What a Croc!

I am a nut when it comes to Crocs. Love them. Wear them constantly. Wear them to work. I even have what I call my "dress" up Crocs (and, yes, I've worn them to church). So comfortable. So casual. They've replaced my Birkenstocks. For a jeans and t-shirt gal, what more can I say?

So I thought I'd pass this coupon code along. If you don't already have a pair, give 'em a try. If you already have some, try on a different style. I'm considering these lovelies in light blue--how can I resist? Anywho. It's for free shipping through 12/31/07. Go to crocs.com and enter promo code "fall2007" at checkout.

Happy shopping!

Out with the Old

I've been needing to clean out my closet for a long time. Basically, since we moved in. It's become a catch-all and a total disaster. I've been hearing my mother's voice in my head (more often than i'd like to admit!) telling me to get rid of things. "If you're not using them, give them to someone who will!" And my friend Kristen told me about an organizing book she read and said i need to try everything on and if i don't LOVE it or NEED it to toss it. Be brutal!

So, I did that. I tossed into the Goodwill pile 16-year old Birkenstocks. My first pair. I know, they can be resoled (and have been!), but I'm not going to wear black suede Arizonas ever again. I got rid of two perfectly good 10-year old dresses--one that i wore to a friend's wedding and another that i wore to my rehearsal dinner. I probably wasn't as brutal as necessary, but i think i did good. There will be some dang good shopping down at the Goodwill come next week!

It feels good. I can walk into my closet now. I wish I'd thought to take a "before-and-after" photo. Not only can i walk into it, but i know what i have in there! I can find stuff. And, now i have a really good reason to go shopping! Because, I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!!!

Where the Wild Things Are

Bell Boys Update (Doug's Post)

One of Bode and Keegen's favorite things these days is to play the "Smashing Pillow Game". That is man-talk for pillow fight. It is so fun. We get three pillows (one for each boy) and hit each other with them and then when someone goes down you smash them with your pillow. When I get Bode or Keegen down, I unleash the SUPER SMASH, which involves lifting the pillow way up over my head, screaming "SUPER SMASH" as I bring it down to gently smash them. Then I lay the pillow on them and smack it repeatedly to pummel them into the floor. Bode will swing his pillow in a very short arc and I kind of have to lean into it for him to hit me, then I go flying across the room and fall flat on the floor. Then Bode runs over and jumps on me with his pillow yelling "super smash". Keegen struggles with all his might to lift the pillow off the floor (the bottom of the pillow never actually leaves the carpet) and hobbles towards me (frequently tripping on the pillow case) and when he gets close he falls forward saying "bonk" and I have to quickly get myself under the falling pillow. Then Keegen goes into wrestle-mode, which for him involves him putting his head down, burrowing into you and then flopping over on his back (kind of like a dog waiting to have it's tummy rubbed) and waits for you to get him. Sometimes we get a dad-pile, where Bode has jumped on me and then Keegen comes over and tries to jump on Bode (pretty much he leans on the pile) until I can get a hand around to lift him up on top. Everyone giggles and laughs until I gently roll them off and finish them with a "Super Smash" or a Steamroller.

Bode's Favorite Thing: riding his Tricycyle. He loves to ride his tricycle on the new sidewalk that goes from the garage to the back patio. He loves to ride his tricycle home from the sitters. He loves to ride his tricycle in the driveway and chase me on my roller blades. Bode often says t hings like "Look how fast I'm going", "I am the fastest" and "I can peddle all by myself".

Keegen's Favorite Thing: ice . . . he loves to munch on ice. Whenever I get a glass of water, he comes running up and says "ice" or "ice pease". He never gets enough either, because ice isn't very filling. You should have seen his face the other day when I set him in his high-chair and gave him his own bowl of crushed ice. I think we are going to have to start making ice-cheese cubes and ice-meat cubes and some kind of ice-vegetable cubes in order to get him to eat.

Bowl Me Over

Inspired by the Pottery Barn Kids bowling game we played with the other day at the mall, we had a family bowling activity Saturday. I think it had been 2 years since we last went--so Bode was about 2 but somehow he had lots of appropriate questions about it, as if he knew what it was all about. Maybe it's been on a cartoon or something...Anyway, he was super-excited to go and we had a great time. Bumpers and those handicapped ball-roller-thingies rock! Bode tossed his ball down the lane by himself and would yell to it to "TURN!" Keegen would yell "GOOOOO!" (reminding me of Spanish channel soccer games whenever they score --GOOOOOOAL!!!) and clap. They were cute and fun and we had a great time.

The sound of my own voice makes me cringe!! Ugh.

