Oh, I must report why Tom should once again win the "best husband of the year" award. I mentioned that my feet were cold during dinner. Before I even realized he had left the table, here he comes with my slippers, warmed by the hair dryer. I definetely don't deserve him!

This post will have NO pictures, we all look gross. Emma threw up repeatedly for about 15 hours, starting at 1:00 AM. Poor thing was just miserable, as were the rest of us who had to listen to the repeated trips to the bathroom! She is starting to feel better and a few of us are questioning whether we are sick or just imagining/wondering "when will it be my turn?" So, the day wasn't a complete disaster. Charlie and I had lots of together time, once again. We did more puzzles and the weather was beautiful, so we played in the snow for a few hours this afternoon. It was about 20, sunny and no wind, a perfect outside play day. I pulled him in the sled, up and down the front yards of our very close neighbors, with Hershey on a leash in the other hand. He wants to be included in the fun too! I am sure, once again, we looked like quite a sight for the neighbors! Free entertainment, I say!

Tom and I are off to watch a movie that I fell asleep to last night, I think I saw about 5 minutes! I was tired. I am guessing I will not get much sleep tonight, waiting with one ear on gaurd ready to jump out of bed to help another to the bathroom. Unfortunately, Em is the only kid of the 4 who can make it to the potty all the time, the rest just puke where they are and yell for me! Lovely.

Charlie and I did puzzles for about 1 1/2 hours tonight. He is taking after his big brother, Luke, who is crazy about puzzles. Here is a picture of him almost done with Thomas for the third time. At schoool this morning, Charlie went on a field trip, on a SCHOOL BUS! He was very excited. They went to the Children's Theater to see a play. When I asked him how he liked it, he said, "It was VERY FUNNY!" Tom is out with Luke, Nicholas, and three of Nicholas' friends. They went to a movie then out for pizza. It is what Nicholas wanted to do for his birthday (which was two months ago...) Nicholas was excited, saying many times this week, "I can't wait till Friday" Nicholas rarely shows the emotion of excitement! Glad it is the weekend, I need a few days off from the craziness at work. By Sunday, I will be looking forward to getting back to work to get away from the craziness of home. Funny how that works! Here come the boys now, oh, boy!

Okay, I have heard from enough people wondering what happened to the "one entry a day" Wallisch blog. I guess things have been pretty busy here (that is an understatement). So, here is a weak attempt to catch up. I feel like all I do these days is "catch up", so I am getting used to it. Here are a few pictures of what is keeping our lives so crazy. Here's a hint, it is not the humans in the picture... Yes, Hershey is, no doubt, way more work than any baby we have dealt with. He chews EVERYTHING (his favorite thing being dirty undergarments and kitty litter), attacks anything under about 3 feet (poor Charlie) and torments the kitties. Nonetheless, we all adore him, how could you not when you see the kids cuddle with him, and he is pretty cute.

The kids are all doing well. It is amazing how much more smoothly this year is going than last. Even though things are busy, we are all fairly healthy and functioning, which is not how I would describe last year... What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? I realized this morning that a year ago today, I had the little surgery at Mayo that probably saved my life, at least made it so that I wasn't debilitated by another stroke! Whew, I am thankful for those doctors every day. Another reason our lives are more sane this year is because of Emma's progress. She is "graduating" from OT and her social worker, which is a bit scary for me, but I think we are ready. It is amazing to see her and the control she has. She will always be our handful, the "spirited" child I suppose you could call her, but she is happy. She smiles and dances. She has the best sense of humor, she keeps us on our toes and in stitches constantly. She still has her naughty moments, sneaking food and exploding at her brothers, but like a normal 9 year old, I think! Maybe, okay, maybe not normal, but what is "normal", anyway? She is VERY into stripes, she was incredibly proud of herself when she came down for school yesterday. All stripes. Different colors, sizes, oh, she was a sight. She seemed a bit disappointed when I told her she looked cute.

Charlie comes to mind next. What a funny kiddo. Yesterday, he and Tom were chatting, and Charlie asked Tom what 5 and 5 were. Tom said, 55. Charlie said, "THAT IS WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY!" What about 4 and 4, Tom asks. Charlie said, "44!" How about 3 and 3? "33!" "What is 2 and 2?" Tom asked. "Twody-two"! How cute is that?

Luke, oh, Luke. He is really into Calvin and Hobbs. Unfortunately, we realized too late during "Santa" pictures that he was "performing". About 10 pictures showed him with these really goofy faces that he made just as the photographer snapped the picture, just like Calvin does for school pictures. We were laughing so much looking at the pictures that tears were forming. Little stinker.

