Dreamweaver

Travis has been having some mildly bad dreams lately. Not night terrors, certainly, and not even nightmares. He's not waking me up in the middle of the night or anything. Just bad dreams that he remembers in the morning and I think leave him a little unsettled. So tonight we made a "dream-trapper" as he calls it, so the bad dreams get tangled up in the string and the good dreams make it through the holes.

Also tonight, I took Travis shopping at Wal-Mart to pick up some school supplies for our local news channel's 'Pack a Backpack' program. There are several drop-off locations, in fact there's one in my office, but I think I'm going to take him to the live drop off on Saturday morning at the news channel's main office, because it will be more exciting and I think he'll grasp the meaning of it more. He really got into picking out the backpack and the supplies, and we talked about how good some little kid will feel about having all these school supplies that they otherwise wouldn't have, and I think he's pretty pumped up about it.

Well, bathtime for the kiddos.

Not quite crawling...

...but working on it.

Just some random stuff

Ben surprised me with a trip to the theatre to see Mamma Mia! last night, which I had mentioned in passing that I had wanted to see. What a great show. I asked Ben if he enjoyed it, and he responded, "Well, I didn't fall asleep." Not exactly an overly enthusiastic endorsement, but I'll take it.

Tonight we are heading to a festival at a semi-local winery which promises to be a good time.

We had a couple minor birthday 'parties' for Noah with family this past week... (view video here).

Last week, Travis was upset about something, I can't remember what. He went and sulked on the couch for a minute or so, and then said "Mom, I'm really sad. There's nothing that's going to make me happy. .... With one exception." He said it very seriously, it was pretty humorous to hear such an important sounding phrase coming from his little four-year-old mouth. Turns out that exception was making silly faces, so I obliged, he joined in, and all was well.

On the way home from work a few days ago, after I had picked the kids up, I told them to look for things on the way home that we normally didn't see, or things that we always see but don't pay much attention to. We found some red ball-like things on the telephone lines that we'd never noticed before, and then Travis said, "I see a purple Canada flag in that truck right there..." I assumed he was just utilizing his somewhat overactive imagination, but slowed down a little bit to let said truck pass me so I could take a peek. Sure enough, hanging from the rearview mirror was a purple air freshener in the shape of a maple leaf. Or, a purple Canada flag to my astute pre-schooler.

Speaking of pre-school, Pre-K starts in less than 4 weeks. I'm excited but nervous. Travis mostly just excited.

Well, I am desparately behind in the laundry, (primarily the folding, I hate the folding). So I should go.

Go fold laundry.

Hooray.

Urban Adventure. Really.

Ben and I competed in an Urban Adventure race today. It was fabulous. I took it on kind of as a mental/physical challenge, was pretty nervous about it, but it was such a good time. About 180 teams racing in downtown South Bend, Notre Dame, and surrounding areas. All in all, we probably rode our bikes about 15 miles, ran/jogged/walked another 2 or 3. Highlights include rafting the rapids, rock wall climbing, the zip line over the river, and other random tasks (some puzzles, had to buy some produce at the farmers market, find an alligator at the zoo, find the Lou Holtz statue at Notre Dame stadium, among other things). 24 checkpoints in total. Check out the video.

Now, exhausted. Time to sleep.

Picking up elephants

Celebrated our eight year anniversary yesterday. Went for dinner at a nice restaurant downtown, where I drank a little too much wine, then to a bar for a bit, and back home. Neither of us have to work today so we're hanging out and finishing up the kitchen, hooray!

Oh, and this morning I weighed in on Wii Fit and finally am in the healthy weight category with a good BMI. A tribute to all the work I've been doing at my gym -- and I really have. I'm now on a first name basis with Lesley, the chick who checks me in at the front desk of the gym each morning. This week I've actually worked out a couple times twice in one day, mostly because I showed up a little later than usual in the morning, so didn't get in a full workout -- so I go back at lunch. I think Lesley's starting to think I'm obsessive.

According to my monthly report, I lifted 9 and a half African elephants in June. Now, I don't know how many African elephants it takes to constitute an acceptable number, but I gotta believe anywhere around seven or so is pretty good, right? Next month, I'm shooting for twelve. Actually, right now I'm laying off the strength training because I think that was part of the reason I wasn't losing as many pounds in the beginning, lifting so many elephants and all and thus gaining muscle weight. Don't get me wrong, I really love strength training, and don't care if the number on the scale isn't going down as long as I'm losing inches... but right now I'm in a weight loss competition at work for a LOT of money.... so I'm going on a cardio binge for a little while.