Eclipse

OK. Really. There had better be a "Book 4" because that was a major letdown.

Deep Thoughts

What with all this vampire stuff i've been reading, i've decided being a vampire has its perks. For the most part, I'd love to not have to sleep. i think i might actually get some things done around here...

Pedal Mania

I've been meaning to post about Bode's sudden pedaling abilities. He got his trike for his birthday, so that was, what?, 8-9 months ago? He never wanted to pedal. Always preferred to do the Fred Flintstone method. I never really pushed it. Although admittedly, i found it mildly annoying because he had the ability to do it and i thought he'd enjoy the trike more if he would, but as he makes it a point to make sure i know he has a mind of his own.

Anyway, one of the first things we did when we got back from the beach was spend time out front with our plethora of riding toys--trikes, scooters, ride-ons galore. Bode got on his trike and just started pedaling. I was very nearly shocked! Just took off.

The child won't stop pedaling. It's all he wants to do. He goes forever. Case in point, today we went to The Shops at Briargate--an outdoor mall of sorts. We went for a Maggie Moo's ice cream date. Keegen got his first very own cup of ice cream (Udderly Cream, the "purest" flavor they have! LOVED IT!). I tossed the trike in the van thinking it would be fun for him at the mall. So after MM, we cruised the mall--Bode on his trike and Keegen in the stroller. It was fantastic. I really didn't get anything more than window shopping done, but it was really a pleasure. They were well-behaved. People around us thought they were adorable. Bode just loved getting around on his trike. It wasn't a short little trip either. He was all over the place and didn't complain once. I didn't have to carry him or his trike as I have with other excursions in the past. Anyway, such a fun thing. Fun to see him learn and grow, too.

Unexpected Day Off

I was on-call last night and ended up working from 7:30PM 'til 3:15AM (after working my day job with the boys). And I was supposed to work today from 8:30AM-5PM. I left a love note for my boss when I left at 3. Luckily, Doug was available to get the boys up and to school and to Angela's so i could sleep in. Although, apparently I'm very much out of the sleeping-in habit and was basically up by 8:30 (after getting to bed at 4AM). You following this? I'm making it much more complicated than it needs to be. So, getting to the point, I talked to my boss around 11 and she very kindly told me to take the day off. Phew. Happily. As I told her, i felt like I got hit by a truck. I felt like what I can only assume a hangover would feel like--nauseous, serious headache, and just out-of-it.

So, with Bode at school and Keegen at Angela's...what's a girl to do?? I tried to get a much needed doctor's appt, but no go there. So i ran some errands sans children. Got a pair of scrubs to back-up the one measly pair i have (I have LOADS of scrubs, but RNs are now only allowed to wear NAVY blue scrubs where I work. Where' s the fun in that??). Ran to the fabric store. Dropped Keegen's cross stitch off to the needlework shop so a lovely lady can make it into a stocking (the stitching was basically finished last year, but i didn't make the finisher's deadline). Grabbed a bite to eat. Hit some shops that i could have spent our life-savings in (yes, there are a few choice shops in Colorado Springs. I'll give it that). Headed home and got the jogger to pick up the boys. Bode rode home on his trike while i pushed Keegs in the jogger.

We had a lovely evening. The boys are playing so well together lately. Fun. Keegen is sort of "getting" Bode's play style (ROUGH AND TUMBLE) and enjoying it more than just dealing with it. The boys are in bed. Doug just got home. I'm freakin' exhausted but am now debating between reading some of Eclipse or getting going on Doug's stocking....Hmmmm. Can I keep my lids open long enough and will my brain comprehend anything I read???

New Moon

OK. I'm 350-some pages into New Moon. It took a good 200 pages for me to get interested in it. I felt like I was plodding along. I mean, seriously, where's the romance? Where's the intimacy? Who needs all this angst? (I guess it is a "young adult" novel). And most importantly, where the hell is EDWARD?????

In My Mind I'm Gone to Carolina

This was supposed to have been for our Christmas card, but, oh well...

DRAT! I think I've waited too long to chronicle our days in the Outer Banks! I've forgotten so much! Here's what I started writing on Day 4 of our stay:

Here we are in LOVELY Corolla (Cor-rah-la), on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Oh, how I look forward to this vacation every year. The Outer Banks are the perfect place for a truly relaxing, mellow vacation. The beaches in Corolla are quiet and not commercialized. There remains a lot of open space, lighthouses and wildlife preserves. I think it's a rare place, indeed. And we are lucky enough to spend a week here to finish off our summer with my sister and her family.

