MN Thompson's

Take my picture

February 7th, 2011

For whatever reason Megan (and even Christopher this week) were in the “take my picture” phase. Megan either gets her stuffed animals together or grabs Orca and wants her picture taken (and then immediately wants to see it on the camera). Christopher does the same thing but only with Orca. I’m sure this won’t last long so I’ll keep snapping photos.

Another Pinewood Derby has come and gone. This year I added graphite to our toolkit – it really made a difference. I bought it after I had put the wheels on the car – next year I’ll make sure to lube the car up before I assemble the wheels. We were fast in the first few races but slowed down a bit every race until we were just so-so at the end. Christopher did a lot of the work so I was glad it was as fast as it was. One of his friends had a really fast car so I asked him if he had fun making it. He said “no”. I asked what part of the car he built or worked on and he said “none, my dad did it”. I asked if he got to paint it or do anything else and he said “I got to touch it when it was done.” What fun! Here are some looks of anticipation waiting for Christopher’s car to go zooming by…

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Kung Fu Panda…how about the Kung Fu Orca??? Here she is wearing her white belt…watch out…you never know what leg is going to kick ya…

Colleen did another performance at the Timberwolves game. Their shows get more elaborate every time…here is how they started with girls everywhere on the court. Good luck finding Colleen! She’s towards the left somwhere in gold 🙂

Here’s what Megan and Christopher thought of the performance 🙂 The game started at 7:30 p.m. so it’s probably after 9:00 p.m. by now and we’re waiting to pick up Colleen. They were handing out Diet Mountain Dew to everyone as they left the arena. Perfect – Mountain Dew to my kids at 9:00 p.m. – great idea! You need something to wash down the cotton candy!

What? You didn’t know Megan was a Brownie already? The things some parents will do to guilt people into buying Girl Scout cookies!!!

Beth wasn’t feeling well so I took the kids to church this week. It was a special day for the 5 year olds so I got to go exploring with Megan. We decorated a backpack, put on a safari hat, and then had to go all over the church on a scavenger hunt. One stop was the church’s library. Megan looked at the covers of a few books and then settled on a children’s book with two guys on the front called “My dad’s new roommate”. Life in a reconciling congregation…I’d better get prepared for all of the fun questions this may spawn.

Here’s my new Christmas gift in action…can you tell what it is? One of the tiny squares from my racquetball racquet…as seen through my new macro lens. Sweet. Can’t wait to see all of the bugs and flowers through this lens this summer.

Christopher’s joke of the day: “Doctor, I need a new butt…because this one has a crack in it.” I love it. Keep ’em coming.

So I made it an entire year without eating a single Girl Scout cookie. Yep. It’s true. I only made it about 10 minutes this year but I proved that I could resist them long enough. Thursday I fly out to Vail for my annual ski trip. It sounds like they just got 1′ – 2′ of snow between yesterday and today – sweet. Last weekend I ran up 50 flights of stairs (1280 steps) in 10 minutes 22 seconds. I think that shaved over a minute off of my time from last year. P90-X is doing it’s trick! Next year I break the 10 minute barrier!!!

The kids all made cards for Great Grandma T tonight so I’ll get those in the mail tomorrow. 99. Wow! It’s too bad I scheduled my ski trip on the same weekend as her party. We’re trying to figure out when we can get down there this year. Or maybe we’ll just wait for her 100th!!! Happy Birthday Great Grandma T!!!

Posted in Animals, Birthday, Children, Life | 4 Comments »

Fluffy & Spot

January 16th, 2011

It feels like I shovel snow every morning and night lately. And I love it. And they’re saying plenty more is on the way – we have a TON of snow on the ground and stacking up along the driveway and road and patio and pretty much everywhere. I still want to get a copy of that photo from Duluth when I was a kid and the snow drift was over our heads and the dog was way up high (hint, hint, if you can find it). I feel sorry for the people who don’t get to spend as much time really enjoying snow and real winters.