Nicholas. My responsible, 28 year old in an 11 year old body. He saved $150 to buy his own ipod. He is really proud of it and is now saving to download music from itunes. He and I ran a 5k on Halloween, also very proud of himself for that. I was pretty proud as well. He is having a really late sleepover/birthday with three of his buddies. They are going to see a movie, go out for dinner and then probably play video games until the early morning hours. He has great friends who have super parents. That is a blessing for a 5th grader. He is happy, easy going and likes quiet, alone time as much as his mamma.

I'll try to keep this up, but I am not making any promises...

I guess this is the "once a month" blog, and not the "once a day" blog. I keep saying that I will sit down and just write a bit, but it has really been busy here. Over the last month, we have started school/work and all the craziness that goes along with that, soccer, we've been sick with colds/stomach flu/and most likely h1n1 (Tom and I were tag teaming over about 2 weeks of sick kids, one day everyone was home but Nicholas, the only one who didn't get sick enough to stay home.) Although being back to work has been wonderful, it does mean that I am up at 5:45 to walk the dog, get everyone up and ready for school and at work by 7:30 so that I can leave by 3:15 to meet the kids when they get off the bus. I feel like I can finally take a breath when I sit down at my desk and have a quick chat with some co-workers. The day flies by (work is as crazy as home most days!) I have been in this position for about 1 1/2 years and finally feel like I know what I am doing most of the time. I work with the best group of people, I can't imagine having a more perfect position. Many of the women I work with have been here for over 25 years. LOVE IT!

So, I think I will give the "emma" update. She has really changed over the last month. (in a good way!) She got off the bus the first day and had a dreamy look on her face. She LOVES her teacher, this woman is PERFECT for Emma. The classroom is just what you would think of when you think of the word zen. "Mrs. Richardson doesn't have rules, she has expectations." Emma said this as if it were poetry. She keeps me laughing at very unexpected times. Like today at church. She insisted that she wear this headband she made at girl scouts the day before. Well, this "headband" is one that is wrapped in brightly colored pipe cleaners with two "antennae" with googly eyes glued on two pipe cleaners extending out from the headband. We finally compromised that she could wear the headband minus the googly eye pipe cleaners. Well, at church, she put this on in different positions, very subtly, of course. She whispered "mom, look, I am a draon." She had the headband going from her forehead to the nape of her neck and as she twitched her forehead, the headband wiggled up and down. I wanted to laugh out loud.

Yesterday, she and I were driving somewhere and she asked me, "Mom, which do you like worst of Dad's characteristics, his hygeine habits or his looks?" I laughed (outloud this time) and tried to change the subject and she said, "Wait a second, you didn't answer my question!" A few minutes later, she asked me if I read a book about how to give people really good insults when I was a kid. I said no, and she said, "I think I may just write one someday." She went on for about 30 seconds with this string of insults that was so funny, spontaneous and clever that I couldn't help but laugh.

Emma loves listening to RadioDisney. The singers are interview for short clips that are played during the day. Today, one of Emma's favorite singers said, "I LOVED school, what a great place to be challenged!" Emma paused and I thought she was going to say something nice. Well, not Emma, she said, "I am GUESSING that someone PAID her to say that!" Emma is just the most clever and spontaneous kid. I am hoping that she uses this power for good and not evil!

Nicholas is just as quick, except his humor is incredibly dry, like his daddy! Today, my mission was to organize winter stuff, you know, coats, hats, boots etc. (It is supposed to snow 2-4 inches tonight!) I never do a thorough job of getting things put away in the spring, thus I have to hunt in the fall. Well, after about 4 hours of hunting, off and on, I located most of our things. I came upstairs triumphantly saying that I found all the coats and Nicholas said, "Did you find your THREE pair of boots too?" He and Tom did their "guy-fist bump" in agreement, WHATEVER! (I found the BEST deal on a pair of Uggs this summer, 1/2 PRICE! I couldn't pass them up. Nicholas just couldn't understand how great a deal this was. He kept saying very innocently (with a bit of sarcasm), "But mom, they look JUST like the boots you have at home!" He has the "practical and thrifty" gene that is a clone of his dad's. His dad just knows to keep his mouth shut and smile when his wife buys a pair of boots that were just the BEST deal, even though they may look somewhat like a pair she already has at home. The end.

I spent the other 1/2 of the day cleaning out the garage so that I could park my car in it tonight, we are going to get more snow, maybe 2-4 inches. Ick. So, that is probably only about 1% of the actual goings-on at the Wallisch house, but I surely won't bore you with the other 99%.

Oh, it has been a while. The kids wrapped up their summer break with a week away at grandma and grandpa's house on the farm. They were spoiled with tv, treats, playing with their cousins, riding the gator and shooting the bb gun that grandpa was convinced that they needed. Luke amazed all with his accurate shooting. He even surprised himself.

