"I Poop"

No, well, let me explain.

For about the last week every time Elyse is doing 'something' in her diaper she yells, "I poop!" At first I tried to correct her and let her know that she did not poop. Then it was just funny and then I thought maybe she had gas. (I know, this may be more than you wanted to know. If you are saying that now then I give you permission to skip this post all together!)

Yesterday morning she yelled again and I quickly rushed her to the bathroom. I wasn't really expecting anything to happen once we got there. I just thought that I would try to help her connect the dots with what she was saying and what should happen in the bathroom.

I quickly removed her diaper and sat her down. THEN SHE DID IT. SHE WENT IN THE POTTY. I had no idea that such a small task would trigger such joy. She sat there smiling and I just laughed. The kind of laugh that you have with a little tear too. It was just so very exciting! I rewarded her with many kisses and some M&M's.

For the rest of the day she would yell, "I Poop" and I would rush her to the bathroom. We had many successful trips and a few accidents. Today was about the same. I am not sure how long this process will take, however, I am pleased with her progress. I can't wait to hear that little voice yell again tomorrow, "I poop!"


Also, the Real Simple Essay Contest is around the corner. This years topic is , "I never thought I'd..."

There are many ideas running around in my head, but I have until September 24th to write something! I will post my essay once it is written.

My Granny

When I was young I called her Mamaw. Then somehow over the years she grew into Granny. Most grandmothers would take offence to this name, but she loves it. My friends also call her Granny. The name has even caught on at work.

Speaking of work, she does not stop. You would think that by her age (which I will not mention) she would be retired and living the 'good' life. But, to my Granny, the 'good' life is working.

Tonight I am going to take you through a little work history of my Granny.

She grew up on a farm in Adams County, Ohio. She was the youngest of 5, three girls and two boys. Granny loved the farm and the outdoors. Her days were spent with the animals and in the fields, not in the house and not in the kitchen. (I still don't fully understand how she became such a great cook!) She stayed outside with the boys, making her quite the tomboy.

As she grew up, she became a beautiful young lady and met by grandfather. They got married shortly after high school and moved to the big city of Cincinnati. They both found jobs there.

Granny first worked for Phillip Carrie Manufacturing as a secretary. In this era of business dictation by secretaries was important. She worked for two bosses. One was very nice and the other was extremely intimidating. Granny told me that she wanted to crawl under her desk any time she heard his voice yell for her to come in to dictate.

My Grandparents left Cincinnati after a few years for a three reasons. My grandfather got a new job in Washington Court House. They were going to have a baby. They wanted to be closer to family. After my mother was born Granny stayed home with her for one year and then she went to work for Ohio Bell Telephone Company.

She describes this job as one of her favorites. Being a telephone operator was exciting and never boring. When my aunt was born 4 years later, Granny resigned from Ohio Bell to stay at home with her girls. For the next 14 years she was a stay at home mom.

When both girls were in junior high and high school Granny went back to work at NCR as an Order Entry Clerk. Soon after two strikes the company threatened to move if there was another strike. The third strike was quickly followed by the office closing. Another job change was welcomed as she entered the Agroco Chemical Company as a Sales Representative. Then she moved on to Meade Container Company for another 10 years. She describes this job as really dull.

Next she moved on to a temporary service where she bounced from Airborn, to Visadore and then to Mac Tools. She was eventually hired on full time at Mac Tools where she retired in May of 1996. I should use the word retired lightly. Granny has done nothing of the sort.

Shortly after her retirement she started delivering pharmaceuticals at night. She would drive all over at all hours of the night. Then they moved her to deliveries during the day. She still does this now. Granny loves this job. She drives to Indianapolis, or Cincinnati or anywhere else they can send her. She has driven to Tennessee and back in one day and to all corners of West Virginia. Currently she also dispatches pharmaceutical trucks from about 1am-4am. She does not stop.

