Nature, New York and other New Things

First off and before I forget, I think I fixed the problem with the video so give it one more try for me and let me know if it works!

Now, to start off this massive update, we'll have to rewind two weeks. The boys and I went on a hike with Gpa, Shirley, and Karen and crew. Josiah and Micah love being outside and checking out all of the bugs and "stuff" that's out there. We had a great time admiring spider webs, dragonflies, and finding the perfect hiking stick. We all enjoyed a picnic lunch before we crashed at home for a nap. Here's some pics.



After nap, Karen, Bruce, Timothy and McCain came over to play outside and try out their new beach ball sprinkler. It was awesome! Of course, the cousins had a blast playing together and getting soaked, Bruce enjoyed a little shut eye on the couch and Karen and I got to chat about whatever. It was a great afternoon!

And then there was New York. For those of you who missed the spur of the moment, over too quick trip I made last week, I went to New York for 3 days with Candida. All fun for me, but she had classes during the day. I had an AWESOME time. I spent the days roaming the city and hung out with Candida in the evenings. I got to see Times Square, all the places where the film they morning shows (though I never made it out for the true filming), rode the Staten Island Ferry and saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island. Went to "A Chorus Line", ate lots of bagels, drank lots of coffee. Went to the top of the Empire State building and watched a storm blowing in. Visited the largest store in the world: the block large Macy's that, yes, has it's own restaurant (we even ate there). I braved the New York subway system and didn't get lost, walked around the Village and looked for a coffee shop that I could call "Central Perk" but had no such luck. And well, I guess that's it! It was a full couple of days but it was so great! I walked more than I've probably walked in the last 3 months (especially with having surgery!) my legs were SORE, but I wouldn't have missed it. Everything there was so BIG! The billboards, the buildings, the traffic! Oh I would not want to drive there! And did I mention that the Toys R Us had a real, working, you-can-ride-it FERRIS WHEEL in it?! It was crazy, it was busy, it was SO LOUD, but it was great. Thanks, Candida, for inviting me and for everyone who made it possible for me to go. The break was great! This is us in Times Square:

PART of the massive "wall of chocolate" in the M&M store...there were 4 sections like this in the store--every color you could think of and you could bag your own. Your choice of milk chocolate or peanut.

And one more picture of us at the top of the Empire State building...well, almost the top. ONLY the 86th floor. But from this height, what's another 16 floors? We didnt want to pay the $25 for us photoshopped in front of the New York sky line, so we'll just have to settle for this!

And that's going to have to do it for now. I've got to get to bed! John's in charge of the boys tomorrow and my sister, mom, cousin and I are painting my grandma's garage. I'll post you pictures later! And as soon as I hear the good news about my video posting abilities I've got another video to share with you.

Micah on slip and slide

I heard there was trouble playing the video, so I'm trying this again. I think you have to double click on the play arrow. Let me know if this works or not.

That's what it says!

I know it's been awhile since I've posted and soon I will post and tell you what all we've been up to, but for now you'll have to settle for this story.

Micah has been sick all day. I mean sick to the point of all he's really done is lay on the couch. So, after naptime Josiah and I went to Blockbuster for a few movies so that I wouldn't be subjected to ANOTHER episode of Dora the Explorer. On the way we decided that we would also go to the grocery and get the fixin's for milkshakes. One of Josiah's pick at Blockbuster was the animated Charlotte's Web and he was so excited about it that he wanted to hold it in the car while we drove to the grocery. So he was looking at the back of it and said, "The DVD says you shouldn't drink a milkshake unless you have a mom or dad to help you drink it." I said, "OH! I get to help you drink your milkshake? EXCELLENT!" Josiah looked at me in the mirror and said, "No, I was just being silly about what words were. I was just pretending. I don't really know what it says." Bummer...guess I'll just have to have a milkshake of my own!

Okay..this one just happened over on the couch. John asked Josiah if he needed a tissue. Josiah said no. So, John asked, "Then what are you digging for?" Josiah said, "I'm digging for gold!" Think he'll find any?

P.S. Has anyone gotten the video to play or do I still need to work on that?