The kids are still in the backyard all the time. Today we had 4 different sets of friends over to sled on our hill. Colleen had two friends over and Christopher had two friends over but despite calling several people we couldn’t find anyone home or available for Megan to bring over – she’s struggling with being the youngest today and missing out on what the other two have. Get used to it kid 🙂

Christopher is still really enjoying his big (well…not so big) Christmas gift…Fluffy. When he was naming Fluffy, Colleen said to him “Are you sure you want to name him Fluffy? What if your friends come over and find out you gave him that name?”. Made me laugh. He was undeterred and stuck with what he wanted to name him. Beth still wanted to name him Speedy after her first night with him when he chewed through the cardboard box from thet pet store while in our bathroom and Beth caught him just in time as he was headed towards the door to our bedroom. Yikes – Christopher almost never even got to see him!

Megan got to do a Build-a-Bear and chose to make a dog named Spot. Spot travels everywhere around the house with her and she’s proud to tell visitors how she built him and everything that she got to choose including the heart on the inside. Fun.

She still loves getting all of her stuffed animals together, here they are going for a ride in a multi-car train that she built. Seems like a fun ride until she decides to go up and down the stairs with them!

Colleen has very proudly mastered the splits. I know who she doesn’t get this flexibility from (although P90-X is helping in that department too). She’s getting to be quite the dancer.

And don’t worry, with all of the new additions to our house Orca still manages to get a bit of attention too.

Posted in Animals, Children, Weather | 2 Comments »

Polar Dash

January 1st, 2011

It’s January 1, 2011, it was between 0 and maybe 8 degrees today (without factoring in the windchill), and I ran a 5K (the Polar Dash). Once you get running the weather really wasn’t all that bad. I opted to just wear running shoes and to not wear a jacket but I did have a goofy/warm hat, neck warmer, and gloves. I ran with my neighbor and kept her company; it was nice to get out and get some exercise. I followed that up with 90 minutes of P90X yoga later on today – bring it! Megan went outside to sled a few times today. She would sled and then drag her sled around the house and play in the front yard and then come to sled in the back again. The cold weather definitely wasn’t bothering her.

Last night Beth and I went to a Minnesota Wild hockey game for New Year’s Eve. The game started at 5:00 p.m. so we had time to hit a bar afterwards to play some pool and still get back by 9:30 to watch the NY-ball drop with the kids.

We had a great Christmas. It nice not traveling but it would also be nice to spend more time with family – can’t have it both ways though. I took the last two weeks off of work. It’s amazing how little progress I made on any of my to-do lists – grrrrrr 🙁 Oh well, I guess I’ll take care of that stuff next Christmas break.

Here are the kids on Christmas morning.

This is before the Christmas Eve service. Too bad boy’s jackets are never nice enough to be handed down, huh? 🙂

We’ve had crazy snow this year – the snowiest December on record in Minnesota. We’ve probably got a foot+ on the ground still as our base.

I still love snow and winter and shoveling. “They” predicted that two major snowstorms would hit us again this week, but both of those fizzled out. When we don’t get snow as expected it bums me out – I love getting dumped on and living the true Minnesota winters. Here’s the view off of our back porch. The snow is so high the bird feeders are almost resting on my huge mound of snow and there is no where else for me to put it – yikes.

Megan was my helper all week. The other two helped here and there but Megan likes to be right in the middle of anything that is going on. I made a lot of cookies with the kids (decorating the sugar cookies was their favorite part; eating the spritzer cookies was my favorite part).

Megan also helped me make some Scrabble cheese balls – yummy!!!

And Colleen snuck in one last dance show this year. She’s in the elite group now and they really are looking good – just like the Rockettes!

I’m convinced that the real santa came to the Eden Prairie children’s Christmas party this year. As always that party is a great time for the kids – cookie decorating, bouncy inflatible and huge slide inflatible, ornament decorating, and of course visiting and gifts from Santa. The next two weekends are adult holiday parties with the fire department.

And not to miss out on anything, here is Megan getting tested for her first belt in Kung Fu. She says she likes it so we’ll see if she sticks with it. She got her white belt and Christopher got his green belt that same day.

Ok, enough randomness for now. Happy New Year everybody!!!

