Nick's new umbrella

For several weeks Nick has been obsessed with umbrellas. He's been begging me to get him an umbrella of his own. I bought him one last Friday and of course, that was when all the rain stopped so Nick has been improvising and using the umbrella in the shower. Normally Nick hates showers but this week it has given him an excuse to take a 45 minute "rain" shower with his new Lightening McQueen umbrella. It cracks me up. I wanted to snap a picture of him in the shower tonight and since I knew I would post the picture on my blog I had him wear his underwear. Of coarse he had to grab his penis - Nice Nick, real nice.
Another Nick story - He is devastated by the death of Savannah the giraffe at the Peoria Zoo. Check out my sister's blog http://stille3.blogspot.com/ She took Lauren and Nick to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and they loved it. Poor Giraffe, it really is a sad little story.

Weekend Extravaganza

As I'm sitting here blogging it is 4:45 on Sunday afternoon and I can't believe it. The weekend flew by. Whirl-wind weekends are typical in my world but it seems as if in the summer they go by even faster. I guess the old saying, "Time flies when you're having fun," is true! We kicked the weekend off with Nick's bible school program in the park on Friday night. Saturday morning Jay jetted off with Kim to Lake Michigan to go boating with Kim's childhood friend, Amy. Jay had a ball! Nick spent the night with Nana and Mike and I enjoyed the good company of our friends, the Ausili's. We had dinner together and watched the movie, "The Hang Over!"

Today, our childhood friend, Tracy (she went with us to the spa a few weeks ago) brought her kids and came for a visit. Kim and I had never met Tracy's two little boys. The kids ranged from age 8 (Jay) all the way to Lauren (age 2). It's funny because when you know someone as long as Kim and I have known Tracy we remember exactly what she and her sister, Lindsay, looked like as a kids. We joked that Tracy has a "little me" and a Lindsay (her sister) except they are boys! Her older son looks just like her and her younger son looks just like her sister. They were too cute. And little Miss Lauren held her own with those 4 boys! Way to go, Lauren!

My niece

Lately I've felt like my blog is totally lame, like I have nothing really creative to write about. But I realized I had not shared my time with my niece, Lauren, from when she spent the night with us. Isn't the picture cute? Like I always tell Nick, I told her the same thing, that I couldn't even take her seriously with her face all squinted up like that! Ha.
We enjoy having Lauren and I always want her to remember her Aunt May May's house and the time in she spent in the country. However, now that she's 2 1/2 she is really proving to be more of a city girl. I also discovered there are two HUGE differences between her and the boys. The first difference is she can entertain herself -Wow, what a concept but one I am not familiar with. When I brought her home on Friday evening I had to unload my car. Lauren pranced right downstairs to our basement and played contently by herself - Something my boys only do when they are threatened (you know the threat, "Boys, you go down to that basement and play and don't come up or else!). The second difference is she is scared of nearly everything - a huge difference from the boys, who are scared of nearly nothing. She enjoyed playing on our play ground but when I asked her if she wanted to go down the slide, she replied, "No May May, too scary." She is also petrified of loud noises so when Mike started his chain saw with her about 20 feet away from him, I thought she was going to have the big one!
We have good times together! Kim and I really raise them more as brothers and sister than of cousins. I only pray they will remain as such as they grow.

Over the weekend, my three boys provided me with some laughs. It started off with Jay. I was on my elliptical and watching the movie, "Did You Hear About The Morgan's?" Jay came down & asked me what I was watching. I told him and he responded by saying, "No, I haven't, so what are you watching, mom?" Again, I said, "Did you hear about the morgans?" By this time Jay was starting to run out of patience with me and said, "NO, mom, I haven't heard about the Morgan's but I would like to know what movie you're watching!"
Then the other night at dinner, Jay was complaining that he didn't have a Nintendo DS. He said that during the day he had to ride in between two children who had DS's and they played their game the entire ride (Oh boo-hoo). He was basically moping around about it and nothing annoys Mike more than feeling sorry for yourself, especially over a video game. Mike doesn't even crack a smile and says, "I don't know what you're complaining for, Jay, it was a beautiful day, instead of worrying about a video game, why weren't you looking out the window during the drive, admiring the scenery?" Jay knows better than to talk back (to Mike anyway) so he didn't say anything but If I could read his mind I'm sure he was thinking, "You know dad, you're 100% lame, do you even remember what it was like to be a kid?" I know that's what he was thinking because it was certainly what I would have thought when I was 8!
The other night the four of us were driving to dinner when Nick announced to us that he wanted to drive a monster truck but that his monster truck would be special. He wanted to cover his truck in penguin and giraffe stickers! Then out of the blue at dinner he said (very loudly I might add), "Did you know giraffe's have bones?" Our family can be talking about nuclear war and Nick would somehow bring penguins and giraffes into the conversation. He then proceeded to tell us that he wanted to one day be a giraffe keeper and clean them. When we pointed out that cleaning/bathing a giraffe is almost impossible, Nick had a solution, he said he and his dad would just build a really, really tall ladder! Keep dreaming big, Nick!

