One of the many reasons...

I love my husband is because he says things like "Gad Zooks." Who says that? Brian. That's who. He just said it.

Christmas 2007

We headed for Rexburg on Saturday, the 22nd. It was my birthday, and the best present of all is that Eric and Andrew travelled really well. Eric hardly cried.....compared to our July trip home when he cried (screamed) 85% of the time, it was amazing. And on Christmas Eve it snowed all day. I love a white Christmas.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun -- Andrew danced to his "Bob the Builder" tool belt that plays the theme song and he loved his new "Dump Bunk." Eric was also all smiles....loved the green bow on his present.

Brian also pulled through -- having hardly done any shopping in Salt Lake, he managed to find some great presents for me at Walmart in Rexburg. (:

Oh, and Andrew loved playing with Daisy, my brother's dog. This is great since he has not been around dogs much. Eric thought Daisy was very funny too. He thinks everyone is funny these days. (:

Like Father, Like Son

One of my favorite things is watching Andrew copy his dad. This morning he was out shoveling with Brian...and during the summer he mows the lawn with him.




You will notice he has one mitten on in these pictures. Brian would wear work gloves when he worked outside, so Andrew would run in for his gloves too. I'm not sure why he only has one on here....maybe we couldn't find the other one.

Going Public

So I've been keeping this blog for a few weeks, but have yet to tell anyone about it. I guess I'm just intimidated by all the really good bloggers out there. But now that I at least have some cute pictures of my kids up, I guess I'm going to "go public" by inviting a few friends who will like me regardless.

Happy Viewing.

Merry Christmas

Each year for Christmas I make a calendar for my parents with all the grandkids. So today I tried to get a couple of pictures of my kids holding "Merry Christmas" signs to go on the front cover. I took about 20 pictures. I cannot get them to hold still...as you can see:

The Holidays

I just got back from Target and TJ Maxx. I used to be a great shopper -- always finding some good deals. Now it seems like I go to the store and whether I spend 15 minutes or 1 hour, I end up not finding what I wanted, yet feeling like I spent too much anyway. I read an article by Mary Ellen Edmunds today -- I think it was a portion of her book "You can never get enough of what you don't need." Perhaps this is what my problem is. But I must admit, the Christmas advertising gets to me. It just all looks like so much fun, but then it's not. When will I learn?

Andrew and Eric have colds -- mostly coughing. No congestion yet, so that's nice. I really don't like cleaning out other people's noses, no matter how little they are.

We bought a new camera online. So soon we will be posting some pictures for all to see. I feel like Eric's changing a lot right now, so we need to get some pics of him.

2-piece

Tomorrow morning I have to go and take an Echo Cardio Stress test. Today the hospital called to give me directions:

- no food or water 4 hours previous
- no heart medication
- comfortable shoes (it's a treadmill test)
- comfortable, 2-piece clothing.

That last one made me chuckle....those directions just suggest that someone came to do their treadmill run in some one-piece get-up. ha. Fortunately for everyone, I will not be wearing my shiny purple unitard tomorrow.

And for all those concerned, I'm taking the test because I infrequently experience brief moments of chest pain. The Dr. doesn't think it's anything serious (no heart attack) but we're doing a test just to see what's going on in their. I'm not too worried...mostly just embarrassed to do the test.

Peeeeyooo

"Smells like a horsey in here." That's what Andrew said after we changed his diaper today. Woo-wee. I guess it's time to potty train....then at least only the bathroom will smell like a horsey.

Halloween

My last posting was so serious...I thought I'd better add something a little more fun. So here it is...our Halloween picture. I was a Price is Right contestant, Brian was a Hawaiian tourist, Andrew a giraffe, and Eric a bee.

I'm just not that hippy in my mind! Must have been the camera angle. :(

Staying at Home

Tonight we discussed "Pope Joan" at book club. We had an interesting conversation on women. Before becoming a Stay at Home Mom, I knew what I wanted: I wanted to be a Stay at Home Mom. That was the goal. I knew it would be a lot of work and that I wouldn't have a lot of time for myself. I knew the days were filled with doing laundry, negotiating 2-year-olds, and over-tired babies. Yet, I think I expected to feel so much different while doing these tasks. (Not to mention, I thought I'd be good at it all!)

Surprise, surprise. This feels way different. Not all bad, of course, just different.

One of the women at book club said she read something about mother's expecting to feel 100% fulfilled, 100% of the time. I've been thinking about that....I think I've expected to have some sort of warm, fuzzy, motherly feeling. And once in a while I do -- when I'm reading a book with Andrew, or making Eric laugh. But I must admit that most of the time I feel tired. Very, very tired.

And surprise, surprise....Eric has woken up (10 hours too early.) He must have sensed my contemplative, feel-sorry-for myself mood and is going to distract me from it.

Creativity (or lack of)

It seems that "blogs" are the new thing -- well, not really new, but new among my friends that keep asking me if I blog. So I started thinking about it a few weeks ago, but wondered if I really have the creativity to make it interesting. So yesterday when someone asked me if I blogged, i decided I'd give it a try. Sometimes I have too much to say...why not put it in writing?

So then I sign up to start a blog, and immediately have to answer 2 questions to enunciate my lack of creativity: my username and blog title. I tried to think creatively, but in the end I decided not to fake it. My username: CP, my initials. Brilliant. My blog title: Carol Poelman Blog. I even forgot to make it possessive and grammatically correct. We can pretend it's because I was being creative. (Like my internet carrier who uses the creative slogan: "Simply the Bestest." Totally bugs me.)

Later, I'll attach pictures, which is probably what most people want to see. Now I must read while the kids are asleep.