Posted in Children, Life, Weather | 2 Comments »

Blizzard

December 11th, 2010

Our first blizzard since living in Minnesota. Snow, wind, snow, wind, snow, wind, big drifts, more snow, more wind, and more big drifts. A blizzard is different from a snowstorm in that the winds have to be > 35 mph and visibility has to be < 1/4 mile for more than 3 hours. Today was supposed to start with basketball at 8:00 a.m., kung fu testing for their next belts at 10:00 & 11:15, followed by bell ringing with Christopher for scouts and a birthday party for Colleen. Instead, we've done nothing. All schools and the community center are closed and we've been lazy all day. I went out to shovel earlier and a neighbor came over with his snowblower which was great. I'm still not ready for my own snowblower but when the snow is over 12" and higher where there are drifts I don't mind the help. I like the exercise but I'm not complaining today. But 2 hours later and it looks like I never shoveled at all. Tomorrow it's supposed to drop below zero (way below with the wind chill) - this is what winter in Minnesota should be like every year!!! I'm going to the fire station a little bit later to do a 3-hour shift. We had people there all night last night and all day today. I can't imagine what the highways are like but...funny timing...a fire page just came out requesting one of the stations to help the police close down the highway that runs through Eden Prairie. Wheeee. I'm at P4X right now (4 days into P90X). Who knows if I’ll keep it up but I need something gimmicky every so often to keep me active. It’s a lot like boot camp which is good. I can’t imagine somebody who is out of shape starting a program like this – talk about demoralizing. It’s always about this time of year that I start thinking about a spring ski trip to Vail and stair climbs up the tall buildings in Minneapolis in Jan & Feb and realize I need to get more active.

Colleeen has had a few recent dance performances. Guess which of these two pictures is at the Gopher women’s game versus the Gopher men’s game?

Here is the 2nd place photo for our Christmas cards this year…went with the outdoor theme. What can I say – Palin inspired us. We were hoping to have the kids posing with a caribou that they shot but luck wasn’t with us on our big hunting expedition in the back yard.

And here’s Christopher trying to survive this morning in the blizzard of ’10. He was out there sledding for a bit (and Megan joined him) but it was so windy they ended up trying to build shelter with their sleds. Survival skills are important out there!

Everybody should have our Christmas lists by now…so leave me alone…bah humbug.

Posted in Children, Weather | 1 Comment »

573 push-ups + anniversary + lots-o-snow

November 17th, 2010

As I’ve done before, here is a warning that you’re about to be hit with a whole lotta randomness…here goes…

Can you believe the iu football team is so crappy that Bucky Badger had to do 573 push-ups last Saturday when they played??? 573!!! Wow.

The tooth fairy is going broke in our neighborhood. Colleen lost a tooth and Megan lost another one this week. Megan has no bottom center teeth now – she fits in with all of the hockey players up here.

We survived another Halloween. The week after Halloween a local dentist was paying $1 per pound of candy that you turned into him. Christopher gave it some serious thought but changed his mind at the last minute.

Guess which one of our cute kids made the puking pumpkin? Christopher? Nope. Megan? Nope. Colleen? Yep. It took you all three guesses, didn’t it?

They are both so sweet when they are sleeping, huh? Hard to believe either of them ever stay this still – especially not at the same time.

We got at least 8″ of wet, heavy, super-sticky snow this past Saturday. It was so heavy that we had over 30 fire calls on Saturday – morning to night it kept me very busy. Probably half a dozen calls of trees on fire (because the power lines would dip so low) and many power lines down on roads and sidewalks. I thought it would only last a day and then I’d be able to finish my fall chores…4 days later and it’s still white everywhere 🙂 I was up early that day and it was so cool watching the kids come down the stairs. They each woke up on their own, yet all had the same reaction as they turned the corner and came down the stairs. It was the same look as they have on Christmas morning – their eyes would get bigger, they would get a huge smile and yell something like “awesome” or “so cool” – they love the snow and spent several hours sledding and playing outside each day this weekend.

We also started paying the kids allowance last week. $6 for Colleen, $5 for Christopher, and $3 for Megan. They get this regardless of doing chores (although, if they don’t want to do their chores they can pay someone else to do them for them). But now they are responsible for paying for offering at church, putting a portion in savings, helping pay for their school lunch and books and birthday gifts…we’ll see how it goes. I can’t remember whether I got allowance or money for chores growing up, what age that started and stopped, and how much I got…somebody help me with my poor memory and clue me in please.