Happy Father's Day

I love Mother's Day/Father's Day! It's a special day to let mom (a.k.a. me) and dad know how much they are loved and appreciated. Mike really is one in a million! The boys and I are lucky to have him! You rock, Mike! Happy Father's day!

It's good to be a Siebert boy

I am so blessed to have family and friends who love spending time with my boys. Even though I work all summer and as much as my boys would love to have me home, they truly get to enjoy summer with family and friends. Here's a brief run-down of their week and you decide for yourself if they have any reason to complain about anything!
Sunday night - Jay spent the night with my mom. When he woke up Monday morning, my mom made him buttermilk pancakes and per Jay's choice they hung out at home all day and played and watched the old "Karate Kid" movie.
Monday - Nick got to spend the day with his beloved Qu-wisty (Christy). Christy took him to the zoo and out for ice cream - What a great day for a 4 year old!
Tuesday - Nick went to vacation bible school with Aunt Mimi, McDonald's play land and the park. Jay got his day with Christy and she took him to the Decatur Children's Musuem.
Wednesday - Nick returned to his regular daycare provider, Anna's house, where he spent the day playing outside in her enormous, fun-filled yard. Anna said he took a 3 hour nap that day because he played so hard outside. Jay spent another day with Christy. They went to the movies in the morning and the pool in the afternoon. I mean really, does life get much better and it's only Wednesday? That evening we topped the evening off by swimming at Aunt Mimi's - Thanks Aunt Mimi, you're the best.
Thursday - Jay spent the day with Christy and they got to lounge (although I doubt Jay lounged, ha) at a private pool and then it was more ice-cream!
Friday - Both boys received an invitation to go boating with Grandma and Grandpa!
Seriously, does summer get any better than that?

What, I have no contacts!

A day ago the title of this blog would have related to my eyes! Last week I got a terrible (non-contagious) eye infection and as a result I've been wearing my glasses for 7 days which I'm about sick of. Imagine going to the beach (in between rain showers) in my not so fancy eye glasses. But my contacts or lack thereof is not the subject of this blog. I had to get a new phone today. The place where I got my new phone assured me they transferred all my contacts into my new phone. Like an idiot, I didn't check the phone until I got home and lo and behold, no contacts. When I called my provider they had already erased the memory from my old phone. I had a little bit of a melt down! I'm a texting junkie - Who was I suppose to text with no contacts? During my melt down, Mike reminded me that I had an old razor phone that might still have all my numbers on it and wa-la it does! Mike said he would try to transfer the numbers for me tonight. My husband is capable of solving many, unique puzzles (example: getting a very load toad through a small bird house hole) but I doubt he's successful at transferring my contacts so it means another trip back to my provider with my old razor phone but at least I'll be back to texting mania!

Nick strikes again

Nick with the enormous toad he caught!

Mike using some "specialized" tool to try and get the toad out of the bird-house.

Ta-Da, the toad is free and the bird eggs can hatch!

Nick strikes again (remember the toothbrush incident a few weeks ago?)! He caught an enormous toad and when I wasn't looking he proceeded to stuff it into one of the bird-houses and he choose the bird house that has bird-eggs in it! Out of the corner of my eye I saw him doing it but it was too late. Picture me- like in a movie going in slow motion- running across the driveway yelling, "NOOOOOOOO!" As usual I was too slow for Nick. I peeked into the birdhouse and saw Mr. Toad staring back at me. If he could talk I'm sure he would have said "What the????" Jay was upset because he is obsessed with watching the bird-eggs and he was sure the eggs wouldn't hatch now that a toad had been sitting on them and probably peed on them. Thankfully, Mike used one of his tools and got the toad out. Crises averted, until the next one strikes.

Hide & Seek

Last night Jay begged me to play hide and go seek in the yard with him. When it was my turn to hide Mike suggested I hide in the shed. So picture this - I'm back in the shed hiding behind the lawn mower and smell this horrendous stink! I'm also in the squatting position, a position that isn't as comfortable at 36 as it was at 21 and I'm worried about some mouse sneaking up behind me. Additionally, I was trying to keep out of the cob webs and plug my nose to keep from inhaling that horrible smell! After about 10 minutes I could no longer feel my legs (from being in the squatting position) I actually started to enjoy the quiet time, even in the stink! Eventually the boys found me and Mike discovered the smell was a dead mouse - Ewwww!
When it was Jay's turn to hide he choose to hide in the garbage can so needless to say we all needed showers last night!

