Beds are Complete!

Our boxes came Monday night! I was told they would be here last Friday but at least they did not come the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving! T and I got the beds ready Monday night but we did not have them ready before the kids’ bedtime so they all slept in N’s room again. Tuesday night was the first official night of everyone in their new beds! The big kids were super excited and did awesome. N on the other hand was a little overwhelmed with the idea of having the freedom to get out of bed whenever she wanted. It took her about an hour to fall asleep in addition to a few tears. At one point we heard J screaming that N was getting into her bed, so of course T and I both went running from opposite ends of our home. And sure enough, little N had crawled up the ladder and was on the top step almost in bed with J! Now we had tested the waters earlier by seeing if she could physically get up the ladder to see if we should be concerned about this issue but it appeared that she did not have the strength yet. I guess she was just playing possum. N thought she was so special when she got up this morning and walked right out into the living room. She was so proud that she did not have to call for someone to come and get her out of her crib.

Momma Bear, Grrr!

So following our package mix up on Wednesday morning, I made a phone call to the delivery company. It turns out that our packages originally came from NC via a particular shipper (unnamed) and switched carriers in the Twin Cities to another carrier (also to remain nameless) which made the mistake. So I was able to get in contact with the nameless carrier in the Twin Cities and spoke to someone. When I was informed that the soonest they could get us the proper packages would be next week Friday or Saturday (as in November 26th or 27th) I simply told them that was unacceptable and they needed to figure something else out. Then the woman came back on the line said they could reroute a truck and get the packages here by Tuesday morning at the absolute earliest. Still in my mind this was unacceptable; we have already been waiting for these beds for over a month! I *kindly* explained to her that we needed these packages by the 19th (especially since we have a guaranteed delivery by this date and the mistake was not our fault). Followed by letting her know that I was 9 1/2 months (so I fibbed a little by adding a week!) pregnant and my kids need their beds. Then I had an epiphany! If they can't get them to us by the 19th then they need to send them via a carrier that can. I know without a doubt that two different carriers make trips from the Twin Cities up here overnight. After being told that was not an option I was put on hold. All of the sudden (like MAGIC) a supervisor was on the line and he said he would be shipping our packages over night via UPS. Two morals to this drawn out story: persistence pays off and don't mess with a pregnant lady (YOU WILL NOT WIN!). After telling T my story over lunch on Thursday he chuckled a little then told the kids, "You don't mess with the momma bear, especially when it involves her babies". Now by all means I am not going to hold my breath waiting for these packages to come today but I am hoping that this man will follow through on his word and that everything will work out the way it is supposed to. Time will tell...

they are here

The bunk beds made it! We got all SEVEN boxes Wednesday morning. The delivery company called late (9:30ish) on Tuesday night and said they would be here by 8am. I persuaded T to go to school an hour late so he could assist if need be. We were told that they would bring all the boxes to our door but it turned out that they would only bring them to the first dry area within our building; so they left all the boxes in our mail room! I would have been in a big mess if T would not have stayed home. Some of the boxes weighed over 100 lbs. Once T got all the boxes in our home he was off to school. In the afternoon we started to put together the beds (around 3:30) and finally finished around 6:30. After beginning to open the boxes we realized that TWO of the boxes were not ours! They belonged to a couple in Edina (parts of a 1,000 bottle wine rack system!) and we were missing two of our packages. Arrrgghh! Are you kidding me? We waited this long to get the beds and now we are missing pieces. Luckily, the boxes we are missing were not crucial to the construction of the beds. We are missing the boxes that contain the ‘slat’ that goes under the mattress. The beds are completely unsafe and unusable so we had to put all 3 kids in N’s room with their old toddler beds in the hopes of being able to keep them off the new beds. N was so excited to have new bedroom guests that her 8 o’clock bedtime turned into a 9:30 bedtime. The big kids were sleeping by about 8:30 but little N was just too excited! Now we will have to wait and see how long it takes for us to get these other two boxes!? Why can’t things ever be easy around here?

too young for the O.T.?

The kids have really been enjoying reading their children’s Bible lately! Last week they were reading the Bible in E’s bed and J was telling the story of Adam and Eve. “And Eve told Adam ‘that sneaky snake gave me a poison apple’.” I thought that was cute and clever on J’s part. And then last night the kids were playing Bible again. The first Bible game of the evening was J putting her baby in a play mixing bowl, covering it up with a blankie, then putting it on the coffee table. This was her version of putting baby Moses in the river in a covered basket. Once again I thought this was clever. Then E was throwing all the baby dolls they had out of their room yelling, “I am killing all the boy babies!” J was really quick to tell him that she put deer blood on her door so he could not come and take her baby and kill it. Plus she mentioned that she was making good choices and following God’s rules. T and I are beginning to wonder if maybe they are a little too young for the Old Testament?!? We have finished the Old Testament now and are starting the New Testament tonight. I wonder what type of games will be next.

Blueberry-Banana Pancakes

This receipe has become a favorite around our home. When I ask the kids what they are hungry for this usually gets mentioned regardless of what meal we are about to embark upon. We found it in a recent Food and Wine magazine. I know some of you out there are pancake fans so here it is.