I started taking an art class at Eden Prairie’s Art Center. I had an item on my dream list related to making something artistic for the house so I looked through the catalog last Tuesday and found only one class that I could still sign up for in 2010. I signed up for it and the first of three classes was that same night. Beggars can’t be choosers – I’ve now taken two soldering classes and am becoming quite the jewelry maker 🙂 Oh yah, who’s getting excited to see what I’m making them for Christmas??? I’m glad I signed up – let’s me dabble with my creative side a bit.

While I’m on the topic…how are everybody else’s dream lists coming? Has anyone read the Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly yet? What are you waiting for – go get it and start dreaming!!!

Last Thursday for fire training they jammed us in a semi trailer loaded up with wood and other combustibles and lit it up. We got to crouch down as low as we could get and watch the flames dance over our heads for 10 minutes through the thick smoke, hoping we wouldn’t get to see a flashover first hand. It was pretty cool training – there aren’t many opportunities in a real fire to pause and watch the flames and fire behavior. The dancing flames and fire fingers are mesmorizing – way cool. Now if only we could do that without getting our gear completely saturated with smoke and soot that would be perfect.

Beth and I had a really, really great time in Chicago for our anniversary. Writing this down will be as much for me as it will be for anyone else. It was so good to get away and talk to each other and have a bit of freedom (yes, we still love you kids – don’t worry). It was an amazing feeling as we drove away from Minnesota and realized we could stop whenever and wherever we wanted for dinner and stay as long as wanted and talk about whatever we wanted. Wow – it’s been a while 🙂 Although I knew I wanted to eat at several great spots in Chicago, we only had one reservation planned in advance for the entire trip. It was at Alinea and was our big anniversary dinner. Alinea is ranked as the #1 restaurant in North America . I can’t even begin to describe our experience there – truly amazing – everything about the restaurant was incredible – taste, sights, smells, wine, presentation, atmosphere, and service – like nowhere we’ve ever been. Here are some pictures that I’m sure will make you think we wasted a ton of money…I am so glad that we went there. This was on my Dream List and made for a very special evening. Dinner lasted over 3 hours and we had 5 or 6 people waiting on us not to mention an army of people in the kitchen.

Here’s the picture I got scolded for taking (stupid flash on the iPhone) 🙂

And here are some representative pictures from their web site – this isn’t exactly what we had on our 20-course menu but it is close enough.

Oops. Although I’m sure your amateur eyes didn’t catch it – that last one didn’t come from Alinea. That’s Beth’s award-winning cake for Christopher’s cub scout cake raffle this year!!! Two years in a row. Maybe opening a bakery is in our future.

We also hit Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill a few times. Great atmosphere and amazing Mexican food. Super yummy. Every year I get older I love and crave Mexican food more (maybe that’s my taste buds dying off and this is the only food I can taste anymore – hope not!). Or maybe it’s just the margaritas! It was so fun to be able to go out and not care when our table was ready and saddle up to the bar and just hang out and chat with the bartender. We had forgotten what that was like and really enjoyed that lifestyle again.

And of course Cafe Iberico for some great Spanish tapas and sangria. They know how to make authentic Spanish food which seems to be a rarity with all of the crappy tapas places these days.

And we hung out with all of the pretty people that Saturday night while eating some great new Asian-fusion at Sunda – sushi, sake and so much more. The Chicago nightlife is amazing – we had a special card from our concierge that I presented to the hostess lady at about 9:30 p.m. She said it was still a 2-hour wait but that the card I gave her would drop that to an hour and half. We waited and drank and stared and drooled at the pretty people (Beth gave me permission) and then ate funky food until after midnight and walked home. That’s another thing we loved – walking everywhere!!! I miss Chicago. We miss Chicago. Someday maybe we’ll move back – or at least spend more vacations there. We also saw Billy Elliot (Beth really enjoyed that) and went to see a comedy show at 2nd City. We got there early enough that we sat in the front row – which we had never done before. I won’t go into details but let’s just say I got a special dance by the hottest new female rap group – “Bitches-n-Gravy”. Beth still starts giggling picture that skit. I’ll forget where we stayed so I’m going to document it here for future trips…we stayed at the Talbott and loved it – great smaller hotel with an outstanding staff and service. They knew it was our anniversary and put us on the top floor like I asked for – made for the perfect trip.

