Tiffanie Lights Up Football League

Time to brag up the wife a little here... In the final regular season game of the Anchorage, AK - women's flag football league, the little, fiesty, scrambling Tiffanie earned a solid spot on the all star team for 2009. Leading the league, out of 40 wide receivers, Tiffanie with 51 catches for the season and 13 TD's led her team to a 50-0 route over the Colts. Tiffanie earned player of the week by catching 10 passes with 5 of them for TD's.

If she really wanted to get under the skin of her competitors she might mention that she has 3 children. Good stuff! Congrats Tiff, from your proud hubby

Our very own ice rink

Mix a long freeze and a sudden thaw with a little creek and a culvert and what do you get?

~A neighborhood ice rink~

It was below zero here for a couple weeks in a row. brrrr! When it warmed up and water started trickling again, it had nowhere to go. So it started to flood daily and freeze nightly until it created a huge ice rink in the greenbelt behind our house. Josh measured the area and it's 280ft. x 150ft. I bought Josh and Liz some used ice-skates and they have been skating for hours every afternoon with all the neighborhood kids. Watch out Scotty Gomez and Ekaterina Gordeeva (yes, I had to look up that name).

Eventually someone's crawl space started flooding and city workers came out with a giant steam gun that blasted a tunnel through the culvert. That was really cool for everyone to watch. So, there is no more dam, but the ice rink remains and it is awesome! The spring thaw might be interesting, but at least we know there is someone we can call who has a giant steam gun!



What about Tali? She and I "skate" in our boots.

You put what where?

I gave Tali a Dum-Dum to eat in the car.

Halfway home I saw her chewing on the stick. Pretty harmless, right?

She chewed it into pieces and started throwing them on the floor. All except for two pieces . . .

which she put in her nose.

Then she tried to get them out . . . and shoved them ALL THE WAY IN!

By the time we got home, she was a little concerned, so she explained everything to me. I recalled some tips I learned from my mom when my brother used to stick rocks up his nose.

Tali lay very still while I used a flashlight, a little mouth-to-mouth and some tweezers to remove the sucker stick pieces.

Josh and Liz were giddy while they watched me do minor surgery on the Dum-Dum.

I mean, to remove the Dum-Dum.

Happy Valentine's Day

We did most of our celebrating yesterday.

The kids woke up to balloons

and little Valentine gifts.

Then we had heart-shaped pancakes

and a heart-shaped hairdo.

Just like most holidays, the kids had way too much candy

and Tali got a little crazy.

Make that a lot crazy!

It took a lot of effort


to get this one picture

of Liz and Tali in their matching Valentine's shirts.

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours!

Time

How is it 5pm already? I just got up! Do you ever have those days when you have to do the math in your head to be sure that your kids were actually at school for 6 and a half hours?


I'm just thinking out loud here. This is what I did:

• Got up a little early so I could make the kids real breakfast AND do their hair. Usually it's one or the other. Drove them to school so they didn't have to carry all their Valentine goodies on the bus.Went to Wal-Mart with Tali to get ONE thing, maybe two . . . As much as I dislike that place, I seem to spend at least an hour and $100 every time I go.
• Took lunch an ate with Matt, who was subbing at Service HS.Realized I had about an hour to kill before Liz's Valentine's Day Party. What do you do with an hour? I did nothing.Then back to school with napless Tali in-tow for Liz's party. Then Josh's party. Then home with all three kids . . .

Wait a second, school is over? Seriously? What happened to my day? The syrup is still on the table from breakfast!

In her shoes

Today I found myself in Tali's shoes. Figuratively and momentarily literally.

Tali is two and two-year-olds fall down a lot. She probably finds herself on the floor at least five times a day. Recently she has started accompanying each fall with a very loud, very fake whine/cry. My response usually goes something like this, "You're okay. Come on, get up. Don't whine. Mommy doesn't like whining." Such concern and tenderness, I know.

Today the tables were turned. Tali was waiting patiently for me by her car door. I came out of the house with several bags in my hands and tripped on a very small shoe. (I probably dropped it there.) I landed on the garage floor with my bags all around me. I looked up at Tali and she looked SO concerned. She opened her mouth and started to say, "Are you okay?" But before she could finish, she burst into tears. Then she ran over to me and asked again, "Are you okay?" I told her I was fine. (I was - just in case you were worried.)

Then she gave me a hug and a kiss and another hug and another kiss and asked twice more if I was okay.

All the tenderness hit me like a ton of bricks and I started to tear up a bit. But I held it in because if she saw me cry at that moment she may have lost it totally. Sometimes I think moms wonder if all their work and love goes unnoticed. It doesn't. Our kids love us.