Tagged - Debi's attempt at getting me to blog....

1.  4 Places I go
 - Ruthie's school
 - Lucy's school
 - The Y
 - Meijer

2. 4 Favorite smells
 - Fall
 - Kiwi Candle (Ergo Candle)
 - Simon's cologne
 - Beer

3. 4 Favorite Shows or Movies
 - Parenthood
 - Modern Family
 - 7th Heaven
 - Dirty Dancing

4.Reccommendations
 - Take a leap of faith
 - Excercise Daily
 - Half Shamrock Shake - Half Chocolate Shack - OH YEA
 - Tell the people you love, you love them often.

5.4 people I tag
 - I got no one.

Bisson Update!

Yes, it has been a while and alot has happened.

First, my cell phone was stolen and then I was harassed for money to get it back.  They called Simon's cell, our home, the police were involved.  It was crazy.  The final straw was when they hacked my facebook and posted as me with a status update "I was leaving simon".  I had to go off the grid for a while and am still pretty removed as my blog was on my phone and I really don't want to piss anyone off.  We have changed phone numbers, got a new phone, lost all my contacts and am not on facebook so talk about losing all touch with the outside world.  Still working with verizon to get contacts back and get my replacement phone to work.  It has been almost 2 weeks!

Simon started his new job on Monday.  He is the Assistant Dean (I will try and find his official title, cuz there is more to his title) at Case.  He is super excited as this job will take our family back to my hometown of Cleveland.  We are excited for Grandparents, friends and family to be close and to see them tons! Plus, Case is a really great school and we are so proud of him.

Lucy has been fighting a 104* fever for the past few days, I am sick and Ruthie is the only one holding strong.  Good times.

We are snowed in with tons of snow.  Good times!

Simon is still on facebook and I have been checking in with the outside world through his page.  So if you haven't friended him, please do so that we can be in contact.

Pictures and updates to follow soon!


 

Night Sledding

Last weekend while celebrating Bisson Family Fun Day.  We went to see Tangled.  Which was interesting, not a few days after we set off our lanters there is a scene in the movie with billions of lanterns illuminating the night sky.  I don't think I need to tell you who cried.... I will give you a hint.... it wasn't a girl.  We had a wonderful family dinner, then decided to go sledding at our neighbors.  They were not home so we built a fire in their fire-pit.  Let the girls sled, and had a wonderl, albeit, freezing night of fun. 



great fire for keeping warm while sledding.  5* outside



"I have made fire"... Or.... I am just happy because I am drinking Rum.

exhausted sitting next to the fire.

LUCY - Bringing LULU Back

Lucy has really had quite the year at school.  She LOVES going every day and has made some wonderful friends.  This is something most parents may take for granted, but she had an awful year last year.  She did not like her teachers and I would have to drag her to school kicking and screaming.  While I know not all teachers have to like all children, you really don't expect that to occur in Pre-school and literally this teacher just did not have the time of day for Lucy.  She was actually part of the reason she changed her name.  After some girls told her that her name was Stupid.  ****  Yes, mean girls do exist even when you're 3 and you are friends with 4 and 5 years olds.  They essentially told her that her name was "Stupid".  Then when she mentioned it at school to said teacher.... That teacher said that it was "funny" that she only had 2 letters in her name.  Hence why all of a sudden a girl that was LULU for a solid 3 1/2 years since birth changes her name to LUCY.  The name change was a shock to me at first, and then when she would get literally SO upset, be forced to tears if you called her LULU, being her biggest advocate, I worked SO hard to help her change her name.  I don't think I ever really slip up and most people take the lead by what I call her.  So Lucy it was.

Well Anyway, she has had an amazing year.  She really was shy for the most part at camp and on days that our nanny Ashley was not there.  (Nice for some people to get a day off)  She wouldn't leave my side.  Wouldn't go with anyone or trust anyone.  Now, all she talks about is camp, she can't wait to go back (we will see about that).  Wants to go to her friends house for playdates and NEVER stops talking.  While she has almost always had her own sense of fashion it was almost like it was her way to express herself without having to talk. 

I took her to the Dentist the other day and for the past year and a half, Simon would have to leave work, meet us at the Dentist and sit in the chair with Lucy on his lap just so we could get her teeth cleaned.  Crazy!  So, we walk into the dentist, she jumps in the chair opens her mouth and giggles the whole time and talks to the hygienist and the dentist like this is her favorite place.  The hygienist kept looking at me like I must have brought the wrong child in to the appt. 

And the biggest change.....  She says she likes being called Lulu.  She really has always been more of a Lulu than she ever was a Lucy. 

I seriously can't keep up with her.  Yet, I am so proud of all the positive changes!

