3 YEARS OLD!!!

Today, was all about Grady...since it was his 3rd Birthday! I'm amazed to be even typing that...I still think of him as my Baby, but everyday he's growing "bigger and stronger"...amazing.

We kept the festivities simple, and had a hot dog cookout with the fam and a few friends. The weather actually cooperated, despite the freeze last night, and we spent the entire day playing outside in the fort and on the trampoline. It was a little windy, but I love letting the hoodlums run themselves ragged in the fresh air. :)

Here is a shot of some of the craziness going on in the Treehouse/Fort. There was sidewalk chalk, a newly installed steering wheel, and a periscope involved. :)

The hit of the day was definitely the series of "open cars" Grady received from those who so wonderfully hunted them down. "Open cars" are simply cars whose doors open. Yep-that simple, but the gold standard in Grady's world. Once he opened these little beauties, he had eyes for nothing else.
Happy Birthday Little Man! I hope your day was superfun. I love you.

actual scientific science fair project results

"This one was not a dud."

-a sixth grader

a study in contagious disease

Grady---->Tanner---->Madison---->Abby (cousin)---->Todd---->Gary---->Elaine (Todd's Coworker)---->Audit Team Member (also working with Todd)---->Danielle---->Becky?

This is the path pink eye has taken through our house in the last 2 weeks. Personally, I am very fearful of this particular infection and have dry, brittle hands from washing them so often from the onslaught of our infestation. Yesterday, however, my eyes started feeling a little muddled. I've been self medicating since that time. Todd's eyes look like they have been turned inside out, and I'm paranoid we are going to start the entire process over again if we don't kick this in its little pink booty.

Moral of the story: Wash your hands every minute of every day, and quarantine yourself and your family.

Also: stay away from our house! yikes!

Skiing Lessons - Check!

Todd and Madison went skiing with Todd's parents over Spring Break. Todd came up with a Master Plan to teach each kid individually how to ski, so when we go as a big Clan it won't be such a BEAT DOWN with 3 kids not having the skills. That's his story anyway...

Madison had superfun with her one-on-one daddy time, despite running herself a little haggard and into a coughing stupor.

I wonder if Todd's teaching methods worked?

Francis Coppolla-Alicante Bouschet 2007

My friend, Jennifer, gave me this bottle after a week of "sharing kids." You know those weeks where you feel like you've called in every favor to every friend? I think that's how Jennifer must have felt (even though I'd happily pick up kids and take them anywhere anytime!) She gave me this lovely little end-of-week-present after one of those kind of weeks.

Todd and I decided to celebrate spring, and our productive day in the yard with this bottle-and it was so lovely! It was a little more dry than we usually go for, but we still give it a 3.5 on our little 5 point scale.

Thanks Jennifer!

Danielle, there are NOT Shasta Daisies growing in our yard....

Ummm...really? because this is what I found growing under some trees out back. Call me crazy, but I THINK that's a daisy...TODD

I totally found these beauties growing "wild" in my backyard! It was like finding buried treasure in my love and peace kind of world. :) Everywhere we've moved I've planted some Shastas, and this time they popped up all on their own like some little present from nature. How cool is that??

all about me

Today, I met my friend, Sona, at Babies R Us to help her register. SO SUPER FUN! It was such a different experience from when I tried to register 8 years ago-only to leave in tears. I can't believe how much knowledge I have of all those products that were so foreign to me when Madison was a baby. I guess I have learned something! Of course there were some new inventions, like the way cool paci-purse, and a bottle mixer (!), but most things were old hat, and hopefully, I didn't sound too bossy explaining their necessity. Ok, I was pretty bossy one time-Sona thought she didn't need a pack-n-play. She explained that she had a crib and a cradle, so didn't see the need in another sleeping place for baby. I ever-so-nicely explained that the pack-n-play could be set up in the living room for sleeping baby, in the yard for crawling baby, and in a hotel for traveling baby. So, she fell to my peer pressure when we found one that matched her crib bedding. Nothing like mixing and matching to push the argument over the edge!! She won't be sorry though, even the Babies R Us-father of 3-ex marine-worker guy (bloggable issue on its own right there!) was a little shocked that I had to lay on the pressure for that one. :) We registered for over 150 items, and I think have enough variety for Sona and Kevin to have a little stash here and there for each stage of baby-ness and toddler-ness. I have to admit, looking at all the baby stuff did make me yearn for when my babies were babies-but not necessarily to go back to that time. There's something to be said for the ability to use the potty and to read. :)

