Cold Medicine

Yesterday I woke up with a sinus headache.  I don't really know if that's what its called, but when I get one there is pressure in my head around my nose, my temples, and my forehead, and whenever I bend over my head feels like its going to explode.  I avoid taking cold medicine at all costs, but we had some medicine that said it was for sinus pressure and congestion and I have been eyeing it for awhile anytime I have a sinus headache wondering if it would work.  I took some.  Then about an hour later I remembered why I avoid cold medicine.  The rest of the afternoon I was walking around totally loopy and mentally out of it (I only took 1 pill!) and ready to fall asleep at any second, AND I still had pressure around my nose, my temples, my forehead and my head still felt like it was going to explode every time I bent over.  How is that helpful?  Its like that medicine they give you when you're in labor before they can give you an epidural.  You still feel all the pain of labor, but you're really drowsy and mentally out of it so you fall asleep between contractions and then wake up to excruciating pain but you're so out of it that by the time you figure out what's going on and can try to cope the contraction's almost over and you get loopy and fall asleep again.  Again: not helpful.  What is it with medicine.  At least now I know: that box that reads "For sinus pressure and sinus congestion"  is not my friend.  All its good for is if I need a better excuse than sleep deprivation to take a nap or act like a zombie.

A Tag

I know this is lame, but... I wanted to try and be better about doing semi-frequent posts, AND I got tagged by my sister awhile ago so I am killing 2 birds with one stone and you all get stuck with an Emily-centric, somewhat unentertaining post.  But I love these, and it's my blog, so too bad for you. :)

This is a series of questions and you have to answer each question with a one word answer.  It was fun, and in some ways easier and in others harder than I expected.

   1. Where is your cell phone? Dead

  2. Your significant other?  Awesome

  3. Your hair? Fixed

  4. Your Skin? Pale

  5. Your mother? Amazing

  6. Your favorite thing?  Food

  7. Your dream last night?  Unresolved

  8. Your favorite drink?  Undecided

  9. Your dream/goal?  BA

  10. The room you're in?   Family

  11. Your ex?  Who?

  12. Your fear? Loneliness

  13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy

  14. Where were you last night?  Home

  15. What you're not?  Decisive  (it took me the longest to get the answer to this question)

  16. Muffins? Tasty

  17. One of your wish list items?  Music

  18. Where you grew up?  Washington
     
  19. The last thing you did?  Surf

  20. What are you wearing? Clothes

  21. Your TV? On

  23. Your computer?  Mac

  24. Your life? Wonderful

  25. Your mood?  Mellow

  26. Missing someone?  Someone’s

  27. Your car?  Small

  28. Something you're not wearing?  Shoes

  29. Favorite Store? Target

  30. Your summer? Busy

  31. Like someone?  Husband

  32. Your favorite color?  Green

  33. When is the last time you laughed?  Today

  34. Last time you cried? Forgot

  35. What did you eat last?  Candy

36. Favorite Music? Danceable

I am tagging everyone who is even slightly tempted to do this, to do this. It's fun to fill out, and its fun to read what people put down (in my opinion).

First Haircut

Last week Miles had his first haircut. His hair wasn't terribly long, but the back was longer and thicker than the front so he was starting to sport the mullet.  What's the problem with that, you say?  Nothing really, if you idealize Chuck Norris, rednecks, or 80's hairstyles. Miles doesn't, yet.  Here's a shot of the "before:"

Here's a shot of the mullet-esque back: (note: I know mullet-esque is not a word, therefore I have no idea if it's spelled correctly or not.)

In my experience, little boys often have a hard time with haircuts. The whole concept of having to sit still in a chair for longer than 5 minutes while someone is messing around your head with a buzzing machine and sharp objects that you aren't allowed to touch seems to be a tough concept for them.  Surprisingly, Miles did awesome.  I might even go so far as to say it was one of the easiest haircuts I've ever given.

I did have to resort to giving him a sucker, but he kept wanting to see what I was doing so he needed a distraction, plus he was he totally earned it.

After one very sticky hairy boy, and some slightly hairy bathtub water, here's what we came out with.  So handsome!

P.S. Ignore the apron.  I usually wear a more traditional black stylists apron when cutting hair, but I had just finished cooking and eating dinner and still had this on so I used it instead.  (It's awesome huh? Come on, you know you want one too.)

Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry just had his 4th birthday!  Growing up my parents always sang Happy Birthday to us first thing in the morning.  I carry on that tradition.  Unfortunately Henry inherited my extreme dislike of mornings so he got mad at me for singing at him.  He said he didn't want his birthday, he didn't want his friends, and he didn't want his pirate party.  Luckily most of Henry's bad mood disappears once he has eaten something.  

He wanted to have dinosaur chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  I did my best; but Henry was happy and that was all that mattered.

Henry wanted a pirate party.  He was a pirate for Halloween so we decided he could wear his pirate costume and I would dress like a pirate too and we would do some pirate "things."  The problem was Henry is very impressionable and I made the mistake of letting him watch 'The Incredibles' the day before so he didn't want to be a pirate or wear his pirate costume, he wanted to be a "super".  So I dressed like a pirate and he wore his cape and his bike helmet (I didn't ask...).  I felt a little silly being the only dressed-up pirate, but I went along with the plan.

We played "pin the eye patch on Skinny Bones Jones" and "shoot the cannons" (knock around black balloons), and went on a treasure hunt.

I really get into the cakes on birthdays so I wanted to make a cool pirate-themed cake.  I went online and found instructions on FamilyFun.com for a pirate ship cake.  It was so easy and I was pretty proud of myself with the finished product.  I had way too much fun with that cake; seriously, I was almost sad to cut it.  (The following picture is for bragging purposes mainly.)

