Laughs

Saturday afternoon I packed up the kids and headed out to do my weekly shopping. We got a couple blocks from the house and Jocelyn says, "Mommy, why didn't daddy come?" A valid question, I suppose. So I tell her, "Oh, we're just going to let him relax at home - he's watching his basketball game."
At that point my oh-so-wise 6-year-old sighs the heaviest sigh and says, "Men - they always have SOME game to watch."

It's good that she realizes that now. This way, she'll be less disappointed when she's married.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Brooke and Jeff who are expecting baby #3! You're crazy, but we love you! Best wishes for an easy pregnancy and a healthy baby. The newest member of the Lutz clan will join big brother Austin and (soon-to-be) big sister Tayvin at home.

Where the Wild Things Are - The Movie

I am too excited!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERTuravilL8

Stuff, Crap, Happenings, whatever you want to call it

Holy crap on a cracker have we been busy. Life - it's what happens when you're trying to make plans. Bastard.

Jericho:
Little Moose turned 2 in January has been in his big-boy bed since November 1st. That was a Saturday. I remember it vividly. (You think I'm kidding - Google it.) And since the then, we have only recently made any progress. But, he is finally sleeping all night in his bed and it's finally not taking us an hour and a half to get him to sleep. (Again, I can see how you think this would be an exaggeration. And again, it's not.) Maybe it was because I put him in a big bed too early. Maybe it's because he's naughty. Who knows.
He also is talking A TON. I know, weird, my kid's a chatterbox - who knew, right? He especially likes to repeat things that I say. His favorite is that he'll spank my butt ("Mahyi, I 'pank yo butt" is what he tells me). I am some kinda role model, right? But luckily he's actually picking up on other, nicer, non-vulgar phrases too. His vocabulary grows I swear every day and he's finally starting to put sentences together.

Jocelyn:
Jocelyn is already rounding out her first year of school. Hard to believe it goes so fast. While we are fortunate to live in one of the best school districts in the state, we also happen to live in just one of the only two that still have half day Kindergarten. So this year has been a good transition for us all. I personally still think half day is a good idea. I think it's helped her to adjust to a full day next year. And she has learned a TON. She is reading and counting money and telling time and adding... it amazes me what they can cram into 3 hours. Now that spring is here, she'll start softball next week, girl scouts will end in May, summer school will start in June and she'll be a full-day first-grader starting in August. And the ole checkbook is loving that last part. Woo-hoo! Half-priced daycare!!

Joel & The Mrs:
Oh, where to start... I was laid off in October and Joel's company had put a freeze on his traveling around that same time. So we spent quite a bit of time together over the holidays through the 1st of the year. Well since then, Joel has started traveling again and I have (yeah!) a job. So we're currently adjusting to the busy schedule again of my working full days and Joel traveling 4 days a week. Joel has been working very hard and we are so proud of him, though we miss him while he's away. Luckily I have "little Joel" to help fill the void...
I am working for Bernstein-Rein Advertising again. This is where I worked for a couple of years when we first moved, but was laid off from there last January. They needed some extra help, so I'm helping out on a project for the time being, praying that it could be an extended position. I've been there about a month so far and really missed it, so I'm loving it! We literally can't talk to anyone in any walk of live around here that the economy hasn't effected. It seems like nearly everyone we know with a double income has lost one of them. It's terrible here and we feel blessed to be in the position we're in - we were able to make it through the loss of a job and still have a roof over our heads, which is more than a lot of victims of this economy can say.
We have also started attending a new church in the last couple of months. Well, not really a NEW church so much as just A church. We have started attending Grace Community here in Smithville and are enjoying it. It's quite contemporary - this is a huge change for Joel (he grew up Catholic, not even close to contemporary by any stretch of the imagination), but he has been a good sport and open minded, since I love it (happy wife, happy life, I say). They also have rooms for newborns up to 3rd grade, which actually allows us to HEAR the sermon. That's nice.

Well that's us, in a nutshell (No, this is me in a nutshell - "Help! I'm in a nutshell!" Sorry.). Hope all of you out in cyber-world are doing well. And thanks for the comments! (You haven't been leaving any. So I'm thanking you in advance for the ones you're about to leave. See this little ticker on the side? Look to your right - - yeah, that one. I can tell who's been here. Don't make me call you out by name. Yeah. Your comments are most appreciated. Here's a picture of Jericho - if nothing else tell me how cute he is. Now you have no out.)

