Snow Day!

It was predicted that we would receive anywhere from 9"-14" of snow on Friday and it was scheduled to begin anytime after 9AM. But other than the grey skies above the only other sign of things to come was the fact that school was canceled and not a single flurry had touched the ground.

The start time was continuously being pushed back on all the radio stations and I began to wonder if the day off from school would end up being a waste. We bided our time by playing and waiting patiently for the much anticipated storm.

The kids have had a bad case of cabin/holiday fever for about a week, month, ok since at least Halloween, so I immediately wracked my brain for things to do that would occupy them during what could be a long, torturous day. We ran out to the post office so that I could buy stamps to send Christmas cards to all you lovely people in the hopes that you might actually receive them PRIOR to Christmas. After that we ran over to the grocery store and picked up some items in order to begin baking cookies. After all, if there was no snow, cookies could always be counted on as an instant "pick-me-up".

And after much waiting, the snow finally began to fall...and fall...and it accumulated quickly. The boys were napping when it began so I took the opportunity to shovel the driveway in the hopes that when Bill arrived home he would be able to make it up to the garage without having to park on the street in order to clear it himself. I made two passes on it and yet when he arrived shortly thereafter he still had to clear it again before making his way to the top.

Around 4pm we bundled up the kids and went outside to play. This is the first year that Robert was old enough to play in it so of course I snapped a couple of "first time" pictures.

We also threw an impromptu snow/cookie making/reason to drink some wine party with the neighbors which turned into a sleepover for Megan and their oldest daughter. The kids had a great time and even though we had rather slow start it turned out to be one of those memorable snow days that will always stick in our minds.

Welcome to my world of moderation

Well, I knew it could happen. In fact, I've read on other blogs when an entry or photo of another parent's child has been violated either via comments, stolen or modified photos, etc. But I guess in my own naivety, I thought that my blog wouldn't or couldn't be affected by this. Unfortunately, the sick world that we all live in has hit this little blog and rocked my tiny corner of the world.

It's certainly a heavy and sick feeling to read that someone has taken an innocent photo and entry and turned it into something it isn't. Their own sick imagination creating more of an image than is there to begin with. The hardest part as a parent is dealing with that initial shock. The second hardest is forcing yourself to fight back in the most passive way possible. Definitely not what my instincts were telling me I should be doing.

So after immediately turning on the "moderate comments" feature, I took a deep breath before making another move. Unfortunately more comments were received, each more offensive than the last, and so Bill and I discussed the best possible way to move forward.

1. Go completely aggressive and password protect the entire blog.
2. Remove the mentioned entry in it's entirety.
3. Remove the mentioned photo.

Instead of jumping the gun on this one, I've decided to work my way backwards through the list above. So for now, all that you will notice is that your comments will not be published immediately as they were in the past. Instead I can now choose whether to publish, moderate or reject your comments as they come in.

But if that freaky ass pedophile is still out there waiting for another entry to violate and chooses to continue stalking my blog, that password protection isn't so far up the list that we can't jump ahead to option #1.

Scary, wild and crazy

The title pretty much sums up what has been going on around here for the past week. The scary part comes from the numerous diggers that Robert has been taking. The other evening he overestimated the distance between himself and the pillows that he was dive bombing and slammed head first into the head board. Enter immediate goose egg, some crying and later only a small bruise to account for it. Last evening, he decided to crawl up onto the dining room chair and while standing backwards it toppled over. As I came running from the other room I found him clinging to the rungs and kneeling on the back of it, screaming of course. I immediately began checking for pinched fingers or a bloody mouth (which seems to be the norm for him) only to discover the other side of his head growing an enormous and rather purple egg on it. An ice pack on it seemed to calm him considerably and although the blood came to the surface the skin never broke so all that he's been left with is a nasty brush burn looking spot on his noggin.

Regarding the wild...it's always kind of wild around here with the three kids but particularly so in the past few weeks. Chalk it up to holiday chaos, being cooped up indoors now that it's colder outside or all of the above, I'm really not sure. But we've also found out that Matt has been acting up in school. I think his teacher was in a rather crabby mood when she unloaded on me the other morning but regardless, he's been spoken to about this issue almost on a daily basis now. I just don't want him turning into the class pain-in-the-ass, if you know what I mean.

And the crazy...well see the above for most of it. But here is some evidence of the craziness that Robert is making us endure.



And it's the holidays so it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Right now, the crazy is spilling over to the adults too...

Recent discussions

While driving home from hockey one morning, we somehow got on the subject of "what do you want to be when you grow up". As we were discussing options with Matt such as a doctor, lawyer, fighter pilot, UFC champion, etc, Matt assured us that he knew exactly what he wanted to be.... A Zamboni driver. (I guess it could be worse.)

**************************************

As Bill was playing with Robert one day, he continuously called out for "DADDY"! Knowing how much I would love to hear this kid say Mommy, Bill tried coaxing it out of him. After numerous tries and getting blabbering from Robert, Bill finally questioned him if he knew who Mommy was. Without a beat Robert replied, "No".

***************************************

Somehow or another Megan, Matt and I were talking about becoming mommy's and daddy's someday and Megan asked me how I became one. Of course I told her that in order to be a mommy I had to take a test. If I passed it I could become a mommy. If not, I would have to be a daddy. To this day the kids remind me about how I passed the test and Daddy didn't. (They also believe that I have eyes in the back of my head. Gullible kids.)