Megan is thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Just thought I'd give you a quick rundown of things I'm thankful for this year.  I'll be back with a more kid-centric post next week.  : )

• So many family members and friends who care enough about us to actually want to read my ramblings...I love having you all be more connected with the goings-on in this family
• William's ability to talk for 40 minutes straight during dinner time...there will come a time when he won't want to talk to us that much
• Henry's mischievous smile and laugh...no one else I know is so delighted by their own wackiness
• Jack's innocent little comments that make me know he loves us (i.e. "Daddy, where you going?" when Luke is putting on his coat for work or "Mommy!  You're back!" when I've walked away from him for 30 seconds at church)
• My hysterical husband...if anyone laughs half as much as I do with their spouse, they are lucky people
• Our crazy guest cat...despite the incessant "meow"s when I wake up in the morning and the little gifts on my carpet, it is nice to have a pet and a reminder of my Beth in Canada
• Speaking of my sisters...even with them far away, I still get to talk with them a lot so I'm thankful for Skype, cell phones, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging
• Employment...after much wrangling, my job seems to be safe for now...I just have to figure out how to re-balance my life to fit in 34 hours of time at my computer with being a stay at home mom
• Our well built house...Luke and I found out that 1960s craftsmanship really meant something when we started replacing doors in our house this weekend...they had no intention for you to EVER be able to take anything apart...much cursing ensued
• Doctors...I think I called our pediatrician 6 times over the past four days and spent an hour and a half there yesterday all because Jack and Henry have sinus infections when they were supposed to be getting H1N1 vaccines...they can't have the shot if they are sick so we kept trying to reschedule...plus they are thinking Jack may have virus-induced asthma, so they are sending us to learn more about it and form an action plan...they are very on top of it

Okay, I could go on forever, but I want to finish before Thanksgiving actually arrives!  I wish the above pic had Luke in it too, but he was the cameraman!  Love you all! 

For the love of Target

Today we went to Target.  I'm beginning to think that, perhaps, we go to Target too often.  It has gotten to the point that Jack routinely asks, "Go to Target?" when I pick him up from school.  He recognizes the signs and points out the turn into the parking lot a good mile before we get there.  Henry has taken to loudly reading the "In" and "Out" signs on the doors when we get there, which shows that we are there so often, I'm using it as a teaching tool.

First, we are forced to get the huge unwieldy cart with the two-seater thing welded to the front of it.  Jack runs in the front door and sits in one and they both promise to actually ride in the cart. 

Then comes the fly in my Target soup...the dollar area.  Henry is quick to ask if he can get something in the dollar area each time we go.  Jack follows with a sweet-voiced, "dollar area, Mom?"  Which always results in my giving in to these little monkeys.  Then we spend 10 minutes trying to get that ridiculous cart (which they are no longer sitting in) down the tiny aisles of this area.  Henry picks up everything there and insists that he needs it.  Jack picks up one thing, says that it is what he wants, then tosses it aside as we are leaving the area and says, "want something else."  I take a wild guess as to what William would like because I know if he gets home after school and doesn't have something new and his brothers do, a fit will pour out from my usually even-keeled kid.

Then it is off to be tempted by things on clearance, $5 DVDs, seasonal items, and other things I don't need.  Henry always asks if he can get a little carton of goldfish crackers because once, when he was like 2 years old, I made the mistake of buying him one of these little cartons as a treat.  Mind you, we always have goldfish crackers at home and often in the car that we drove to get to Target.  But, Target strategically places these little lunch milk-type cartons at the end of aisles and Henry always begs for them.  Henry also has it in his head that whenever we go to Target he can get a Lunchable.  Today I gave in.  That means it will continue to be a God-given right in Henry's head until he hits puberty.  Oh well.

When we finally get to the check out lane, both boys leap from the huge pain-in-my-neck cart (if they are back in there at this point) so they can grab as many cookies/crackers/candy/toys/travel-size items as they possibly can while I'm checking out.  This routine actually led to me holding my tongue when Dallas Clark was in front of me in line at Target a couple of months ago.  I was going to say something to him, but I was busy wrangling my children and begging them to "please put that airplane candy thing back where you found it!"  I was just too busy (and slightly embarrassed) to say anything. 

When William got home today he immediately saw the Target bag sitting on the counter.  He practically did a dance when I told him that I had, indeed, gotten him something from the dollar area.  I am a weak, weak woman and my children know it!

I'm mentally preparing a list of things I need at Target already...

A boy and his race car: the story

Yesterday Jack realized that his favorite car, a #20 Ed Carpenter yellow IndyCar, was missing. This resulted in a frantic search by all members of the family. We went through every car bucket, toy drawer, pile of junk, nook and cranny in the house looking...to no avail. Knowing that our Target store, where we bought the original, was out of these cars, I turned to Twitter.