The kids might have been impressed with how the cake looked, but really, all they cared about was eating it.  "Cake, yumm..."

I had to put this picture in.  I love how I caught the "Ahh" look on Henry's face when opened this.

Finally after everyone went home he decided to put on some of his pirate costume and take a picture with me.

Later that evening we had a family party.  Henry got some more (boy) dress-up stuff.  He loves playing make believe and hero stuff so he got some more options to choose from for his daily world-saving adventures.

I also made him a cape.  He now has his own cape (yeah!).  But he still mostly wants to wear Kincaid's old one (boo).

Kincaid had a little bit of a hard time missing Henry's party and then watching Henry get all the new cool stuff.  But Henry is a great sharer and let Kincaid play with his new stuff (which later led to the new remote control car taking a bath. Lovely!)  And we reminded Caid not to worry, because in a few months it will be his turn to get new stuff and for his brothers to take it and break it too.

Officer Caid is on the watch!

My parents came later that evening to celebrate with us.  The boys and them had a great indoor football game.

Henry got to have an extended celebration also.  Sam's mom came over the next day to celebrate and tell Henry happy birthday also.  

We had a lot of fun celebrating Henry's birthday.  Thanks to everyone who helped him have such a great day. At the risk of getting mushy I will say that we are so happy to have Henry in our family and all the fun and adventure and "flammy snuggohs" that come with him.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween celebration started on October 25 when we went to Sam's Grandma's retirement home to visit her and attend their Halloween party.  (Well, actually it began on October 7th when I let the boys put up the Halloween decorations and start wearing costumes, but it would have begun in August if I would have given in to their constant pleading.)  Here are the boys, great grandma and some of their other cousins:

Henry was a pirate, Miles was an elephant and Kincaid was a power ranger.  Their cousin Colby was also dressed up as a pirate and him and Henry happily played pirate sword fights most of the party. 

Kincaid found the cupcakes and that's what he did most of the party.

Saturday night our friends Sammy and Rodney (below as Jesse and Buzz Lightyear) threw a Halloween party.  It was a blast.  I didn't get pictures of everyone there, but here are some of the costumes:  (FYI: Rodney made the Buzz costume.  It was very impressive. Kincaid was jealous.)

This "Mulch" and "JoDeen."  It was their wedding day, don't they look  fabulous?

Wes and Amber decided to take a quick hike that afternoon and got lost along the way.  

We went as Popeye and Olive Oyl.  It's a shame I didn't get a close-up on my fake eyelashes, those were serious business.  It took me most of the evening to figure out how to blink.  I thought we looked great, but Sam said he felt like he looked like a member of The Village People.

On Sunday we went to my sister's house and carved pumpkins.  I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of it.  But we only finished 2 of our 4 pumpkins so the boys and I worked on them some more Thursday night.

Here are the boys and their pumpkins.  Notice Kincaid's costume has now been 'morphed' into a No Stall race car driver.  No Stall is one of the lesser (or un) known race cars from the movie Cars and Kincaid wanted to be No Stall's driver for Halloween. Lucky for me it turned out to be easier to create than I thought.  And even Luckier for me, Kincaid was happy with how it turned out.

On Friday Kincaid's 1st grade class had a fall festival and I volunteered to help and brought along my mom and Henry to join in on the fun.

After helping Kincaid's class my mom took Henry Miles and I out to lunch.    Then we went home and she made some baked donuts with us.  It was a fun day.

That afternoon I finally finished the last 2 pumpkins (the third times a charm I guess. Come busy week, come unfinished Halloween costumes, come power outages- I was determined to carve all 4 pumpkins.)  Then we got dinner at the taco truck and spent a half an hour wrestling Miles into his costume and arguing with Henry about which costume and accessories he was going to wear ("I want to wear the (too small) Woody costume, or the (even smaller) fireman costume.") We finally got him into the (right size) pirate costume and happy (no small feat).  We didn't have quite as good of luck with Miles. (And seriously, can we just once have a normal picture of the boys, or even just Kincaid?  I guess this is just how they are going to record themselves in history.)

Although, once Miles was outside he was fine. And once we got home and he saw loads of candy and figured out how to unwrap a sucker all by himself I think he decided Halloween was really alright after all. 

I love Halloween, but I am looking forward to putting the costumes back in the trunk and having my children go out in public looking normal again.

Happy National CUPS Day!

Henry has announced today as a new national holiday.  This morning he said "today is a howiday."  "Oh?"  I said, "what day is it? Is it National Tapioca Pudding Day?" (They have been watching a lot of Garfield and Friends DVD's lately, and that is one of the episodes.) 

"No, it's National Cean Up Peopo's Messes Day."

I'm not sure how that makes today any different than the rest of the year, unless that means that those who normally don't clean up messes, do.  So far no one in my house (except me, of course) has decided to celebrate the occasion.  But I do love getting into holidays...  Maybe Henry's smarter than he appears; maybe that's his way of getting me to clean up messes happily.  So to all you moms, dads, and everyone else who is cleaning up someone's mess today, Happy National Clean-Up People's Messes Day to you!  May you celebrate it to the max!

Pumpkin Fever

I have been going crazy cooking pumpkin things lately. I know that's pretty common in the fall, and I'm sure that's because that is when pumpkins are in season; but I find it a little amusing since all my pumpkin comes from a can that's been sitting on shelves for months.  Oh well... In the past week or two I've made pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin muffins, and I have my eyes on 3 more recipes:  a pumpkin roll, pumpkin chicken (yes, I said chicken, I'll let you know how that goes), and a pumpkin cake that starts with a "crust" of crushed Nilla wafers and melted butter - how can it not be good.  I am in baking heaven.