The blessings of 6 weeks...

Tiny twister is the name of this blog and tiny twister is the perfect analogy for the last 6 weeks at the Hepler house. We have been lucky enough to have a special visitor this year. My mom has been with us for about 6 weeks. I think there are times when she wishes she could escape, but times that she wishes she could stay forever. We have had some hilarious moments and some frustrating moments. Luckily, I think we have had more funny moments. She plans on leaving next Saturday. I think we have agreed that she will have to leave in stealth mode in the middle of the night and leave the reckage for me to address in the morning. Joshua is not going to take her leaving lightly. The mere mention of the thought threw him into tears last week. He has come to depend on his Grandma Mac being there in the morning, allowing him to manipulate "1 more episode of Diego" out of her before he gets dressed, laughing at his funny bodily movements (I'm not kidding, that boy can shake his booty), and making her smile just before he drifts off to sleep in her arms. Megan will miss her grandma too, but realizes it is only temporary and she will be back soon. She considers grandma her friend and only a few times got scoulded by yours truly for talking to grandma too much like a buddy.... with the tone, eyes and all. "grandma is your grandmother and deserves your respect...." Dutch will miss my mom for his own selfish reasons....his laundry lady is leaving, his backup day care transporter is heading out, and his home cooked meal maker is gone after Saturday. It will be back to smelly clothes, taxi driving the kids, and bad dinners.
I will miss my mom for completely different reasons. This 6 weeks has been special because she did not just see a snap shot of my life, she saw my life. The good, the bad and the ugly. We created new traditions with her in town and let her mould into some of the Hepler's long standing traditions. We had tea time in the evening. I had an extra person to talk to. As much as she wants to THINK she has overstayed her welcome, she knows in her heart that is not true. That could never be. I can honestly say that neither Dutch or I have complained about her being with us for this long of a time. What a blessing that is. So now as she packs her stuff to "move out" of Megan's room, I hope she has as fond memories of the 6 weeks as we do.
Now... the last 2 I have to break the news to is Lucy and the cat, Brandi. That will be a WHOLE other story!

What a weekend!

This weekend we had a busy, but wonderful weekend of fun and work. Saturday, leaving the house at 9:00 and not coming home until 8:30 was tiresome, but the amount we got done in that time frame was astounding.

Mom, Megan, Joshua, and I left at 9:00 to get the kids to swim lessons. Megan is getting so much more confident and was trying to learn to dive. I feel bad that she has the same "bottom" that her mom has... you know, the one filled with Lead. She just sinks to the floor of the pool when she dives in. She sure tries her best though. Joshua was assigned 2 boys as his swim teacher yesterday. One boy had no interest in teaching. He was much more interested in talking with the passers by. The other boy, John, was so sweet. Him and Josh got along great and he really enabled Josh to trust him. I don't think Joshua stopped smiling for 2 straight hours.

Next we went to an appt for my mom. She was pricing out some home materials to get a better idea of her budget. (boring).

Then we headed to PETSMART, KOHLS, and LINEN's and THINGS. Sales, sales, sales!! WOO HOO! Petsmart had Santa there to take pictures with people's pets. We sure wished we had Lucy, but we really enjoyed watching the other dogs "sit" with Santa. We picked out presents for Lucy (our dog) and Brandi (our cat). What fun.

Finally, on the way home to West Sunbury, we decided to stop at a Live, Drive-thru, Nativity. We had an hour to kill before it started, but I was not driving all the way home and all the way back. It was our final decision to sit it out in a parking lot and wait the hour. Luckily we had a portable DVD player with us and we sat in front of a small airport where we could watch helicopters and airplanes come in and out. The Nativity was beautiful and done very nicely by the children of that church.

After we made it home and got dinner in the oven, we went BACK out to see Santa at the local firehall. So, needless to say, we really ran all day.

Some precious statements the kids said this weekend:
Sitting at the kitchen table discussing how Megan can tease grandma, but when grandma teases back Megan gets "heartburn".... Megan states... "Well, grandma, you are my BEST FRIEND. When you have a best friend, you like to tease them". That

Joshua sitting on Santa's lap. He finished telling Santa everything HE wanted so decided to add...
"and something sparkly with penguins on it for my grandma, some toys for Megan, some bullets for my dad..." Isn't that adorable??? I know he forgot me, but that was the greatest gift I could ask for anyway. My son thinking of others.

