Happy Valentine's Day

We have gotten back to normal here now. Last week, Ryan had school ALL week. Can you believe it? Of course, it was in the 40's all week.

We went to the gym on Monday - where I managed to over work myself on weights and pay for it the next day. That combined with coming down with strep throat was just terrific! I felt awful and had a hard time keeping Ryan from tearing me to shreds. He wanted to climb all over me, but kept elbowing and kicking me in the process. By Wednesday afternoon I couldn't take it anymore and went to see the doctor who said within a minute that I had strep. And after a positive strep test, I was given a shot of penicillin and sent on my way. I felt almost 100% better by 10 am the next day. Which was good because I had to clean my house for friends coming over to test some of my chocolate creations. They are great. So if you want to have a party, let me know!

Kris took some tax prep training available through our church and has donated his Saturday mornings now through April 15th to help do other people's taxes. While I applaud him in helping others, it's not a real help to me. But as always we'll get through it. Friday we had went to the gym in the afternoon to go swimming. Emma was a little scared, but eventually liked it. Ryan just played in the water spraying from the ground outside the pool. Saturday we went back to the gym for another workout - without lifting weights! I'll go back to that tomorrow.

For some reason, Ryan has decided to start climbing everything. Cabinets, dressers, bookshelves - nothing is safe anymore. After the third or fourth time on Saturday, I said that was enough - he needed some climbing time. So we went out to lunch to BK where they have a climber. He had a great time and even met some new friends. Emma loved watching what everyone else was doing.

Today, Ryan was digging through our closet trying to wear our clothes. So we found him a shirt Kris was giving away and a tie and dressed him up. He thought it was fun for a while - and although the tie didn't stay on long, he didn't even want to take the shirt off for his nap.

After all that, Kris made me a wonderful dinner for two last night. We had steak, potatos, broccoli, salad, homemade bread and a cake (homemade also). He did a terrific job. All the food gave us some great belly aches last night. But we enjoyed sitting down to a meal with just the two of us.

The Winds of Winter/Spring???

This place can't decide what season it is. Two weeks ago they cancelled school for the entire week and last week for two days. This week - 60 degree days. Not that it's lovely, it's raining now. But at least not frigid. Yesterday, we took advantage of our wagon and made some nice trips around the neighborhood.

I know it's been a while since I've updated - and please read the next blog because its new also.

So here's what's been going on. Emma is working on cutting her 8th tooth. Hopefully it will be in any day now. She's drooling all over. She recently started climbing the stairs, so we now have to be more diligent about closing the gates. On Sunday, she managed to get all the way to the top. Ryan finally called us when she turned around and tried to head back down. Luckily, she only fell one stair before she was caught. Kris has been letting her practice on the two stairs in the basement. He said she would fall down but get right back up and try again. She's still getting over a never ending cold which is driving me nuts. Besides that she is the normal happy baby.

Ryan has been having a lot of tantrums and night fights. I'm not sure what the reason for either of them is. It seems as though he finally figured out he could put up a fight. The night fights are what happens between the two of us when he decides to destroy his room. He's been climbing on the bookshelf, so we had to take his cd player out. He's been unplugging the clock and lamps and basically destroying his room. This morning he was proud of himself for not doing any of it and had to show me everything he didn't do. It was cute. I'm so glad for him to be back at school. I can definately see the stagnation in his speech when we don't go to school or speech. Plus he has so much fun. Lately, all he wants to play here is Spin - Momma spin to be exact. I spin him and then throw him down on the bed. He could do it for hours if I could! I also set up an obstacle course in the basement which kept him busy for a few days.

So here are the explanations of the pictures. The first picture at the top is the finger paintings the kids made on Kris's birthday. The next pictures are of the kids in the tub. I finally got them to start bathing together, which has made my life easier and they have so much fun together. The next pictures are of Emma climbing the stairs and raiding the Cheerios box. Next are two pictures from the museum two weeks ago.

And last but not least, we welcome Daniel Harper into our family. He was born to Matt & Tammy yesterday (Feb 9). I haven't seen any pictures yet, but will try to post one when I do. I will never forget his birthday since it was my sister, Melanie's birthday. She would have been 30 years old yesterday. Amazing.

Chocolate is my business!

Hi all -

If you haven't heard yet, I have become a Independent Chocolatier with Dove Chocolate DiscoveriesTM. I'm really excited about it. I give chocolate tasting parties like Tupperware or Pampered Chef - except you actually get to try the chocolate. It sounded like it was just up my alley - especially since Kris laughs when I head for the chocolate fondue first at his work's Christmas party (boy did I miss that this year). Anyway, I think it will be a little harder for me since I have friends in so many places around the country, but hopefully it will work. I wanted to do it, so that I had a good reason to get out of the house and maybe make a little money. My first party is on the 20th with another one the next day. My mom is having one on the 6th and I'm still looking for someone in Michigan to hold one on the 7th - so if you're interested let me know.

So far, I've gotten a lot of chocolate sent to my house and Ryan and I tried a little bit of it yesterday. We tempered some chocolate to make candies and dipped our strawberries in it. Ryan loved it! I also made some truffles. I have some friends coming over on Thursday to taste test things with me, so I know what I'd like to do for parties.

It's pretty exciting for me. I keep having to remind myself that this is my new job. Hard to believe when you're at home the whole time (so far).

And to end - here's a picture of Ryan eating the chocolate yesterday.