Ok, enough about Chicago…I’m hungry now and have to go snack on something!

Posted in Children, Life, Vacation | 2 Comments »

Dream Manager

October 25th, 2010

It’s been a busy few weeks. In one weekend alone I drove to West Lafayette, saw a Purdue football game, got to hang out with my old roommates, went to Rochester and saw Grandma T, and stopped in Chicago for an all-day Dream Manager conference before heading home. While I was gone that weekend somebody lost her first tooth. This tooth took a long time to come out from when she first excitedly told us she had a loose tooth. Christopher on the hand has literally punched out his own tooth with his own fist on the same day he discovered that it was loose (that kid will do just about anything for money!).

I also missed choir while I was out of town…Beth got to get the kids ready and sit through singing in two services without me – lucky Beth 🙂

This is what fall is all about (well…this and apple pies and roasted pumpkin seeds)…lovin’ the GUBMFP…

It was really cool hanging out with a few of the old roomies before going to the dream manager conference. I had a list of about 100 dreams with me and they wanted to see…but I wouldn’t share until they started creating their own lists. We had some really good conversations that just started with us talking about our dreams and where we are at in life. If anyone else wants to see my list I suggest you pick up a copy of the Dream Manager book (by Matthew Kelly) and create your list of 100 dreams and then get back to me! Mom and Dad – what are your dreams? What are the biggest ones that you’ve achieved and what are the biggest ones you’re still aiming for? I’ve been thinking about dreams all week – and how they relate to all aspects of my life. It was fitting that at church this week the sermon was “Enough: When Dreams Become Nightmares” and that this was the centering prayer:

“O God, our world really belongs to you. Help us live with a sense of trust that you continue to care for all that you have created. When our dreams of the good life become nightmares of misplaced priorities, re-center our values. Remind us that in the process you do not forsake us. Calm our anxious hearts and assure us that we find enough in you.”

I had a great 45 minutes with Grandma T. She was doing very well (especially for 98). We looked at pictures and talked about all sorts of things…and then just to prove that she’s still with it, as I said goodbye and headed for the door she said something like “When you came in, didn’t you have a pair of glasses?” Sure enough, I brought sunglasses with me and left them on her table…her memory at 98 is still better than mine!!!

This past weekend we went to Sever’s Corn Maze (America’s Largest Corn Maze). His son lives on our street so we have an in for getting a few free tickets 🙂 That place is great – it has everything for a fun day…huge corn maze, huge pit of corn kernels to bury yourself in, smaller maze of bales of hay, pig races, magic show, juggling show, all sorts of animals and animal rides, pumpkin catapult and corn shooter, giant slides, cheese curds, band. You name it, it’s there. We met some friends there and had a grand time (right up until it was time to go and we realized that someone with smaller feet than Christopher must have accidentally taken Christopher’s bigger shoes…luckily we weren’t going anywhere afterwards so Christopher just walked around in his socks until we drove home).

And, here’s a preview of our Christmas card this year…what do you think?

Posted in Animals, Children, Life | 4 Comments »

Pele’s got nothing on us

October 11th, 2010

So…Colleen’s not playing soccer this season, Christopher always hangs back and plays defense (even when he’s a striker), Megan hasn’t come anywhere close to scoring…and I WANT ICE CREAM!!! We only go out for ice cream when someone scores…things were looking bleak. A few games ago we were up something like 10 – 0, so in the 4th quarter I told Megan that any time her team got the ball that she should run straight to the goal and wait for someone to pass to her. So she started doing that – except she would run and turnaround and stand right on the goal line (like she was a goal keeper). The game is winding down and a boy on her team has the ball so she runs to the goal line. All the parents are yelling for him to pass it…but of course he tries to shoot. She ends up blocking it from going in the net (oops) and then she tries to turnaround so she can kick it in…but instead she falls…and as she falls down her knee bumps the ball and it rolls in super slow motion across the goal line. Our sideline goes crazy and she came running over and was excited that she scored with her knee 🙂 Her first goal – sweet – ice cream for all of us!

