I stole this picture from Mike Fennema's facebook page........ no one else has emailed me one yet and I think it is a cool one to put up for a Thanksgiving day blog. This is my Gramma Fennema (mom's mom) with all of the great-grandchildren that were in attendance on Thanksgiving Day 2008. (I think 7 or so are missing) By January 2009, Lord willing, Gramma will have 38 great-grandkids!! If we were able to get everyone who "decended" from Gramma and Grandpa Fennema together it would be a total of 78 people from what I can calculate............5 kids, plus 5 spouses; 16 grandkids, plus 14 spouses; 34 great-grandkids (8 for Sharon, 9 for Donna, 14 for Gene, 2 for Carol, 1 for Deb), plus 2 "step" ones and 2 more one the way ---any day really. That's 10+16+14+34+4=78.......right?? I just had to do that math 4 times!! (pathetic!) The only ones missing from this picture are my Chris, the Rockford 3, and the Germany 3. What a legacy that comes from just 2 people -- gramma & grandpa, huh??

I'm going to try and upload this on my facebook and tag everyone............anyone reading this who can check my tags, please do and let me know if I got someone wrong. I'm kind of bad with the names.

Cruel Joke on My Face

OK, after this post, I am getting off the computer and back to the cookies I am baking and the laundry that needs to be "flipped" again....but I felt the need to vent about this quick a minute:

What kind of cruel joke is my body playing on my almost 37 year old, limited self-esteem? I've gotten these new "laugh-lines" sprouting up on my face as I approach 40 years old. I do not like them. So, I bought some "super crease filling, collagen miracle cream" to put on the lines @ night. What kind of skin issues do I have that I can get wrinkles beginning and still get pimples in the wrinkles??? I put the cream on at night and wake up with a HUGE pimple in the wrinkle in the morning?? NOT FAIR!!! Pick an age, face! Preferably, the younger one. At least I know how to deal with zits and at least they go away. The wrinkles look as if they are here to stay.

Ah, so goes life, I guess, huh?

Holidays @ the Grocery Store (or just everyday shopping with kids)

I just got thru reading about some of my friends going to try to get some grocery shopping done today -- the day before Thanksgiving!! Are they crazy??! I went to Meijer yesterday, because I needed to get a few things and they had a game I needed to get for a December birthday present on sale (only thru today, so.....). It was quite a ZOO already. They did have almost all the checkout lines open though, and no one seemed to be doing their big weekly shopping, so no huge full, $200 carts in front of me in line........

Anyway, that reminded me of an E-bay listing from a year or more ago that was sent around in e-mail for quite a while -- just for kicks. This woman had a big long story about Pokemon cards and why she was selling them.....
(You can read it here: http://www.internetinfluencemagic.com/misc/ebay_pokemon_cards.html if you haven't had the privilege of reading it yet.)

I absolutely love this woman's sense of humor and the way she describes her trips to the grocery store. It makes me feel pretty good about only having to stop twice for Cole to try and go Poop yesterday at Meijer. Or, the way he & I must sound to other people around us as he is doing the "poopy whine" right before the second time I took him to the bathroom. "It's coming -- really this time, mom -- REALLY!" "AUGH! I smell it -- did you just poop in your pants?" "No, but you told me to"......(which I did in my disgusted sarcasm of not wanting to venture across the store to the bathroom again!)....."It's for REAL this time, mom, it's poking me"! Of course, the pitch of Cole's voice is getting higher and louder with each sentence, and he does not have a voice you can easily ignore anyway. We must've sounded like morons to other shoppers -- especially the ones who end up going up and down the same aisles with you as you work your way thru the store, you know? These poor people got the whole low-down and update on Cole's poop progress all the way from the dairy case back up front to produce (where there is a bathroom off to the west side, thank goodness!)

