see. I'll definitely be taking Matt back and I'm going to try taking Adam so he can try it, too. I'm so glad that we got the chance to skate and that Matt enjoyed it so much. This will definitely be a good activity when the boys get stir crazy this winter.

Happy St. Nick's day!

Our household was visited by St. Nick last night. Although St. Nicholas day was officially a few days ago, I read somewhere that St. Nick starts his visits on St. Nicholas day, but may continue to visit all the way up until Christmas, since it takes him a long time to get to everyone. I'm glad that he came to visit us on a weekend. :-)

The boys got some fun things in their stockings. They each got a handheld massager. They've been giving massages all day. :-) Each got a Blue Angel airplane - Adam's wanted one since the St. Louis County Fair and Airshow a few months ago. They even started giving air shows using them. The big hit (other than the candy coins they got) are the wind-up flashlights. They complain every time I turn on a light in the house.

Lee got a DVD set of Ghost Hunters shows and I got a neat little techie toy - read the next post about that! It caused quite a bit of aggravation, but now that it's finally working, I think it'll be loads of fun.

Technology...

Lee got me a little GPS thingy for my pocket PC as a St. Nick's gift for my stocking. Yes, he was being extravagant, but I don't think he could have waited for Christmas, lol! Anyway, this thing sounds so cool - I could get voice directions for anywhere from my pocket PC as well as use it as a portable GPS walking around.

This little thing has gotten innovation awards and all, so it should be cool - if we could ever get that dang thing to work!!! We've been playing around with it off and on all day. As I'm writing this, Lee just finally got it to get a satellite signal. You know, if it takes someone who works in IT almost an entire day to get something like this to work, what chance do the rest of us have? The online support for this company was useless and I even tried calling them. They're only open during regular business hours Monday through Friday.

Well, at least it's working. We'll have to take it out and see how it works. I just have to figure out how to tell the software where home is, lol!!

Pretty funny....Now

So yesterday, Matt got off school early and we had lunch with Lee. When we got home, I went to grab the mail and Matt took his time getting out of the car. Adam, on the other hand, ran inside and locked the door. I never carry a house key, since I always go through the garage. The little turkey wouldn't unlock the door for anything. Here I was, banging on door, yelling all sorts of stuff and what does he say? "What's the password?" When I finally got into the house, I was furious with him. He got to spend a good long time in his room alone.

It's funny now, kinda. It's ok if you laugh. I'm over being angry over it now. :-)