From there, we had a lovely lunch and chatted the early afternoon hours away. I'm pretty sure our waiter was ready for us to pack up, because our table was shiny clean when we returned from a superfast potty break. I guess it was time to part ways anyway, and Sona headed home to drift into a well earned nap!

Only then, did I realize I had the entire afternoon to myself if I took advantage of it-so I did! I felt a little guilty at the realization and abuse of my newfound freedom, but trudged on anyway. I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing Old Navy, listening to my OWN MUSIC (Todd Snider!), sipping iced tea (blah), grocery shopping (alone!!), and getting my toes done (flip flop season is here!). I savored each moment of doing ONLY what I wanted to do, and concentrating on recharging my spirit from the past crazy week.

I arrived home refreshed, calm, and ready to tackle my reunited family-which is good since Madison is coughing up a lung and delirious with fever. Here we go again...

Lent: 23 Days and Still Going Strong!

Not sure Danielle can say the same! I don't think the Miller household uses the same rule book on lent as me...40 days, 40 nights right? Danielle said her mom told her that you can have what you have given up on Sunday's during lent. Can someone confirm this, or is this something a weak minded Catholic made up?

Irish Heather

Flowers were just delivered to my house! I'm a very girly girl in this respect and have always loved to get flowers. I know usually it's a waste, since they wilt and pass on to flower heaven and all, but it is so lovely to be suprised with some pretty petals. Today, my Grandpa and Aunt sent some Irish Heather in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I know my Grandma was on their mind as well; this was the first St. Patrick's day without her, and she loved being Irish. I found some lyrics below that seemed to fit both the flowers and the day....

A Sprig of Irish Heather

An Irish mother writing to her son so far away
Said "I meant to send a shamrock to wear on Patrick's Day
But the shamrock is a tender a plant, it's beauty soon will fade
So a spring of Irish heather I'm sending you instead"
cho: Just a sprig of Irish heather
That has seen all kinds of weather
It stood the heat of summer
And survived the winter's cold
I'm sending to remind you
Of the friends you left behind you
In Tyrone, among the bushes
In the days of long ago.
But remember Carradonough and the mass rock standing there
How we oft'times knelt together and you'd whisp a childish prayer
Many times since then I've wandered when the evening shadows steal
So I plucked this heather from the spot where once you used to kneel
But the years from me are slipping and I know I'm growing old
By the fireside lonely sitting, and the nights are dark and cold
But I know your smile would cheer me and make sunshine out of blue
So come back to me macushla, when the heather is in bloom.
(repeat chorus)
Just a spring of Irish heather, sent with love from long ago.
Recorded by Margo, and Declan Nerney, in Ireland.
BO'B
oct97

Arm Update

Yesterday, we met with the Orthopedic Doctor to check on Grady's arm. They did a few xrays with the cast on, showed us the pictures, explained exactly where the injury was, and how it was healing. I have to give kudos to this doctor for involving me in the process and explaining the course of treatment-the radiologist last week left a little to be desired in that respect. In any case, after we all mulled over the xrays, and I explained the tragedy of the submerged cast, he decided to take the cast off. WITH A SAW! YIKES! I prepared for Grady to completely FREAK OUT as we took a power tool to his arm, but said doctor was WONDERFUL and Grady actually cracked up during the entire process. There was one moment of sadness when he realized his "cast had a broken heart," but other than that, all was good.