Also, she is a saleswoman. At any given time during the aforementioned jobs, Granny was selling something. Here are a few of the items I can remember:

1. Swipe- This was a cleaning agent. She states that it sold really well and that she is going to ask around to see what happened to it. (Secretly, I am hoping she doesn't find out. Knowing Granny if she finds that Swipe is still around, she will want to sell it again.)
2. Healthy Food Products- We are not sure of the actual name of the company. However, I remember some really good, and obviously healthy hot chocolate that was part of the goods.
3. Coupon Books- The kind where you sell the spots in the coupon books and then you sell the books.
4. Phone Cards- Granny made a lot of money in phone cards. Phone cards were a great idea until someone invented cell phones. Once cell phone took over the phone card business was limited to international card sales and then to nothing.
5. Candy Machines- The candy machines were everywhere she sold the phone cards. So, she would drive to a small store or gas station and sell both items.
6. Insurance
7. Real Estate
8. Security Systems- These systems were nice and did not require wiring in your house. Basically you set the system and left your house or went to bed. They were activated by movement. So if you got up in the morning and forgot to run to the box to turn it off, you could guarantee loosing about 25% of your hearing. The piercing sound could make you fall to your knees. There was another personal security system that she sold as well. This was a small box that you could carry and then pull a pin out to activate the sound. Let's just put it this way, I am not so sure that this would be a security system as much as a system to burst ear dumbs and bring criminals to their sinces. The loud sound was very convincing to potential buyers.
9. Gold Sales (as in bricks)
10. Blue Green Algie and other vitamins.

I am sure that the above list is not exaustive. I know that she also has been incharge of a parent reading program at a local elementary school. She currently volunteers at the Junior High for 10 + hours per week. Ocasionally she babysits Elyse. When she is here, they are busy. They take big, hour long walks and play outside.

Granny is an inspiration to me with her endless energy. I hope she never slows down and that I can learn to keep up with her!

Goodbye Summer

For teachers, like us, the unofficial end of summer is signaled by the first day of school. So, I am using this post to say goodbye to summer. Summer has always been my favorite season and this year has been no different. I love the hot weather and I love to be outside, especially when swimming is involved. A perfect summer involves as many sunny swimming days as possible!

I will say that this summer was a little bit different. We did a lot of projects but we still had time for fun. Here is a little run down of our summer:

1. Ryan went on a couple of day trips. First to Cleveland to watch the Indians play with his good friend Greg. Then another quick trip with his sister, Shannon, and her son, Cade to see their grandfather in northern IN.

2. My parents pool had some major issues at the beginning of the summer. I will just say that it involved a drain replacement, new paint on the sides with a new liner and my dad taking the filter apart no less than 10 times. Ryan and I volunteered to help paint the inside. It was a terrible job! We wanted to be in the pool with cool water, but instead we were painting the inside of a very hot empty pool. The first coat of paint was very stinky but the next two coats were much better. Once everything was fixed we could fill the pool. This step is my favorite and for a few short hours we have a slide from the shallow end to the deep end. I really enjoyed this as a kid and Elyse got experience the slide too. (I will post pictures of this soon)

3. We have had lots of visitors. Raphael (exchange student from 2001-2002) came for a visit with his parents. They are from Germany. We did many fun things while they were here including the Newport Aquarium and the Duck Boat Tours in Cincinnati. This tour is when we first learned that Elyse can not stay awake on boats. Seriously, she passed out!

3b. We also had a visit from Christoph (exchange student from 2006-2007, also from Germany). He stayed for three weeks and we got to do many fun things with him too. We went to the Beach Waterpark, and a few Red's Games.

4. Elyse and I went to the Zoo with all three of her cousins, both aunts and some other friends. It was such a fun day!

5. We had family/18 month pictures taken by Linzi Becki Photography. (Awesome!)

6. Ryan and I took a 5 day trip to Cancun, Mexico. It was a wonderful trip and we enjoyed some down time together.

7. I have really debated about how to write about our house project that we tackled. Lets just say that it was never-ending, and I am amazed that my husband still loves me.

It all started because our carpet in the living room needed to be replaced. (white carpet + Elyse= NOT GOOD) We talked about it and decided that we would just try to refinish the wood floors under the carpet. This led to lets just do the entry way and dining room too. THEN, I said we should do the kitchen too to make the whole downstairs uniform. Needless to say the project got huge fast! We are so thankful for our WONDERFUL friends, Lonnie and Mandy Nolt. They gave up THREE days of their vacation to help us!!!

