Kick off the Season

Just bought and highly recommend to start up your Christmas music worship and celebration.

P.S. If you download these off iTunes, they cost about 40% less than if you bought the hard copy, just a FYI

To be the Mother of Boys

Today I just have to write about what it is like to be the mother of boys. To sum it up in two words: Very Tiring!

Over and over I hear how "boys are tough when they are young, but a lot easier when they are older". I guess I can see that, but I don't' care who you are - they make you tired! Boys, in general, never stop moving. They are constantly go, go go. You can throw them in front of TV, video games, or computers, but that involves a whole other set of vices to cope with. Boys always run into walls, or hit each other when passing each other in the hall, or throw things instead of handing things to you, and they are constantly physical - wrestling, headlocking, smothering each other in pillows and blankets. I feel as though I spend 3/4 of my time breaking them up. They don't mind the wrestling, but I do.

This leads me to what I do to help tire my boys out. As a mother, I have this theory about activity in a child's life. Mainly, I think children should be active. Remember how when we were all kids and we played outside? In the past two neighborhoods I've lived in, hardly any children play outside. I wonder why - are the parents worried about their kids getting taken? (valid concern, but one that has always existed even when we were kids). Are they worried that their kids will get hit by a car? (another valid concern, but that was a concern when we were kids as well). do they not want their kids to socialize with the neighborhood kids? (I don't know if my parents would have "chosen" the neighborhood kids as our friends, but that's who we played with after school). I just don't get it. As children, we walked to school. Huge groups of children lined the streets as we all trekked to school. Parents didn't HAVE to walk the kids, because there were so many kids out on the streets. I watched an Oprah recently (I think it was a Dr. OZ show) where he asked the audience, "How many of you walked to school as children?" and 85% of the audience raised their hands. Then he asked, "How many of you let your kids walk to school?" and seriously, about 10% of the audience raised their hands. What has changed? To help burn those extra stores of energy, I make my kids walk or ride their bikes to school. Sometimes I join them, sometimes I just trust they'll make it (plus we only live two streets away from the school, a two minute walk).

When you have boys, especially multiple boys and no girl children, you realize how much they egg each other on in the activity and inappropriate behavior category. Farting, belching, and little comments on boy parts are laughed at by each other and as a mother you say to yourself, "if I react, then that makes them want to do it more because they got a reaction, but if I don't react, then they won't be corrected about this clear violation of appropriate social behavior". When my boys are apart from each other, they act well in groups. However, when they are together, they just encourage each other to the point where I want to drop kick them through the front door.

So it leaves me to the next point. What boys do to entertain themselves. If you are a parent of only girls, I can guarantee that you and I have very different stories about what your girls do to entertain themselves vs. what my boys do to entertain themselves. Case in point - this is what they came up with the other day. I had to document this for the memory books.

Let's put little brother in a box, unsecured, on top of a skateboard. Let it be noted he is very willing to be apart of this experiment.

Shut brother up in the box, unsecured, on top of a skateboard

Send brother zooming down the driveway in the shut up box.

See Mom, he is totally fine and He LOVED it!!

Sometimes, at night, when it's just me and God chatting, I ask Him, "Why, oh Why, did you make me a mother of boys? I'm not strong enough for this."



And God always replies, "Because those boys always hold a special place in their heart for their mamas, and they needed a strong willed woman like you to handle them."

HERE'S TO US, THE MOTHERS OF BOYS.

What do you Think?

Do you think this nursery bedding is too girly?


The crib will be going here - right where the art table currently is. So the bedding will be in a dark wood crib against these dark/light blue walls. (Wall pictures/mirror will change)

This is the other side of the room. I thought the red and white stars would go well with Blake's bedding - but if I can't get coordinating patterns/designs, I may just scrap Blake's bedding and go with something else.

Let me interject here that I love the color red. I love boys' room to be very "boy" with dark blues and reds. PS - the dresser you see here will be going. Not big enough for two boys' clothes.