Good times with old friends

This Sunday, my sister, my mom, her friend, Kathy, and her daughter Tracy all met up in Pana at Oak Terrace Spa. Kim and I spent our childhood with Tracy and her sister, Lindsay! They lived in Decatur and either we would go visit them for a weekend or they would come to Bloomington. I remember we had lots of laughs and good times. My mom and Kathy have always kept in touch but the girls and Kim and I kind of lost touch and hadn't spent any time together in about 20 some years and I'm not kidding. Lindsay lives in Des Moines so she was missed dearly but Kim, me and Tracy laughed like we were school girls again! It was like we never missed a beat, we picked up right where we left off. I think our mother's thought we were immature 10 year olds again but we didn't care! We laughed so hard we cried!

Mom and Kathy!

This picture says it all. We thought it would be hilarious to get in bed together and take a picture of us in all our glory! Notice my huge zit and blood shot eyes! We were beyond silly at that point!

We enjoyed massages, facials and pedicures today! It was the perfect day with lots of laughs and good friends!

Welcome Kiki

My sister takes the boys for an activity for their birthday. For Nick's birthday she wanted to wait until she was done teaching so today, Kim, Nick, my mom and Lauren went to the Peoria Zoo so Nick could see the giraffes! My mom and Kim got soaked (due to the rain) but Nick and Lauren had a ball. Nick suckered my mom into buying him another penguin. He named her Kiki (I never quite know how Nick comes up with these names) but notice the picture above. Nick now has seven penguin as part of his penguin family! Thanks Aunt Mimi and Nana!

What are we doing next?

"What are we doing next, mom?" I must hear this question from Jay at least five times a day and he really tunes it up a notch in the summer. Jay is my child who requires constant entertainment. As he has gotten older and I've gotten wiser, Mike and I really try to meet a balance with him and make him understand it is not our job to provide him with constant entertainment. With age and maturity he's slowly improved but the initial transition into summer is always a little difficult for Jay. He'll settle in and have a great summer as he always does but until then I just need to take a deep breath every time the kid asks me, "What are we doing next, mom?" This past Saturday, I took the boys out for breakfast, to the park, then to State Farm Pool and we finished the day off by seeing "Shrek." As we were driving home after our very busy (and fun, I might add) Jay asks me, "What are we going to do when we get home?" I wanted to scream, "NOTHING!!!!" In fact that's exactly what I did say, I just didn't yell it. Then tonight, the second I walk in the door, Jay greeted me by asking, "What are we going to do tonight, mom?" That is after he spent the morning with his favorite girl, Holly, then spent the afternoon with my mom who took him to Red Lobster for lunch and Toys R Us!
Thankfully Jay has a lot of people in his life who plan accordingly and keep him busy! I like to reflect on the advice that James Dobson's father in law once gave him (which he spoke about in his book, "Raising Boys") he said, "If you ever let those kids of yours get bored, then you deserve whatever they do to you!"

MEN!

My husband has this weird quirk - Whenever he gets sick, he wraps himself in layers and then sleeps in those layers with 5 or 6 blankets over him. It's kind of gross because you can imagine the condition of our sheets the next morning. Mike says he's "sweating" out whatever illness he may have but I find it disgusting. The last two weeks Mike has been battling a cold or something and up until about two weeks ago we still had our electric blanket on the bed (dual controls, I haven't turned my side on since April). Recently, Mike "layered" himself like a burrito and put on his under clothes, a T-shirt and his sweat pants and socks. This was about 8 or 9 days ago when the weather was WARM! Then he turned his electric blanket up to high and went to bed. I mean REALLY, I find it kind of repulsive and if I remember correctly I think I choose to sleep on the couch that night and I immediately washed the sheets the next morning. When I tell my friends that Mike does this I often find that many men believe in this "technique" of ridding themselves of whatever toxin they may have. I find I just have to shake my head because I just don't get it.
Then over the weekend I experienced something with my boys and it happened with each of them on the same day. On Saturday morning, Jay and I were in the restroom at Panera. We were each in our own stall when I noticed I had no toliet paper. I asked Jay to hand me some from under the stall (right next to me). Right away he handed me toliet paper but when I went to actually use it, it was only 2 sheets. I made do but clearly boys do not realize it takes more than 2 sheets of toliet paper for a woman. Then that afternoon I had the exact same experience with Nick. He too was in a stall right next to me when I noticed I had no toliet paper. When I saw his little hand under the stall handing me more T.P., I just knew that my little Nick would surely come through for me but No, once again I was handed just 2 pieces of toliet paper. What are the odds? Living in a household of all men has certainly taught me a lot in terms of their little quirks!