And the winner is...

For all the poker players out there, here's an entry for you. I've never played poker ... before last Friday night. Eric and I went out to the Stevenson's, not knowing we were in for a poker showdown. Of the six playing, only one had ever played poker before. I can understand how people want to keep playing just one more round, hoping that the next hand will be fabulous. And the winner was.... ME!!! Well, technically I won but realistically I'll let Jeremy hold the trophy. He was dominating the game until the very last hand when we put everything in - all or nothing. I won the hand so therefore I technically won the game. I wouldn't want to brag on a technicality, though.

More on the games - Eric is doing an NCAA basketball pool. So far, Brant Caughill is in the lead but I'm faring well considering I absolutely do NOT follow college basketball. OTHER than the Carleton Ravens who just won their 5th straight national title. They're a good team. The only game we went to this season was their game against an NCAA team in the pre-season. It was close.

Otherwise, the RS Ensemble performed Saturday night without the violin (hope you're better, Jess!) AND I think that we did alright. We were a quartet and the piece repeated without giving me more than a beat's rest. This was problematic the second time through when the spit build-up started affecting the positioning of my mouth on the flute. We did well, though. The RS Anniversary Dinner went well, even if I nearly had a meltdown moment. Once the meal was served and we had performed, all was well.

Here are the pics of the day. I think that kids could live in laundry hampers. The boys read books together, make forts out of them. We even found Anders nearly asleep in one.



Here's a lovely picture of Konrad last Sunday. We were in Wal-Mart looking for a belt. Sounds easy, but I'm not a lover of Wal-Mart and I quickly give up searching. As we were walking down the aisle, Konrad starts blurting out indistinguishable sounds to a male employee. Apparently, Konrad was trying to yell out 'Belt - I need a belt' to the employee. Konrad explained that he needs a belt to keep his pants up. The employee was so nice - he took Konrad to the boys department and helped him choose a belt, a tie, and a shirt. Those other items were not on our shopping list, but that's okay. While Konrad was dressing Sunday morning, he was so proud. He took extra care to comb his hair properly and strutted around the house like a preening peacock.

Bring on the Ketchup!

Dinner. We need to eat it. Some people prefer the grab'n'go, for some it is a sensory feast. Recently, I was eating dinner at a friend's house. She had made a wonderful stew the night before and it tasted wonderful. It had such great flavour and was delicious. The kids were eating something else and partway through the meal, the kids wanted ketchup on their dinner. Ok, I know that kids like ketchup. (We usually reserve ketchup for grilled cheese.) Then, both adults proceeded to squeeze ketchup all over their stew. I couldn't believe it. I then pronounced them the official 'Ketchup Family' (or 'famille de ketchup'). I had never seen anyone put ketchup in their beef stew before. Perhaps there is another family out there who squeezes ketchup on meals such as stew???

Another dinner. The stew was so good at the 'House of Ketchup' that I decided to make it. We invited some neighbours to enjoy dinner with us. The guy told me that his wife wouldn't be home for awhile but he and his son would love to join us at 6:00. I also invited their son over to play for a bit prior to dinner. As soon as his son comes over to play, I notice him driving away. He calls me from his cell phone at 5:45 reporting that he needed to run an errand and to start dinner without him if he was late. Dinner with the neighbours began to unravel in my mind. An acceptance to our dinner invitation was looking much more like we were being 'stood up'. All's well that ends well. Both he and she came at 6:30, we ate dinner, and had some good conversation. Although, I don't think that my stew tasted as nice as the 'Ketchup Family' 's stew.

We're Healthy! - I Think.

I think we're healthy. Konrad hasn't had a fever all day today although he is tired. As for myself, I'm feeling much better. The doctor prescribed some sort of medication for a bacterial sinus infection (my head killed!). Firstly, the pills were huge. Once I saw how big they were, I called the pharmacy for a change. My parents can attest to the fact that I have always had trouble swallowing pills. Some of the most traumatic memories from childhood include ingesting medication. Methods my mother tried was ... mixing it with jam, mixing it in a strawberry milkshake. Any way you mix it, it's always gross. After having both my legs surgically broken and realigned, I stopped taking pain killers 7 days after the surgery. I think that my mother felt sorry for me when I couldn't sleep because it hurt so much. That surgery really was painful - I had morphine shots every couple hours for 3 or 5 days (I can't remember much from that time). That's how reluctant I was to take pills.

Back to the present - I returned to pick up my smaller pills later that same night. All was well until a couple hours later. I laid in bed with intense gastro pain and nausea. Apparently these pills have side effects. I'm coping. It's better than having a terrible headache.

We're on the mend.

Updates

So, here are a few updates and photos.



Konrad is growing taller every day and doesn't have very many pj's so I decided to sew him some flannel pj pants. I made a matching pair for Anders. They're actually pretty simple to make - good thing for me!!! As for the other photos - Konrad loves his Leapster from G-ma and Poppa Jakob. We had to set time limits for a couple months but he's starting to diversify. The poor boy is sick right now. He hasn't eaten for 2 days, has a fever and brings up anything he tries to eat or drink - even the tylenol or advil I give him. Don't worry though, we're taking good care of him. The picture below shows Anders doing something he absolutely loves right now. He loves playing with animals. He'll do it for a LONG time.

You may have noticed the new items along the tab on the right. I've included a meal section. Since I am trying to cook lower calorie meals and am actually cooking good quality meals much of the time I thought I'd share. I like the recipes from the 'Crazy Plates' cookbook.

Oh - and in response to D's blog, my movie is Easy Rider and my leader is Mother Teresa.

Wish us health!