ReOccurring Nightmares

Today, at random intervals, glimpses of my reoccurring nightmare kept haunting me. Last night I had another version of the same nightmare that I keep having at least once a week. In the dream, I'm visiting our old house we just sold in Maple Valley. And in each dream, the house looks different. Sometimes it is a mansion on the water, sometimes it looks exactly like the real house, but even though the outside appearance changes, I always know that it was the house we just sold and now someone else lives there. And in my dream, for some reason, I have this intense need to go inside the house and look around. And the house is always unlocked in my dream. So I go inside the house and I poke around and ALWAYS there is a point in the dream where the new owners come home and I'm still in the house. Sometimes I get caught in the house and sometimes I escape out the back sliding glass door before they find me. Usually they catch me. In one of the dreams a few weeks back, they threatened to call the police if I didn't stop snooping around the house and entering.

And my dream always always ends with me waking up in my bedroom in Salem and I always sigh a huge relief that it "was only a dream". The psychologist in me wants to interpret this dream, but inside I think it is my brain's way of processing the huge change that is happening in my life right now.

Jeremy says that he is always able to tell in his dreams that he is dreaming, so he doesn't take them too seriously. For me, maybe it is because of the vivid imagination I never did discard from childhood, no matter how absurd my dream may be, I usually believe it is happening. At least once a week, I'll wake from a dream and be so thankful that it was only a dream.

What is your reoccurring nightmare?

A Little Christmas for Me

I already know I'm getting a new Ipod for christmas from the family, but I decided this week that perhaps I should give myself a little present as well to go along with the new Nano. After all, portable speakers would totally expand the usefullness of the ipod. I could listen in the bathroom, listen in the office, listen in the kitchen, listen in the garage......

Back to School, back to school...jiggigy, jig

TODAY WAS THE BEST!!


Back to school, the children went. Waking sleeping children who have had twelve days off is....difficult. Perhaps it was a little ambitious of me to send my staph infected child to school, but I wrapped it up nicely with gauze and an ace bandage and gave his teachers instructions (mainly, it is supposed to leak pus).

Anyhoo...Blake bundled himself up against the 30 degree windchill and rode his bike to preschool. He told me that preschool was okay, but playing video games at home with dad is better (whoops, mental note, tighten the video game policy).

Instead of lounging on my couch sipping hot chocolate while the little darlings were being educated, I de-pooped the backyard, raked leaves, fertilized the lawn, and winterized my patio set. I also replanted two azeleas and one fern plant. I suppose that I needed a little garden therapy.

Both children came home by 3 with smiles on their faces, only to match the smile on their mother's face. As I've said before, I love sending them away and I love welcoming them home.

Staph Infection 101

I thought I would impart my personal experience with a staph infection so all of you out there will be able to file this in your mental memory files in case you need this information in the future.

According to Medicine Net.com, staph is:

Staphylococcus is group of bacteria, familiarly known as Staph (pronounced "staff"), that can cause a multitude of diseases as a result of infection of various tissues of the body. Staph bacteria can cause illness not only directly by infection (such as in the skin), but also indirectly by producing toxins responsible for food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome. Staph-related illness can range from mild and requiring no treatment to severe and potentially fatal.

Personal knowledge of a "staph" infection includes a host of stories about individuals getting staph infections and being one week from death's door. Apparently, this bacteria is everywhere, including your skin. I did not know that.

Personal experience with staph involves my son Jackson the past two weeks. He received a small "bug bite" about a week and a half ago. Progressively it got worse and worse, getting bigger and more swollend and more red and more pussy until yesterday little white pus balls swelled to the surface of his skin. Jeremy cut the pus balls (that is the medical term I'm sure) and the pus proceeded to drain out of his leg for two hours. The next day, his leg and knee looked more red, more swollen with little black marks on it. I took him to the doctor. Turns out he has staph. This is what it looks like after the professional pus-squeezing by the doctor.

Jackson was put on oral antibiotics yesterday, as well as instructions to put very warm compresses on the infection twice a day as well as a prescription topical antiobiotic cream. We go for a re-check on Monday.

In the future, if a small cut or bite gets redder and bigger and more swollen after one week, good idea to start watching for staph. When it starts to get the white and black pus balls on it - go to the doctor. Red streaks running up and down from where the original infection site is - not good. Take yourself to a hospital.

What would Thanksgiving be without broken body parts and potentially fatal skin infections?

Thanksgiving 2007

Personally, I love any excuse to break out the china, crystal, and silver. This year, I made the entire meal and I had really low expectations. Everything turned out way better than I expected! the only thing I would have changed would be the dress code. I was way too wrapped up in dinner to think about the ragamuffins my boys looked like. China, crystal, and sweatpants - gotta love us Deshazers!!