We had to remove everything in the downstairs and take it upstairs or to the front porch. The kitchen cabinets had to come out. The radiators had to come out (we had to use refrigerator dollies to move them outside). Then the linoleum and the sub floor had to come up in the kitchen. The stove and refrigerator had to be put in the back hallway, but not before the doors of the fridge were removed to get it through the doorway. The sink, dishwasher....EVERYTHING had to be taken out!

Then the real work started, we sanded the floors for over 10 hours (using three sanders). After cleaning the dust we stained the floor. Lastly, we wanted to protect the floors with polyurethane. Because of the heat and humidity, this step took 10 days to finish. We lived with my parents for three full weeks! Just last week the kitchen was finally put back together. We lived with out a kitchen sink for 6 weeks. I cooked quick things in the microwave or most of the time I just made dinner at my parents house.

I will post pictures of this whole project. I want to wait until the kitchen is completely finished before I show you all of it!

8. Lastly, we went on a wonderful vacation to Drummond Island, MI with Andrew, Heather, Corinne, and Cooper. We had a great time boating (yes, Elyse was passed out again), enjoying the water and playing games.

Over all it was a wonderful summer and VERY productive! To God Be the Glory!

Marginal Mom's Club

After Elyse was born I quickly realized that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be a perfect mother. In the months leading up to her birth I thought that I had everything figured out about motherhood. I had great plans and dreams about what I thought it would be like to bring a baby home and then we would have a perfect little family. I read many books and perfect examples of motherhood seemed to be on TV and in movies. I thought if those people can do it, then I can too.

Needless to say my thoughts about being a perfect mother changed quickly. I realized that perfection, while I still aim for it, is not realistic. It is easy to go to bed every night feeling terrible about all the things that have gone wrong that day.

I don't remember exactly how I came up with the idea or when it happened, but I needed something to make me realize that it is okay if I am not 100% perfect. I may have invented the club when I forgot the whole diaper bag when I was going to be away from home for 8+ hours. This is something that I have done two times. (FYI- larger diapers borrowed from someone else will work in a pinch and SAMS club has diapers in a little dispenser in the women's restroom for $1 and it includes a few wipes) Or I could have thought of the idea when we went on vacation to New England and I didn't take anything with long sleeves for Elyse. Needless to say she is wrapped in a blanket in many of the pictures. Or many other times that I haven't been the perfect mother.

There is something very freeing in being able to say, "It's okay because I am the president of the Marginal Mom's Club." Don't get me wrong, I still feel bad for situations, but it is impossible to be 100% perfect all the time.

If you have a story of something you have done to be in the 'club', please let me know. I will be electing officers soon, so get your stories to me! haha

This and That

Wow, it has been way too long! I always think, "I should put that on my blog." Then, that is as far as I get. Recently, I have started a list. I love a good list, and now that I have a blogging list. So, maybe I will get better. There are a few things that I want to write about today, so forgive me if I am rambling.

First, Elyse (18 months) has learned how to pray. Even though she has a vocabulary of about 20-30 words, she does a lot of talking. Most of the time it is jibber-jabber, but her prayers are wonderful. If we ask her to pray she will close her eyes and fold her hands. Then, my favorite part, she whispers her jibber-jabber. Then she yells her form of the word, "Amen". It is just too cute!

Next, on to a topic that could probably be a very large post of its own. Since I was about 15 years old, there is a line that I hear on a weekly basis from complete strangers. I hear it in the grocery store. I hear it at the mall. I hear it at restaurants. I hear it EVERYWHERE, at least once a week, for 15 years. (yes, you do the math...I am 30! That is a topic for another post too!) Okay, so the line is....

"You look just like..."

Now here is where it gets a little tricky. The ... could be, "Bill Smith's third cousin twice removed." Or, "Are you Samantha Ford, from Lancaster, PA?" Sometimes it is really specific, like a persons name and location. Other times the question is more vague, like, "Did you used to cut hair in Hillsboro, Ohio?" Or "Are you related to the Garrisons of Detroit, MI?" I am serious, at least once a week for the last 15 years. 52 weeks a year x 15 years = 780 times that I have heard some form of this question.

My answer is always about the same and it is something like, "No, but I get that a lot; I must have a familiar face."

It is really quite hilarious!

So, if you know someone that looks like me, please introduce me to all my twins out there. I have heard that many people have a non-biological twin somewhere in the world, but I must have more than one or two!