>Luke and I decorated the tree this afternoon. Last year we got a small live tree and put it in the bay window behind the couch because certain 1 year olds couldn’t be trusted with a tree and ornaments.

This year we got out the big, lovely, fake tree and we had room for all the ornaments. We decorated it while Jack was sleeping, and I pretty much let Luke have free reign. (Partially because I got paged in the middle of it and had to work. Booo!!!!) The only direction I gave was to say that anything breakable had to be out of Jack’s reach. Luke has an interesting tree decorating strategy. He likes to put things together in groups. So all the little glass balls are together, all the star wars ornaments are together, all the John Deere ornaments are together, and so on. (Yes, our ornaments are awesome.) It’s an interesting effect. I call it, “Vintage 6 Year Old.”

And yes, I did spend a few minutes thinking about cropping the Precious Moments ornament out of the photo, but it’s a very special God Parent ornament that Grandma says is from Uncle John, and Luke likes it.

>Even when I am cleaning up throw up in the hours before Thanksgiving morning, I feel thankful for my wonderful life and happy family, and the health that we enjoy most of the time.

And when my baby only wants mommy, I am so thankful that Grandmom and Grandad are here to flip pancakes.

And when I can’t figure out what is wrong with the pumpkin cake, I am thankful that I discovered that I forgot the flour when the cake was only in the oven for a minute.

I am lucky, lucky, lucky! (I am not being sarcastic even a little!)

>Neti tip #1: You can greatly reduce the chances of pouring salt water down your throat by way of your nose, if you don’t try to see what you look like in the mirror while using a neti pot. Know that it looks really weird, and just keep your head down! (So I have read.)

Another advantage to the Neti pot is this: Threatening your children. Any complaints about any ailments and I just say, “You know what might help that? The neti pot. Want me to try it on you?” Last time I hear that complaint for a while!.

Oh, and I added another verse to my song. I think it will be the last, because I am ready to get this song out of my head. Because I was really missing singing “Down down baby, Elmo do karate.”

Oh Neti, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind! Hey Neti!
Oh Neti, you’re so gross, you’re so gross you blow my nose! Hey Neti!
Oh Neti, hit the spot, clean my nose and drain my snot!

Hey Neti, Hey hey hey Neti!

This cold has been around all month, and that’s a little long
Boogers, mucus, snot, now you’re in my song!
I’m miserable all right, this cold has done me wrong!
I want to sleep at night, so help me clear my nose, Neti!

Cause now the mucus spills, though skeptics say it won’t
My cold gives me the chills, baby please, baby don’t
Every night you still, leave me booger free, Neti!

Oh Neti, what a pity, I don’t understand
Which way to hold my head with the Neti in my hand.

>

Hey Neti, hey hey hey Neti!

Yes, I am known to seek alternative medicine at the acupuncturist office, and at the chiropractor and I will drink some nasty tea, and burn moxa, and whatever else, and I have had a lot of success with those doctors. But when they both mentioned I should get a neti pot for my sinus issues, I said politely, “Eww, no way, that’s kuckoo.”

But now that I have seen a neti pot on both Oprah and Martha Stewart, well, I changed my tune. And by that I mean, I continued singing the same tune that went like this, “Maybe I should get a neti pot, even though the whole concept is disgusting.” Except that sort of as a joke, I wrote “neti pot” on the list that Dave took to Target last Sunday. And he bought one! Not a sleek, modern teapot style neti pot that would look beautiful in my bathroom when I don’t have it stuck in my nose, but a sort of dorky plastic (see photo). It’s of the short and stout line of neti pots.

So, the Neti! It’s the best! And I am not even going to go on and on and on about snot and boogers, because I think I’ll save that for a later post.

Here is where I insert my hilarious rendition of Mickey, except with lyrics about my neti pot and mucus. Except, it’s late and I am working on my ORA-30926 problem, and doing point in time recoveries, blah! On the other hand, while I work on that, I might come up with a few phrases here and there***:

Oh Neti, You’re so Fine, You’re so Fine You Blow My Mind!
Oh Neti, You’re so gross, You’re so gross You Blow My Nose!
Oh Neti, Hit the Spot, Clean my nose and drain my snot!

Cause now the mucus spills, though skeptics say it won’t
My cold gives me the chills, baby please, baby don’t
Every night you still, leave me booger free, Neti!

Oh Neti, what a pity, I don’t understand
Which way to hold my head with the Neti in my hand.

*** Work in progress

>I am walking a dangerous line here with Luke and his reading. Here it is: I cannot stop myself from laughing when he gets a word wrong. “The woodpecker uses his beak to hemmer… hemmer… hemmer.. hemmer? hemmer?!? hemmer? hemmer. Ohhhhhhh. Hammer.” (snicker, snicker.)

100% of the time Luke is laughing, but I fear for the time it doesn’t happen. It’s just so so funny to me.

I am an awesome mother!

>Things are looking up! We bought a new coffee maker today, and it is programmable, so tomorrow should start off well. I ran 5 errands in 47 minutes today: A New Record!

All that is left to do is make a really complicated 3 layer-with 2 types of icing- birthday cake for Little Baby Jackie’s birthday party tomorrow. Yes, nothing can possibly go wrong now!

>Then:

Now:

>Yesterday was a tale of two sledding hills. Today it’s all about the 18 inches of snow that closed down boulder:

From Blog pix

And how it wasn’t totally melted, but it sure did warm up 2 days later in time for Halloween.

From Blog pix

From Blog pix

>We had 2 snow days last week, and it was sort of silly if you ask me. I mean, since when does 18 inches of snow stop Coloradans from going to work and school? For 2 days?! My work was sort of closed for part of the time. I had to work from home because school was canceled, and the daycare was closed. So when my work said people could go home for the day, what was I supposed to do? I worked on and off and I played outside and shoveled. We went sledding once on Wednesday and once on Thursday.

On Wednesday we walked to the sledding hill near our house, and on Thursday, we rode bikes to a hill slightly farther away.

The hill within walking distance is really steep and dangerous, and my rule is that one parent (Dave) drags the sled to the top with the kids, making sure they don’t get knocked down on the way up, while the other parent (me) waits at the bottom and prays that they make it down safely. At the hill a little farther away, Luke can just sled with his friends all he wants, while one parent (Dave) sleds with Jack while the other parent (me) socializes with other parents at the top of the hill.

A couple more differences between the two days…

Posses of 18-21 year olds:

From Blog pix

Vs. Toddlers in Inner Tubes

From Blog pix

40’s chillin in the snow:

From Blog pix

Vs. Kids drinking hot chocolate:

From Blog pix

Crazies in One Piece Snowsuits from the 80’s… and yes, there is someone hitting a jump on a kayak in the background:

From Blog pix

Vs… Ok, yeah, I have nothing to contrast with that.

But hey – how cute can you get:

From Blog pix

>
I just started to upload pumpkin patch pictures, and snowstorm day 1, and snowstorm day 2, and Halloween and everything in between. And I thought, “Wow! I have a lot of material for my blog!” and then I thought, “Good thing! It’s November and I am planning to blog every day in November!”

So I thought I would start with the most random picture, and the big announcement that you can look forward to 30 days in a row of posts here, so yea!

Oh, and one Jack story. We have started the 6 month period of the year where he has a runny nose, and I had wrestled him onto my lap so I could wipe his nose and apply some lotion. He was kicking and writhing and yelling, “Down, Down!” and then he segued right from an angry, “DOWN!” into a laughing, “down down baby, Elmo do karate”, and it worked. I started laughing and let him down.