Bug Soup

by: Josiah Mustaleski

Once when I was sick, Fahvey made me soup with bugs in it.
It had beetles and crickets.
When I ate the crickets they made pretty songs
and I could hear them in my tummy.

The End!

(For those of you who havent heard, Fahvey is Josiah's imaginary brother. Last I heard he was 10 yrs old and his pretend sister, Jujah, is sometimes 3, 4, 5 or sometimes an infant. When she cries, Josiah hands her to me and says, "Here, Mommy, Jujah is crying." They live with their mom, Palucy, near a farm far, far away. How's that for imagination?!)

Here's another Josiah story. And just a bit about the inspiration for these, most of his stories are made up in the car while we are driving. He will see something out the window or hear something on the radio and say, "Mommy, do you want to hear my story?" The soup story was told today after hearing someone on the radio say that her dad always made her grilled cheese when she was sick and this next one was inspired by driving past the duck pond.

"Duck Food" by: Josiah

One day I went to the duck pond and I took some duck food and some puppy food. I gave all of the ducks duck food, but one duck I just gave puppy food. All the ducks ate the duck food and liked it but the one duck that I gave puppy food, he spit it out and said, "Yuck! I don't like puppy food." So I gave him some duck food and he ate it all gone! And all the ducks were happy.

The End

Attempting the video thing

Here's an attempt at posting videos. I think you should just have to click on the picture to play it. Let's see if this works! If it does, this is Micah on the slip and slide when we were up in Ohio.

Exciting weekend adventures...

Well, I'll just cut to the chase on this one. Josiah had a brick fall on his head Saturday evening. Why do these things never happen during the day during the week when it would be convenient to take them to the doctor?? Anyway, I digress...the brick. Right. There we were spending a lovely evening with family and friends. chit-chat...food...good times. I turn to look at Josiah and see that he is holding on to the post of a bird feeder and running around it which is making the whole thing shake. All I get out of my mouth is, "DON'T..." and the feeder falls over, bird seed goes everywhere and, most importantly, the brick that was on top of a board covering the top of the feeder to keep the squirrels out falls on Josiah's head. On top of his head. Blood everywhere, Josiah screaming and me hobble-running to take him inside and assess the damage. Once the bleeding stops and we attempt to clean it, we realize the cut isnt that bad (not nearly as deep as last year when he gashed his head open on the entertainment center) and it looks like the brick glanced off of him instead of hitting straight on because there is scraped skin next to the cut. Anyway...all of this required another head shaving experience, getting to hold my child while pouring peroxide on the wound and trying to calm him down and tell him that its going to be alright when I really wish someone could be telling me that!! So there you go. Never a dull moment in this house. Here is a picture of his lovely bandaged head. He's healing great and it never seems to bother him. I'm still petitioning for him to choose a different body part to continually injure. These head injuries scare me!

All About Dollywood...finally!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we all went to Dollywood last Thursday. "All" being me, Josiah, Micah, my sister Karen, her hubby Bruce and their two youngest boys Timothy (8) and McCain (4), my mom, my grandma and my cousin Emily (12). There were 8 of us trekking around Dollywood from 10 am til 5 pm (Karen and crew stayed longer, but we bailed 'early') and OH WHAT FUN we all had!

We started with some kiddie rides. Micah never did actually ride them, but he like "petting" them between rides while I tried to convince him that it would be fun to sit in them for the ride. His favorite was the pigs. He got quite an oinking conversation going with some of them! I did finally get him to ride the carosel, but he cried the whole time, so I guess he knew what he was talking about and I should have just listened to him! Josiah rode all the rides and had a BLAST! He really liked the bumblebee one that went up and down while turning around. And he got really excited about riding the kiddie roller coaster...he even had his hands up and was screaming until he decided it was a better idea to hold on! When we got off that one he said, "Mommy, that one scared me when it turned fast. Can we ride it again?" Here is a pic of him on one of the rides:

I think there were two favorite parts of Dollywood. One was the train. At the end of the day when I asked what they liked best, Josiah and Micah both said the train was their favorite part of the day. When we first got to the park the train was at the station, so we got a good look at it (and some good pictures!) and we got an up close account of how LOUD the whistle is! The first time the train blew it's whistle, McCain and Micah started crying because it frightened them. But after that everyone knew to "co-eryears!" (that's Micah's way of saying cover your ears)


