Does my lip look swollen to you?

It's been a tough week for Mrs Crackers (& therefore a tough week for the rest of the Cracker family). On two separate occasions this week I was sure I was mere moments away from an ambulance ride to the ER.

The first time came on Monday evening. I had been feeling a little lethargic all weekend, but had blamed it on a lack of sleep and a new allergy medication that I had taken on Saturday. Ignoring my low energy level (I'm not always good at cuing into my body signals) I set off on Monday afternoon for a nice 3 mile run a limping 2 1/4 mile walk/jog with an emphasis on walk. After I came home I was crazy hot -so hot that the thought of my kids touching me at all was sending me over the edge. It was humid, but the temp hadn't gotten out of the upper 70's. After I drank a couple of Gatorades I went from being hot to being so cold I started to shiver & my toes started going numb.

I took a shower to see if I could get my body temperature back on track & continued to pound down as many liquids as I could get my hands on. Being a closet hypochondriac I had already diagnosed myself with several disorders before I even finished washing my hair. After my shower I was still cold, so I finally realized I should probably take my temperature. It was 102.5. That's it! I was happy to finally settle on a diagnosis - I decided I had heat exhaustion brought on by dehydration and the high humidity levels! I don't get sick real often, but when I do I enjoy freaking myself out with grim and sometimes potentially fatal diagnoses.

I should state here, although it is probably obvious to you by now, that I have absolutely no medical training. at. all. I was about to demand that Mr. Crackers drop everything and take me to the ER immediately, but decided I should probably take some Advil and consult every hypochondriac's favorite website, Webmd, to confirm my diagnosis first. After reading all I could on the subject, it appeared I did not have heat exhaustion after all. Whew!

When I shared my good news with Mr. Crackers, he calmly pointed out that I had been feeling a little under the weather before I even went out for my run and that I had probably just made myself feel more sick with physical activity that my body was in no shape to handle. But what does he know? I decided that instead, I was suffering from severe, somewhat less than extreme , mild dehydration. I proceeded to drink 3 more glasses of ice water over the next few hours all the while telling Mr. Crackers that I would be back to normal by the next morning.

Well, after a couple of days of fighting exhaustion and temperatures ranging from 100.5 -102, Mr. Crackers made me I decided to go see my doctor. I didn't have any obvious symptoms so after speaking to the doctor, he decided to give me a prescription for Amoxicillin just in case I was suffering from a strep infection. He didn't do a test to see if I had strep, which was fine with me. I figured I am rarely sick, so a little antibiotics can't hurt me even if I don't really need them right? (you can almost taste the foreshadowing here, can't you?)

I woke up last night at 2:45 am because the palms of my hands were itching something fierce. I headed downstairs to take a look them & grab a glass of water. When I got into the kitchen I saw that my hands and arms were covered in a red rash. After some further exploring, I discovered that I was completely covered in a rash from head to toe. Crap! I had seen this rash before. I had a similar reaction to a prescription I was on when I first met Mr. Crackers. At that time though I was about 13 years dumber younger, so it had taken me several days to get myself in to see a doctor who diagnosed me with a drug allergy in about 2.2 seconds after I set foot in the exam room.

So, now I knew I was probably allergic to Amoxicillin. But, it was 3:00 am. Not much I could do but take a couple of Benadryl & see what happened. This waiting to see what happens is a very dangerous thing for me to do in the wee hours of the morning. I started imagining the worst possible outcome for every little twitch I felt. To alleviate my growing fears, I decided to again consult my favorite website(Webmd) to see what they had to say about my reaction to Amoxicillin and this is what I saw:
"A very serious allergic reaction to this drug is unlikely, but seek immediate medical attention if it occurs. Symptoms of a serious allergic reaction may include: rash, itching/swelling (especially of the face/tongue/throat), severe dizziness, trouble breathing."

Double crap! I could feel my blood pressure ratchet up a notch as I began imagining the "trouble breathing" part of that sentence. After a little while longer at my computer, I was sure that I could feel my lip start to swell up. I sprang up out of my chair to go check it out and got a little dizzy. Triple crap! Dizziness!? Another symptom! Now I was sure that I was moments away from going unconscious, so I decided to share the fun & wake up Mr. Crackers who was peacefully dreaming away. I put myself into my "crisis management mode" & went to rouse him from his slumber.

Me: Babe. Wake up.

Mr. C: Huh?! What?!

