I Resolve - TOP 10

My 2009 Resolutions (I give me 10 days to break all of them)

I resolve to...

1. Let my toe nails grow to a normal length

2. Stop picking the skin off of the tops of my fingers. It's not attractive.

3. Curse in Spongebob-isms only. For example : Fish Paste instead of F*** (Carm I think you'll help with this one)

4. Shave my legs more frequently.

5. Get gas before I run out

6. RELAX - take naps, lay around, read a book

7. Take more pictures!!!

8. Obtain buns of steel and crush cans with them

9. Run a country mile every day (helping with my buns of steel)

10. Purchase only 1 case of captain every 6 months rather than every 2. Really.

eAt MoR ChIKiN!!!

When the weather gets cold, the wind is blowing so hard you feel like you're playing a part in The Wizard of Oz and you have kids that have more energy than that damn bunny with the battery pack, WHAT DO YOU DO???????????? Well, you go to the nearest fast food joint. Fill the crack monkeys up with food and let them play in the germ infested play area! Well, that's what Carrie and I do anyway, you can do whatever you want with your child(ren).

While we're on the subject of doing or not doing things with your children. If you do indeed decide to take them to the playroom of germs, please accompany them. DO NOT sit in the restaurant and stuff your face and gawk at everyone else in the restaurant pretending that you do not have a child in the other room acting like a fool. DO NOT allow your child of 3 years old to run rampant and pull on other innocent children's faces because you "do not see it." DO NOT give me a dirty look when I firmly remove the hands of your rambunctious child from the face of my own child and DO NOT allow your middle school aged children to play in the play area and run over the children who are BELOW the required height limit to be in the room of germs! Thanks in advance!!!!

Another Addition to the Family!

No, I'm not talking about another baby. My sister, Sarah, got engaged on Christmas morning! She got the most gorgeous ring and we are thrilled to officially have Phil enter the family even though we've considered him apart of the family for the past 7 years. Congratulations to both of you, we look forward to hearing all about the upcoming wedding plans :)

Oh baby baby

I'm going to be an Aunt AGAIN!!!!!!!!! Chris and Cristin shared the news of their August 2009 baby-to-be over the holidays and we couldn't be more thrilled! Here is the 1st picture of the little one.

We can't wait to meet Baby C next summer Chris and Cristin! You guys are going to be wonderful parents. Congratulations!

Christmas in Pictures

As promised and in no particular order:



This is called EXHAUSTED


This too is called EXHAUSTED.


Merry Christmas, Did Santa come?



We're not sure how these people got in the house on Christmas Eve.


Cute little Christmas fam


Lily is amazed at the size of Collins head and Z is disgusted to have to lay on a "girly" blanket.


A lesson in present opening. Rip Here.


We make her hold babies so she won't have one. (yet)


What she didn't know was that left hand would soon be wearing something sparkly!


NOM NOM NOM - SQUISHY SQUISHY

Christmas!

Ok so I'm running behind due to a little laptop incident. I'll try to get some pictures of our wonderful Christmas' up sooner than later. If not, just imagine

Zachary ripping into his presents
toys, toys and more toys
wooden reindeer passed out on the lawn from too much eggnog
all of us getting spoiled by everyone
squishy baby Lillian cute as can be

and there are a lot more but I have to get to a much more important blog now... SEE ABOVE!

National Homeland Security has rendered us QUARANTINED.

I joked on Saturday morning that I was Wonder Woman and I would NOT let whatever the dull ache in my stomach, the dizzy spells I was having and the horrid back pain, GET ME DOWN! No way sir!

About 6 hours later, Wonder Woman died.  Following suit Super Man died about 48 hours later and their side kick, Shitty McLeaky Pants has yet to recover from whatever this DAMN BUG IS THAT JUST WON'T GO AWAY!!!!

Seriously, I spent 11 hours getting aquainted with the refurbished bathroom Saturday night. Rich is now getting pretty cozy with it and Zachary is in a league of his friggin own. That Christmas cheer I found a week ago, that has flown right out the damn window that is wide open to try and get rid of the sick that has plagued this house. It's below zero in here, Zachary has icicles hanging from his nose which has also alleviated the use of a thousand tissues an hour, but damn if it doesn't smell FRESH! 

I'm fine now, well other than the wave of nausea that comes over me every time I have to change a diaper or walk by a bathroom. I'm going to say that's NORMAL though in any circumstance. 

I have since changed my super power to Incredible CLOROX LADY!!!!!! She comes equiped with a big tub of clorox wipes in one hand and walks behind all persons vomiting, pooping or breathing. wiping down everything that is touched! 