We then took more xrays, and the Doc decided a splint would be a good solution for the next few weeks. I was super pumped about this given the bathtime beatings of the last week, until Grady figured out how to take the splint off every 5 seconds. Ugh. As we were concluding our nice 2 hour visit, I mentioned Tanner's toe-just to give myself peace of mind. It's been bothering me that it was his BIG toe-that toe seems so important! Again, the doctor reassured me that all was well, and taping to the next toe for a makeshift splint was the best course of treatment. He must have sensed my anxiety at all the medical drama of the last week, because as we were leaving he put his hand on my shoulder and said "You did good mom-great questions, and no-you did not overreact." :)

Always nice to be reassured that I'm not crazy-I think I've mentioned that before? Anyway, we are healing around here. The eyes are nice and healthy, bones are knitting well. Not bad for a week of recovery.

St. Patty's Day Fun

Green Mac and Cheese doesn't really take the place of cornbeef and cabbage, but as Irish as we are, I just can't stomach that particular dinner. :) The kids enjoyed their green lunch, and I did take them over to Mom's this evening for a true Irish dinner of ham and cabbage...a little bit higher on my yummy list.

We put on our green, made some shamrock cookies, and hope the leprechauns don't pass us by tonight! We're also starting to miss our Madison and Todd-just one more day and we'll be a big ol' bag o' fun again. :)

how much is that puppy in the window?

I might be developing a crush on this little guy too. Lord help me and my sanity.

this can't be for real

When Todd is out of town I become quite the insomniac. I guess I feel safer with my big strong man around. right.

So, while I was watching TV in the late hours of the night, or early hours of the morning depending on your perspective, I was slapped with a commercial for this website.

http://www.onlinebootycall.com/

How weird is that?? Is that how it is out there in the dating world?? If so, I'm enrolling my kids in a convent and monastery ASAP. I can do that, right?

House of Crazy

So, I reported on Grady's broken arm earlier this week. We've adjusted to the cast around here, other than submerging it once in the bathtub. It looks like I'm going to have to call the Dr. and ask for recasting tomorrow...

Well, Friday-Tanner fell of the stool in the kitchen and subsequently broke his big toe (per my diagnosis). It's pretty black and swollen, so I've taped it to his other toe and will make note of it tomorrow at the pediatrician.

Also-there are 4 pink eyes in this house at the latest count. One more question for our pediatrician. I wonder if I will have to pay like 40 copays for all these?

Oh! How could I forget...Todd picked up a lost puppy last week. He has been "looking for it's home" all this week, and in the meantime the kids have named it Marley and fallen in love with it. Anyone need a dog?

Todd and Madison ran away from this house of crazy to go skiing for spring break. Todd's master plan is to take each kid individually so that when we go as a family we won't be so beat down teaching 3 kids to ski. In the meantime, I'm here with the boys and all this chaos.

Tell me, other houses are equally crazy, right? It's not just us, is it??

and still-no diet coke for me. :(

Flat Stanley

Recently, Madison had a Flat Stanley project where she read a book, then sent a Flat Stanley to someone who would go on a superfun adventure with him. Now, I don't know much about Flat Stanley, other than he's flat and he goes lots of fun places. I do know that we decided to send our Flat Stanley to my mom's cousin, Carolyn (a kindergarten teacher in Tucson, AZ). This was pretty much the best decision I've made as a mom thus far-our Flat Stanley had such an adventure!!! Last night during open house we saw the bulletin board of all the Stanleys, and I'm going to say-ours had the most fun of all of them. Way to go Carolyn!! We have two more Stanleys headed your direction in the next few years. :)

Extraordinary Eagle

Tanner was picked as an Extraordinary Eagle this six weeks!! Normally, I wouldn't be so braggish, but this year has been o-so-trying for us. I'm not sure what I've done as a mom, but so far-with both kids-kindergarten has been a challenge in the behavior department. It's not like they've burned down the school, but "signing folders" and "pulling cards" are regular phrases around here. I've explained to them both that their job is to learn how to BE A GOOD STUDENT, and to BE SOMEONE THE TEACHER CAN COUNT ON. Maybe it's sunk in a little, or maybe it's just Tanner's lucky Chuck E. Cheese coin that he's started carting back and forth to class. Either way, I'm glad we've made some progress, and Tanner has made at least one connection on how to behave as a model student. :)

Coffee

In the absence of diet coke, I have taken up a coffee habit. Only-I can't make it worth crap. I tried twice last weekend. The first was just coffee flavored water, and the second was tar-flavored coffee. I've been drinking the coffee at school with vanilla creamer. Yummy enough...but I'd like to recreate that at home on the weekends.