We left Sunday morning. It's a 6 hour drive from the DC area and it was easy. The boys really do travel well. They hung out, snacked, napped. It was only the last hour that they got cagey and we resorted to Dora on the DVD player.

We moved into our beach house, which is about 100 yards from the beach access. Nice and close. We all have our own bedrooms, which is dreamy. And the place has a pool, so when we get sick of sand stuck in our nether-regions, we can opt for time at the pool instead!

We spent a lot of time on the beach. Bode loved it the first couple of days and then wasn't all that thrilled by it. He enjoyed it in snippets and was ready to go home much sooner than I'd expected. It took me awhile to realize I should have brought some trucks to the beach, so on the last day he had a digger and a dumper and a bulldozer and all was well. What he did consistently love was the pool. He ventured out more than ever before and really had fun. He enjoyed hanging out on a blow-up crab thingy and kicking his feet. And he held onto the side of the pool and sort of walked around talking about how far he was going. Quite the daredevil...

Keegen enjoyed the beach but not in a jump in the water crazy sort of way (like Bode did at Keegen's age--we could barely contain him). He seemed fascinated by the water but would run away from it as it came towards him. Doug dug little tidepools for him and Chloe, so they spent a lot of time splashing and playing there.

Doug took Fiona and Bode on crab hunts and managed to catch a few itty-bitty crabs and release them into the babies' tidepools. We'd watch as the crab dug a hole and disappeared.

Erin and I managed to get away to the local shops and take advantage of the end-of-the-season sales. Doug and Erin stayed up late playing Scrabble and Boggle. I am not much of a gameplayer (such a party-pooper, am I), so they were happy to have each other to play with. I fell asleep watching US Open tennis almost every night. Gotta love it.

The weather was perfect. Sunny everyday. Not one rainstorm. The beach wasn't too full--more people than our previous stays, but still quiet. I got to spend time with my sis. I got to get to know my nieces better. My sons got to spend time with their cousins and were totally entertained without much effort on my part. I got some alone time with Doug. I got to hear the crashing waves on a daily basis. It was simply a perfect vacation.

Literally, as we got into our rental car to drive to the airport, it started to rain. Tropical Storm Gabrielle was on her way.

We arrived back to Denver 14 hours later to a crisp, cool autumn air! Summer to fall in an instant! I can pull out the sweaters and sweatshirts I bought in OBX sooner than i thought!

Twilight

OK, all of you out there who've read Twilight and Eclipse and waited oh-so-impatiently for New Moon (or is it the other way around?), I TOTALLY GET IT NOW! I'm maybe 1/3 the way through Twilight and i can't get enough of it. Love it. Managed to read it at the park today while the boys played (lots of interruptions, but I'll take what I can get). Sooooo goooood!

Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?

I remember:

• waking up to news reports that didn't make sense to anyone--including those reporting it
• the realization of what was happening and the disbelief that it was
• my relief and gratitude to finally reach my dad on his cellphone, since he is often at the Pentagon and travels a lot--he was leaving Dulles airport when I got through
• getting the "Code Yellow" disaster call from work (Virginia Hospital Center--the designated hospital for the Pentagon) requesting all available healthcare personnel report to their units
• wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed with Doug and feel safe
• hoping to be able to help and make a difference
• the drive to work being very surreal. Almost like living in slow-motion. Everyone on the road seemed stunned. Lots of police presence and roadblocks around the hospital
• we were never inundated with victims like we'd expected and hoped since very few made it out alive
• driving by the Pentagon to see the damage
• sitting in a staff meeting soon after 9/11 with my boss saying she expected business (labor and delivery) to decrease in 9 months and a co-worker disagreeing. My co-worker was right. We had a huge increase the following summer

Most of all, I remember seeing the best in people in the weeks and months after the attacks. People were more courteous, more caring, kinder, less hurried. Even in traffic! Something so terrible and unbelievable brought our nation together. Now we seem to be more divided than ever. I wish that we could really just have "peace on earth, goodwill toward men." Is that too simplistic? Maybe so. But I can hope for a brighter future and do what I can to make my little world--with my children, friends, family and anyone else I may come into contact with--a happier, more positive and healthier place to be.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

I have some catching up to do. Here are some of the fun things for the last couple of weeks.

[Bode Updates]

Bode has started singing again, and we usually walk out of his room at night listening to him sing to himself Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or the ABCs. On the airplane ride home yesterday I looked over and he was doing head, shoulders, knees and toes, with the motions and everything.

Bode is loving the pool. He still doesn't like to put his head underwater. He fell in off the pool steps last week and went all the way under, came up sputtering and spent the rest of the week bragging about he had gone under the water by himself.