Holidays with the dogs

Happy Thanksgiving. It was a blast. We had Jeremy's family down from Seattle - they stayed with us for four days. They brought mom and dad with teenager brother Josh (who is the only child still living at home) and their dog Yoda who is a mixed breed terrier/poodle/beagle mix.

I found that the dogs were a big part of the gathering/celebration/sleepover.

Lots of Cesear Milan/Dog Whisperer techniques were utilized (Tssssst!)
Lots of dog humping (Yoda).
Lots of puppy playful crazy running about the place (Chili)
Lots of "No!!" (from all nine members of the family directed at the dogs)
Lots of jingle jangle bells (dog collars jingling as the dogs run around the house - only to be promptly removed by me, the highly hormonal pregnant woman who was fixing Thanksgiving dinner)
Lots of shooing dogs off furniture.
Lots of speculation over who went poop when and where.
Lots of vacuuming of the carpet because of the large clumps of black fur on it (chili).
Lots of side comments over whose dog was misbehaving and when (mostly coming from the children to the adults)


But most of all, lots of love and affection from our four legged friends. What would the holidays be without the dogs??

Tired dog after a loooooong visit

ALL DONE!

This has always and forever been my goal -

but I always had finals to study for, and final papers to write and re-write, and children to clean up after, and a family to cook for, and parents and students of the classes I taught to deal with, and not enough in the bank account to stress about, and holiday parties to sometimes go to, and plane trips to see the Utah extension of the family, and then before I knew it....
Christmas was here and I was not done with my shopping.

Well folks, today I can honestly say, that I am D-O-N-E with my gift shopping. Thanks to plenty of time to figure out lists and check them twice (because I am not in school or working), child watching help (Nana was here this past week), and a husband who is zero-ing on the deals at Costco.

Now, the rest of the holiday I can look forward to the traditions that make it count.

It's Okay to throw the game sometimes

One of my childhood memories involves my parents playing board games with me. I have always loved a good board game (and still do). A part of that memory also involves me winning a lot of the time. True, some of the winning may be in part to my cheating abilities, but now that I am a parent, I have a strong suspicion that my parents let me win.... a lot.

Today I was playing a memory game with Blake and the first round, he beat me hands down. So the competitor in me starts to warm up a bit and by the third round of memory, I caught myself playing the game for keeps. After getting five matches in a row, I yelled, "Ah-HA!! Eat that!!" I looked up at Blake's face, saw the disappointment in his eyes, and felt like the biggest lurch. I mean, come on Shannan, it's okay to let your four year old win the game of memory. Because, as we all know, there will be a day when you are truly trying to win and you won't be able to for the life of you. Let the boy win.

Da, Da. Dummmmmm....

I truly adore my children. However, I know as the time schools rolls around each September, I am forever grateful we have this public institution called - mandatory education. I simply could not, and would not home school my kids. I love having my family around, but then, I love having some time to myself in my own castle with Jeremy at work and the boys at school. Some people dread Monday mornings, I love Mondays because everyone goes back to school and work.

All that to be said, I just found out last night (don't know what rock I've been hiding under), that the boys don't have school ALL NEXT WEEK. We just had four days off school for Veterens' Day and now they don't have school Nov. 17 -Nov. 26. In case you don't have your calenders in front of you, that is TEN WHOLE DAYS that they both will be home. What the????

The only way to solve this upcoming situation is to seriously schedule us some recreational activites. There are only so many days that you can spend in your PJs.

Dork Patrol

I regard myself as a "cool parent". Not in the aspect that i want to be my kids' best friend and I will compromise solid parenting values in order for my kids to like me. No, I mean more so that I'm pretty hip in the way I dress and the music and media I watch. And not that pop culture rules my life, I just like to stay up to date on what is new. All that to be said, I recently discovered my cache of high school and college CDs and I can't stop playing them! This is when I teeter dangerously into dorky parent waters as I groove out to random, one-hit wonders of the 90's.

Remember Stereo MC? We did a fashion show to this in high school and I will never forget the catwalk strut to

"get yourself, get yourself....connected"

Toad and the Wet Sprocket - what rebels we felt like! Driving in my best friend's Montereo with the top off and blasting it as loud as possible by Brighton High School.

