I ♥ ....

I ♥ my Christmas tree
I ♥ online shopping
I ♥ package deliveries
I ♥ Christmas cards

and of course I ♥ Glenny, Spencey, Cami, Emmi, Addi, and Ellie-boos.  (Glen says that if you ever call him Glenny, he'll probably defriend you on Facebook).   ;)


And now for an informal poll:  Do you prefer shopping in stores or online? 

I have no idea how Christmas ever happened before the days of online shopping.  The parking lots are packed enough without people like me filling them up. 

Why oh why?

Why?  When I have absolutely nothing to blog about, do I feel the need to blog anyway?

Is it because I hope that by starting to type that something profound will flow forth from my fingertips?  Or is it that I can't sleep at night until I've at least got a blogpost forming in my head?  Or is it that I love you all so much that I can't bear the thought of you having to go through another Lara-free day?  Or is that youuuuu..........

Wait a second.   Patience please!  I feel  profundity  emanating from me. 

A precise post of plutonic proportions is percolating in the pits of my pectorals and pure pituitary pensiveness will placate the most proverbial pickled pixie in Pennsylvania.   Then my progressively prominent post will plow past the pure pointless pile of pungency that is this post and your passive paranoia that I'm pudgy and predictable will proceed to persuade you that I have a proud perception pecking, but purely placid, polite, and  pleasing personality. 


PS  I love you too.

Sunday Night Stream of Consciousness

Some random thoughts running around my brain tonight: 

• Stomach bugs are horrible and I especially hate how hard they are on Ellie.   On the other hand, because of Ellie's vast experience with vomiting, she's  extremely accurate.  She hasn't missed the toilet with her spewing in over 2 years. 

• Some of Spencer's friends called Glen, "buff and intimidating" and for some reason I can't stop laughing about it.  Buff maybe, but intimidating I'm a little more flummoxed about.

• I have awesome friends.  One immediately gave us Pedialyte when they heard of Ellie's sickness, saving us a Sabbath trip to the store.  And another brought popsicles and a little present for Ellie.  It was the first time we'd seen her smile since this all hit her on Saturday night. 

• This whole goody-a-day posting on my recipe blog is doing a number on my waistline.  Dang it!

• Watch your mailboxes!  Our Christmas cards arrived from Shutterfly this week and I just wrote our newsletter.  Now I just need to print, address them,  and get them in the mail.  Yay--I love Christmas cards!  If I don't have your address, please feel free to email it to me and I'll add you to our list. 

• I'm so happy that at least a few of my kids will still talk to Santa, even if they wouldn't look him in the eye if their lives depended on it. 

• I had this vision that no amount of snow could bring my homeland of Minnesota to its knees, but after seeing all my friends' updates on Facebook, I'm pretty sure that either everyone's gotten wimpy or this really was quite the storm.

• Glen stayed home from church today with Ellie and Adam (who has a different sickness) and I'm thinking I could get really used to coming home on Fast Sundays to a home-cooked dinner including cornbread and dessert (which he also happened to take pictures of for the recipe blog).   He took pictures of every step and even had Adam snap this one, so he could have both hands in it.  I'm so spoiled by my buff and intimidating man. 
  
  
  

• Our sleep number mattress is one of the best home improvement projects we've ever made.  Speaking of which, it seems to be calling my name right now.  

• Our very classy outside decorations could use a few stakes.  If you know where they ended up please call me.  They're either in the attic or the garage. 

Cute Boy vs. Innocent Bird

You know the old poem about little boys? 

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

 

I don't know about this cute little guy being made up of amphibians and dog parts, but after 15+ years of mothering boys I've discovered that there definitely is a different mind set in the male brain. 

What kind of differences you ask? 

Here's a direct example from Adam's 2nd grade report on birds: 

One of the biggest hazards to orioles is hunters....

hunters in tanks and helicopters apparently. 


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Cupcake Shoppe

Today was one of those days.  A day where nothing is truly wrong, but all combined life just seems more stressful than usual.  Between all the undone things on my list, Ellie's new medication side effects, and a small case of hormones,  I'm already good and ready for another vacation. 

But instead of complaining about the fact that Ellie can hardly take two steps without falling now and has already cut the back of her head and scuffed up her nose, instead I'm going to focus this post on my wonderful support system. 

Many people have offered their love and prayers for us since her diagnosis in September.  That love and support has been so meaningful to us and it has made this difficult journey all the more bearable. This post is about a thoughtful gift from my friend Jenny.  She heard that Ellie was coming home early from school on a regular basis, so put together this kit to help fill the time on a few of her afternoons at home. 