Islands in the Stream (or, more accurately, the kitchen)

Been a while since I've posted, we've been working on some kitchen remodeling. Finally got rid of the tiny four-person table in the breakfast nook that we've desparately outgrown, and Ben threw together this little number.

It's on wheels so we can use it as an island, or a peninsula, maybe an archipelago if we felt like it. Okay, probably not. But pretty nifty nonetheless.

Countertops and sink to be completed tomorrow, hopefully.

Not much other news at the moment. Mom is out traveling in Japan this week, so Ben is staying at home with the kids. I think he had a good day with them today, but that's no surprise, really -- they're good kids. We checked out a little campground in Buchanan, Michigan this past weekend where both the boys managed to get busted up somewhat; Noah with a split lip and Travis with ridiculously skinned knee/elbow. But, they also got to play on the beach and eat some ice cream, so all was well.

Happy Birthday USA

Back from the long weekend.

Thursday night, packed up and went to the lake, where Ben succeeding in getting his first-born son nearly as obsessed with Jeeps as he is. Slept out in the camper Thursday night which went okay, but Noah was a little more rambunctious than usual.

Friday, had some blueberry pancakes at the in-laws house, and spent the day trying to keep track of all the kids. Ben worked on the Jeep some more, and I spent the day getting steadily increasing back pain. By late afternoon it was bad enough that I could barely move so decided to sleep inside Ben's parent's house and left Ben to fend for himself with all three kids in the camper. He tells me they all three slept great, but I'm more inclined to believe he just didn't hear anything. No matter, though, they made it through the night with nary a mishap. Me, on the other hand, tossed and turned (that's not really accurate, my back hurt too badly to actually toss, in truth, I very gently and gingerly switched from one side to the other all night long) and barely slept. Oh, and most of the family watched a few fireworks over the lake, while I lay face down on the couch and mostly just listened to them.

Saturday morning, ate more blueberry pancakes. Packed up to head down to Indy. Fairly uneventful trip down, dropped the kids off at my dad's house to spend some quality grandparent time (meanwhile, picked up some good prescription meds) and went to some friends to go boating. Um, nevermind, it rained all day, so.. no boating, just random games, Michael Jackson tributes, and food. Picked up the kids later in the evening, watched some fireworks, drank some beer, overall a good time.

Sunday morning, no blueberry pancakes, but team Little Morr cooked us up a nice breakfast anyway. Kids played with dogs and puzzles. My back was feeling a little better but still sore, so I took one more painkiller for the trip home -- big mistake as I was nauseated and still in pain the whole trip home. Got home, our new bar stools for the new kitchen table have been delivered, I'm starting to get pretty excited about the kitchen remodel. Trying to catch up on laundry after the long weekend out, and get geared up for work next week which will be difficult since we've had some big changes.

On the way home today, Travis decided we should play the "safety tip" game, which is a game I made up once when we were hanging out with his cousin Trevor and the two of them were getting a little rough -- I gave them each a point for coming up with a new safety tip. It started off good, like "wear a life jacket on the boat" and "don't cross the street without a grown-up", but quickly became a little over the top, like "no jumping over mailboxes" and "no throwing trees at people". Anyway, Travis decided today that he and Ben and I should play this game on the way home, only he was the "judge" and the doler-out of points. No surprise, Travis racked up a lot of points quickly, I got a few, Ben was just starting to get into the game when Travis told him that one of the rules was that you couldn't talk when someone else was saying a safety tip, and in an instant Ben lost all his 'points'. The next rule was that you couldn't talk while someone was thinking about a safety tip, and from then on, Ben was desperately defeated with no hope of ever coming back.

Noah had a touch of a fever this weekend, and has become deeply attached to his mother. Always wants me to pick him up, carry him, cuddle with him, something. I suspect it may because he's been under the weather, Ben thinks its also because my back is out so I can't pick him up. Time to start planning his 2nd birthday party. Yikes.

Sophie is just about getting ready to full-fledged crawl. Will post video soon.

Oh, went to HealthWorks museum in my office building last week, check out Flickr for pictures and video. Fun time was had by all (although Ben thinks this trip is to blame for my back problems, he may be right but I am trying to deny him that victory).

Currently watching Independence Day. Its just not a complete 4th of July weekend without it.