Okay, you were a serious Bad A** if you listened to RATM, but when a boyfriend broke up with you, you and your best friends on the cheer squad singled him out after the football game and blasted several songs at him. If you are laughing at me, remember, I grew up in SLC, Utah - Rage Against the Machine was hard core!

The Violent Femmes - no one would admit it, but everyone loved to listen to them. I can't believe our Jr. High bus driver let us play it over the stereo.

I just realized it, I am such a dork. But a cool dork, if you will.

These are Days...

I'm reminded of my one of my favorite songs, "These are Days", by 10,000 maniacs. Salem is stormy today and makes you want to stay inside forever. The boys are working actively together in many pursuits. Jeremy and I are working cooperatively to finish all the interior painting. We're all in pajamas still. And all I can think is:


"These are days you'll remember.
Never before and never since, Ipromise, will the whole world be warm as this.
And as you feel it,you'llknow it's true that you are blessed and lucky.
It's true that you aretouched by something that will grow and bloom in you.

These are days you'll remember.
When May is rushing over you withdesire to be part of the miracles you see in every hour.

These are days.These are the days you might fill with laughter until you break.
These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across yourface.
And when you do you'll know how it was meant to be.
See the signs and know their meaning.
It's true, you'll know how it was meant to be.
Hear thesigns and know they're speaking to you, to you."

Indeed, today, to the core of my soul I feel like these are the days that those lyrics describe. I'm really happy.

New Rule

Just overheard...

Dad:"Here's a new rule. If you kill your brother, you can't take his ammo from him"

Figure that one out.

Why having Boys is SOOOOO worth it

Just overheard.....

Jeremy: "Come on boys, let's go catch some mice that live in the garage".
Both boys (jumping up and excited): "YESSSSS!!!!!!!" (And off they scurry to the garage for a little while.

About an hour later......

Both Boys: "Mom, we caught three mice!!! Please come out and see.
Me (from reading my book on my bed): "No, that's okay, I don't really want to see them. Just make sure you don't put them on the top of the trash when I open the trash can."
Boys: "Okay! Boy, that was fun Dad!!"

Please, can we name this baby?

Jeremy's mom asked him the other day if we had a name picked out so she could start praying for the baby by name. I told Jeremy that she should pray that we could agree on a name. I don't know about you, but picking out a name is probably one of the most difficult disagreements in our marriage!! And you have to give us credit, we've had to pick out four boy names. Jackson was easy (a no-brainer, it's my maiden name), but every name after that has been struggle after struggle. I like preppy names, Jeremy wants something that doesn't a negative connotation to anyone he knows. And just when we finalize some names, we can't agree on the spelling.
But I'm with Jeremy's mom, it would be nice to bond with a name - sooner rather than later.

Case in Point

(Quick tidbit before you scroll down to my other posts). Today, I went to Target all by myself. My on-vacation husband gave me as much time as I needed to shop ("Don't worry about us" actually means he gets to jack up the sound on his video games, but I digress) So as I was shopping, I realized how calm and soothing Target felt today. I thought, why don't I take my blood pressure just to see. It was 99/56. That is the lowest reading I have ever had. Goes to show that going shopping without children is actually good for you. Dr. Oz should recommend that instead of yoga to tired mommas.

Is there anything a can of Spray Paint can't fix?

Remember old, outdated brass fan?

Let me introduce you to that same fan with a major facelift.

I went to Home Depot and found glass shades (found in lighting dept) - they match the frosted glass shades in our new bathroom vanity and were about $5 each. Bought a can of rustoleum white spray paint. (formulated for metal).
I covered every surface of our bed and furniture with a drop cloth. And just sprayed away.

Total cost: $23

If I had bought this fan brand new: $179

This is my proudest design ReMix to date.

Preggy Pics

Is she pregnant?

Yes, she

IS!

I just crossed over from six months to seven months pg. You know the old wives' tale that says you just stick straight out when pg with a boy? In this case, I say yes. If you look at me head on, you can't really tell, it looks like I just ate too many baked goods, but the minute I turn to my side - Wohoa Baby!

Crossing over to the other side

Jeremy is out at Costco getting me this.....