What's the secret? Do I have to join a club or something?

if ever there was a day to drink a diet coke, this was it

Grady broke his arm yesterday.

Yes, the first broken bone of the Scroggins house belongs to Grady, the one with such a history already. I guess I'm due-I put my parents through many ER trips, casts, crutches, stitches, and ace bandages. I just didn't expect the payback to start at age 3...I was ready for it to start in just a few more years.

God's funny with his little plan sometimes, isn't He?

Yesterday, when I went to pick Grady up from his "bigger and stronger school", his class was on the playground. Just as I turned the corner, Grady fell out of one of those Little Tyke cars onto the ground-something he does constantly, but this time his weight landed just a little too hard on his forearm. He didn't buffer his fall with his butt, or other arm, or side, or anything-nothing hit the ground but his arm. Needless to say, he was very upset at that time, but he seemed to become increasingly more upset as we drove away. Plus, he only wanted Todd. "I want my Daddy. He's my best friend!" So, I called Todd-told him about the incident, and asked if we could drop by work for a minute. We did, and by that time I had decided Grady wasn't using his left arm-at all. After Grady (very pitifully) explained to Todd that he was his best friend, we all headed to the clinic for an xray. Once there, we called our pediatrician who then sent us straight to the Imaging Center.

As a sidenote, we have developed a unique relationship with our pediatrician, and now when we call-she knows there is usually something that needs immediate response. You might remember Madison somehow wedging her earring back into her ear, or Tanner's spider bite turned infection. Those are just the most recent traumas we've experienced. There are many others that I could add to the list. I'm not sure why we are so susceptible to these moments, so I'm going to go with God's plan again. He only gives us what we can handle, right? I guess he thinks I'm pretty stable. He's so silly.

But back to the story-Grady survived the Xray, with his emotions not too out of whack. The radiologist confirmed the break, and our beloved pediatrician called me with the plan: Wrap overnight with an ace bandage, and head to her office in the morning for splinting or casting. So, this morning-that's what we did. I can't believe how well Grady sat and let the nurse do her thing, but he did. Once the cast was on, he proceeded to bang his arm on everything since 1-it didn't hurt anymore, and 2-it was a "rock". We celebrated with donuts and a new toy. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at home-out of the rain.

Grandad stopped by with a "get better soon" present, and was the first to sign the cast. (He even brought his own sharpie!). Gran bonded with him for a few minutes while I ran Madison to gymnastics, and Grandmom left a little surprise on our kitchen counter while we were out. He seems to be managing the new appendage pretty well, but, overall-an exhausting day. really.

Dino-Mania

We spent this weekend working on Madison's Dinosaur Project. (Thank goodness we had no other plans!) We've had a not-so-great track record with at-home projects so far in "our" elementary career with me having a very kid-centered philosophy of school work, but we threw ourselves into this one 150%.

We started with some internet how-to research, and then went shopping for every possible art supply that would help us MAKE a dinosaur model and habitat. Todd guided the assembling portion of the dinosaur. Newspaper, masking tape, and paper mache...that's how we started.