I am sure I will be able to tell you more stories as we get closer to Christmas. It is VERY hard for them to be "good" all the time.

Happy Halloween

Today is Halloween. I don't think this holiday was ever designed to be as much work as it is. The founders of Halloween must not have had kids in day care and in school. The whole week is in preparation of the actual day. Making sure costumes are ready to go, doing make up run throughs, buying candy, carving pumpkins for home, buying treats for daycare and school, creating contest winning pumkins for school, packaging goodie bags, packing clothes, packing costumes, ......Was it really meant to be so hard?

This year I had the brilliant (I mean stupid) idea of making the kids costume myself. 1 it would be cheaper…. # 2 it would be more original. Just for the record, I don’t sew and I am NOT crafty. So off we go to Joanne’s fabrics to see what we can find. Megan sees this awesome red silky fabric with black skulls. So we decide it would make a very different devil cape…. We get it measured and cut. Joshua sees this really cool silky material with flames on it. It would make a great vampire cape. Sort of a ghost rider/vampire look. We get it cut. As we head to the check out we pick up a few more items. Well the fabric came to $27. As I am checking out, I see a complete ready to wear vampire outfit for $9. UGH!! Well then the fabric kept sticking in my MIL’s sewing machine when I tried to hem it. It was very difficult. BUT…. Determination prevailed. We tested their outfits last night and they look great. I will do their make up pale with heavy black eyes. I got red spray and will stripe Megan’s hair and I got black gel to spike Josh’s hair with black. He also has a matching flame material doo rag for the Ghost Rider look. They will definitely be original. But next year, we are buying the plastic costume at walmart.

PICS of Halloween to appear next....

2nd half of the week

So.. that PEE story was the first half of the week... The second half of the week involves Megan. This is not a story of her "awfulness" but of her ingenuity. One day on our way to pick up Joshua, (probably the PEE day) Megan tells me this story of a conversation she had with a friend. Megan was trying to convince Ellie that Megan is a tomboy. Ellie says... No you are not Megan, you like pretty things too. You are either a Tomboy or you are not. There is no... 1/2 way. Megan then breaks out of her story to tell me...
Mom.. I am a tomboy some of the time, and a girly girl some of the time. I can do that you know. I concur. Yes. You can be both, depending on your mood. Then Megan replies: (now brace yourself any Republicans out there. This is awesome)
I like to hunt and fish with my dad.
I like to dress up, wear make up and use purses.
I like to do it all.
I am just like SARAH PALIN!!!!!

Don't you LOVE IT!!! WAHOO!!! Finally a role model for my girl! (by the way... Megan is only 8!!!)

Have a great weekend everyone! (GO MCCAIN/PALIN)

What a month (or 2 or 3) it has been!

I have taken another unwanted hiatus from writing in my blog. I started this with the intention of writing every day, that turned to once a week, then once a month... now, I'll be happy if I write on every leap year. UGH!

This week warrants a writing. My kids are hilariously awful. Joshua leads the week with his attempt of being a Knight in "rusted" Armour with his sword fights. Several events led up to "the phone call". Earlier in the week, Joshua came home and mentioned to me that he had to nap at Connie's in his underwear. I asked him why he had to do that and he said he got pee on his pants (do you know where this is headed yet?). I asked him why he got pee on his pants. He mumbled something about Tony and swords and because I was called off to force (I mean encourage) Megan to do her homework, I let it go. Yea Josh, great, swords....wonderful. Well then I hear later in the week that Joshua got pee on Tony on a completely different day, "by accident". How do you get Pee on somebody....by accident??? Anybody....Anybody....Bueller??? Well then finally "the call" came to me at work. I answer to an ever pleasant and kind Connie. She said that she wanted to call and let me know that Joshua had a REALLY bad day. (Not as bad as his buddy Saxon, after you hear this) Apparently, when the kids are outside at daycare, the boys are permitted to pee on a tree. This is actually done for safety sake. She doesn't want kids running in and out of the house without supervision. Makes sense to me and hey... this is Western Pennsylvania. So anyway... Joshua and Saxon had to pee at the same time and so there they go to the nearest tree. All of a sudden, Connie hears Saxon screaming.. "NO JOSHUA... STOP IT, STOP IT JOSHUA!!" So Connie goes to check out the commotion and finds that Joshua is PEEING on SAXON's FOOT!! He is playing SWORDS. And his weapon is his ... MMmmm Hmmmm. UNBELIEVABLE. So as calmly as possibile, I listen to this story at work. All I can think of is "where did he come up with this???" Much to Dutch's frustration... I blamed him. Dutch informed me that he DOES NOT play swords with Josh and it is probably just a phase Josh is in. I am relieved to know that my 40 something husband does not view his unit as a SWORD. I beg of you other mothers of boys.... IS THIS NORMAL? Josh has since been corrected and punished and will no longer be seen peeing on his friends. That does NOT make for a good friendship.

