best laid plans...

So we were headed to the kiddie pool to meet Steve this afternoon. He was going to duck out of work early and Olivia, Turner and I were going to meet him there after naps. Sounds fun! With summer quickly drawing to an end we thought we'd better get there maybe one last time. We were on our way (1 blow up whale pool toy, 4 towels, 3 suits, one hat, 2 cans of sunscreen, 2 water bottles and 1 jar of baby food- sweet potatoes- later) we were out the door. We were not one block from the house when O announced that she was sick. Hmm... "What kind of sick?" "My belly hurts" I thought there may be some truth to this since there was an opened yet uneaten package of Princess gummy snacks on her lap (normally the empty wrapper is being handed to me at the exact same stop sign.) Then it was "no, I'm not sick, I want to go to the pool." By the time we got on the highway she was crying. "O, are you going to throw up?" "No, Im all better now." So I left Steve a message saying we were turning around and then I called and told him, no we are still on our way. 2 min. later O threw up there in the back seat. Called Steve back, found the next exit and made it home without another incident. Turner just sat in the backseat looking at me like I was crazy as I got him out of the car seat and hauled him back into the house. So Steve and O watched Cinderella with a nearby bucket "just in case." Oddly enough, she really was fine the rest of the night. In fact, for the rest of the evening she was running around, chasing dogs in the backyard. Oh well, maybe we'll hit the pool another day.

dinner guests

Thanks to our friends Claire and Scott for joining us for dinner. At the end of last school year (I am, in fact 36 years old and my life is still measured by semesters) I put together my new personal development plan. My biggest goal for this upcoming school year is to develop my gift of hospitality (which to be honest I never really knew I had but have become enlightened thanks to God, my husband and some friends.) So I'm trying to invite more people over but more importantly do it without getting stressed out or needing to have the perfect house and the perfect meal.

Claire is a friend from work and Scott is a friend from work as well but from out of town who will soon be moving to Ohio. I made, what I thought yesterday, seemed like a nice summer meal. I put chicken breasts in the crockpot this morning and made pulled bbq chicken sandwhiches, yummy Ohio corn and chips. (I also experimented w/ a new ice cream pie for dessert- which always leaves me wondering, why do I try something for the first time when having guests?)

The chicken turned out fine, as did the corn but then as we sat down to eat I started the internal dialogue... "chips... what was I thinking... chips? We never have chips, let alone for dinner. These friends are healthy friends, they don't eat chips... they are going to think we eat chips... blah blah blah." It truly was work for me to push those thoughts from my mind, declare that it really didn't matter WHAT we had on the table, the friendships around the table were more important; Olivia having other people in our home to talk to and play with, the 15 minutes that Scott held Turner- invaluable!

So, I'm in process, I'm growing and I'm not perfect! I'm working on it and someday I'll put food on the table and not think twice.

By the way, we also had these pretzel chips and I got this cheese dip they sold with them. The heating instructions on the packaging- faulty! So I made this gigantic mess in our microwave. No biggie, really. But the funny thing- the copy of my annual review (that was suppose to be turned in early May that I couldn't find and just recovered TODAY) was sitting out under the microwave-- covered in CHEESE-- because I was entertaining (it is upon this document that I declared I wanted to work on my gift of hospitality.) This will either work in my favor or detriment, depending on who reads these annual reviews.) Maybe I need to go back and make new goals about organization!

SALE ALERT

This is just an FYI. I wanted you to know that Bath and Body Works (NOT Bed Bath and Beyond as Steve always has to double check on which one I'm talking about) is having a great sale on their hand soaps. I am a personal lover of the Aromatherapy Eucalyptus Spearmint soap in the green bottle. They are currently 5 for $15 (a steal- that would normally set you back $30.) One of my favorite things to do in my day is wash my hands with that yummy soap, oh it makes me happy. And now I'm set for another few months. So now you have two options, you can either take advantage of the sale- or come over to my house and wash your hands!

summer fun

This late morning/early afternoon the 4 of us went to Young's Dairy, a sweet little diary that has goats to pet, a barn to walk through and see the animals, putt putt, yummy ice cream etc. It really is one of the few perks about living in Ohio. Going to a Dairy on a summer Sunday just seems "right." Olivia had fun feeding the goats and really enjoyed her "pink" ice cream which she later declared, "tastes like strawberries." Can't get anything past her! Now the kids are napping, Steve and I are enjoying some quiet (even the dog is lounging around) before the remnant of our House Church come over for dinner to discuss our plan for the fall. (By the way... Steve just went on a recovery mission under the sofa to get whatever object the dog was after. Um, Steve resurfaced with a very obviously aged cherry tomato. Oops!) How did that get there? Life with a 2 year old.

btw- im trying to figure out how to do the layout... forgive the scattered pics. this is my experimental picture post. hopefully you don't need captions, they are rather obvious. And for my big- city friends, I can almost here the mocking from here at the pic of my family on the John Deer. When in Rome!

