very thankful

It might sound very materialistic...but today one of the greatest things I am thankful for is my wedding ring. I love it for all it symbolizes...however, I just love IT. And for having it back.

I haven't been able to find it for over a week. I went to put my ring on last week, and could only find my wedding band in my jewelry case. I looked through the little boxes where my other jewelry is housed, thinking I had dropped it into the wrong area. It wasn't there. I thought it might be in the car, up front where I dropped it into a water holder when I was putting lotion on my hands after church - however, I finally drove somewhere yesterday and the ring was not in the car like I hoped.

I asked Bryson (Sr.) if he were planning some surprise with my ring, and had taken it out to SL with him last week - that was about the last time I had seen it. He promised he hadn't - and I was partially relieved, but then frantic because I had no idea where my ring was. I offered the children $10 if they could find my ring. Where was it?!

Today, as the children were helping me to put up the Christmas decorations - they found a set of boxes that I have which stack inside each other and they decided to play a game where they put a treasure in the smallest box, and make someone open larger boxes first, then smaller sizes until they get down to a box that is jewelry size. I overhead Jacob getting excited about his turn to find something special to put in the boxes & then he turned them over to Madeleine to open.

She opened and opened and then I heard her say, "Jacob, where did you find a ring like Mom's? Is this a play ring?" I thought he had perhaps taken a play ring which I did have and put into the garbage last week and so I came over to their play over slowly - but then when I saw the ring Madeleine was holding, I exclaimed, "That IS the ring - that is my real ring!" I was so happy and a bit frustrated at the same time - where had Jacob had my ring?! I asked him, and he told me that he loved my ring so much, he had taken it and put it into his drawer. I tried not to think how easily it could have been lost by this point - but thankfully it wasn't lost and now the entire situation was figured out and I put my ring back on and gave Jacob a hug and also a reminder NOT to touch Mommy's jewelry! I gave him a $1 since the ring was returned....I just didn't realize I would be paying the person that had taken the ring in the first place!

Thanksgiving Day - Part I

Thanksgiving is brought to our family this year in 2 parts....Day 1 and Day 2. This option was given to us due to the fact that our family is sick. Again. and STILL! There is nothing like feeling and being sick to help you realize how thankful you are for good health!

We have been sick since Sunday - the crazy day when Bryson and I were sick, and Jacob was throwing up (see post from that day) and then Madeleine had the stomach bug on Tuesday night - we had everyone stay home from school on Wednesday as the coughing was going strong, and we hoped to have it clear the system so we could enjoy the parade, dinner and all the parts of a Thanksgiving celebration.

I went out last night to buy all the things for our dinner - yes it was the night before Thanksgiving and I was out trying to find food....I don't recommend that again, and yet with being in an apartment it's hard to buy food too much earlier! I was worried I had missed the chance for a turkey, as the grocery store I went to first was out, I called Costco to see if I could run by there to buy one - and they were out! I drove home by a different grocery store, and thankfully they had a few birds left. I had no idea turkeys could sell out! When I came home, the kiddos were busying to get ready for bed, excited to be up early so we could go to the parade. After they were in bed, Bryson and I were up talking and then started to pack up backpacks and getting out chairs for the parade. We decided on a plan to have him take Madeleine and stake out a place, and then the boys and I would follow a little bit after. We decided to have our Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday, so that we wouldn't have to worry about getting up even earlier to start the dinner, or to hurry home to finish it up....one event each day with how sick we all were sounded fine - and realistic.

Game plans are nice ideas - I'm just wondering if they work better on other families, because rarely do we actually do the plan that we talk about. Bryson work up feeling worse than the day before (he has some major swelling to his face, where the Dr. thought a saliva gland was clogged and a sinus infection - he gets at least one a year and they are terrible!) and so he decided to stay home and sleep in as the boys did not want to get up either....and I got up and went to the parade with Madeleine.

We left the house a little before 9am - there was no way at this time we would get great seats, let alone good standing room. We knew we'd probably not get close to the front at all, but we just wanted to see some of the balloons and check off from our bucket list that we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And now that we've been - I have to say that seeing it from home is SO much better! You get better views, you don't have to wander down the maze of NYC streets trying to figure out which are closed and which are open, and you aren't standing behind crowds that are about 10 people deep to catch a view of the parade!