The Big 3-0

Well. It happened. Joel became an adult - Much to everyone's surprise (just kidding, dear.)
My dearest Joel turned the big 3-0 on Friday. Seeing as how Joel never does anything for himself and always refers to his birthday as "just another work day" I took it upon myself to make his 30th extra special. And since he would never let me make a big deal out of it, a surprise party it was!
Joel's folks showed up late Friday afternoon, and just coincidentally rolled in right as Joel was pulling up. He didn't know they were coming, so that was surprise #1. I told him we had dinner reservations at 7 that night, and little did he know that 4 of his friends would be joining us. Surprise #2. I also had a sitter lined up to watch the kids for as long as we needed her to, which meant we actually had one night to live it up. Surprise #3. It was a great time and we all really enjoyed a (much needed) night out.
I may note, however, that it took both of us all weekend to recuperate, so it will probably be another 30 years before we party like that again.
Enjoy the pics!



Just before we left. And the last picture of us sober.




Jerry and Judi, havin' a little din-din. And the last picture of them sober.




Joel and Julie



Blah, blah, blah... dinner's over...
AND THE BOOZIN' BEGINS!!!

Me and Ashley (another FedEx widow)




Me & My Bobby Magee




Crap. Who was supposed to be the DD?




Joel and Brady. He's a Mizzou fan, but we try to look past that.




Ahhh, Yea-ahhhhhhhhhh. Gangsta lovin'.




Me and the Jude.




Ahhh. THAT'S why I felt that way the next morning...

Never a dull moment

In the last month or so (it was New Year's Day to be perfectly accurate) I decided to "toddler-proof" our home. We never baby-proofed, aside from Joel's dad putting some latches on our kitchen cabinets, but curious little Jericho proved all too mischievous as he rounded his 2nd birthday and we had to then take that step. I went to 3 stores and spent about $50 before I was done that day.

Let me first back up to let everyone know what spurred this little Jericho-proofing tirade of mine - On New Year's Eve, mommy's little Moose got ahold of a bottle of Benadryl and drank... less than half but more than a quarter of a bottle. Child proof my a**. I didn't even notice he'd done it until he handed me the bottle and asked for more. I know what you're thinking - "Sweet, knocked out kid on New Year's Eve." Little FYI - when you drink TOO MUCH Benadryl, it has the opposite effect. I didn't know that either until I was informed by the lady on the other end of the Poison Control line.

So the next day I childproofed our home - outlet covers that swivel closed automatically when something is unplugged, plus the little cheap ones that you plug into the empty outlets, plus these big bulky ones that keep things from getting unplugged, a latch for the fridge (whole 'nother story - it involves a pitcher of grape juice and my off-white couch), and door knob covers. I was pretty proud of my little excursion when I was done. Joel was not, but it was that much less that he had to hear me bitch about Jericho getting into everything... everybody wins.

The key to the doorknob covers, though, is that someone has to CLOSE THE DOOR in order for them to be effective. This is a discussion I've had with my daughter and husband multiple times. Case in point - this morning, someone left the upstairs bathroom door open (and gawd forbid I'd be doing something selfish like peeing in the other bathroom) and Jericho got into daddy's pills and wanted to see how they tasted. Blood pressure medicine is fairly blah, FYI. As soon as I flushed some fluids through him and finally finished freaking out about that incident, oh wouldn't you know we'd have another? Because that's my life.

I had just gotten Jericho sat down to watch his 3rd episode of Blue's Clues (what can I say - he's addicted) when I dropped my coffee cup in the kitchen. Not only was there coffee on everything in a 3 foot radius of my kitchen table, but the handle on the mug (RIP FedEx coffee cup) broke into about 6 pieces. I hurried to clean it up before Jericho could get his hands on anything and thought I did a pretty good job.

... Until he came back into the kitchen a few minutes later while I was mopping and told me "mom, it hurt" and sure enough his chubby little hands were both just covered in blood. I finally pried his fists open and he was clenching onto a piece of the broken handle. (Seriously?) I sat him on the counter and wiped both of his hands off repeatedly until I finally figured out that all of the blood was just coming from one cut on one hand. I called Joel in a panic and told him I thought he might need it stitched up or glued up or whatever the heck they do to little tiny mutilated fingers, but finally decided to wait until I calmed down. Good thing I did, because I'm sure we just saved $200 at the ER. He went through about 4 Band-Aids but the bleeding has finally stopped, or at least slowed down. The prognosis is good.

Good thing he had just taken his blood pressure medicine.

Yeah, I might be the worst mommy ever. (For the record, I am typing this during nap time, so he's not off somewhere playing with knives or power tools.)

After much ado...

Here it is. The day that almost killed my husband. Jocelyn's 6th birthday. We held her party at our house - A High School Musical themed party complete with cake, ice cream... and 15 6-year-olds singing karaoke. It was sooo much fun. For me. Joel not so much. But he was great with the kids. I was really proud of my big kid! And Jocelyn, too.
Enjoy!

*The pics are a little dark, sorry*