Sweet and Spicy

Hello Again!

It is late January, and here at the Carlson house, we're in survival mode. I am in my last two weeks of teaching Assessment up at Jewell, and while it has been a great experience so far, I am ready to be home more often and go back to feeling like I have my head screwed on straight (mind you, that doesn't happen often when I'm home with two children, but I miss it all the same). I have 42 students in my course and they are doing a fantastic job. I gave my last lecture this morning (HOORAY!!) and will have 3 more lab sessions before I will evaluate their final skill demonstrations next week. Whew!

The kids have been wonderful while I've been working. I miss them a lot, but they're really patient with Mommy having to be on the computer more often and are so good about playing right here in the office with me as I work. One of our new games is "library" where Connor and Kylee empty the bookshelves and use our spare keyboard to "check things out". It's pretty cute. You can see for yourself above.

Having a 4 year old is just great. Connor's imagination is so vivid, and it's fun to watch him just be himself (or an airplane, or a fireman, or Buzz Lightyear...). I walked into the office the other day to find him dressed in Kylee's sun bonnet and his goggles and just had to laugh. Those of you who have the opportunity to see Connor regularly know that he is a man who enjoys accessories (in the most masculine sense, of course), and it takes him about 2 seconds in any environment before he's sporting one--be it a bandana, glasses, goggles, a hat--whatever. Here's a pic of him in one of his latest ensembles.

Kylee has made it her personal mission to keep our babysitters on their toes while Mommy is at work. The report I received after coming home one day last week was that she had been "a little bit sassy", and the tone of the sitter's voice told me that that wasn't a compliment. ;) I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that generally speaking, I would find "a little bit sassy" to be an accurate description of our daughter. And maybe, just maybe, I admire that about her (shhhh...don't tell).

Speaking of descriptors, I was talking with a colleague of mine the other day who has two children, a son in college, and a daughter who is a senior in highschool. I was sharing a story about Connor and Kylee, and my colleague laughed and said that her two children had temperaments much the same as ours do. She said "My son is just so sweet, and my daughter, well, she's a little more spicy".

Some times you crave sweet, and some times you crave spice. I am so thankful that God has blessed our lives with a sampling of both of these WONDERFUL flavors. :)

What a Great Daddy!

I had to hop on here really quick to share a story. Many of you know that I have married one of the most amazing men in the world (The MOST amazing man in my humble opinion). For the last couple days, our son Connor has been DYING to sled down the hill in our backyard. Brandon has dutifully called every retailer in the Metro area looking for a sled, but there are none to be found. We then thought "What about an innertube?". Brandon called several auto shops, and no luck there, either. I offered him a cookie sheet, with which we had a minimal amount of success, but the positioning was tricky for a little man in snow garb.

Finally, we recruited Aunt Sarah to bring us an innertube that we've used in the past to play in the pool. The hot pink plastic number arrived in style here at 509 Cierra Circle last evening. This afternoon, my little outdoorsman asked if he could go play in the snow, so out he went with his new tube. No luck. He sat perched on the top of the hill and went nowhere (a funny sight to see this little person all bundled up stranded in an innertube with nothing but his very discouraged eyes peeking out).

An hour later, in walks Daddy, who bundles up to go outside and help the cause. He inflates the tube, positions our son on the top of the hill, and gives him a big push. Connor moves a whopping 2 feet down the hill and stops. So here is my husband, after a long day at work, out in the semi-darkness, literally pushing our son down the hill over and over again in a hot pink tube so he can experience sledding, albeit a bit slow.

What a great Daddy.

Winter is Here!!

Last weekend, the Kansas City area got hit with VERY cold weather. It made for some cozy days and nights, though, as we all stayed in and tried to stay warm. We tried (somewhat comically) to play board and card games with the kids, and decided that maybe that vision of a Rockwell family evening playing games in front of the fire on a snowy evening will be better realized in a couple years. :) We have been very thankful for the 4 wheel drive on our Durango--our street is basically a huge sheet of ice, and getting into our driveway is a somewhat harrowing experience. Although our storm pales in comparison to the piles of snow Grandpa and Grandma Carlson have in Colorado, it's apparent that Old Man Winter is here!