I gave up, when I have 3 boys shopping with me -- 9, 6, & 4 -- on any kind of decorum or pretense of sanity when I am grocery shopping. Like I have said before, I look around the grocery store most days and really feel pretty good about myself in comparison to some of the other shoppers. So, anymore, I just bark orders at the boys and try to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible. I have tried to give into them sometimes by "buying the behavior" with a special little toy or snack and that lasts all of about 5 minutes with these guys. I have tried to give the bigger kids little jobs like, "Go get the milk and meet me back here"....I always end up either losing them to the fish tanks on the way to the milk or going after the right milk myself anyway. ("When have we ever bought the kind in the glass jar?" [Oberweiss] -- way too much $$! Or no, "I did NOT say that chocolate was OK this time," as the child brings back 2 gallons of brown milk instead of 2%!). We have bought a dozen eggs that we never got to bring home, because I sent an 8 year old after them and they were dropped on the trip back to the cart. We have almost purchased $5 boxes of cereal because I was not paying attention and sent someone after "3 bags of cereal -- I don't care which kind". All the boy heard was "cereal -- I don't care which kind". We have NOT however, like the poor woman in the aisle with me yesterday, purchased 4 jars of applesauce because we knocked them off the shelf. We have been fortunate enough to have only knocked plastic or boxes off the shelves recently. We must look rather comical on the bad trips where no one is listening and the wrestling continues past the deli and produce......this is when the young boys walking with me must put their hands on top of their heads and "follow mom in one line -- like ducks"!! The smallest one riding in the cart is then in charge of tattling on the older ones who "are not 'wining' up like 'gucks', mom, you see 'dem?"

When I am in a nostalgic mood, I realize that these days of shopping trips like this are quickly coming to a close for me. All of my boys are in school, at least part of the day, at this point and it will be a quick year or so before Cole is in school full-time too. Alas, the shopping trips will be relegated only to the summer months and the boys are quickly becoming "better behaved" anyway..........or old enough that I can send them to the toy or video game aisle by themselves soon! Thank goodness for Megamarts like Walmart and Meijer, where you can buy groceries and video games only a few aisle away from each other! :)

Christmas Background on Blog (before Thanksgiving!!?)

What do you think of the Christmas background here? There are so many on the website I get them from (see link in the upper left corner of the blog here). I was toying with the idea of a Thanksgiving one for a little while, but that seemed like a waste of time, almost. It would've been up for only like a week or two at the most and I have enough trouble deciding on one to begin with. So, SSHHH!! -- don't anyone tell Joe, but I have started "decorating" (at least the blog) for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Around here, I am not allowed to even think about getting the Christmas tree out of the barn until next week. Last year, I think I put the tree up and started the yard decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving and got a lot of cr** for it from him. We used to wait until my birthday to do it -- like a tradition. The tradition actually started with my mom back in 1971...........

Mom was pregnant with me, her first child. It was 10 days past her due date and she had still not delivered me. I guess the talk had been something like "we're not going to put the tree up until after the baby gets here." Which, makes a little bit of sense since they had told her she was due closer to Thanksgiving than into December. Dad came home from work and must've questioned the fact that mom was putting up the tree, because, as the story goes, Mom had a little breakdown there and told him that it didn't seem like this baby was EVER going to come so she may as well put up the stupid Christmas Tree. Well, as it turned out, she went into labor as they were finishing the decorating and went to the hospital to deliver me in the wee hours of the morning on December 5th.

It's difficult for me to picture my folks as a young couple sometimes. The older I get, the easier it, so, I must be becoming more empathetic......or just more in touch with my own mortality. Now, having been thru a few pregnancies, I can picture mom as young (26-27?) and pregnant with her first child. I can imagine the anxiety that goes along with being 10 days past your due date, even though I have never had to "wait" for my boys. I can empathize with the moodiness that goes along with raging hormones in late pregnancy. I can picture dad kind of tiptoeing around the subject of the Christmas tree.....(at least I would hope he tiptoed around it, not just burst in the room asking "What are you doing!!" Surely he was a totally sensitive husband, right??) :)
I can picture her in those first weeks with a colicky baby having to call Gramma Fennema to come over because "this baby will just not stop crying!" We have all been there with our first babies, if not our second and third ones, huh?