I'm going to send an APB to Santa and let him know to come deliver our gifts in a rubber suit that he should promptly burn upon leaving this disaster area. 

House Update!

Ok so the pics might seem redundant but bare with me!

The house is now offically painted! We have cabinets, and stair railings and some vanities in the bathrooms, and doors, oh my!

Z is trying out the stairs.

Z's bathroom with a vanity!

Awe, the boys walking down the stairs to the front door.

Zachary's Closet

Looking down to the foyer

Our bathroom cabinets

Spare bath

I LOVE this view!!!

More stairs

Living Room - Shows the paint color pretty well.

Kitchen!!!!!!!!


More kitchen cabinets

and more...

Disco Elfed!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Super sick day and a visit from Santa

Oy, if I had known today would have been a day of projectile vomiting and rocking a 27lb kid for majority of the day I would have called in sick. The day started out fine, a little snuffles from Z but nothing crazy. Then these events happened:

He didn't want to eat breakfast. Battle # 1 I chose not to fight.

He didn't want to drink anything. Battle #2 I chose not to fight. 

He didn't want to take his medicine. Battle # 3 I won.

Because of waving the white flag with battles 1 & 2 I ended up regretting fighting battle # 3. 

About an hour after administering said medicine Z took his Spunky dog and laid on the floor next to the door of our room. Very odd, very odd indeed. Then he stood, fussed and SHAZAAM the flood gates of his mouth opened and well... you get it.

Holy crapzoids! I would have thought the exorcist had jumped into my child's body with the way that crap came out. I went straight into panic mode. Grabbed the kid, quick hug, DOGS OUTSIDE NOW, kid thrown in crib, hug hug, it's ok!!!! Phone, where in the hell is my phone and WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING MOM????????

I am 27 years old and my kid just vomited and I want MY mommy. Dear God. 

Anyway, got that cleaned up to the best of my ability. Make a quick assessment of the child and HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP he has gone and pooped too. I change his diaper and suddenly feel the heat of Hell creeping up my neck. Sweat dripping... and I'm off and running to the bathroom. Dry heave, dry heave...ok I'm fine. 

I won't lie and say it took a good 5 hours for me to recover from that little party Z threw for me. I swore I was getting sick myself but I turned out ok, for now. 

The remainder of the day was spent coaxing him to drink ANYTHING, please ANYTHING.

I have to say, he was pretty sweet today letting me rub his back while he moaned on my bed watching cartoons. I haven't had snuggle time like that since he was super duper little.

Here is a pic of my little patient:

Oh! So Santa felt really bad for me this afternoon after he saw me rocking Z for 2 hours so he could watch Sesame Street but not actually have any limbs touching the bed. I HAD to be standing and I COULDN'T put him down. Ever. He dropped off a little early Christmas present. Here is Z opening...

My baby is sickie pie!!!

Ok, being a Mom is HARD!!! It's especially hard when the child that you are a mother to doesn't speak and can't say "Damn woman, my ear hurts, my throat hurts, my everything hurts and that's why I've been clinging to you for the past 3 days and making you want to stick fondue forks in your ears with my incessant whining!"

I knew the kid wasn't feeling well, really I did. However, I chalked it up to teething as I have everything other time he's had a runny nose, low grade fever and has both hands shoved so far into his mouth his arms look like nubs. When he woke up from his nap this afternoon with a raspy voice and phlegmy cough I knew it was time to get on the horn to the pedi and get him checked out. Even if they said "Mrs. Chisolm, your son is fine, ONCE AGAIN, he's just teething and this too shall pass." I was willing to take the lecture for the 5th time just to make 100% sure my kid didn't have pneumonia, bronchitis or some flesh eating mouth disease. Furthermore, who wants a sick kid when Santa is on his way? I wasn't risking it, no way, nuh uh.

So after sitting in the waiting room with other hacking snot-nosed kids and being "squeezed in" before the office closed for their annual holiday party we were seen by a very lovely nurse practitioner. She literally had to pin my child down and scrape out his ears with some cotton on a metal stick. I can't lie and say I didn't think brain damage or ear puncturing was going to happen the way she was really digging in there. Apparently my child has an oversupply of ear wax, um YAY! Should he get a trophy for that?

Once the blockage of wax was removed she was able to see a very inflamed ear. Problem #1. Ear Infection.

Then she looked at his throat. Problem #2. Major mucus. Sinus Infection.

Then she listened to his chest. Problem #3. Upper Respiratory Infection.

I say BRAVO ZACHARY! He managed to stay illness free for 17.5 months of his life and the 1st time he gets sick he does a great job! So he's on some antibiotics for 10 days and should be good as new soon enough! 