I think the other favorite part of the day was the water places where the kids played and cooled off and got SOAKED! My boys both love water anyway and there were a bunch of other kids to play with and really, what could be better than getting to splash everyone with cold water on a hot day? I dont have any pics from the water, my sister took a bunch so I'll share some of hers later. But we really did have a great time. Grandma's sister works in one of the stores there so we got to see her and the boys got to meet their great-great aunt which was pretty cool. Plus she works in the sweet treats store, so you should have seen the boys eyes bulging out at all of the candy! I was surprised at how quickly time went by when we were there. I never would have thought we had been there 7 hours! I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!

One last pic that I just have to share with you before I go. This was taken yesterday. The boys were acting out the 3 little pigs. Once again, if only I could figure out how to post videos! I'm going to have to work on that. Anyway, they took turns being the wolf and the pig and saying (in a deep voice) "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" (high-pitched voice) "Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!" (deep voice) "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!" "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" It was sooooo cute!!!

Even Daddy...

Ok, I'm not going to post about Dollywood yet...I've got some stories from Ohio first. Chris's dad was also up there at their house for the weekend ("Mr. Bob") and every morning when the boys got up (6:30, I might add) they would have Mr. Bob outside playing catch the butterflies. Not familiar with that game? Here's how you play: The little boys run around the deck and yard trying to get away while Mr. Bob (or any other adult you have handy) chases them trying to catch them in his "net" and take them to the cage (a designated part of the deck). Once the kids have been put in the cage they must escape, preferably by crawling through the adult's legs, to continue the chase in the yard. This continues until the adult is too tired to keep up. Mr. Bob was such a good sport about this game! I really do think he had fun, even that first morning when he didnt even have shoes on and his socks were wet and muddy from the dew. But, I did notice that the next day he put his shoes on first thing!

While we were up there the boys slept in the same room on air mattresses. The first night John and I layed down with them to help them get settled and get to sleep. I was laying with Josiah and John was with Micah and I could hear Micah whispering to John that he NEEDED to tell Josiah that he loved him. John agreed and Micah sat up and said, "Yuh you, Siah" Josiah responds, "I love you, too, Micah" Then he lays back down and whispers to me, "I love you, too, Mommy." I said, "I love you, too, Josiah" And now for the punch line, Josiah said, "Even I love Daddy." Not in a, lets-not-forget-daddy way but in a oh-if-I-have-to kind of way. John says he's still recovering. I've suggested a support group. We're coping. Wait till he's a teenager, right? :)

I will post about Dollywood soon...so check back!

Oh the Places We'll Go!

We've had a busy week! Last Friday we drove up to Ohio to visit with Aunt Krissy and Uncle Chris. The boys did really well on the drive there and back...much better than I thought they would. We did stop part way both times to picnic, so that helped. They needed that time to run and get rid of some of that energy that had built up! Here's a couple pics from our first picnic:



I think we all had a great time at Kristin and Chris's. The girls all went to see Cirque du Soleil which was AWESOME and the boys all went to play golf which they enjoyed, too. We left the little ones at home. They're old enough, right? Ha! Just kidding! We had our fun on different days. While we were up there gramma bought Josiah and Micah a slip and slide. I'm not quite sure they caught on to the sliding part of it, though if I could figure out how to post videos on here I have a great one of Micah belly-flopping his way down it! They had a blast playing in the water, though and that's what really matters!

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The other "hit" of the weekend was the Better Batter Baseball tee--one of Micah's birthday presents. Both the boys have enjoyed this toy! Micah is definitely a left-handed hitter. Everytime I would try to get him to try hitting right handed he would switch the bat to the other shoulder and swing away. Every time. Guess I'll have to enlist Gpa's help for that skill! Josiah, though, was really good at hitting from both sides. I was quite impressed! We might have a switch hitter on our hands!


AND yesterday we went to Dollywood with a bunch of family, but I'm all out of time for today so I'll have to blog about that another time!