Jello

Rehm just asked me if we could make Jello this afternoon. I asked him if he was really going to eat it (since usually when I make it he eats a little and I end up throwing the rest out.) His response, "Well, it's just squishy animal parts!"

So tell me would you make Jello for him? I mean doesn't that just sound super appetizing. I know we all know what Jello is made of but I don't need the reminder.

Ah the joys of being a six year old boy!

While talking about silly things Rehm says. Last weekend we had a big family dinner with my parents, Michael's parents, both of Michael's brothers and their families. Right when we started fixing plates the power went out. We rushed around finding candles and flashlights. The kids all started eating and Rehm piped up with "Well, at least we have each other!" Indeed we do!

Jenn

I'm Thankful

Today I'm reminded of just how much I have to be thankful for. We hosted both sets of our parents, Michael's brother Dallas, sister-in-law Cathi, nephew Griffin, and Cathi's parents and sister. It was a full house. It was family at its best, complete with a couple of melt downs from the kids.

I'm thankful to be part of a family where not only do I get along with my in-laws but my parents and my husbands' parents can get along and we don't have to have two thanksgivings. It was nice to have my sister-in-law's family here as well. I am so glad we all got to spend the day with both sides of our family. I am so blessed.

I'm thankful for the five special children God has blessed us with. I love getting to watch four of them grow up. Rehm was having a hard day today - he was super tired from staying up too late last night. He bonked his nose very hard while wrestling and had several other upsets today. Several times today only I could make it better. Eliza was also all about Mommy today, she is not a big fan of a lot of people in her house. Charlotte enjoyed being the hostess and greeting everyone. She also spent a lot of time trying to be the peace maker. Ruby was the social butterfly. She has yet to meet a stranger. She loves anyone who will give her attention. They are all such different and fun children. I am so glad I get to be their mom.

I'm blessed that I got to spend an enjoyable day with family, having fun, making memories and just remembering how much I have to be thankful for.

Happy Turkey Day,
Jenn

In Her Own Time

Eliza Claire continues to prove that she is her own person and will not be lumped into the family mold. She does things in her own time and in her own way. And this means not like any of her siblings.

Wednesday evening she decided she was ready to walk. But no clumsy couple of steps for Eliza Claire and then falling down. We went to church for dinner. When we got inside I got her out of the stroller and stood her up. When I let go she took off walking! Six or seven steps. Then she looked at me and smiled and walked 12 or so steps. Withing just a few minutes she was walking half way across the room with no effort at all.

Did I mention that prior to walking yesterday she has never even stood without holding on to something? Never taken a step or two. None of that! Silly girl. Oh, but for a couple of months she has been walking on her knees.

I guess when you wait until 16.5 months to walk this is what happens!



Enjoy,
Jenn

Our Newest Addition

Rehm announced about a week ago that he could not ride his bike to school the next day. He gave no further information and his father and I were a bit confused. I could not figure out what he had done to lose the privilege of riding his bike. I knew I hadn't taken away the privilege and I knew Michael hadn't. I assumed if he had done something bad enough for the school to tell him he couldn't ride it that they would have notified me. So I was a little stumped.

Upon questioning him we learned that he needed to bring Grass Man home from school and he couldn't do that and ride his bike. We didn't know what Grass Man would be and Rehm wasn't very forthcoming with information. All he would tell us is that he couldn't bring him home on the bike.

Once Grass Man arrived, we needed to find a proper home for him. He resides on the window sill above the kitchen sink. This seems to be a good fit as Grass Man is growing by leaps and bounds. He's already had one hair cut since he joined the family and it looks like he needs another one.

I wonder how long he'll survive...
Jenn

Lots to Report

Make sure you keep reading. I finally had a chance to catch up.

Technology Girl

Fall Leaves

Before and After

Monster Shoe

Enjoy!
Jenn

Technology Girl

Charlotte has always loved music and now she has a new love, my ipod shuffle. She begs me to let her use it and will run around the house for an hour listening to my music. She would really like to have one of her own. It would be nice to have mine back and not find soggy earphones when I go to use it. Santa, please bring Charlotte her very own ipod, please.

Jenn

Fall Fun

All four playing in the leaves



Happy Fall!
Jenn

PS if you can't see the slide show all of the pictures can be viewed here.

Before and After

Before

Rehm has not had a real haircut since late June. We decided it was time to let it grow a bit and see what we could do with it.

Rehm with a "2-4"

I should probably explain that for the last 5 years I have been cutting his hair with clippers. This is not because I'm really good at cutting hair or anything, just simply that I'm cheap. Once I realized that for the price of one haircut I could buy my own clippers, well you can figure out the rest. So for the last 5 years he has has a "2-4." That means I've used clipper guard no. 2 on the sides and clipper guard no. 4 on the top. Very simple, very easy. Just a matter of getting him to sit still for the 10 minutes to do it. Over the course of five years I've saved between $600-$1200 by giving him a "2-4."

During

For the last 5 months all I have done is trim around his neck and ears about once a month but otherwise just let it grow. I decided it was time to let a professional give him a new hair style. So here it is. Now I have to admit I still won't take him to get it cut regularly, I'll just trim it until I can trim no more and the break down and take him to have it cut. So still probably only looking at 2 to 4 haircuts a year.