We decided that this freezer is an immediate need b/c the fridge that came with our house has a teeny tiny freezer at the bottom of it. The Costco freezer packs of meat, fruit, veggies just barely fit in there.

Now the reason why I find this purchase so ironically funny is because of this. There is this movie called "Mona Lisa Smile" that came out a few years back. I'm sure that you either saw it or heard about it (Julia Roberts movie). Story about 50's era women who are about to graduate from an all women's college and have to make the choice to be either a housewife or be a housewife. Julia Robert's character encourages them that they don't have to make that choice, but instead, can choose to go to Yale law school or travel the world and stay single. Okay, this movie was just another Hollywood shout-out to the women's movement. But there is one scene in the movie that always gets me. It's where Julia Stiles character goes and visits Kirsten Dunst's character (who is recently married) and the most exciting thing! that she absolutely has to show her! is her ......drum roll..... New Washer and Dryer!!! I swore that I would never have the most exciting thing that happens to me involve getting a new appliance. Or else I would have turned into that stereotypical housewife.

But here's the thing....
that was before I had children....who are boys....who eat a lot of food and get really smelly and dirty and need their clothes cleaned frequently. And I have another boy that is on the way. And if you are going to serve them healthy and fresh food - you need appliances that can store and prepare the food. I've began making lots of things in bulk that I need freezing. Now, I know that many of you who have large families laugh at my transition into larger appliance land, but for me, it is quite significant and quite funny that this has become a desperate need and want.
Now wait until next month, when I sell my small car for a minivan. I've, indeed, crossed over to the other side.

The Hands Down Winner

So this week is called "Painting the Entire Interior of our 2000 sq. foot house". Luckily my husband is taking 9 days off work to do so.

Consumer Reports ranks the Home Depot Behr paint as #1 for best value for the money. (in Oregon, the eggshell finish is $20/gallon). I will now second this nomination for best paint ever.

I have used tons of different brands of paint. Benjamin Moore (because the paint store next to my old house in Maple Valley carried it), Wal-mart brand (use only if you are a starving student and want to paint 3 coats), Valspar (another local store's brand), Sherwin Williams (because that is what new home builders often use for the houses), Lowe's premium brand (paid about $28/gallon for the boys' rooms and found the paint chips off the wall easily), Dutch Boy (I liked the commercials and pour spout, but Fred Meyer doesn't do a very great job at mixing and matching colors), and Ralph Lauren (because I felt chic using it, but isn't that great for money you pay).

Home Depot was not only able to match any color sample I brought in (they have all the formulations from Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, and Lowe's in their computers), but the paint was much cheaper than anything else I have found. Jeremy was able to use one coat (if he rolled it on thick) and it looks fabulous.

Wait until tomorrow when I post pictures of what I did with nasty, cob webby, brass fan in my bedroom.

Black Holes

There are two black holes in the internet that have the ability to suck me in and keep me there for long periods of time. They are: blogs and the friends' & family's links to the sides of the blogs, and target.com.

I just casually wandered into target.com about
one hour ago.

My poor neglected children; there goes my mom of the year nomination.

Just the Beginning

An all-boy Halloween complete with weapons

I know this is true in many a household, but once Halloween hits, you may as well just hit the snooze button and see everyone after New Year's. In our house, we have an especially condensed holiday schedule. It goes: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chili's birthday (12/14), Christmas, Jackson's birthday (12/28), New Years, Blake's birthday (1/2) and then my brother-in-law and mom's birthdays round up January. It is a very busy time.

This year I'm hosting Jeremy's family for Thanksgiving - thus the time deadline on many of our projects- so there goes November. I also want to cram a holiday trip to Utah since I won't see my family on the actual day. There goes December.



All that to be said, I already feel behind. My house is literally a complete disaster right now. Between project blitz Oct., having weekend guests, volunteering at J's school, exercising daily, walking the dog, getting everything ready for Halloween, and making sure dinner gets on the table each night, I have completely neglected my poor house. My house could not be more of a disaster right now. And I'm sitting in my office listening to calm music and avoiding it all. I don't know where to beging because almost every room in this house needs some cleaning. Yuck. Wish I could trick my kids into cleaning like my cousin heather did.

Okay, off I go.... I think I'll start by checking to see if my bed is still comfortable.