I started teaching my Assessment course last week, and it's been a bit of a struggle getting things up and running. The beginning of the semester kind of snuck up on everyone, resulting in lots of last minute chaos with scheduling for Jewell's beginning nursing majors. I have 42 students in my class, and teach in two class periods and three lab sessions weekly. It keeps me busy, but I love it! I am teaching my students a new language as they learn medical terminology, and we started in this week with how to assess a client's head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat. It is such a joy to watch the students use their stethoscopes for the first time and begin to explore the realm of nursing after two years of general education courses. Working with these students and seeing their enthusiasm serves as a great reminder of why I became a nurse and how thankful I am that God has led me into this profession where I have the privilege of impacting the lives of others. This week I will also be orienting juniors and seniors to my N-Clex (the state licensing exam for nurses) prep courses, in which I monitor everything online, which is great! Those two courses will officially start next Monday, and then my entire course load will be up and running. Whew!

The kids have done great with transitioning into Mom being at work. We have two beloved college students, Dena and Maggie, who come to the house to watch the kids while I am teaching. The kids LOVE both of these amazing young women, and I feel so blessed to have them in our family's life.

Brandon is keeping busy at work, preparing to go out of town for the first week of February to attend an IBM conference. He'll be going to New Orleans, which he's not real excited about, but I think it will be interesting to hear how everything looks post-Katrina.

Well, the two weeks of Phase One on the South Beach Diet are over--THANK GOODNESS. Brandon lost a couple pounds, and I lost about 4 pounds. Not great, but clothes are fitting much better, and now we're moving on to Phase Two, which involves adding some of the "good carbs" back in. Better, but still difficult for sweet-a-holics like us.

I packed up Connor's 3T clothes the other day. It was a bittersweet moment for me. I look at him and can hardly believe how BIG he's getting. We're still trying to teach him how to stand up for himself, and are so thankful that he is well-liked by other children. His kind heart and playful imagination are bright spots in our world. Here's a pic of him in his new firefighter garb that he received from Cara and Collin at Christmas.

Our baby girl never ceases to amaze us. Her verbal skills are quite good for her age, and we're hearing a lot of "I want to do it myself", or, "Can I walk?" when we're carrying her. We're working with her using conflict resolution skills other than hitting, and always enjoy seeing her hilarious bedhead in the morning or after naps (sadly, even after combing it, it doesn't behave much better...ah, the joys of a toddler mullet!). I've pasted a picture of her post-nap 'do for you, but it is hard to fully grasp the style by just looking at the photograph. :)

We hope your week is going well. Stay warm and dry and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate "Carlson style" (that is with LOTS of marshmallows). :)

We've Gone to the Dogs...

Wicket

Winnie and Zip

As many of you know, prior to Connor's arrival, our dogs (of which there were three) were our BABIES. I am not kidding. Believe me when I tell you that each of our dogs had their own photo album, and our house was basically covered in giant sheets so that the animals could perch wherever they wanted to--including our bed (that is, until Brandon insisted that it wasn't fair for him to have to share his side with a 100 lb. laborador retriever). My mother-in-law would spend a great deal of time petting and playing with the dogs during her visits, and when my Grandma would call to check in, she would ask how "the granddogs" were doing. While our friends were talking about their new babies, we were sharing our dogs' latest antics. People pretended to be interested, which was very generous of them.

Since the children have come along, the dogs have been, well, demoted. So, in an effort to make it up to them, I am writing this post, that I am sure they will read and appreciate. ;)

A little history about our four legged friends:

Winnie came to us in May of 1999. I was a single college graduate who wanted a companion, and I decided that a Lab was just the way for me to go. Brandon accompanied me out to a small farm outside of North Kansas City where we first saw Winnie, and it was love at first sight. She was a good puppy and instantly started going wherever I went--which unfortunately included many trips back and forth to Lindsborg to take care of my Mom as she fought cancer. My Mom actually named Winnie for me, which is why even though Winnie is constantly forraging for food and eating trash, she will always have a special place in my heart. I was very thankful to have "someone" to come home to after working 12 hour shifts at the hospital. She slept beside me in bed and knowing that there was another live being in my house was a great comfort to me. It was just her and I for 6 months until Brandon moved in (not a good day in Winnie's estimation, by the way).

