Breakfast

Vern has FINALLY been getting out of bed in the morning. How you may ask?

We moved his alarm clock across his bedroom. (Insert mom doing a little dance hoping this continues to work.)

Sorry that was just a little sidebar to the actual story of Vern coming out for breakfast.  First he sees me and needs "lovey dovey". That is our morning term for hugs and snuggles. I'm a sucker for this and always comply when someone asks for "lovey dovey".  After our time he walks to the the kitchen and just stands and stares. Not at anything in particular. He just stands there looking like he doesn't quite know where he is. Now if he was an adult I would immediately hand him a cup of coffee so he would wake up but since he is a child I try to wake him up by talking to him.

Oh no another sidebar coming...
I have a hard time with Vern having such troubles waking up because I am a morning person. Vern's brother and sister also tend towards being morning people.  Bing the alarm goes off and I need maybe 2 beeps before I can reach the clock and shut it off. Then I get out of bed and start my day. It is a wonderful time. The day is new and fresh and I am ready for anything thrown my way. I am usually always happy and want to share my happiness with those around me.

I say "Vern, what do you want for breakfast?"

Vern focuses somewhat near me and replies, "I don't know."

I say, "How about you get a muffin or a breakfast sausage out of the freezer?"

Vern turns toward the refrigerator and tugs on the freezer door.

Nothing.

He tugs again, harder.

Still nothing.

He tries a third time.

Again, nothing. Not so much as a slight shutter of the freezer door. Vern turns and walks away dejected from the freezer that has beaten him so early in the morning.

I say "Where is that strong football player?"
Vern just scowls at me as hubby opens the freezer door and Vern retrieves his breakfast.

I walked away and made it to my bedroom before I started giggling, knowing I had to blog about this one.

I know. I know. This blog looks like I have ADD today - Sorry, and NO Vern did not write it. :-)

Emotional crying

Any time I am witness to someone crying with deep emotion I just want to hug them and take away all the pain.  You can just feel the difference between fake crying, injury crying, and the deep painful crying of emotions one doesn't let out often.

Vern had one of those painful emotional cries and it tore me inside out. I wanted to hurt badly everyone that has hurt my child. I wanted to take the hurt away from Vern. I wanted to make it all better for him. I am old and much better at working through the pain.  I just held him the best I could until it passed.

Life - it's hard to grow up.

It is VERY hard to be a mom and watch.

A day out

Every year the kids get a winter break for the holidays, usually around 10 days between Christmas and New Years. This year I had the late part of the holiday.  I take time off to be with them and try to do something fun for a day or so.

This year we took a Wednesday and headed to the zoo.  I love the zoo in the winter. NO CROWDS.  The weather cooperated and we were able to see a few buildings of animals, snakes, and bugs. (I always love the butterflies.)  In addition to the animals, we decided to take advantage of our membership and attend an IMAX movie while there. It was great. It had been years since I had been to an Imax. This particular movie was on caves and very interesting.

I had a blast for the day. How many moms can get their 2 teens + 1 almost teen to spend a day at the zoo with their boring old out of touch Mom??? I know the days of having the 3 of them together for impromptu times like this is winding down. I am trying to take full advantage of it!!!

After the zoo outing we were all starving. Good thing they put up a new Jimmy John's very near the zoo. We had a nice lunch there.  All in all it was a great day and I don't know about them but DA MOM loved it a lot. One of her few enjoyable days off.

Just a random photo of Vern in his new Superman hat he loves. (Thanks Aunt Wendy.)

Finger troubles

The weather has been unseasonably warm the entire month of January. So the kids are loving it and playing outside, especially for recess. Vern's game of choice? Football of course. So he was playing the other day and went for a tackle. His ring finger hit another kids shoe.

ZOWIE did it look bad. Vern went to the nurse. She bandaged it, iced it, and called me. Well it was his dad's visitation weekend so I called his dad to warn him what happened. I asked him to please look at it and determine if he needed to go to the doctor.

Well Vern would NOT let dad look at it so we decided a trip to the doctor was in order.  So off to the "clinic" we go. It is a Saturday so there are no regular doctor appointments. You must go wait in line like cattle for slaughter. On a good note we live in a small town so the lines are much shorter. We got there right as they were opening the doors and were #2 on the list.

Get in. Doc agrees it needs an x-ray. Get x-ray. Note to x-ray tech - tie your scrubs tighter, even at a size 4 we do not need to view your behind.

Results - no break - YEAH!

He still got a really cool (to him) splint and wore it all weekend and even to school on Monday. Vern tried to get out of guitar but I just made him remove splint. He decided he didn't need splint after that. Gotta love kids!

Vern's Christmas

Yes Vern and I are here!!!!
Here are some photos from our Christmas. We had a good time with multiple celebrations. I just love family gatherings and enjoyed each one.
This photo is of the boys during our gathering with my parents. We have Superman, Vern, John, and Grandpa. I think Superman is plugged in from the looks of it. Maybe that is how he gets his "super" powers. HA HA.

Here we have Vern opening a gift from our immediate family present exchange. He was in charge of passing out our gifts this year. I think it was the first time ever. He enjoyed it.

You know I would have a story. So this next photo and the one above is how Vern opened most of his presents. He was happy but not jubilant. He liked his gifts but... it was not an X-box.

Que in Vern's sister and the rivalry begins! One of her presents was a tablet. She was SO excited to get this present as you can see below. You should have heard Vern. "WHAT? Why does she get a tablet?????" He frantically looks around for a box like that with his name on. Finding none, sad face appears.

Then to add insult to injury, John received a laptop for college. Vern was beside himself. Neither Santa, nor mom and dad loved him. How could such injustice occur!?!?!?!?!?!!?

Finally way back behind the tree, one of the last gifts for Vern to open, redemption occurred. Santa does love him. A TABLET.  The happiness is in the photo as you can see.

Next we have the dog. She has decided to start practicing her smiles for the camera.  Here she is practicing...

And here we have the full on smile. Look her teeth even show with her new outfit on! I just had to put this in for equality sake. That and her smiling is just the latest thing she does.

Finally we have Vern with all his gifts. I'm glad he ended up with the happy face on at the end. Yes, I spoil my kids at Christmas. They are worth it!

Vacation???

I wonder if this is an appropriate name for this post or if it should just be s-l-a-c-k-e-r?

I played with the kids for a week.

That post will follow.

I did not do much on the computer so no blogs were written.

I will post new things as soon as I get them written.

So I will just say  - sorry. I'll write now that I am back to the real world. :-)