Happy Birthday Audra!

You rock!

Does Santa Claus wrap your gifts?

When I was growing up, Santa did not wrap our gifts. Santa did wrap Chad's when he was a boy, so we had to decide which tradition would carry on in our own family. I won out, probably mainly because I am the one who does most of the Santa stuff, and Chad doesn't really care about stuff like that as much as I do. Here are my reasons for not having Santa wrap my kids' gifts:

1. I think it is fun for the kids to walk into the room and immediately see what Santa brought them. It has the big WOW factor.

2. Although I do love wrapping gifts, I try to keep down the mom and dad workload around Christmas. We have plenty of other things to occupy our time without attempting to wrap a bike.

3. After the Santa gifts and stockings are done, it is nice to sit down and unwrap gifts from each other. It makes the two things more separate, and I think it lets us focus on saying thanks to each other more.

So what does Santa do at your house?

A swingin' neighborhood

What does the Christmas Season bring to mind? Trees, lights, pies, cookies, ham? How about gambling? What, isn't that what the holidays are all about?

Our neighborhood has fun activities on a daily basis for all ages, and even though they had the kids painting turkey t-shirts with washable paints (?), most of the activities are pretty cool. It does stink that most of the family activities are scheduled for Sundays, but I understand that, for most families, that is the most convenient day of the week. Well, now it is time for the adult holiday party, which would be a nice, free date for Chad and I to go to, if there was actually anything there that appealed to us. But nope, it is all about gambling and drinking. I am sure they were trying to think of something different to do instead of the typical holiday party, but it is pretty disappointing to me. Can't there be just one aspect of the party that can enjoyed by cold fish such as ourselves? We pay just as much in home owners association dues as the rest of 'em. Maybe they are trying to keep our kind out :o)

Another Update!

Add an ear infection to the Coleman family list of maladies. We noticed that Colin hasn't been hearing us well (as opposed to the usual not listening well :o) and he complained once or twice that his ear hurt over the last few days (and then promptly forgot about it), so Chad took him off to them Dr. tonight and he has a ton of fluid in one ear and a raging infection in the other! Woohoo! More antibiotics!!!!

Chad and I came down with these incredible head colds on Saturday that completely knocked us flat. I got about three hours of sleep that night. We took turns getting out of bed to do just the essentials yesterday (and showering wasn't even considered an essential) , and Gabe was a snotty, pink-eyed, croupy mess, so we were laughing about how Colin was the only healthy one among us. Guess not! Poor little deaf boy. Maybe our family should take up that new fangled "handwashing" thing I have heard so much about ;o)

BTW, if you ever want a challenge, try finding a substitute teacher for Sunbeams. I left messages with about 11 people on Saturday and only had one answer me back (with a no.) Wow.

Another benefit of fasting?

Interesting article.

Imagine checking this out

One thing I really dislike about reading Orson Scott Card is that the covers of his book are often utterly ridiculous. Seriously, look at this one! It looks like a sleezy romance novel. In reality, the guy and gal featured on the front are hundreds of miles away from each other for 99.9% of the book, and the story revolves around a witch hunt and the heartfires of slaves. Every time I look at it I just have to laugh. Who exactly were they trying to appeal to? Uncle Orson, I know you read my blog, so I have to ask - do you have any say in your covers?

Btw, in case of of you are extremely gullible.....no he doesn't really read my blog. But wouldn't that be cool if he did?

Gabe's favorite activity

Gabe really loves to draw. Not color, draw. He doesn't try to fill in any pictures or cover the paper with color. He meticulously draws circles (or "O's," as he calls them), lines and "stars." I have never seen a toddler who is so precise with a pen or crayon. Gabe knows where we keep the construction paper and crayons, so he helps himself to them throughout the day, or to whatever paper we shouldn't have left lying around. I found a paper Chad wrote in the last week of his mission about his long term goals, and Gabe had drawn tiny circles all over the letters. If I want to keep him happy in the grocery store, I just hand him my planner and a pen and let him go nuts. Sometimes he will come up to me during the day and ask me to write his name on his creation and then after I finish he does the sign for butterfly, which is the one thing he knows I can doodle. Such a unique and neat little boy already. He is getting a MagnaDoodle for Christmas.

Ten things you might not know about Chad

1. His sports injuries included three concussions, a broken arm, a broken nose (from playing baseball with his brothers with a croquet ball!) and a severly sprained ankle.

2. He graduated cum laude from BYU.

3. He might make fun of people a lot, but there are actually very few people that he dislikes. He is really a lot nicer than me than me in this respect. He really really likes people and very trusting, loyal, and forgiving.

4. When I was just getting to know him in high school, one time I asked him what the holes around the neck of his t-shirt were about, and he told me if was from his puppy. He would lay on the ground and giggle as the puppy nibbled at him. This was when he was sixteen! He is still such a softie when it comes to puppies and kitties (and nieces!). He always jokes about how much he would love to wrestle with a baby white tiger.

5. He has been a huge help decorating our house. He will come home and surprise me with pieces of decor he knows I will like and he is always the driving force in getting things painted and decorated around here.

6. He is never afraid of asking questions. I really admire this about him because for some reason I feel like you should always try and figure things out for yourself and I think it stunts my growth. Chad really succeeds because he learns so much this way.

7. Chad is an Excel genuis, and most of it is self taught (while he was a customer service manager, no less). At work, where people know how to do this stuff, he is still the go-to guy when it comes to Excel. He knows how to pull data and build all these incredibly intricate reports with about a million different hidden formulas, and the reports self generate graphs showing how the company is doing and all kinds of stuff that I can barely begin to understand. It is so weird to look at the hidden stuff in one of the reports that he built, and be so confused by it, and know that he made and understands every line of it.