The next day Christopher is playing in a game. He is completely not interested in the game and not paying attention. In the 3rd quarter he is goalie. I go down to that end of the field because I know he’s not going to be paying attention…and the rest of his team is playing really well so I don’t want him to let an easy goal get by him. Outside of the penalty box there is a hand ball so Christopher’s team makes a wall and a kid on the other team gets ready to kick it. I notice that Christopher is watching a lady walk her dog near the side of the field so I yell at him to get ready. He glances at the ball and then immediately starts watching the dog again. So I yell at him again to pay attention to the ball. Again, he glances at the ball but then starts watching the dog. The kid kicks the ball, it is a really good kick, it goes over our wall of players and is heading straight towards the goal…Christopher is looking sideways with his hands at his side…the ball hits him right in the stomach and bounces away – he saved the goal! It was crazy, funny, crazy, sad all at once. His team is excited but then he doubles over and starts crying because it both surprised him and I’m sure it hurt. But his team was really good about it – they all started giving him high 5’s and he was ok in a minute or so. Afterwards I had him tell me what he learned – here it is…”if you don’t pay attention you might just get hurt” 🙂

This past weekend was Megan’s last game. She only scored one goal all season and odds weren’t good that she would score again. At some point in the game she is center striker and it’s her job to do the kick off. She runs at the ball and kicks it harder than she’s ever kicked it. It goes past the other team’s strikers and then rolls through the defenders who go after it…and then…to everyone’s surprise…it goes in the net…yah, ice cream for the Thompson’s again!!! She couldn’t wait to tell me that this was her first goal with her foot (not her knee).

This past Saturday was…swim lessons, fun run, kung fu, fire fighter open house, and soccer…wheeeee! The fire fighter open house took up most of the day for me while Beth drove all over town with the kids.

There’s a dog rotating through Megan’s classroom that you get to bring home and then are supposed to take pictures with it (kind of like Flat Stanley but not quite as flat). Here’s Megan with that dog at the fire fighter open house…this is my favorite part of the open house each year – torching the cars. My favorite part of this picture is how the helium balloon is somehow strong enough to raise Megan’s arm up 🙂

Last week the kids got to go to school dressed like their favorite character in a book. Christopher went as Harry Potter of course. Colleen went as Annabeth from the Percy Jackson books, and Megan went as whatever leftover costume we had in the house. She was supposed to be Peter Pan but people thought she was an elf of some sort and she didn’t bother to correct them. I still can’t believe that Beth bought a Yankees hat for Colleen’s costume (boooooooo).

I finally spent my birthday check and went to see the new Twins stadium (thanks!). It was a beautiful, sunny day. I went with one of Christopher’s friends (JT) and his dad. The Twins were down to their last out and were losing by a run or two. 2 outs, full count…and they pulled it off and won – what a great way to end it! Between Christopher and JT they sampled just about everything in the ballpark – wow, so much better than the dumpy inflatable toilet that they used to play in. Our seats were 16 rows up on the 3rd base line…here we are touring the stadium.

It’s that time of the year when I rake up all of the leaves and dump them in a big pile at the bottom of our hill so the kids can run down the hill at full speed and dive into the pile. I liked this picture…Colleen and Megan were picking cherry tomatoes from the garden and decided to sit in the leaf pile and were 100% focused on eating their entire day’s harvest 🙂

Ok…it’s getting late and the Vikings are driving me nuts…gotta finish this up. Hope the surgery goes great tomorrow Mom!!!