Time Off

I have taken some unexpected time off from blogging. I really intend on updating this more than I do, but I have limited time. I had the opportunity to spend a week and half with my mom. She came out to help me and Dutch out with transportation for Megan's cheer camp. We just love having her out here. The kids really enjoy having both grandma's accessible to them. I think my mom really enjoyed her time with us, despite the fact that we couldn't convince her to stay and watch Megan cheer at the Rodeo next week. Grandma's are fun!! We had a hysterical grandma moment at the Regatta last Saturday.

Every year we attend our local lake's Regatta. It is a small affair, but perfect for us with our pontoon boat. We get there around lunch time, enjoy buying carnival type food and walking around a craft fair, we boat around and then stay for fireworks at dark. Fireworks from the boat is one awesome sight. When we docked for the craft fair, there was not actual docks available. We had to pull to shore and tie off. This means we had a moderat size step off the boat to the shore. This was no trouble for the kids as they flew off the boat into the water, but for the 3 other adults I was with... a bit challenging. My mom had arthritis in her knees, ankles and feet, Dutch's mom had a knee injury last year and still fosters some fear, and Dutch recently had a knee injury that has left him with weakness and pain. Hmmmmm Dutch gets off first with little or no problem, Mom in law 2nd with some assist from Dutch. Then it was time for my mom. I tried convincing her that she could trust herself. She is capable of more than she thinks. She wasn't buying it. Mom in law suggested that she sit first and then get off. So... down to one knee she goes, then to 2. Now she is tall kneeling... what to do, what to do. She gets down to her bum somehow, but facing the wrong direction. So she give a roll the side only to hit her head on the boat's wall and roll turtle like to her back. At this point, I am giggling a bit, Dutch is smirking (afraid to laugh at my mom) and Norma has a smile on her face. Shortly after the roll, you hear Megan comment.... "Oh gosh, here we go with the Sit, Tuck and Roll" perfectly summing up the appearance. Well that does it.... we all busted up laughing with a bit of control in the bunch of us.

So for the next day and a half we talked about how great grandma is doing the Sit, Tuck and Roll for all of us.

We love her "sit, tuck and roll" or not!!!

Megan is in NY

I know I have been negligent with my blog.... I am only cheating myself. We were on vacation and I have been trying to get my kitchen cleaned out to prepare for my new one (woo hoo). After our trip to Michigan, Megan left for NY with my mom. She is currently on day 4 of 13...but who is counting??? I miss her!! She is doing great. My mom seems to love having her and my sister is really spending a lot of time with her too. She is in the spotlight and sure is sucking it up while she can. I can't believe she is so confident and strong to do this at 8. I NEVER, NEVER would have went somewhere without my parents when I was 8. I think I cried every day of my entire school year when I was 8....or was that 7. Honestly, Dutch and I don't know where her strength comes from. Joshua is missing her. He does well with most things, but talking to her on the phone is really tough. Megan's agenda is chock full with trips to the mall, swimming pool, bike riding, she even has a trip to the American Girl store in NY city for Tea! I am so jealous!
I can not tell you how proud I am of her. She is such a big girl. She calls me every day about 3 times a day... and I LOVE it. I love her voice on the phone and I miss her.