Ellie's Very Own Cupcake Shoppe. 

A basket filled with the supplies needed for her very own cupcake shoppe:  Complete with apron, cake mixes, frosting, mini cupcake pan, mini cupcake papers, cute little utensils, and even a cute cardboard cupcake stand. 

It was a complete dream come true for Ellie.  She gabbed and gabbed the whole way through about how Sis. M. was so nice and how she must have known that she loves to cook. 

This work was serious business to her and she made certain that I took plenty of pictures for the blog. 

so proud...

I think she has a knack...

This cupcake stand is her pride and joy! 

Her cute sign...
 


And her eager customers who couldn't wait to buy her cupcake masterpieces for 25 cents each.

Thank you to Jenny for a wonderful, thoughtful, generous gift.  It meant the world to Ellie and she is so proud and protective of her own special cooking supplies. 

Thank you to all of you for your love and support.  The prayers, the rides, the listening ears have made all the difference to me and made it so the down days are the exception rather than the rule.

You all are awesome! 

(FYI:   I feel much better now after looking at all these cute pictures of Ellie while I typed up the post).  :)



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What's Super Sweet, Hot Pink, and Worth $20?

2 strawberry cake mixes

+ 2 bags of mini marshmallows

+ loads and loads of powdered sugar

+ heavy duty food coloring

+ 3 batches dairy-free buttercream frosting

+ 1 batch of rice krispie treats

+ hours of watching Food Network

=  one very happy 13-year-old girl to have her first paid baking job

Any guesses as to what it is? 




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Playing Hooky

 We don't do this often, and perhaps not ever before...but we played hooky from stake conference this week and made a whole weekend of Spence's lacrosse tournament. 

We went to Williamsburg. 

We got some Christmas shopping done at the outlet malls there and drove around town.

We did more than our fair share of lounging around in the hotel room, absolutely thrilled that there was no housework, no homework, and no cooking. 

 We watched Spencer play lacrosse.  His team isn't usually super competitive, but while they won only one of four games, two of the games were really close.  Spencer did his part by scoring three goals!

The wind was howling, so we got to put our winter gear and snuggling skills to use to keep warm. 

Or in Emma's and Adam's case, forget the snuggling....they wrestled to keep warm.  There were a couple of people shooting me dirty looks through their half-hour long wrestling match, but I figure, hey, they were mostly laughing and only cried a couple of times. 


And I just had to throw this one in, to show off that she's lost all four of her front teeth now.  Her two big ones are growing in so fast, that she'll probably get her wish of having them for Christmas.  :)

 And then Cami got to be Vanna White, although that description sounds a little bit more glamorous than it really was.  The coach was looking for someone cute to choose the winners of a raffle for some free lacrosse heads.  Cami's job was to pull stinky jerseys that they'd been wearing for four games out of the bag.  Ew.

She did pick her own brother's jersey though, so I was happy that she was the one getting her hands stinky. 

And then we came back home to a clean house (okay, okay so maybe it wasn't really clean, but I had mopped the floors before we left, so it was cleaner than usual)  and a happy dog! 


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You Knew it was Coming....

Raise your hand if you saw this coming!

Raise both hands if you think it's too cute not to post anyway!

Okay, now that you all have both hands in the air--wiggle them around crazily until I say stop. 

Haha.  I'm not saying st_ _ ! 


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An Update on Our Snaggletooth

We went to the neurologist today and after discussing the side effects of her current medication and her sudden resurgence in seizures, it looks like we're back to square one.  Epilepsy medication has to be withdrawn and added extremely slowly, so we're starting her on a very tiny dose of a new medication and beginning the weaning process of the current  medication.  Basically that means that we're six weeks away from seeing her at full dose of the new medicine, which has all the same possible side effects as her current one.  We're hopeful, though, that the new one will be better for her little body. 

We'll take whatever baby steps we can get right now...

Speaking of babies....

Someone's gotta tell our "baby" to stop growing up so fast!  Not only is she outgrowing her clothes, but the tooth fairy's going to be broke if she doesn't stop losing teeth sometime soon.    Two in the last week and two more that wiggle when she breathes in and out. 

And here's hoping that she likes mashed peas, because baby food will be the only food she can eat before too long!    :)


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My Own Advice Column

Please help me answer this recent inquiry I received....



Dear Lara,
I have this problem that I need your help with.  You see, I have this blog that I really like.  I think it likes me too, but I can't be sure.  I try to give a little time to it almost every day, but I'm kind of busy and it usually gets pushed to the end of the day when I'm really tired.  Although I try hard to put my best effort into the relationship, I think my late night efforts are starting to take their toll on us.  Not only am I getting kind of cranky, but it also seems like most of my irresistible charm and humor (I know these terms are generous) are gone by that time of night.

