Helmets! We All Need Helmets!

( I keep going back and forth on the title of this post.  Torn on whether to put it as one of my WTF?! posts or something else because, let me assure you, "WTF" was muttered many a times during all of this.  Many many a times.) 

As if Ethan's injury wasn't enough, Wes' dad fell off the roof 2 days ago (or ladder or something; we probably will never know because he doesn't remember anything) and was knocked unconscious.  Thankfully Marcia was home and called 911.  He was laying on the ground, out, not moving, fingers bent backward.  Not good. 

All he kept talking about was the gutter and the fact that the gutter is bent.  Even the paramedics were getting a bit annoyed.  "Yes, Karl, the gutter IS bent."  (It got bent during the accident and was the first thing he saw when he woke up on the ground)

He was taken by ambulance to FMH where we quickly learned that he, too, like Ethan, had sub-cranial bleeding.  Are you kidding me?!  5 days.  5 DAYS after going through all of this with Ethan, we were right back where we started with Karl.  And like Ethan, he was medivac-ed to Anchorage to see the neurosurgeon. 

Seriously, you can't even make this stuff up. 

But thankfully, his brain contusion was small and did not have any increased pressure so the doctors just wanted to monitor him for 24 hours to make sure the bleeding would not continue.

The funny part about it is that a bunch of our friends were still in Anchorage with Ethan so Karl & Marcia had quite the welcoming party.  It was really nice for Wes and I to know that they were not down there alone but some of the pictures seem like they were having a little too much fun. 

But then again, misery does love company. . .

How The Girl Scouts Saved Christmas

We took the boys to see Santa today. They even had lists to give him and were so beyond excited. Well, Bo and Sam were at least. Max, not so much.

But when we got to Santa's House, we found out that Santa was not there because he rests on Mondays and Tuesdays. WTF? Santa doesn't rest in December. There are toys to be made and lists to be checked and then checked again. I know 'pa in his kerchief' but not 'good ole St Nick in his underoos'.

I have never seen Bo so disappointed. Bubble bursting. Sail drooping. Dog dying. I felt horrible. I almost cried. Probably would have if it weren't for the wall to wall holly jolly Christmas explosion I was standing in.

But then in happened. Frowns no longer. Cloud nine approaching. Looking like larks. Santa was in the building!! SANTA WAS IN THE BUILDING!

Thank you wonderful Girl Scout troop for dragging Santa from his day of rest. Now we love you AND your cookies.


*Side Note - Anyone else find it strange that Santa's mouth is always open?! Kind of creepy.

Back To Life as Usual

Grandma and Grandpa left last night after 3 great months of living with us. It's hard to believe it was 3 months because it flew by . . . but it was.

When they got here, Max was a month old and still all pink and wrinkly. Now he has beautiful olive color skin, rosy cheeks, arched eyebrows, and full-body wrinkles that have 'botoxed' into fat rolls. He is definitely a looker. And oh how he had Grandma wrapped around his little finger.
And Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam was all smiles when they got here and was all smiles when they left. A bit more mischievous and reckless (ie: loves to stand on kitchen table and swing chandelier) but still a happy kid. He was Grandpa's little buddy and loved the endless number of big people to read books to him. I bet Grandma & Grandpa read him over 100 books while they were here. Many never got finished, but they all sure got started.

Bo was of course ultra excited about having the extra live-in playmates. He and Grandma played hard and played long. Some of their favorite games were Monster Hunt (crawl around the dark basement floor with flashlights and look for monsters or bears), box camping, box forting, or pretty much any other game associated with a big cardboard box (first our tv box and then our dishwasher box). But regardless of what they played, they always had fun (minus Bo slapping Grandma across the cheek in about week 3 in above mentioned box for supposedly not playing right ???) and they always laughed hard.

The extra help was not just with the kids, though, but with housework as well. Karl had a honey-do list a mile long that he knocked out for us (finish shed interior, paint garage floor, tear down old shed, repair boiler, replace dryer light bulb, install heater fan in bathroom, repair hole in guest bath ceiling, paint bathroom . . .) and Marcia was a cleaning fool: laundry, dishes, vacuuming; you name it, she cleaned it. They were a ginormous help. I can not thank them enough.

But now they are gone, the guest room empty, and laundry is drowning us all.

Our New Roommates

I have had a few roommates in the past . . .

Kelly from Lodgepole-Freshman year with the Chip and Dales and verbatim Days of Our Lives recaps in between the meticulous dorm room cleanings in place of test preparation

Nicole from Ontario-Sophomore & Junior year in Melrose Place with hot tea and creamer, bagels, lots of gymnastics, annoying loud light switch, and endless boyfriends with babies sleeping on the couch

Rachael, Mindy & Gina-Senior year home hell with stolen toilet paper, fights over food, caddy bitchiness and lots of lies

. . . but never any as great as the ones we have now.

Wes' parents moved in with us about a month ago and it is absolutely wonderful having them here. They decided they wanted to be near their grandkids and finally gave up on us moving back there so they packed up their car and drove all the way from Iowa (most of it in snow, poor guys) to come live with us.

Their plan is to try it out until Spring and then decide if this is where they really want to hang their hat (and coat, and gloves, and scarves, and . . . Ok, you get the picture).

Assuming the winter isn't too overly annoying, they will head back home, pack up all their things, sell their house and move up here for good.

But in the mean time, they are settling in and remembering all too well what a house full of screaming kids is like with mountains of laundry, endless cleaning, neglected home projects, early kid wakings and horribly stinky dirty diapers while the rest of us (ahem, me) are loving the extra help around the house, the ability to hand a kid off when needed, and the chance to go to the gym alone. (Oh the gym. How I have missed you so.)

So goodbye roommate weirdness of the past. Hello roommate luxury of now.