As many of you know, I follow quite a few IndyCar racing folks on Twitter and some of them follow me. So, I posted a message to Vision Racing, as they are the team that Ed Carpenter races for. I told them how upset Jack was and asked if they knew where I could get a new #20 car. This morning Vision Racing posted my message on their Twitter account and asked if anyone knew where I could get a replacement car. Apparently Jack's desire for his #20 was just what the Twitter-folk needed today! People started offering suggestions (one person offered a signed Ed Carpenter hat) and eventually the folks in the front office at Izod IndyCar tweeted that they had a car for Jack. All I had to do was go pick it up!

So, after nap time, I took the kids over to 16th Street and picked up the car at the front desk of the corporate offices of Izod IndyCar. The guy who arranged it even popped out to say hello. Jack's face lit up when he saw "his" yellow car. The whole way home he was so excited and just kept saying "my yellow race car back!"

Needless to say, I'm very grateful to the great racing community for their rush to help my little racing fan. When the guy who does the blog on the IndyCar website contacted me, I pointed out that (even though I'm a HUGE Colts fan) it isn't like the NFL community would come rushing to my rescue if my son lost his Peyton Manning jersey. It was very fun to see everyone's enthusiasm for helping out!

Jack has not let go of the car since we got it this afternoon. He is thrilled. I posted a picture of him with his car on Twitter for everyone to see and last I checked 245 people had clicked over to see Jack's picture. I guess we had over 200 people following our saga on Twitter!

I even got a Tweet from Ed Carpenter, himself, telling me to say "hi" to his young fan and that he was very happy it all worked out.

I'm posting the pictures below! Enjoy! And become an IndyCar fan if you aren't already!!

A boy and his race car: the pictures

Looking so intensely at something that it makes you cross eyed! That's love, folks!


This is the picture I put on Twitter as a thank you to the IRL & Vision Racing folks.

Megan & John Deere

Okay, for some reason these pictures posted backwards, but we are going to roll with it. Today was my day with Gary, the farmer (and proud John Deere owner/operator). It was totally fantastic! Gary really went the extra mile to make us all feel welcome and explain everything that was going on. Before we even started, he lifted up the side panels of the combine to show us the inner workings and tell us how everything worked. He also told us about what the corn could be used for when they sell it (corn syrup, ethanol, livestock feed, and so on). The combine is a truly amazing machine! It takes in six rows of corn at a time at 4 miles per hour and takes the ears off the stock, takes the kernels off the ears, shreds the stock/cob/husks, and deposits the clean kernels into the hopper. All while the farmer sits in a fully air tight-air conditioned-surround sound equipt cab. When it is full, you push a button to swing out an arm and the corn goes shooting into whatever you are transporting it in! In this first picture you can see me with Gary cruising in the combine!


After watching about four passes, Gary let me drive! I harvested corn! Me! I insist you all call me "Farmer Megan" from now on. Gary said I was a natural. This machine is well over $100,000 and amazingly complex. It has alarms and monitoring systems for everything. It tells you everything you can imagine. Gary loves his job and was a total joy to listen to during the ride. He owns insurance agencies in the area and sells insurance so he can afford to farm.


There is a guy "riding the ladder" here with us. He is a senior in high school who helps Gary on his farm. He caught a ride with us on a couple passes to get from one end of the field to the other so he could position the trucks that we emptied the hopper into when we were full.


This was me getting settled in the "instruction seat" of the combine. There is a little side seat that is intended to be for folks learning how to harvest! Like me!
This was getting into the combine. I thought this was a good perspective shot that showed how big this thing was. It was gigantic!

I must say this was a great experience and I think everyone should try it someday! It gives you a real appreciation for our farmers and how we get that food on our table. Of course, I think you would have to find a farmer as friendly and generous as Gary to truly enjoy it, but we can't all be that lucky!

Luke on the combine!

Gary asked me if I thought Luke should be allowed to ride also. Being the generous soul that I am, I said yes. Gary said he wouldn't let Luke drive it though since it wasn't his birthday present and he wasn't sure he could handle it. : )

Charlotte's Web and the Library

Howdy folks! I'm feeling very country today because I get to ride on a John Deere combine this weekend! It is a birthday present from my parents, who arranged it with a local farmer. How fun is that?!

Anyway, on to our day.

This morning I had to contend with our foster cat's need for a.m. attention. Orion has gotten increasingly vocal in the mornings. He is no longer shy about asking for our undivided attention before the kids wake up (and when they go to sleep at night). He and Luke have lengthy morning conversations about this need. It is very funny to watch.

I mentioned on Twitter this morning that Jack can't seem to go anywhere without his Ed Carpenter #20 IndyCar. I was excited that Ed tweeted back that he was happy to have a new fan. Yes, I'm excited about a combine ride and IndyCar drivers tweeting to me. I realize I'm a Hoosier nerd.