Six months into our marriage, Brandon and I were strolling around the Plaza, and happened upon a Humane Society satellite adoption at Barnes and Noble. Long story short, we ended up adopting Wicket in the summer of 2000. After all, it was only fair that Brandon have a dog, too, right? Wicket was a cute little black ball of fuzz (Maybe a beagle? A Rotweiller? Who knows?) with a rather significant anxiety problem. She is also a barker. However, given all of that, she is still a very loving, enthusiastic dog who LOVES to play fetch and is actually quite amazing at it.

That next summer, after an innocent trip to Target, we came home with Zip--we were once again victims of the satellite adoption, this time hosted by Wayside Waifs. Our reasoning behind dog number three was to give Wicket a friend, since Winnie was more fond of sleeping and eating trash than playing with her "sister". Also, I was beginning to be bitten by the baby bug, and another puppy was, in our minds, easier than a pregnancy would have been at this point in our relationship. :)

We lived with three dogs for awhile before moving to our new house in July of 2004. With our second baby on the way, we knew there were too many creatures trying to live in the same space (plus, we found at that according to Liberty law, we could only have two dogs registered to our name). It only took about six accidents on the new carpet and a couple times of the dogs tramping through our brand new house with mud all over their paws before we decided at least one of the dogs had to go. After a long search for an adoptive family, Zip went to live at the Doggy Hilton in Great Bend with my Grandma (who took better care of her dogs than most people do of their children). And we are now down to just two dogs, which is a much better fit for us.

The kids love the puppies, and Winnie and Wicket are very patient as the children use them to dress up or chase or use them as live jungle gyms. Wicket and Connor can play fetch for hours, which is pretty cool to watch. Winnie remains fully convinced that she is, in fact, a human (and perhaps even royalty at that). We are thankful that now, the dogs have a huge backyard to play in, and even though they sleep in the basement instead of on the couches, we think they're happy. :)

Happy New Year!

Good morning! We hope this finds you all warm and toasty, enjoying the year 2007.

We've been thankful for some quiet time around the house this week. We celebrated Christmas with the McKinney family on Saturday and had a great time. One of the advantages to having a non-traditional family structure is getting to open presents a few different times rather than just once. ;) We rang in the New Year with some good friends, games, and, of course, a few beverages and lots of food.

Brandon and I have talked a lot about our New Year's Resolutions. We've taken immediate action by starting Phase One of the South Beach Diet. This is a diet that we tried two years ago after rave reviews from our good friends Jason and Dana. I lost about 20 pounds and Brandon didn't have any luck at all. After two weeks of Phase One, eating high protein, low-carb food, this meat and potatotes man was (understandably) not happy about his lack of results. However, since he's so good natured, we're giving it another go together. I asked Brandon what his goal for the diet was, and he replied "Progress. Of any kind." Here's to hoping this works!! We're on day three and after stuffing ourselves silly with sugar and bread over the holidays, it's painful. Only 11 more days to go until we can add "good carbs" back into the diet.

We've been in bowl game heaven around here this week. After a disappointing KSU-Rutgers game last week, we've enjoyed watching the other bowls (even if we do have to snack on celery instead of the traditional nachos and little smokies while watching). Brandon was pretty charged after the Boise State-Oklahoma game, as any true college football fan would have been. He's soaking up every minute of pigskin action and already lamenting the long basketball season that's coming. ;)

Every so often, I ask Brandon to rate our marriage on a scale of 1 to 10--10 being the highest. This is a fun conversation starter for us, and it's a quick, honest, and objective way to gauge how we're feeling about things. Last night, as we were getting ready for bed, I posed the rating question, and he responded "12". I asked "Really?". "Absolutely" he replied. "What about you?" he asked. "12 for me, too". As he tucked me in and turned out the light (late nights are his "cave time" and I turn into a pumpkin at about 10:00, so I go to bed earlier than he does), I said a prayer of thanks for the gift God has given me in my husband--that even after all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, managing a sick child, putting up and taking down Christmas lights, accompanying me on many Christmas shopping outings, he still loves me--and perhaps more importantly, we really LIKE each other.

What a way to ring in the New Year. Here's to a great 2007!!