The best view we had of the parade was a fluke - we hopped off the subway at 57th Street and walked over to 7th Avenue where the parade was coming down & after going up and down the street twice, we ended up on the walkway part of the sidewalk, where the police officers were insistent that people continue to walk - there was no standing! That is we couldn't stand until we got caught at the red light (there were letting the traffic cross in between times of the parade) and we waited there for the light and had the best view of the balloons and floats that were coming by.

It was hard to have to move on (yet there wasn't any choice with so many NYPD officers hovering over), when I had the feeling that we wouldn't get quite the same view at another spot....and I was right. We tried walking down multiple streets and we could not get close to the parade again....sometimes we were back about 1/4 of the block - like here...thankfully the zoom on the camera got a better view than we did!

We did think that this balloon of the world was so cool - it looked like it was just floating through the streets and that there were no strings attached. We loved this one!

We finally made our way over to Columbus Circle and went inside the Time Warner building, to see if we could catch a glimpse of the parade from upstairs...which the view wasn't close, but it was a very unique view!

I love these glass stars that hang from the ceiling - at night they light up into different colors for a light show to music - we need to come back at night to see the entire show, yet they are still magnificent hanging from the atrium ceiling at any time of day!

This was a piece of artwork on the top floor that Madeleine and I loved. It has major places from around the city printed over each other - it was fun to stop and see which places we love that we could find!

After we viewed the parade from all 3 stories and realized we just didn't get the view we wanted, we went downstairs to the basement to get a hot chocolate from Whole Foods. That set us back about 40 minutes, as the machines broke while we were there and they were trying to serve about 30 people their hot drinks and it was CHAOTIC! By the time we got back outside, we saw the end of Kermit going down 59th Street....

And then we saw the little Macy's men floating along which signaled the coming of....

Santa Clause! Thankfully there was a steel post near us that opened up, so Madeleine was able to stand on it to get a better view & we watched the jolly old man wave to the crowd and shout out 'Merry Christmas'!...at least I assume that is what he was shouting, we weren't actually close enough to hear him, so it could have been 'Ho, Ho, Ho!' as well :)

After we saw the Believe balloons floating by, people turned and started to walk past us, which meant finally the front of the parade route was finally open! Madeleine and I boogied right up to the gates and positioned ourselves where everyone had left & then I looked around....everyone was moving - what was going on? It took me just a few moments to realize between everyone moving away from the parade and no more floats or balloons or people walking along the parade route....that it was done. What?! I suppose the 40 minutes spent getting a hot chocolate had something to do with that!

Although the event did not go exactly like I had thought or we had planned....that is life. We have realized with a bit of a laugh, relief at lowering some expectations and perhaps a tinge of sadness with letting some ideas go to the wayside - someone(s) in our family is usually sick during most holidays. And unfortunately, with a day like today - having a glitch in the idea is hard because you can't really recreate the event next week, or month....it's a yearly thing! We have made our bucket list of things we really want to do here in NYC, and because our time here might be trickling down if a job offer comes through - we are working to get our items checked off in case there isn't a next year option for us. Just in case :)

We did miss the boys, yet it was nice to have some time with just Madeleine and myself....and it was a lot easier cruising through the crowds with just the two of us. Bryson doesn't have a lot of patience for crowds & the way I work to get to the "perfect" spot - the way Madeleine and I moved locations the entire time we were at the parade would not have bode very well...and the boys can get a little crazy (all the time) - so as much as they were missed, perhaps in the end we each did what we all really like to do.

And now we can say CHECK off for the Macy's Day Parade. And just a note - it is worth it to do it once. Once was great. And other years are really great watching it on the couch, and seeing everything close up.

Happy 1st Day of Thanksgiving ----

and tomorrow we will have Celebration Take 2!

kiss & tell

After Jacob gave me multiple kisses on the cheek - he looked at me and said,

"I give you so many kisses, maybe I'll marry you Mommy!"