8. He is much better at cleaning than I am.

9. He thinks the movie "What Women Want" is hilarious.

10. I think he has secret ambitions to be a sniper (even though he doesn't know how to shoot a gun).

Update and an awesome tip!

Isn't this picture pathetic? After my last post, Gabe's eye quickly turned gunky, so I took him to the doctor. He confirmed that it was pink eye and wrote a prescription for antibiotic drops. The Dr. also said Gabe has croup, which, as we have all learned now, no medicine can cure. As soon as he said that, I thought, "Wow. Colin's croup must have been really bad, because it was much worse than this." So now I can just be thankful that Gabe's croup is very mild. He didn't even wake up once after I got home last night.

I really love the doctor that treated him. He told me that if one of the boys ever gets pink eye when we can't get to the doctor, to wash it out with Johnson's Baby Shampo. It is antibacterial and won't sting their eyes, so it works wonderfully, but you do need to do it 5 or 6 times a day. He even said that you could probably just do this continuosly to get rid of pink if you wanted to. What a great tip!!!!! Kids get pink eye so often.

We are all messes

Well, it is that special time of the year again - the sick season. It started early this year with Colin's croup in October, and since then one of us has always been sick. I currently have three disgusting cold sores, updated from when I took this picture yesterday with only two cold sores.

The cold sores just popped up a few days ago, but the cold has been here for five weeks now. No fever, nothing to indicate anything more serious, just a yucky cough for over a month. Colin has been coughing for that long as well. Chad and I went on a date last night after the boys went down, with Bobby babysitting, and when we came home, Gabe was calmly sitting on the couch with him. As he let out his "Mommy, where were you?" cry, out came a raspy, seal bark of a cough . Sometime between 6:30, when I put him to sleep, and 8:00, when Bobby heard him crying, he developed a cough. Don't you love that?

When Gabe woke up this morning, one eye was slightly crusty and runny. Are we going to add pink eye to the mix? If it is viral, there is no treatment. If it is bacterial, it needs antibiotics. Here is the difference between the two, courtesy of Dr. Sears :

1. Bacteria – when the eyes are red with yellow or green drainage oozing or crusting in the eye throughout the day and night, then bacteria are usually the culprit. The eyelids may also be swollen. Affects one or both eyes.
2. Virus – when the eyes are very red, but there is no drainage, or only a small amount of drainage or crusting upon waking up, then it is probably viral conjunctivitis. Usually affects both eyes.

I am leaning towards viral, because it was only crusty when he woke up, but I might be taking him to the Dr. before the day is over. Luckily we have an nice, clean, express place nearby that never has a wait.

I think something is wrong with me, but I feel really really guilty whenever my kids get sick. Maybe it is because of the commercials for antibacterial wipes and tissues that try to convince us that we can prevent all childhood illness (or even that we should). Maybe it is because I still remember how horrible and inept I felt when Gabe got RSV when he was five weeks old and was hospitalized. Maybe it is because I like to leave doctors and prescription drugs out of the picture whenever I can, and sometimes when I compare myself to the moms that stick their kids on antibiotics whenever they can, I seem like I am not doing enough. Whatever it is, each time I hear Gabe let out that bark, I feel like a failure.

Sorry for the negative post - I promise I am pretty darn happy right now, but the sick season always gets to me.

A visit with Santa

Santa came to the clubhouse at our subdivision on Saturday. Colin was brave but subdued as he requested his bike. This picture was the one moment when Colin was actually allowed to look at Santa instead of the photographer taking his picture. When did visiting Santa turn into purely a photo op?

Gabe walked in, saw Santa, and started trembling and bawling. The cookies and donuts soon calmed him, but he refused to go anywhere near the jolly old soul. The photographer on hand was more than a little annoyed by this, and tried to talk Chad and I into getting into the picture Colin, while holding Gabe. Uh, no thanks. We aren't cheesy enough yet to buy expensive picture packages featuring our whole family with Mr. Claus. Um, I hope I didn't offend any you with that remark, but I think I know my audience.

Internet messing up

If you don't see me around much, that is why.

Highly Addicting

This site allows you to create your own paperless snowflake. I have always loved making snowflakes, so it really appeals to me. You can check out snowflakes created by other people, leave comments, and forward your snowflakes to your friends. I know it sounds silly, but I was very addicted to this last Christmas season. Once you start seeing how intricate other people's snowflakes can be, it makes you want to experiment with your own. Seriously, I could spend an hour doing it.

Happy Birthday to Levi!

Three pictoral arguments against real trees

No matter how much we try, our trees always lean at least a little.

This was the mess made just from setting it up. Is there a vacuum out there that this won't clog? Add water to the mix, and it is just gross.

We didn't realize that the tree we chose had a very crooked trunk, which not only made the leaning problem more difficult, but shifted the weight of tree in such a way that we needed to weight it down with the heaviest object we have available- my ancient sewing machine! This is not the first time it has been used for such a purpose.

I love real Christmas trees, I really do. They are beautiful, they smell nice, and there is a certain romance to them. If I had a maid, I would probably get them every year. However, I am still the maid around here, and so this is definitely our last year with real one. The day after Christmas, we are going to hit the Christmas clearence and hopefully find a nice, pre-lit plastic beauty that will just need to be pulled out of a box next year instead of being strapped to the top of our mini van.

So, new poll - do you use a real tree or a fake one, and why?