While they were relaxing on the farm, I was back at work. (which, by the way, is like a vacation for me after a summer loaded with kids/activities/chaos!) It was wonderful to be back and I am feeling more confident that this job is what I am supposed to be doing now. It doesn't hurt that I didn't have a major medical episode a week before the beginning of the school year like last year! I don't know what I will do with all of my sick leave this year without all of the drs appts. Our office is chaotic as well, but I still love it.

Mom and Dad brought the kids back last week, and Brad and Jen and the girls came too! Emma was so excited, she could hardly contain herself. Leah is one of her favorite kids. They are adorable together, even with a four year age difference. I love it. We all went to the State Fair and the Mall of America on Saturday. Needless to say, we were all exhausted! We had Sunday and Monday to rest up and prepare for the first day of school, which was today.

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Nicholas and Luke are easy transitioners. They take things as they come, and they did fine getting back into the school thing. Nicholas said his teacher was okay, was annoyed that he couldn't have pbj sandwiches and his favorite granola bars (peanut allergy in his class) and was upset that technology was no longer a specialist. Luke thinks his teacher is funny and nice. Easy.

Emma, on the other hand, is not quite as easy to transition. We have been working with her all summer on focusing, completing tasks and getting over her anxiety of riding on the bus. She is a puker, poor thing. She is also incredibly hard to get out of bed in the morning. (unfortunately, her littlest bro is even harder...) So, this morning, I tried to create a very calm and relaxing routine to get her going. She made it to the bus on time and I didn't get a call from the school nurse saying that Emma threw up on the bus. Success! I met the kids at the school bus and they all looked fairly happy. Nicholas loves riding the bus home (the last two years he had to do the after school Spanish program) because his two best friends also go to his school. Luke was his happy go lucky self. Emma, oh Emma, looked like she was in a dream. She got in the car and said, "I believe that Mrs. Richardson is my most favorite teacher yet." Not in a thrilled way, just in a calm, happy and satisfied way. She then mentioned a few minutes later that she did throw up on the bus, but she just went to class. I guess that is a good thing that she is able to do... She went on and on about her teacher. She said, "Mrs. Richardson doesn't have rules, she has EXpectations." The word expectations just rolled off her tongue like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. My heart just melted. I believe that Mrs. Richardson is going to be an incredible influence on my handful of a daughter. What a relief. I was emotionally exhausted after this day, but a little content. And I don't feel "content" very often!

TWO FUNNY KID QUOTES:
Emma to Luke: "Luke, don't think Mom is going to get all sympatheticlike on you, now." Tom and I cannot recall what happened prior, but we loved the quote.

Charlie to Hershey: (preface: Hershey chewed up Charlie's water, squeezy thing. Charlie cried.) Charlie said, "Hershey, we are going to buy a new one. And if you do it again, we are going to give you away!"

So, I believe I am all caught up. I know it is going to be a great year. I definitely feel more in control than last year at this time! And I can walk without holding on to a wall! Life is good.

Camping

At the beginning of August, Luke and Tom went to Luke's first Cub Scout camp. It was good to get some one-on-one time, since sometimes he seems to suffer from third-child syndrome.

We slept in lovely canvas tents, with state-of-the-art air conditioning (open the flaps). They did have metal cots and mattresses, which made for better sleeping. The mosquito nets really weren't all that necessary, since the bugs weren't too bad that weekend.

We went swimming in a very cold pool, but couldn't go out in a row boat on the lake, because there was too much wind that day.

He got to do all sorts of fun stuff like making and racing rubber-band paddle boats (shown here), and learned about knots, spiders, plants, and trees.

The food was decent, and they had the coffee available for adults 24-7.

Caribou, it was not.

The thing he was looking forward too the most was getting to shoot BB guns. I guess he hadn't ever shot anything more than a Nerf gun before, and every boys likes guns, right?

The Boy Scouts take safety VERY seriously, and I think these BB guns had a hard time puncturing the paper targets, but he still thought it was cool.

He did seem a little disappointed that there wasn't much noise to them. Just a little "pffft". His aim was pretty good.

At the end of the weekend, Luke said what he liked the best was archery. I think maybe it was because of the non-noise of the BB guns.

Even though he is right-handed, they tested his eye-dominance (which eye you naturally favor to aim), and he ended up shooting the bow and the BB gun left handed.

He got to ride a pony, which he thought was really cool. We could tell that Emma was going to be jealous when she heard.

The camp staff was very enthusiastic, and very goofy. Perfect for a 7-year old boy's sense of humor. It was a great weekend, but we were glad to get home, and Melissa was glad to have us home.