Blueberry-Banana Pancakes
Total time: 35 minutes – makes about 12 pancakes

Florence made these pancakes at home one weekend morning with his son Hayden. They’re a slight variation on a recipe for his new book, Tyler Florence Family Meal.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup blueberries
2 bananas; sliced lengthwise 1/3 inch thick and cut to fit the pancakes
Confectioners’ sugar and pure maple syrup, for serving

1. In a small bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the buttermilk. Quickly stir in the flour mixture, then stir in the melted butter and blueberries.
2. Heat a griddle or a large nonstick skillet over moderately low heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Ladle ¼ cup of the batter per pancake onto the griddle, leaving room for the pancakes to spread. Gently lay one banana slice in the center of each pancake and cook until bubbles appear on the surface, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown on the second side, 2 or 3 minutes longer. Generously dust the blueberry-banana pancakes with confectioners’ sugar and serve with maple syrup.

Christmas Set-Up

We have been grappling with the idea of setting up for Christmas this year. When is the best time for us? T has a crazy school schedule that does not allow for free time during the week and he needs to devote at least 10 hours on the weekends to study. The weekends are really the only time that we can run errands or get anything done around here. We are *hoping* that the bunk beds will be here next weekend, so our project for the next weekend is already set (fingers crossed). That would leave this past weekend (Nov. 6-7) or the following weekend (Nov. 20-21) to set up Christmas. Now since the baby and I will technically be ‘full term’ on the 19^th we decided that we should set up Christmas the 7^th. (These little miracles tend to have a mind of their own: J was 37wks 5days, E was 37wks 5days, and N was (induced) 38wks 6days.) My point being is that this little guy could come whenever he wants! We went to the storage unit and got out all of our Christmas decorations and made it back in time for N to take a nap. J and E were so excited and were thrilled to help ‘set up’ the tree. After getting the lights on, we realized that we forgot the box of ornaments! So we took a little break from the tree and got out the rest of the other holiday decorations that go around our home. We got the totes ready to go back to the storage unit and were off again to get the ornament box. Once we made it back home we had some dinner then finished setting up the tree. The kids had so much fun! It was great to see how much they enjoyed helping and partaking in this activity. I sat on the floor and got the ornaments out one by one while each kid had a turn to bring it over to T and help decide where to put it on the tree. I know that within a few days all the ornaments will be moved to one place and the kids will have rearranged everything on the tree! The tree was almost complete… TIME FOR THE PRESENTS!!! I have all of our Christmas shopping done except for one couple. Everything is even wrapped and ready to go. The wrapped presents have been stacked in our storage room just waiting to be placed under the tree. The kids (once again) took turns carrying presents one by one out to T so they could put them under the tree. [Side note: it is beneficial to have little legs to save trips back and forth, back and forth.] So now we are ready for Christmas! I was wondering how long it would take for one of the gifts to be ‘accidentally’ opened by one of the kids and it did not take long! N ripped open the first gift this morning at about 9:15. I guess we will just have to wait and see how long we are able to keep the gifts out around the tree. Any guesses?

Our finished tree... with kids in pjs and all!!! (E does not believe in pjs.)

Super Sunday Morning!

Sunday started at 7 am, but with DST it was technically 6 am! That is way too early for this mommy, but the big kids were up and ready to go! It is amazing how many things can get done if the day starts at 6. By 8 am I had the kitchen cleaned up, dishwasher unloaded, shower done, make-up done, and hair done. PHEW! Now on to breakfast since the kids were getting hungry. As I peeled the kids away from their morning baby-sitter (aka the Disney Channel: rare tv occasion in our home!) T got out of bed and was ready to start the day. Now we have been talking about starting to go to church for a while now and decided it was time to embark upon this adventure. After breakfast we all finished getting ready for church and we had plenty of time to spare before we headed out. The kids have been so excited about the idea of going to church and getting to be in God’s house that they could hardly walk, literally they were jumping and bouncing all over the place. When we got to church the kids were in awe. J immediately said something to the effect of: ‘Do we get to go in that castle over there?’.  After we got to church we, of course, had bathroom breaks and a few minutes of getting settled. Now I must make a side note here and mention that our kids are ‘typical kids’ and are often unpredictable. They were all behaving wonderfully until church started; we told them it was time to be quiet and that we could not talk anymore. E immediately said that he did not want to be quiet and that he was going to talk followed by some yelling! All I could think of was… we are about 1 minute into church and we are already falling apart, this is not going to end well! After a few minutes, T came back in with E and was able to stay for the next 35 minutes or so! The kids did amazing reading books and playing with the beanie baby that they each got to bring. E decided that he needed to utilize the bathroom again so I took him out. Once I left N feel apart. When I finally came back, which was a while since the bathroom was not close and E decided that he had to go potty then he did not have to go then he did have to go, it was time that we left before causing a scene. Leaving at that time was alright, we almost made it to the end. The kids were quiet while we left but once we got outside J threw a HUGE fit. She was upset because she did NOT want to leave church. Bless her heart! = ) I guess there are worse things that she could thrown a fit about. We told her that we are going to keep going to church and each time will be better and better and maybe next time we can stay till the end. We felt far more comfortable at this church than our prior church because we were not a minority due to the fact that we have children. There were plenty of other families around with kids and other kids that misbehaved as well. I think we are just a little too zealous as far as wanting our kids to behave perfectly in public. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that they are kids and they are ‘normal’. It sure will be interesting when the new baby decides to make his appearance. We are going to have our ups and downs with this journey but in the long run it is going to be a good experience for our family. = )