I love this boy's tender heart!

better than the movies

You know when you watch a movie, and they show a scene where everything is so upside down and topsy-turvy and crazy that it's not really possible? Or, really it is possible - and you laugh knowing you could live out a scene like that at your house?

We had those scenes today - straight out of the best comedy ever, in fact better than the best comedy because it was real, and you can't script real life like this!

The day didn't start out very funny, in fact it was pathetic waking up feeling like your body was a piece of lead. Our throats hurt, nose was stuffy, head hurt and in all the kiddos colds from this week came crashing in all at once. The children were up and Madeleine had even gotten ready for church on her own....when Bryson and I realized we were so sick we couldn't get ourselves to church. I called our neighbors, and they were willing to have Madeleine go into church with them, and then she'd come home with another family that lives in the neighboring building. I tried to go back to bed, but the boys were anxiously engaged in battling things out and I stumbled out to the couch while Bryson Sr. slept for a few hours.

A little while after the boys had some breakfast (the mommy award this morning was letting everyone get their own cereal), Jacob was laying on the floor watching a show (okay that was the 2nd mommy award) and looked up at me telling me his head hurt. Then his tummy hurt. Suddenly he was dancing around and saying he needed to throw up - so we ran down to the bathroom and up came breakfast. I was blown away - no fever, he had been feeling better from his cold, but throughout the day everything came up from his little tummy and nothing was staying down.

The highlight to the sickness came during late afternoon, when we were trying to get dinner cooked, and still working on writing assignments for Madeleine & Bryson to be turned in tomorrow. Jacob started his dance around, he seriously dislikes going down the hallway to the bathroom alone (we don't have a large place, so I'm still not sure why he dislikes the hallway so much!), and suddenly he decided to run down the hallway which was the signal that this was serious! I heard the splatter of Gatorade hitting the floor and right after Bryson Sr. ran down the hallway and then I heard them both turning back towards the kitchen and that is when I saw a fountain shooting out of Jacob's mouth and then a few seconds later they were at the kitchen sink where I hoped there would be less clean-up than the previous two spots.

It turned out, that Jacob threw-up most of the liquid in the hallway and then when Bryson scooped him up, there was a 2nd surge that came up and that was what came pouring out and hit the wall and went all over the kitchen floor. It was the craziest 2 minutes we've had in our house in a long time....and of course the clean-up was about 100 times as long!

After that was cleaned up, dinner was eaten and we were moving onto the next phase of the night - Bryson Jr. came up to me and told me he wanted to act out a funny joke he had seen on America's Funniest Home Videos. He had a rubber band in hand, and was going to jimmy rig the water sprayer attached to the kitchen sink to try and trick Bryson Sr. I told him this might not be the night to play this joke - we'd already had a lot of cleaning up to do, and another time would be better to laugh at this joke. I didn't stay the course to find out what he was doing, as I was finishing up editing Madeleine's writing. However, I figured out about 20 minutes later what Bryson Jr. had ended up deciding to do ---- I went in to the kitchen and needed to rinse something off when I turned on the water and a different kind of fountain than before came shooting out of the kitchen sprayer, right past me, and onto the fridge where all my papers were completely soaked! I turned off the water and started to laugh - turning to Bryson Jr. who had come running into the kitchen when he heard my cry of surprise. He was laughing, and it helped me to remember to laugh through the moment...because it really was funny, and thankfully I didn't get wet....my papers were soaked but thankfully there was nothing super important.

We went on to wrap-up the night, and I popped into the kitchen to get Jacob a drink of water after another throw-up incident, when I turned on the water and got a shot of water right on my arm! That little turkey had rigged the water sprayer up again - AND I fell for it again!

In a way it was nice to find the comic relief in the situations of today - having most of us sick, and stuck inside a tiny apartment had some moments of disaster. However, when looking at the big picture I realized that there are my 'I Love Lucy' episodes on a daily basis, and it really is so much better to laugh about things than cry, or pout, or whine, or get upset. Still learning on this - but hopefully it's an uphill progression in learning :)