Anyway, back to the tradition...........Mom, most years it seemed, waited until that first week of December to put up her tree. She always did it sometime around my birthday. So, when Joe and I got married I just waited until my birthday to set up our tree, too. My mother-in-law always did hers, if not the day after, then the weekend after Thanksgiving. Chris questioned me the first year as to WHEN?? was I going to to put up our Christmas tree. Like I had waited for WEEKS instead of days after Granny to get ours up. I told him I was waiting for my birthday. In 1998, I distinctly remember starting to put up our Christmas tree on the morning of December 5th. I, like mom had been, was pregnant and emotional. Clayton's due date was Christmas Day, though. So, the tree was up and I was busy putting the lights on it when Joe came in the house and questioned the way I was doing the lights. I had them plugged in and was just putting them on the tree in sections as it looked good to me. My back was killing me, I had to go to work waiting tables that afternoon and I just wanted to get the thing done. Joe thought I should be stringing the lights AROUND the tree. You know, AROUND, & AROUND, & AROUND. To me that seemed silly. I had done it that way before I could never get it to look right......and besides what did it matter how they were on there as long as it looked good when we were done?? Well, history almost repeated itself that December 5th -- I melted down about Joe's criticism of my "light putting up ability". Sobbing, tears, the whole 9 yards. I did not deliver Clayton that night, but went to work both that night and the next. When I got home from work on the 6th, my back was still killing me. Joe rubbed my back for awhile and when I stood up, my water broke. We went to the hospital and Clayton was born in the wee hours of the morning on December 7th, 1998.

The next few years, with only Chris and Clayton around here, I think I stuck with the birthday tradition of putting up the Christmas tree. I think a couple of years I may have even waited until after the 7th so that there was no Christmas tree in Clayton's birthday pictures. When Curtis came along on December 17th, 2001...........well he was just going to have to get used to celebrating his birthday with the Christmas tree up. There was no way I could wait until after the 17th. Rearranging furniture, putting the artificial tree together, the dreaded lights, and all the other decorating was not worth it if we were only going to have the tree up for like 2 weeks. If Curt ever had an issue with the tree up for his birthday, well, too bad.....get over it. I think at that point, I was still waiting until around Clayton's birthday to put the tree up. These past few years, with Cole added to the picture and December getting busier and busier, it seems, I have just put the tree up whenever I have a free day. Last year, I think that decorating day started on Friday after Thanksgiving and came to a conclusion on that Saturday. Joe questioned me on that Friday......like, "Already??" I just kind of said, "Hey, today I have time."

We'll see how it goes this year. Yesterday, I mentioned to Joe that whenever he had time this week, he could get that Christmas tree box out from in the barn and into the garage. That way, whenever we have time this week or next we can start on putting it all together. I have a feeling it will be this weekend after Thanksgiving again..........I may pencil it in on the calendar for Friday or Saturday. The kids will be thrilled, Joe Humbug will groan about it being to early, and the lights and I will go at it again!! :)

I'm addicted...as I believe MANY of you are!

I will admit here and now that I am addicted......to FACEBOOK! How pathetic, really. I have it open as my "second tab" Homepage on IE and cannot help but check it several times a day.



I can justify this addiction by saying that never have I been "in touch" with so many people. It is nice to touch base with family, cousins, old friends, etc., etc. It makes the world a smaller place and makes me feel less like I live under a rock all by myself out here. It is cool to see where people are at, what they did this week, look at pictures of their families and share a little in friends' and family's joys and struggles.



On the other hand, it can be a huge time waster. Today was a "slow day" on Facebook. No one is around..........probably doing more productive things.........so there was nothing to really read about or comment on. Again, pretty pathetic.



I am doing load after load of laundry today, so I am somewhat justified in being downstairs here and on the computer most of the day. As long as the washer and dryer are constantly running then I am "working" right? I am pretending that the living room and kitchen are not even a part of the house today, let alone the bathroom..........AUGH! Maybe I can get the kids to help me pick it all up after school. It is mostly their clutter anyway. I'll have to psych myself up for the drama that goes with asking for that kind of "help" though. (Parenthood, I guess!) :)



On another note, Cole and spent Wednesday with Laurie and Eli in Champaign (well, Savoy, IL). Eli was just a week old , so we had to go "check him out". He is beautiful!! He slept most of the day, which was frustrating to Laurie. She wanted him awake and eating at the right times so he would get on a schedule and sleep a little at night. I remember being that worried and impatient with Clayton. "What is wrong with this kid?" "Up all night and sleep all day!!" Why won't he eat?? Why hasn't he pooped? Does he need a bath? Is he warm enough? Did he get that onsie a little dirty?? Again, that was Clayton..............