Posted in Children, Life | No Comments »

Diabetes

October 2nd, 2010

I still think Liz’s letter is the best one each year…if you’ve got extra money to donate this year here’s another very worthy cause:

Dear Emma’s Energy,

It’s walk time again! Since our daughter Emma was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes 4 years ago, we have participated in this annual fundraiser for JDRF. I have to admit, I am ambivalent about these letters. I am always uncomfortable asking for money, although the support we have received each year is beyond generous. Some of you donate and walk to support Emma, because you see what a vibrant, smart and kind girl she is, and you don’t want anything to stand in the way of her growing into a healthy adult. Some of you just like Tom or me, and want to let us know you care. Whatever your reason, I ask you to donate to JDRF in support of Emma’s Energy, and to come walk with us on October 31st.

Those of you who see Emma regularly know that she is growing so fast! She is almost as tall as her mother, and her mannerisms are no longer that of a little girl. Along with all this growth comes crazy fluctuations in hormones, which affect blood glucose levels, which can be extremely dangerous if not monitored carefully. Type 1 management through these years is constant. It is time consuming and frustrating. Emma is so resilient through it all. It is only occassionally we’ll hear the “It’s not fair that I have diabetes!” and she’ll hear the only truthful response, “No, it’s not.” (Other cries of “It’s not fair!” get a different response :))

Having Type 1 is not fair, and it is not easy. But it is what she has to deal with every day for the rest of her life. We are so grateful to JDRF and all the researchers for devoting so much time and energy into trying to find a cure. I sometimes talk to adults with Type 1, and they talk about how far the tools for management have come in the last 20, 10, even 5 years. All the research JDRF does has already benefited Emma’s life, and who knows what they will discover in the next 5, 10, 20 years?

Please support the work of JDRF with a donation if you are able. We also invite and encourage you to join us on October 31st at Roger Williams Park in Providence for the Walk to Cure Diabetes. Emma is always touched by the presence of so many of you who share that event with us.

Thank you very much for your donation, your walking participation, and your kind thoughts.

Warmly,
Liz, Tom, Emma and Charlie Boucher

Please visit Emma’s Walk Web page if you would like to donate online:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87794682

Posted in Life | No Comments »

What’s your song?

September 26th, 2010

I really enjoyed our church service this morning – the sermon was “Every Member Has a Song to Sing“.

Here’s the centering prayer that got us started today, I liked it so I’ll share it: “Composer of life and love, we confess that sometimes our songs come out all wrong. We can sound like a warped record – scratchy and unpleasant. We can feel like a cassette tape stretched to its breaking point. We can look like a scratched CD, marred by strife. We can be overloaded like an iPod beyond its capacity. Our music, which starts out with so much joy, ends up sounding like dirges. We know you can bring harmony back into our lives. Help us hear the song we each need to sing and accompany us with the tune of your grace.”

As Colleen keeps searching for her song in life, here’s what’s on her mind now that she’s 10 years old!!!

My favorite food is…chocolate ice cream

When I grow up I want to be an…artist

My favorite restaurant is…Noodles & Co (still)

My favorite possession is…Nintendo DSI (had to change this one from “My favorite stuffed animal is”…she’s growing up!)

My favorite color is…yellow (wouldn’t have guessed this one)

My favorite song is…Fireflies (by Owl City)

My favorite holiday is…Halloween (wouldn’t have guessed this one either)

My favorite season is…summer (because there is no school)

My favorite thing to do is…draw

If I could do anything tomorrow I would…go up north to Grand Marais

We had another sleepover for Colleen’s birthday party. It went great. Once again Beth did an awesome job planning and preparing. Colleen said she was too old for theme’s but we started with a scavenger hunt in the backyard and then moved to three craft stations inside (jewelry making, nail painting, and tie dying). During the scavenger hunt a few of the girls said “your yard is awesome” and “this is the best yard ever” – that’s cool that they really like it and are starting to appreciate things like that. I put in several new paths this year which I think made it better overall.

Here’s the hidden toy (Barbie) that was hardest for everyone to find…

Papa made a 4-layer chocolate cake while he was here…yummy!

Guess who was in charge of tie dying (again)???