So what do I do?  Only communicate with my blog when I'm coherent and wide awake and hope I don't offend it with my sudden neglect?    Or keep babbling incoherently and hope that I don't embarrass myself too much?   What to do...what to do....

Please help. 

Sincerely,
Bloggin' It From the 'Burbs

Getting to Know Me....

THEY SAY:   Some people say you can get to know a girl by looking at the contents of her purse.  

LARA SAYS:   I say, it's all well and good to peek into people's purses, but  if you want to get a really good glimpse at someone's personality, then take a look at the photos on their cell phone.  The snapshots of scenes that were just too good to pass up will tell you far more about their personality and values than any stick of gum ever could.  

SINCE I'M SO NICE AND I KNOW YOU ALL WANT TO GET TO KNOW ME BETTER: 

Here's a glimpse into the photos on my phone: 

 A spinning class doing their workout OUTSIDE.  For some reason I found myself somewhat embarrassed for them sweating and panting for the whole world to see and just couldn't resist taking a picture of them. 

The bookshelves of my friend Karen to show to the guy who was constructing our built-ins. 

Gorgeous cupcakes made by my friend Jenny for a baby shower.  I couldn't wait to show it to Cami, who happens to love decorating cakes/cupcakes. 

A really yummy looking recipe I found while perusing a cookbook at a store. 

A really cute and creative picture Ellie had drawn of "princess art on easels".  She was particularly proud of that picture and was giving it away to someone, so I snapped it quickly before she gave it away. 

The local Domino's store, which had just been rammed by an old guy in a fancy Jaguar.  We were there within a couple minutes of it happening and enjoyed our 2 minutes of being the gawking/picture taking bystanders. 

Really cool airplane exhaust trails. 

And today is YOUR LUCKY DAY.  I figured while you were all getting to know my charming, albeit random, personality a little better, you could also see a glimpse into my beautiful fake Louis Vuitton purse (taken by my cell phone camera of course)...

  And with that, I'm going to stop writing blogposts late at night....



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A Little Glimpse...

....into our Thanksgiving    

(best turkey ever, another lost tooth during dinner, 4 loads of dishes in one day, cutthroat game of Apples to Apples which Ellie won, lots of laughing, staying up too late, decorating for Christmas, some online shopping, hanging up pictures, handprint turkeys... )

and a little Thanksgiving silliness just for you....





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Thankful....

At this Thanksgiving time, I thought I'd dedicate this post to a few things in my life I'm most grateful for right now: 

• For another Scout in the house (and devoted Scout leaders who are not named Lara)....

• For good insurance....

• For an awesome family who come from near and far to support us...

• For a snazzy new blender that makes rockin' smoothies....

• To finally be done with this fun, albeit time consuming project for Adam's teacher....

• For a super hot, kind-hearted husband who puts up with me and my projects....

• And for videos like this one that give me goosebumps and get me excited for the upcoming Christmas season....

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"For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson




Happy Thanksgiving!

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The Reasons Why...

People who run for exercise have a myriad of reasons why they like to run--because it's an efficient way to exercise, you don't need any special equipment, you don't need a gym membership, and even the elusive runner's high. 

A couple of my kids have recently taken up running, and being a former cross country/track runner myself, this was a very exciting thing for me.  Emma participates in an after-school program where they train to run a race.  Adam and Ellie aren't quite old enough to participate yet, but they still decided they wanted to run in the school's annual Pumpkin Pie Race last Saturday. 

Of course, with my kids running has nothing to do with efficiency or mental satisfaction--it's all about the....

FOOD!  

Emma ran a 3K (1.8 miles) and because  so many people ended up participating from her class that they all ended up winning a lunch party from Chick-fil-A. 

  Adam and Ellie both ran a 1K race (.62 miles) and pretty much ran it for the piece of pie waiting for them at the end. 

Adam ended up with more than just a piece of pie after they drew his number for the raffle.  Although there is only one person (Glen) in our family who really likes pumpkin pie, Adam is pretty darn proud of owning his own pie. 

And after all that food they also got to enjoy the entertainment factor of the day.... the race winners getting to stuff a pan of whipping cream in the gym teacher's face.

Pies, chick-fil-a lunches, whipping cream in the face.  I see my kids really embracing this whole running thing. 



...Now if I could just have a piece of pie and a can of whipping cream waiting for me at the end of my runs.... 


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