I helped with the paper mache and plastering of the model (& volcano we decided to add to the background). Madison was super skeptical about the entire process. She had been adamant about using only clay. Since wal-mart's clay section was completely picked over, we had to problem solve a different solution, and convince Madison that the paper mache would be super cool and MESSY-which would of course be the best part. This afternoon we started the painting extravaganza. You can see Thaine in the background of this pic working on his Thomas Edison project-it was a studious weekend at the Scroggins' household!It was finally time to paint the official dinosaur. We weren't sure how to get started, so we gathered up all the dinos in the house to use as a guide. Our finished product was a combination of all said dinos. We also kept running out of paint colors, so had to improvise with the patterns.
I have to admit, I was a little bossy on where to put which color, and even picked up the paintbrush a time or two (or fifty) to speed the process along. Finally, we put the scene together. This was Madison's favorite part. We managed to fit in that clay she was dying to use, and made some pebbles and trees. She did admit that the paper mache was pretty dern fun though, and even said she was glad I talked her into it. :)

Drumroll please....The finished product!! I'm so glad it's over (only have 2 more dinos to look forward to making with Tanner and Grady! Yay memories!). Madison feels much better about this project than a previous boat project in first grade that we won't discuss at this time. I'd like to hope she's begun the lesson of "trying her best"...but ya, this time she might have had a side lesson in parental guidance in project making...against my own wishes.

19 Minutes-Jodi Picoult

I've been trying to write a post on my most recent Book Club pick, 19 Minutes, but it hasn't been coming out the right way. It's almost like there is too much to say-that I can't really give it justice with my own words. So, I'll just say-it's really really good, which is odd to say since it's about a school shooting. That may be the main reason I'm having such a difficult time putting the pencil to the paper on this one-I guess I have a little inner turmoil recommending something so somber.

As a teacher and a parent, I feel connected on both sides of this issue-but this book connected the two sides in an unexpected way. If you don't have this on your reading list, add it. But-make sure you have someone to discuss it with after you've finished. You'll want to.

Slogans

Tanner: "Mommy, does Wal-Mart really Expect More Pay Less?"

Mommy: *laughing hysterically*

Tanner: "What? Does it Expect More Pay More?"

a weekend away

We made a field trip this weekend down to Houston to visit Natalie and her fam. It was our turn to make the drive since they were here just last year. It's crazy to think it's been a whole year since we hung out, but I guess that's what they mean when they say time flies. It's always so nice and relaxing to hang with them-I wish we both had settled in towns closer together. *sigh*

We rolled in about 10:00 Friday night after waiting for school to let out, stopping one million times to go potty, and stopping once for Todd to tank up on cheese enchiladas. No meat on Fridays left our fast food choices more limited than we anticipated, and Todd was having no part of me packing cheese sandwiches for a quickie dinner. He's so spoiled like that. :) We stayed up late catching up, and listening to Todd's unlimited knowledge on flat screen TVs.

Saturday, it was COLD! I had no idea Houston even knew HOW to be cold! Just our luck I suppose. Despite the chilly temperatures, I kicked my kids outside to use up some of their energy. The boys especially. Grady had taken to using Mackenzie's play hairdryer for a gun and the living room had turned into his war zone. Crazy boys.

Patti and her Tony came up for the afternoon (when we got Happy Hour going), and the boys played Chad's new golf-ball-throwing-game. The girls stayed in the kitchen talking "woman talk"-why is it things always work out like that? We talked the boys into taking the kids to the park when the day warmed up a bit. I think we finally burned some of the Scroggins energy, and Mackenzie and Reagan were all smiles playing with their 'friends'. Madison seems to be pretty popular among 2-4 year old girls. :)

All was good until Grady realized he needed some Mommy time-then he blew that whole park deal and headed home. I'm pretty popular with a certain 2 year old little boy. We all have our talents I guess. :) We finished out the evening with fajitas, beverages and Wii Golf-with Todd as a commentator. I don't even have to elaborate on his explanation of how to put the ball in the hole. You all know how he is! Sometimes he is a little funny...I guess.

This morning I was pretty impressed that we were all dressed and out the door by 8:30 for Church. Natalie and Chad are good influences like that-Grady's lucky to have them for Godparents. We got on the road after lunch and headed home; now we are unpacked and ready for the week ahead-a little refreshed from a mini-vacation with some of our favorite people. Thanks so much Nat and fam!!