Doesn't he look handsome?

After

Jenn

PS the last time I cut all the kids hair Charlotte told me that I should be a hair cutter when I grew up.

Monster Shoe

Rehm has been working on a project for one of his classes at school. He had to start with a shoe, add ten items to it to make it into something else and write a story about it. He also had to have one movable part. When they were done the did presentations to explain their Monster Shoe.

Here is Rehm's presentation.



If you caught the part about the sharp nose that fell off. Apparently the UFFF had a toothpick for a nose but at some point before the presentation it fell off.

Jenn

Retro Charlotte

This is Charlotte in an outfit my grandmother made for me when I was around Charlotte's age. It is one of her favorite things to wear right now. It makes me smile every time she puts it on because I remember wearing it and how cool I thought it was. I did notice that it needs new elastic in the skirt and the hem needs to be fixed in a place or two, but not bad for a 30 year old outfit.

We're Presbamaterian

Yesterday was Michael's Godson Liam's baptism. Before the baptism we had to go to Covenant so I could set up for Sunday school. When we saw Paster Rick Rehm informed him"we are going to a different church!" And had to go into the whole story of how one of Daddy's friends' wife had a baby and we were going to see him get baptized at a different church that was not presbamaterian. He repeated this whole story to anyone we saw at Covenant. Apparently the the concept of a non-presbyterian church was fascinating to him. Which is funny as he goes the the baptist church with my parents when we are at their house.

We got to St. David's Episcopal and saw some of the others coming for the baptism. One of the ladies said hi to Rehm. His response - "We're Presbamaterian!" No hello or nice to see you just "We're Presbamaterian!" Then we took the little girls to childcare and the Director of Children's Ministries introduced herself and welcomed us. Again Rehm immediately chimed in with, you guessed it "We're Presbamaterian!" Apparently he really likes Covenant and being presbamaterian and doesn't want anyone to try to convert him to a different religion!

The baptism and service were beautiful. Rehm and Charlotte did a great job sitting still through the service (well the first hour of the service - then I decided it was time to give them a little wiggle room).

Afterward we got to enjoy brunch with the Letton-McCabe family. It was so wonderful and all the kids played well together, were polite and used their good manners!

What a nice day!
Jenn

And yes I know how to spell presbyterian, but my son doesn't know how to pronounce it :)

Appliance Repair

The dispenser on my refrigerator has had problems for months. About two weeks ago a piece actually fell off so I decided I had to call someone to fix it. I didn't have anyone specific to use for this as I haven't had an appliance problem in several years. I decided to just call the number in the fridge for the Sears Repair Center though I really didn't want to.

For some reason I just don't like Sears. I think it is because their sales people in the actual stores always remind me of used car salesmen - they just seem less than honest - especially the guy who sold us our vacuum - I will not buy from him again. Love the vacuum but do not like the man - story for another day. [If you are a honest used car salesman please ignore the previous statement. I don't really have any first hand knowledge of used car salesmen, I'm going with the stereotype here - bad I know.]

When I called I had the number wrong and couldn't get through so I asked Michael to call. I wasn't at home where I could look the number up. He did an online request. Three days later we still hadn't heard when the appointment would be, so I called them.

Of course, I was dealing with an automated system and not a live person. When I said I wanted to schedule service the system told me I already had service scheduled and asked if I wanted to know when. Well, duh, of course I want to know when. How do you expect me to be home if I don't know when you are coming? The system proceeds to tell me that a person will be coming 8 days later and the window in which they will be there is from 8am to 5pm. Um, I don't think so! Sorry I have a job, four kids and well, a life! I'm not sitting at home for 9 hours waiting for someone to show up! It's just not gonna happen. By this point the system thought it had taken care of my problem and had hung up on me.

I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was scheduled so far out and for such a long window because the request had been made on-line and called back to talk to a person. When I got to a person she tells me that is the earliest date they have available. I ask about the call window, she proceeds to tell me that is the standard call window in my service area. So I tell her she can cancel my appointment as that is completely unacceptable that I will call someone who can arrive in a more timely manner. She then asked me if she could help me with anything else? Hello! If you can get someone to repair my refrigerator this week and give me a four hour or less call window, sure! Otherwise, you have helped me immensely by making sure I never call Sears again for appliance repair!

But now I'm back to square one, the door is falling off the dispenser, making the fridge run too much and I still have no one to repair it. [Just a note here to say we weren't using the dispenser and were keeping the door manually closed but every once in a while one of the kids would forget and try to get ice and the door would then be hanging open until an adult happened to notice it.]

Luckily when I asked some friends I got a couple of recommendations. I picked one and called at 3 pm. They said they would be happy to come out the following morning between 9:30 and 11:30! Now that is what I'm talking about! That is service! After I described the problem they asked for the model information so they could bring the part with them! And proceeded to say they would be happy to call me about an hour before they came so I wouldn't have to wait for them!

Not only did they show up when they said they would, they were extremely courteous and well just pleasant! I will definitely call them again when I need appliance repairs.

For those of you who live in my area it was American Eagle Service at 341-9111. I will say I have no idea how their prices compare. My only reference point is that Sears would have charged me $65 for the service call if I decided not to have them do the repair and American Eagles service call fee was $45.

I guess the good news is I didn't have to buy a new refrigerator!
Jenn