I have to say, the kid is tough. If this were me I'd be in bed claiming I'm knocking on death's door. Nope, not him. He's still running around like a maniac, smacking the Christmas tree, chasing the dogs, dunking things in the toilet and hanging from the curtains. No wonder I didn't REALLY believe he was sick!

Roxanne "Roxie" Chisolm

Roxie, the family dog of 17.5 years, was put to rest tonight after a very long and happy life. She will be missed by everyone and is now in the hands of God, freely doing her 'wild dog' again!

Miracle on 34th Street

Yesterday after spending majority of the day in bed fighting what I thought was turning into the flu, I decided I felt good enough to get some fresh air for an hour or so and go look at Christmas lights with the boys. I have never been down to Hampden and thought Zachary was at the perfect age to enjoy seeing all of the lights. It was VERY crowded and hard to manage the stroller on the small street but we really enjoyed ourselves. It was amazing to see all of the hard work that everyone put into decorating their houses and really filled us with the Christmas spirit. There was even a large group of Carolers singing. 

Here is a picture of some of the homes

Some of the homes allowed people to go up onto their porch.

This house was covered from top to bottom!

Zachary all bundled up :)

Sorry A & M for not making it over last night. I hope to reschedule soon!

Chillin' with the Badour's

Friday night we headed up 83 to spend some good ol quality time with our new neighbors! Carrie, Greg and Natalie introduced us to a local pizza joint and then we had some fun playing back at their house. The kids had a great time chasing one another around the house and the big kids had a good time playing Wii once the little ones went to bed. We had such a great time and it was an awesome preview to the upcoming hang outs we will have once our house is finished! Thanks for hosting C & G. Can't wait to do it again soon :0) 

Kids say the darndest things

This morning while checking my email, drinking my coffee and watching Zachary play he brought me a book to read to him. The book he chose this morning was "My First Bible." I haven't read this to him before and when I got to the second page which talked about God telling Noah to build a large ark Zachary starting going 'HO HO HO.' It took me a second to realize that the picture of God in the story was of a man in a red outfit with a long white beard and white hair. 

This really made me have a good laugh this morning but also made me realize something. For the past couple of weeks I have been showing pictures to Zachary of Santa and saying "ho ho ho" to him so he could understand who Santa is. What I haven't been doing is showing him pictures of God or Jesus and explaining the true meaning of Christmas to him. 

Now I understand at 17 months old the likely hood of him getting the concept of Jesus' birth being the reason we celebrate Christmas is far fetched. However, if he can see a picture of man with a white beard and a red outfit and immediately say "HO HO HO" I at least owe it to him to try and explain the true meaning of Christmas and keep that tradition going year after year.

I guess this was a wake-up call to me as well to stop and think about what the holidays really mean to me this year. I have been so wrapped up in finding the perfect presents for Zachary. I just HAD to get him this Fisher Price Cash Register and wouldn't stop until I got it. Does he really need the cash register? No. I have been in such a hustle and bustle shopping for everyone and at times not even enjoying myself. Buying presents is certainly not what this holiday is about and it's so hard not to get wrapped up in that sometimes, no pun intended! 

This is a little deeper than I like to go in my blogs, or life in general but I am glad he brought me that book this morning. I hope everyone is finding the holiday spirit this year and for the right reasons. Enjoy being with friends and family and please remember why we are able to enjoy this holiday with one another.

You say it's your birthday...

We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

The Beatles couldn't have said it any better! Happy Birthday to Mom/Mrs. Laura! I hope all of the celebrations have made you feel as special as you are!

Gussied Up

Rich's company work party was also on Saturday... we were just a *little* busy. It was so nice to get all dressed up and enjoy ourselves for the evening!

Mega Fancy Pants Chisolm's

Us with Ryan & Carmen

Holy Balls we have WALLS!

We went up to visit the house this Saturday and it is completely dry walled!!! We can really see the shape of the rooms now and envision where everything is going to go. So exciting! Here is a picture overload!

This is the retaining wall out back so we don't have a massive hill as a back yard. It will be about 12 feet high.




Picture standing in foyer looking into kitchen. That's the island.

Standing in the foyer looking up

Another foyer pic


Standing upstairs looking down into the foyer

Master Bedroom walk-in closets

Bedroom 1

Bathroom between bedrooms 1 & 2

Bedroom 2 (Z's Room)

Spare Bath

Spare Bedroom

Master Bath view of vanity area and toilet room

Master Bath view of soaking tub and shower

Master Bedroom view from sitting area

Mud Room off of garage

View of Kitchen from Family Room

View of Family Room from Kitchen

We are missing pics from the dining room, living room and playroom.