Thanksgiving rocked!

Best Buds Nate and Uncle Dew
Snow what fun!
I am thankful. And apparently eleventy feet tall.



This year we travelled to Ohio for Thanksgiving to see Mark's sweet aunt and uncle. I was more than a little apprehensive about the drive, but the kids handled it beautifully. Mark and I were more than a little amazed. In fact, I'd say that was probably the greatest blessing of all!
This was the first time I'd been out of state for Thanksgiving in.. .well. . .my lifetime. But we'd been itching to get up north and visit and around Halloween we decided this would be the best time for everyone. My Mom-In-Law Extraordinnaire, Barb, travelled with us. She sat up front and I sat in back between Liv and Nate, an arrangement we worked out somewhere around Beckley, W. Va. when the "He's looking at me!!" stuff started (hey, we still had our standard sibling moments). Mark took command of our massive rental vehicle the whole way up and the whole way back, for which I am also truely grateful.
There were many cool, almost magical things that occurred on this trip that made it more than a worthwhile way to spend the holiday:
1. The kids got to see the street where Daddy grew up, an idyllic little stretch of Boardman, OH with one beautiful,Norman-Rockwellesque house after another.
2. The hotel we stayed in was simply awesome. It's called the Dutch House, and although it has 100-plus rooms it had a very country-inn feel. They were already decked out for Christmas, with two huge trees in the lobby and several decorated fireplaces. The buffet straight from their own bakery every morning didn't hurt either.
3. We got to see Mark's dear friend from high school, Bernie Vogel. At one point he told Nate, while pointing to Mark, "I would kill or die for this guy. Do you have a friend like that? That's important in life." Nate paused for a moment and said, "My Grandpa. And also Uncle Larry." I beamed.
4. Mark and Uncle Dew got to celebrate their birthdays together, with two adorable cakes presented to them by the kids. And nobody dropped one!
5. Four letters: S-N-O-W. The real stuff, people. It started coming down late Thursday night and by Friday morning we had a gorgeous 2-3 inches. We were the only yahoos out sledding in it, but we didn't care. Mark said I was as bad as the kids; my nose was pressed to the hotel window, watching each little miracle float to the ground at 7 a.m.
6. Mark's cousin Pam, a walking piece of awesomeness who happens to be a teacher too, brought scads of leftover Thanksgiving crafts from her classroom so the kids could get their creativity on while the adults visited.
7. The coffee. Oh, the coffee---Seattle's Best, specifically, at the hotel. And the scrumptious Peppermint Mocha from the drive-thru Starbuck's in West Va. on the way home. Just the eye-opener Mama needed. Thanks, Mark!
8. Watching Nate and Olivia gleefully push Dew in his wheelchair. His new way to roll is pretty cool in their eyes.
9. Playing Apples to Apples with Barb, Pam and Mark after dinner.
10. Stopping at Cracker Barrel on the way home. Oh, and making it home in under the estimated time. Hey, I'm Woodrow Boyd's daughter---it's all about making good time. Right, Dad?

The plague of the potty-mouths

I think every parent I know (except maybe Pastor Trevor) has a story or many, many stories about how their child once blurted out a curse word at the most inappropriate moment.

It usually turns into one of those I'd-kill-you-if-this-weren't-so-GD-funny times.

We've had one particularly horrifying/hilarious gem lately, and I wanted to jot it down before I forgot it. Also so I can return the torture to my children one day by telling the story to their prom date.

So we're in the van the other day, me at the wheel and the kids in the backseat in their boosters. Nate had two pieces of his Halloween candy clenched in his hands, so of course the moment I'm strapped in and backing out the driveway, he immediately drops them. This hasn't really occurred to me until now, but the kid pretty much verbalized what his mommy was thinking: "GodDAMMIT!"
Apparently, having your prized dumdum-pop and roll of Smarties plummet from your hands requires a choice selection from the sailor's handbook, in my four-year-old son's opinion.

I sort of froze, about to look up and deliver one of many Sermons From the Rearview Mirror, when Olivia held out her hand to stop me, as if to say she'd handle it. Then she turned to her brother and said, "No, Nate, remember we say GOSHdammit."

At least our mini war on Olivia saying "OMG" was working. There's just something so obnoxious about a little kid saying "God" in that way. The dammit part, well. . .obviously we're a work in progress at Casa Pellin.

There was another, much sweeter Olivia-ism that took place a few months ago. I was chopping up an apple for the kids to munch on while I cooked dinner. Olivia came into the kitchen and asked if they could eat it before dinner. I said yes, that's what it's for. Then she yelled up the stairs, "Nate---come on down---Mommy made us an apple-tizer."

That girl.

Other random, impossibly cute, non-cursing things they say and do:

• Nate has called our minister, Pastor Trevor , "Patrick Trevor" since he was about two. He really thinks that's his name.
• Olivia recently told Nate's young, very pretty teacher "You smell just like my Grandma!" and she meant it as one of the highest compliments one can receive.
• Nate refers to his Bobby, his ratty, much-loved lovie blanket, as a "him," a living being with thoughts and feelings. For example, Bobby cannot be left in the car overnight because he might get cold.
• Olivia once told my dad, after he'd just gotten dressed after emerging from the bathroom in his boxer shorts, "Um, I'm glad you have a shirt on now, because before I could see your boobies and it was so disgusting." Just a side note, Dad---you look just fine. "Disgusting" was a new addition to the vocabulary at the time and absolutely had to be worked into every possible sentence.

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully we'll have more moments like the ones above and fewer backseat swear-a-thons.

They were angels at the pumpkin patch--what happened?

On a more peaceful day

Have I said that I love my kids? I'm sure I have, and believe me, I do. I love how they accept everything as it is, including their deeply-flawed Mama. I love how they argue over who gets to snuggle next to me on the sofa----hey, working all day and living with a workaholic man (albeit very cute) who works nights can feel pretty isolating, so it's nice to come home and kick back with two people who actually nearly come to blows over who gets to sit next to you!

BUT!! (You know you saw the but coming!) Sometimes I don't think I'll be able to take them into a restaurant until they're about 25. I was really looking forward to this evening; I was going to treat my dear friend Dawn to dinner at one of those burrito places (her pick). Dawn, addition to being super smart, funny and kind, has suffered through about three funerals in the past month and a-half, and I wanted to sit and catch up with her while also celebrating her belated birthday, which was last week.

One of the things that makes Dawn so special to me is that she appears to genuinely love spending time with my kids. Even when they interrupt our conversation 89 times in one hour. Even when SOMEONE *cough*-nate-*cough* accidentally pokes me in the eye with his drinking straw and causes me to scream in pain, thus losing my train of thought AGAIN. Even when they announce they have to go potty immediately after we sit down with our food and I end up spending the next 20 minutes in the bathroom with Olivia, um, I mean someone, who for some reason does no longer likes to do "the number two" in her school's little girls' room. Even when they, when it's finally time to leave, accidentally go out the patio door, then run delightedly around, ignoring their mother's demands that they follow her out the correct door to the parking lot.

But I did manage to squeeze in a couple of updates about my life, and I think I heard Dawn say that she's holding up OK. OH, and she's lost about 70 some-odd pounds in about six months---you look smokin' hot, Dawn! You the hotness! Thick or thin, I love you all the way through. And so do those little monsters of mine.