My first meme

This is my 691st blog post, and the very first time I've been tagged for a meme! Leena tagged me to post 5 sordid things about myself. My favorite topic! Me! Thanks, Leena. My mom ate dirt when she was little by the way, however, my kids have not eaten anything too odd yet.


1. My gas should be considered part of the US defense arsenal. It could kill a person. Theo says something crawled up there and died. A fair assessment.


2. I love the smell of baby feet. Hunters just leaving that stage though...


3. My first kiss was in a slimy spin the bottle game in my backyard during my 11th birthday. Only 3 boys played with like 13 girls. The first boy I kissed, Jacob, had a crush on my mom. He used to say he'd marry her and be my dad. He was hot.


4. I truly don't bother to get the dirt out from under my nails during the garden season. Its just going to end up back under there in a few hours anyway. I think dirt of as very cleansing. Like an exfoliant.


5. My feet are disgusting. Despite hours of filing, scrubbing, soaking, and nightly deep moisture applications my feet stay hard and dry. If you see my mom and grandma you know it is hereditary. My feet have an ugly color, and when I'm the least bit cold they turn purple. Top it off with a horrible plantar's wart virus that reacted negatively to any treatments by multiplying, causing surgical removal of the virus, leaving me with a huge mass of scar tissue on my foot. My feet are gross. I hate my feet.

Anyone else want to post some gross stuff? I tag Amy and Caitlin.

More pictures of Papa D

I scanned in some older picture last night and wanted to share them here also.
My brother Jason and Papa, Christmas 2005

Papa and Me Spring 1997.

The boys, Christmas 2005. (Theo was in Iraq)

The boys at my baby shower, July 2004.

Again, baby shower, 2004. The "family" sticker is from the scrapbook page this picture came from.

Have a great day everyone.

Few pics of my wacko kids, etc.

Nothing too eventful going on around the Rex household this week.

Saturday we got a phone call from LEARN, a labrador rescue company that takes dogs you can't keep but do not want to send to the Humane Society and risk having them put to sleep. We called the people at LEARN weeks ago to see if Tex was a candidate, and they came and said she qualified, but they did not have room. This week a lady in our area had a space available for Tex. Tex was proving to be a challenging dog, and we thought she needed a home where someone could give her all of their attention. In the last few months since we acquired her she has had a problem puking up her food; we think we fixed that problem with the latest food we tried, but she has also been counter surfing--if we leave a single dish in the sink with any food residue in it she gets it and breaks the dish, crashing it to the floor in search of food. I once had our crock pot soaking before I could wash it, and she pulled the whole darn thing on the ground making a HUGE mess. She also hovers non-agressively over the kids when they have food or snacks, and it drives the boys nuts. In addition, she's been chewing the boys toys, wooden puzzles, and my childhood rocking chair. I just thought Tex deserved an environment where she could be herself. Saturday we surrendered her to the LEARN lady, and we hope she finds a nice new home.

As you know we were all sick last week. Theo came home from MN on Thursday night and took Ben to urgent care Friday morning; B's fever just would not break. The docs said he had a little bit of pnuemonia, they kept him there for 4 hours until his fever broke, and they gave him a shot on antibiotics. They said he'd be back to his old self in 24 hours. He was still mellow Saturday, but by Sunday he was rockin' again. Today he's really had his energy and spunk back. Good to see, but... these two boys are just a handful lately.

I think we all have some serious cabin fever. This winter seems to be never-ending. They are forecasting another 4-8 inches of snow tonight (remember we shattered the record weeks ago). I have been thinking about it, and it seems like there is always a thaw, a day where it's 50 and we can go for a walk, like once in January... or even February, and here are mid February and no big thaw in sight. Not a warm day to speak of. I just want to go for a walk outside! We could if it was above freezing like today, it was 36 I think, but the boys are just getting over the cold, so I would not want to risk it. I can't believe I started seeds this week, it is less than 11 weeks until I can safely plant tender plants... and yet winter looms heavily. I can normally hang with winter, but this one is particularly rough! I don't think Hunter knows there is a such thing as grass under all that white stuff. LOL. And I sure as hell can't imagine that my bulbs should be coming up in a month? How? What happens when there is so much cold and snow?



Anyway, like I said, the boys and I have cabin fever. See, things seem pretty peaceful here. Give it a second.


Hunter pounces on Ben.


Hunter's mischievious grin.

He gets naked. He climbs everything. He throws all the contents of our shelves on the floor.
Aww.. but doesn't he look so cute giving Laura some love.