Bode is becoming annoyingly observant and logical. As we hauled things back from the beach, he didn't want to carry two shovels and wanted Mommy to carry one of them. Mommy told him her hands were full and Bode proceeded to reach out, grab one of her hands (which was empty, but things were hanging on her arm) and pointed out that this hand wasn't full.

[Keegen Updates]

Keegen is a maniac. So loud and crazy, it is fun to watch.

He loves to climb on chairs and must have fallen off them at the beach at least twice a day, but was undeterred.

Keegen knows the signs for food, milk and more and uses them frequently.

Keegen loved the beach, everything from spending hours in a small wade pool we dug (jumping, dumping dirt on himself and sitting) to scooping up jellyfish on the beach with a shovel.

[Bode, Keegen and Dad at the pool]
Lately Bode is all about the muscles. He will frequently come up to you, flex his arms, point to his elbows and say look at my big muscles. We were at the pool, playing on the steps that go into the deep pool and he went over and grabbed one of the exercise foam weights for the pool. He started pushing it down into the water repeatedly (took some effort for the little guy) and told me "Daddy, my muscles are getting bigger and bigger. Soon they will be big and have hair on them (like Dad's do) and then I will get a hair penis". These statements stem from our discussions about why he doesn't have pubic hair and daddy does.

[Bode and Dad in Bode's room getting ready for bed, 3 days after Mommy kicked the door down]
Bode says to me "Daddy, you need to fix my door. Mommy locked two doors and we were stuck in here. We had to find a way out, so Mommy kicked the door down, (with a reverent voice) she is VERY strong. Daddy, you aren't that strong like mommy."

[Everybody at the beach]
Bode started using some new phrases last week, my favorite is:

"Daddy, can you get me a flavor? Will you get me a cookie?" (translation: Daddy, can you do me a favor?)

He also started saying "I am sick of being in here" (referring to the car, the airplane, etc.). I am not sure where that one came from.

The house we stayed in had a pool table and when we walked in we told the kids, that is the "pool" table. An hour later Bode came up to me and asked if he could go play river. After some clarifying questions I realized that pool had become river and that was one of their favorite games.

[Bode and Dad in a changing stall at the store]

Bode really wanted to be in the stall with me while I was trying on some pants. When he saw that you could lock/unlock the stall door, he decided he would be in charge of that. Everything went well until he got bored, unlocked the door and threw it wide open while I was standing there, between pairs of pants, naked from the waist down. Ashlee swears no one saw anything, but I am sure I heard some impressed oohs and aahhhs.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

All the years I've/we've been coming to the Outer Banks, we've never checked out the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. I've seen the one in Cape Hatteras, but this is the first one I've actually walked up. I find these lighthouses amazing. I mean, how did they build these things back in the 1870's? The walls are over 5 feet thick in some places. And they were originally powered by oil and wicks! Crazy.

Up the 214 narrow, spiraling steps we walked and it was so much fun! Bode is just so happy to be physically active and CLIMBING anything. It was a relief to step out from the muggy heat inside the lighthouse into the ocean breeze. The view from the top was gorgeous, with the ocean on one side and the sound on the other.

After our lighthouse adventure we grabbed some lunch at the Tomato Patch and enjoyed chocolate dipped cones for dessert. Yum!

(i'm not sure why Bode looks so sour in this shot--just bad timing because he was loving it up there).

Space Cadets

Doug arrived yesterday (woo hoo! yea for back-up!). In Bode's (many) tired moments, he has asked "where is my daddy?" and stated that he wants to "go home to my daddy." He (they) just have a very fun, involved father. And as great as I may be (i hope), i just don't rough-house and play like he does. And he is sorely missed when we're apart.

Saturday, we spent the day at the National Air and Space Museum in Dulles, Virginia. I had considered going downtown, in large part so the boys could ride the Metro, but decided to check out this one closer to my parents' house. It did not disappoint.

It was a huge hangar filled with planes, helicopters, gliders; etc. The boys got to climb inside a Cessna for a few minutes and enjoyed moving the joysticks back and forth (with much force! the docent kept stressing moving it lightly, but that's just not in Keegen's vocab!). Bode and Doug took a ride in a flight simulator. I was afraid Bode would want out as soon as the ride started, but he loved it! We ate a little McDonald's (conveniently in the museum), watched the planes land at Dulles through the McD's window, played at the gift shop, rode the elevator up and down a couple times, ran up and down the ramps and continued to check out all the displays. It was a great museum. Not too busy. So much to see. It's worth checking out if you have kids who love planes like mine do!

The boys next to a "Bell Aircraft"