I was a chaperon (spell check says that is how you spell it, but it looks wrong to me) for Henry's class field trip to see a production of "Charlotte's Web". I spent about an hour the other day cleaning out my car so I could fit other children in it and they wouldn't be lost in a sea of goldfish cracker crumbs, empty juice boxes, and broken pieces of McDonald's toys. So, before I left for school this morning, I had to take out Lucy's car seat (which I dropped on my toes and cursed like a sailor in my mind). Then, when I got to school, I put William's booster seat and Jack's car seat in the trunk. Then I put three school kid's booster seats in the car. I left Jack with a fellow Co-Op Mom and then climbed into my car with Henry, three little girls and Mrs. Ward (their teacher).

Before the show started a teacher from the school we were at for the play came by and asked our kids if they were excited about seeing "Charlotte's Web." Henry replied that his brother, William, had just found a cool new show about Lego Star Wars. The poor teacher looked very confused by this leap in conversation. Henry made her give up when he followed up this information with the fact that his favorite color was green.

I was extremely impressed with our kids at the play. They sat relatively quietly for an hour and 10 minute show! As a bit of a theater snob, I had a hard time watching the show. Charlotte kept forgetting her lines! Dude! You are Charlotte! And your audience is mainly 0-5 years old! Go with the flow lady! Anyway, the kids enjoyed it, so, that is all that matters I suppose (not the overly critical ramblings of a frustrated actress). The highlight of the field trip did seem to be finding giant fallen leaves in the parking lot, though.

We got back to the school, unloaded three booster seats, re-installed one car seat and one booster seat, picked up Jack and skedaddled. We decided that Burger King was in order because I was exhausted. The boys got some SpongeBob character thingy in their kid's meals and Jack said his guy was sad. I asked why and he said, "he crying." I asked if he was hurt and Jack said "no." So I asked if the guy was sad that his Daddy went to work (since that is the only other reason Jack cries these days) and he said, "yes, his Daddy at work," and he made this little pouty face that would break your heart.

We then ventured to the library and then home. Pulling into the driveway Henry burst into tears and announced we had forgotten to check out some "I Spy" software. So I had to promise we would go back to the library after we got William.

On the way to get William, Jack tripped and fell (that becomes significant later). When we were waiting at the end of our street for William, Jack and Henry fought over who got to stand on the water company cover thingy. They like it because it is spray-painted blue. So, I had to count to 20 while Jack stood on it, then pull him off and count to 20 while Henry stood on it and back and forth until William got there. So, I spent about 5 minutes counting off 20 second increments. Jack spent every other one of those increments throwing a fit while Henry spun around and around on the cover. Fun.

On the way back home, Jack tripped and fell.

We piled in the car and drove back to the library. On the way into the library Jack tripped and fell. Once in the library, the librarians (one of which is Jack's preschool teacher, Ms. Kenny) looked at me like I was nutty since I had just been there 2 hours before. William told me he wanted to check out books on constellations, so I looked for those while William played a math game on the computer, Jack watched the opening credits of a Magic School Bus game on the computer, and Henry ran around looking for a step stool that he squeaked loudly across the Children's room to get "I Spy" off the shelf. Jack also loudly pointed out the kitties on the mouse pad at the computer and kept saying "Ahh, so cute!"

We then checked out and Ms. Kenny asked if I'd be back in a couple hours. Never did like that Ms. Kenny! : )

We got home, got out of the car and Jack tripped and fell into the pine tree.

I then called Ellie on Skype and talked to her in between Jack falling two more times, Henry insisting he get to play "I Spy" now, William avoiding his homework by complaining that his brothers were bothering him, and screaming repeatedly that the kids "LEAVE THAT CAT ALONE!" I like to make Ellie feel like she is a part of the action.

So, that is where we are now. Luke is due home in 15 minutes and then we are off to a birthday dinner for Tio Marty at Texas Roadhouse. I'm sure my children will be well behaved and I'll enjoy a leisurely dinner. Isn't delusion fun?

Check out the Halloween pics below if you haven't already! Also, a note: the time stamp on when I post these things is always wrong for some reason! Don't trust it! : )

Halloween '09 part 1

Here are our little Trick-or-Treaters! They had a lot of fun at a Costume Party on Friday night and going out on Saturday. It was cold, but they, oddly, didn't seem to mind! We had Lucy (and her Mom and Dad) over as well to join in the candy collecting. We had probably 70 or so kids come by, so ours is a good neighborhood for Halloween! Jack hung in there walking around until he got some M&Ms. He was all set then and gave up. Luke to the other two boys all over the neighborhood. We have a lot of candy in this house!

Halloween '09 part 2