Ben hops in the picture, and as you can see, smooshes Hunter's head?




Ben's been sucking his thumb again, mostly b/c he is sick, but we're really trying to break him of this.


Look at what his nasty little thumb looks like from all the sucking. Ick.

Ben tackles Hunter.

Tries to love him, but Hunter does not recognize the nicety and cries abuse.


Hunter soaking up Barney. Love his morning hair here.


A pout I could eat, I swear.

He's scheming here.

The adventure begins.

He dumped all his Cheerios on the floor, but look at the cute hat he scored.

Have a great week everyone!

Tribute to Papa

This last weekend we lost our beloved Papa Daum, my stepfather Dave's dad. He'd been battling his health for as long as I'd known him, he was a long time cancer survivor, but since Christmas he's been in the hospital fighting a number of health related issues. Saturday evening he passed away. I've been compiling pictures last night, and this morning, and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites here. We're headed to Chicago for services this week, and I'm making a collage of sorts. I will be scanning some older pictures, and posting those later today/tonight.

Thanksgiving 2004, with Ben 2 months old.

July of 2005 with Ben (9 months old)

Papa with his wife, our Grandma Chris.

Here is a great picture of Papa with this two oldest sons, Tom pictured on the left and Dave on the right.

Christmas 2006 with his youngest son, my "uncle" Kevin.

I think this is 2007, early, Hunter looks about 9 months old.

July of 2007, my mom and Jason visit, and we celebrate Papa's birthday.

We love you, Papa Daum.

Feeling good enough to type...

...and upload pictures. We are still not out of the woods, but we're feeling a wee tad better today. This is the first day toys came out, albeit briefly. Ben ate a whole orange, a granola bar, bowl of grapes, and two pieces of toast. Progress. He has a cough, and battled a fever all of last night. I let him sleep with me so I could monitor whether or not he had blankets on, etc. Hunter's nose is a fountain, and he's ultra whiney still. We've been parked in front of the TV watching Thomas, Elmo, Barney, Shrek, and Barney, of course. Today I had enough energy to dust and disinfect.

Here are some pictures of the boys at their newest favorite snack spot. They both run here to snack, I think the table height is just perfect for them. FYI: Ben put his crust on Hunter's plate.

A picture of Hunter with his haircut (I clipped them last night, when they were both tired and sick--see, they hold still better that way).

Ben had a little sparkle back in his eye today.

These pictures are from last week, before the cold had hit anyone of us. Maybe Friday? I was sick by Friday night. Anyway, the boys were just hanging out with dad. I always try to take mundane pictures so the kids can see what their daily life was like. Plus, when you go a whole year without dad around the house, pictures of dad doing completely normal things help make him real and memorable. I tested this theory with Benjamin. He was 13 months when Theo left last time. My mom laminated some pictures of Theo alone, and Theo with Ben. I videotaped Theo doing things like Ben's diaper changes & baths, and also going to the park. Ben watched the video and played with the pictures. Theo came home on leave for 3 weeks, but a whole year from his initial deployment, Ben had just turned 2, and he knew Daddy when Daddy came home. At the airstrip he was able to look face to face with Theo, and he reached out and touched his face to see if he was real. He gave him kisses and warmed up to him shortly after. Hunter will be 2.5 when Theo deploys again, so we're building up footage and pictures now.

Here are the pictures from last week, now that I'm done rambling.

Ben runs in to break up the peaceful setting:

Now, I should warn you, you are about to view the cutest pictures of Hunter I've taken in awhile! I was sick, and pretty out of it, but I think Hunter was standing on the kitchen chair having breakfast with dad and he just peed all over the chair. No idea how the pee got out of the dipaer, but he needed a bath. So glad he did, because he was so cute when dad was drying him off.

This was during Ben's battle fever battle began. I tried to keep as much of this fleece pjs off of him to keep him cool.

Here is Hunter with his beloved Mickey Mouse phone. But first, a shot of his massive head and dire need for a haircut:

Step One: dial

Steo Two: greetings "Heh-woh"

Step Three: adjust the phone so I can hear better

Step Four: give kisses to the phone

Step Five: more listening to me saying "hi" over and over and over... (as if he can read, he's sitting here doing what I typed as he sees the pictures, LOL).

Step Six: Act surprised, to keep the conversation interesting. Keep saying "hi."

Step Seven: You sound disinterested? With me? Impossible.

Step Eight: Come in? Can yooooooo hear me? World's cutest boy on the line here.

Step Nine: Forget this man! Bwahhhhhhhhhhh! Hahaha!

Have a great rest of the week everyone!