Colleen has a great bunch of friends and it’s neat to see them starting to grow up and become individuals. They are definitely becoming less shy – here are some of the topics I started jotting down during about 20 minutes of pizza eating for dinner: burping the alphabet; kissing on lips; swearing on something precious to hear a secret; crushes – followed by “he’s weird”; this teacher is pregnant but so & so told me not to tell anyone; “the stench is alive” (that was a well-earned comment directed by a girl sitting close to Christopher); everybody who gets married gets pregnant; one of the girl’s dad took her Nintendo DS and hid it in his underwear drawer – she said that was disgusting and would rather have a new one than to use it after it had been near his underwear; my brother cut my hair in my sleep and gave me sideburns; my brother sleeps with gum behind his ear so he can chew it the next day; diarrhea; barf; would you rather stick your head in a toilet or kiss a boy – most hands went up for the toilet option but a few stayed silent on that one…oh boy, I don’t think I’m ready for the topics that will come up next year. Good thing they only stayed on each topic for about 20 seconds and didn’t ask us for advice 🙂

Needless to say, we survived the party and are probably insane enough to do the same thing next year!

Oops, missed this picture from last time. Megan getting on the bus her first day.

And Megan playing and dancing with her favorite toy 🙂

One of our good friends (Pam) has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is starting treatment. Beth and Pam spent a lot of time together when the kids were younger while her husband and I played broomball on the weekends. Please keep them in your prayers.

Time for me to go sing…

Posted in Birthday, Children, Life | 4 Comments »

Lemontines

September 19th, 2010

I tried reasoning with Megan for 5 minutes the other day explaining that those little oranges are ‘Clementines’ and not ‘Lemontines’ – she wasn’t hearing any of that. They are small and sometimes sour and she’s convinced they are part lemon. So there!

The kids survived the first week or two of school. I think our kids are getting smarter because Christopher is still claiming his teacher hasn’t sent any homework home yet this year…and Colleen’s homework has been minimal too. So much for not being as naive as my parents 🙂

Colleen and Christopher started a day earlier than Megan started. (Dad- check out that cool Air Force t-shirt he chose for his first day of school)

Here’s Megan’s first day of Kindergarten.

And here all three of them are waiting for the bus (Megan’s first official bus ride to school).

We went to a pancake breakfast two weekends ago. It was to raise money for a co-worker of mine whose wife was killed in plane crash at Eden Prairie’s airport about a year ago. The guy running the griddle would toss the pancakes to all of the kids. It was a riot. Christopher caught 3 in a row (but I thought he was going to drop the ones on his plate every time he went to catch another one). Colleen caught 2 in a row, and Megan caught one and dropped one. What fun!

Beth and I were sitting by the pond last week and for the first time this year we saw a gold fish swim by. It looked to be over 4 or 5 inches long. Where that one has been hiding who knows and I wonder how many more are hiding in there. Amazing they have been hidden this long all year. Speaking of the pond, I’ve been finding more dead birds on the ground around the bird feeder – maybe 3 or 4 in total but I don’t think I’ve ever found dead birds like that. So…I think this may explain things…here is a picture of our new friend sitting just outside our window overlooking the pond…doesn’t look too old but it’s cool to see him up close.

Christopher and I went camping this weekend. It was just for one night and it was actually a lot of fun. We ate and played and smore’d and ate and hiked and ate and ate and watched the flag go up and down and up and down and then ate some more. We saw some Trumpeter Swans which was cool. They were heading towards extinction but now have more than 3000 in Minnesota. I brought my noisemaker on the camping trip. People were snoring all around our tent so about 3:30 a.m. I cranked up my noisemaker (and had it on the ‘bubbling brook’ setting). The next morning people were talking about hearing snoring and then people started talking about hearing running water all night long. People across the field were talking about hearing this water…and about having to go to the bathroom all night long and wondering where the running water came from. Too funny. Teaches them right for all that snoring!!!

And of course we went to the state fair again this year. Kristin and her family came up this year again. We missed the Milk Run (5K) that we’ve done several years in a row (because we were up in Grand Marais) so it was way cool that Kristin still came up for the fair. The night of the day we were there Kiss was in concert so people were walking around in costume all day. Here is a group of guys and girls dressed up like Kiss. It was a riot – they had folded tinfoil on their sleeves and cuffs – too funny. I can only hope I will ever be close to that cool some day.

Here’s our proud future scientist experimenting with bubbles.

Arboretum…

Posted in Children | 2 Comments »