With Cole it was more like: "I think he ate this morning....why? Is he crying? Someone rock him in the chair and I will BE RIGHT THERE!!" I told someone just last week, that Cole is definitely the least clean of all my sons. Not just because that is his nature, but because I do not (nor have I ever) get concerned anymore with how many baths he gets a week. There is always one on Saturday evening, sometimes on Wednesdays, too, but really not always. It is the illusion of clean that counts, right? A warm soapy washcloth goes a long way with a 4th son! Some weeks, he gets baths more often, though, too, because let me tell you, the bathtub is a great distraction! He can be in there until he is pruney and freezing and still be happy.........as are the rest of us because he is not running around here yelling about everything, or getting into anyone's stuff, or coloring on anyone's homework!

We are at the point in our lives that Jeans get worn 2 days in a row to school -- as long as there are not big stains or anything too gross smeared on them. Clayton never wore the same clothes twice as a baby. Cole and I go days without getting dressed at all.........still in jammies at 5 pm?? Oh well, if there are clean ones in your laundry basket, you can get them. Otherwise, wear those again and we might get clothes tomorrow!!

Miriam DB apologized for not being dressed and beautiful the other day when we stopped by......BIG DEAL! The only reason I was dressed was because the Meijer greeter looks at me weird when I walk in in slippers! (I have really only done that once and it was a complete accident. It was the same day I picked the kids up from school in the same slippers and they are kind of close looking to clogs, so................) :) Besides, next time you are at Walmart, Meijer, even Target -- look around! On a BAD day, I still feel pretty good about the way I present myself compared to some of the other shoppers around me.

Oh, see, something just popped up as a notification on Facebook! Wow, Laurie tagged me and Cole in some photos. I'd better go check them out! (See the addiction??)

This is Nice and something to remember....

David DeBoer has a great picture of Grandpa DeBoer and the Great-Grandkids up on his blog. Also, a beautiful blog entry about it.

http://daarkstar78.blogspot.com/2008/11/something-to-aspire-to.html

Read it and then remember how blessed we are to have known our grandparents (& great grandparents) for as long as we have. I know that they wear us down sometimes........especially their daughters and daughters-in-law.........but they are all wonderful people who have offered (me anyway) countless GEMS of advice, TONS of Love and CHERISHED memories. Both of my grammas are still alive and living in the Holland Home. Right down the hall from each other. I hope that Cole is old enough to have stored a few of his memories of visiting them with Nana and running between the 2 rooms with the wheel-y walker! They adore him. He may make them a little crazy with his "touching" everything, but what else does he have to do there, really? They have crabby days quite often, too, but really who wouldn't in their 90's? I have those now (more often, it seems) and I am not even 40 yet!

Anyway, give Dave's blog a read..........it's well worth the couple of minutes it will take.

I don't know how you people do this.......

I have started more than 4 different entries to this blog on different days and different times of the day and cannot get a complete thought down here. Someone is always interrupting me or needing something, or fighting with their brothers, or the phone rings, etc., etc., etc.

How and when do you people find time to finish a blog entry? Do I need to get up earlier -- say 1am instead of 1:30 and devote a 1/2 and hour or so to it then, when everyone is asleep? I actually think that might be kind of funny -- considering how completely incoherent I can be until the coffee has kicked in at that hour of the morning...........I actually ate CoCo Krispies that "someone" had shaken crushed red peppers (like you shake on Pizza!) into the other morning. I thought they tasted a little weird, and maybe CoCo Krispies shouldn't be making my mouth hurt like that............I discovered after I got home and looked at the cereal in the Tupperware container, that THAT was why they were hot! I guess they "fell out of Cole's hand" into the Tupperware and I should actually be thanking him for taking the container out. "But I picked it out and put them away." -- OOH, Sorry! Well, THANK-YOU!!

Hey -- wait a minute -- that was almost a complete thought and could almost qualify as a blog entry, huh?? Well, I'm not as bad off as I thought when I started this post, then.