Spiderman

Ruthie loves to wear her spiderman outfit.  She loves to wear it and dance in it. 

This weekend while Simon was in the shower.  I told Ruthie to go put her costume on and just stand at the shower curtain not making a noise and see what daddy did.

Welll..... He screamed extremely loud and.......... IT WAS REALLY FUNNY!!!!

What would you do?

Yea, I am that funny.......

Look who is getting facetime on someone else's blog.....

I Can't imagine who would have her kid do this?  


***  (mom, when something is another color on a post it is usually a link so click on it - **  LIKE ABOVE)




**  And Debi, thanks for helping me find the humor in my everyday life.  Sometimes I become numb to it.

.

News Years Wish

We sent these off to the universe the other night with our New Years wishes written on them.  Lots of changes going on here!

Kitchen Towels

I have had people question my use in paper towels.  Yes, I use them, I use them more frequently than others.  If I dry my hands, I get a paper towel, and I may save it on the counter until the next time I use it. I do like to use sponges for cleaning up spills and regularly sanitize them. 

I would like to point out, I am SO not a clean freak.  Simon does about 80% of the cleaning in the house.  I can't quite figure out if it is because I am lazy or he is a clean freak.  He accused me the other day that our shower was turning into a camp shower.  Ummm, you SO know what he is talking about!  Literally the man just steam cleaned the dining room for the sake of it!

I stand firm and true though on my use of paper towels.  I have a drawer of black kitchen towels that I wash and use regularly as long as I pull it out of the draw and smell it first... you see, here is my dilemma.

A kitchen towel in this house is used for MANY things...  We have a towel rack on our oven and many a time one (and I use that term to identify anyone in the house other than ME) will grab that towel to clean up spills.  Whether they are on the floor, the counter, wherever.  Then if someone (ME) is not looking that towel gets placed back on the rack.  I have seen the towel be used for the floor, wiping a dog's foot, wiping a nose, and then put back on the rack.  I swear, I constantly am hiding towels so that they can be washed and not re-used dirty... But today takes the cake.

We have a ton of snow, and the girls were loading up the car to go to our friends house.  The garage door is up, and the car is running.  You know how dirty and wet a garage floor can get, well Lucy is getting loud and agitated in the garage and I go out to look....  There she is with a black kitchen towel  wiping up the puddles on the floor of the garage.  Yep, the garage door keeps dripping since it is up and she keeps getting annoyed that there are more puddles to clean.  With that, she storms in the house, puts the towel back on the rack and gets into the car.  On one hand you want to be proud (lord knows Simon is..)  since she is cleaning up puddles in the garage.  But of course, I can't help but shake my head, because there is the good old use full kitchen towel. 

And that is why I use paper towels.  Lord knows where that towel has been.


***  Earth conscious friends.  This is for humor purposes only.  I don't mean to offend anyone by not saving the world, one skanky towel at a time****

Brunch with Santa

We went to Brunch with Santa at the club last weekend and the girls LOVED it!  The food was fabulous as it is our favorite meal of the day!  Santa's attendance at the breakfast was of course the biggest hit!

Getting Ruthie to put a dress on was a large fight.  I negotiated with her a "cool" dress and the fact that I never make her wear what she doesn't want to wear and she could take one for the team by dressing up.

I told her that I wasn't like some moms and I don't make her wear huge frilly dresses with fake flowers and bows, and that I know she doesn't like to be girly so I chose a dress that fit her style.  I made her laugh by saying that there would be plenty of girls dressed like frilly princesses in dresses that I would NEVER make her wear.  I told her that whenever she saw a dress that was a little too girly and she was glad her mama didn't make her wear that she could look at me and wink.

I am pretty sure that most of the people at the brunch thought she had Tourett's ...  we definitely saw alot of girls in dresses she would rather die than wear.  Turned it into a fun game, and now, I think she may put that dress back on for Christmas mass. 

Thanksgiving

Is one of our favorite holidays to stay here and do nothing.  We were joined by our wonderful cousin Harper and had a lovely time doing nothing.  It was so much laying around doing nothing that no pictures were really taken.

Here is the girls and Harper in front of his welcome sign!

Here are some of our place cards for dinner, and the cards we made for people to write what they were thankful for.

The turkey's were toxic.  They actually had to be kept in the garage they smelled so bad.  So note to self, Styrofoam is an angry art supply that doesn't like to be painted with washable paint.  You would have thought I was trying to poison the house with the smell.  That and it only took 6 days for them to dry.  We painted them, and then left them in the garage for days, then we brought them out for dinner, and back to the trash.  I didn't want the girls to be discouraged and not use them but man, what a disaster!