08*08*08

Because I've spent significant time in China, I'm extra excited to see how this year's Olympic games unfold. I love China. I mean, I really LOVE China.

Really important things have happened in my life there. God grew me, changed me and I found my husband there (no, his is, in fact- Polish-American, NOT chinese!). Olivia at 2 1/2 years old has been there 3 times, Turner nearly 7 months has spent 1/7th of his life there. We are currently in the process of adopting a child from there (Olivia is insisting we call him/her Baby Gum... go figure.) So my life has been significantly affected by that country and the culture.

I am an avid Today Show watcher. My favorite morning to tune in is Sunday (our family attends the Saturday evening gathering at our Church, allowing me to indulge in this vice.) Sunday morning on Today is filled with 100% pure fluff w/ almost nothing of substance broadcast. And I. Love. It.

But this morning I found myself grumbling and complaining about the banter between Jenna (who quite frankly gets on my nerves ) and Lester- who is already in Beijing. So Jenna and Lester were talking about culture and what Jenna should expect when she gets there (Tues. fyi.) So that is all well and fine, but when Lester started to tell Jenna about all the clothes she should bring b/c of how hot it is (true!) and how most days are 3 or 4 shower days, this is when the grumbling started. That is so american. Most of my friends and most locals will be lucky to get a few showers a week. And Jenna will probably bring more clothes with her for her 2 week stay than most Chinese will own in a decade (I know this because I'm guilty of it myself.)

And then Lester started talking about jet-lag. Okay, hell for sure! But probably a lot easier from his 5 star hotel room. And then they had a dialogue about how Jenna doesn't have to worry b/c she can just call up roomservice when she is up at 3am, starving. (ok, so maybe I was just jealous, I would have LOVED to have ordered from roomservice this past June.) Oh boy.

I then went from aggrivated to sad. Sad that they will think they are seeing the "real" china and experiencing the culture... they have NO idea.
Most Americans won't experience REAL China. Shoot, real China is rough. And if I honestly look at all of my times there, I haven't even experienced REAL China. So who am I to criticize these guys??

It's just interesting. In some ways China feels like my little sister. I can criticize her, make fun of her and even complain about her, but when someone else starts in... look out- that's MY sister you're talking about!

big girl update

well, the votes are in and big girl panties were... a huge success! Yep. we made it through the day with only one accident (which was post nap... nap did include the wearing of snow white undies after which there was a wee bit of an accident - excuse the pun.) It really was my fault . She got up from the nap dry as a whistle and I asked "do you have tinkles" and the 2 1/2 year old answered "no". I failed to insist on a trip to the potty so you really can only blame the 36 year old in the house for that. 10 minutes later there was a "report" of tinkle on the rug.

No harm, no foul, really. We changed the Aeirel undies to the yellow snow whites, a new dress/ new socks (but it is August, who wears socks anyway??) and away we went. We even went out to dinner in underpants- all of us that is :) (with a fresh pair of undies and a new dress in tow - just in case!) Did we need them? NO WAY. She put her poopies and tinkles in the potty everytime, except for the aforementioned accident. Way to go, peanut!

Okay, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, but all in all- not a bad first day.

Oh, and a Turner update- we switched over to carrots for Turner's dinner (even though you're "only to introduce a new food every few days".) Verdict- better than squash but not better than cereal. Here's hoping tomorrow brings on a carrot lover!

Big girl panties

so, to be honest, im shocked to have several comments on day one... enough to make me do a second post. Oh boy! Thanks to Jenny and Gina for leaving a comment- it only fuels the fire. And of course, thanks, Steve! Im charging the new re-chargable batteries for our camera (the old ones allowed us to take exactly 2 pics and then we were outta luck. So, hopefully, pics to follow.

Today's highlight BIG GIRL PANTIES. Yep, glamourous! Olivia behaved well all morning when she found out if she obeyed mommy, princess big girls were on the way. We arrived at Target after a good workout at the Y and made a bee-line to the toddler underwear section (passed it a million times w/out a second glance.) Well, who knew you can get underwear w/ any cartoon character on them?

She told several strangers in Target (men, women, employees, other kids...) "look, I got big girl panties." Nice modesty- who is your mom??. I explained to her all the way home how these work;
"Okay, Olivia- once you have these on, all tinkles and poopies HAVE to go in the potty, got it?" (It's true, I now say tinkles and poopies). "YES!YES!" eagerly came from the backseat. We got home, she marched in & announced that she had tinkles, went to the bathroom, climbed on the pot and immediately put her tinkles and poopies in the potty;
"I'm ready for the princess panties now." What the heck? If I had known that was the magic charm we would have done that months ago.

I know, I know... accidents will happen (I learned that from Elmo!) and I'm ready for them. But I'll take it one poop at a time.

Oh, and not to be left out- Turner tried his first jar of baby food today (he's been on cereal for a few weeks) Verdict- not a squash fan. We'll let daddy see if he can do any better tonight :)