Me: Babe. I just need to tell you that I am having an allergic reaction to my medicine & I think we're going to need to call 911 like really soon.

Mr. C: Huh?! What?!

Me: It's just that I have a rash over my entire body & I was dizzy just a minute ago & I think my face is swelling up, so I wanted to wake you up so that you can call 911 if I pass out or something.

Mr. C: Huh?! What?!

Me: I took 2 Benadryl about 45 minutes ago, but I can't tell if they are working. Maybe you should call my Mom & Dad. I know it's early, but they could drive over and watch the kids so you can ride with me to the hospital in the ambulance.

Mr. C: What?! What time is it?

Me: Umm...it's 4:00. But that's OK I've been up for over an hour now (I still don't know what I meant by this statement. I must've thought this gave some weight to my argument or something).

Mr. C: Wait a minute. Why are you pacing around the room. I don't understand. Can't you stand still? Stop walking around for a minute OK!? (I should explain here that when I go into my "crisis mode" I start talking slowly in a very calm voice while pacing back and forth like General Patton addressing the troops. I have no idea why I do this, but this is not the first time I have discovered that the pacing is very off putting to others.)

Me: I think I can stand still. I dunno. Let me try. Yes. Yes, I can just stand still for a minute.

Mr. C: C'mon into the bathroom with me for a 'sec. Lets see what's going on. Hmm... yep that's a rash alright.

Me: How about my upper lip? Does my lip look swollen to you? Don't forget about the dizziness.

Mr. C: Are you dizzy now?

Me: No. Huh. Maybe I was just dizzy 'cause I got up so fast from reclining when I was running to the bathroom to see if my lip was swollen. What about my lip?! It's swollen right?

Mr. C: Well (squinting) ...maybe it's a little swollen, but you're still no Angelina Jolie. It looks OK to me (here he starts poking me in the lip with his index finger). It's really not that swollen Babe. You said already took 2 Benadryl right? What do you want to do? Do you want me to call 911.

Me: Well maybe I can just stay awake a little longer to make sure I don't lose consciousness. It would be more noticeable if I passed out while I was still awake, don't you think? Yes, I'm going to stay awake a little longer.

Mr. C: OK. Sure... why don't we go lie down though. No reason why we can't lie down while we're waiting for you to pass out. Right?

So that's what we did. We got into bed & Mr. Crackers rubbed my back to help me relax a bit & come down from the DEFCON 1 status I had gotten myself into. He was also kind enough to only mock me gently until we both eventually fell back asleep.

I called the doctor this morning & sure enough I currently have a non-life threatening allergic reaction to Amoxicillin. I've got a new prescription waiting for me at CVS as we speak. Hopefully this means a return to normalcy here at the House of Crackers. I'm sure Mr. Crackers will be happy to have me step away from Webmd for the balance of the week!

It's probably good that most people don't wear hats anymore.

Last night C's kindergarten class had their Growing Celebration. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had assumed it was going to be a mini-graduation thing, but it was really more like a concert. All 4 kindergarten classes came together for the evening and performed at least 8 songs for all of the parents. It was really well done - you could tell they had been working on the program for weeks.


C had been anticipating this night for quite awhile. He kept hinting that he had been working on a "super secret project" for Mr. Crackers & me. I was thinking he probably made some kind of picture frame or collage. I was in for a surprise though - I had no idea that the kindergartners had gotten into the accessory design business.




What do you think? I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture or not, but Mr. Crackers' tie is adorned with a green jewel in the center. Very snazzy! I like the width of the tie too - it makes me reminisce about my childhood back in the 70's when ties took up a lot more square footage on a man's chest.


The hats were really cleverly done. C painted mine blue, yellow and green - it was really quite pretty. Large, but pretty. The only issue is that clearly C had no idea that his mother was born with an unusually large head. I've got a freakishly big noggin - it's a family problem. (I blame my father.) Unfortunately, I just couldn't get the darn hat to stay on my head during the concert. It just kept falling off. This probably came as a relief to the parents who were sitting behind us. They might have actually gotten to see their child perform.




The problem with the hats is that they actually created quite a barrier, especially to those of us in the audience who were a bit height challenged (I would definitely fit into this category). It was almost impossible to see anything. I didn't really get to see too much of C's face during the program. Most of my view was blocked by the sea of brightly colored hats in front of me. Picture taking became an effort in futility. Since most people were constantly shifting around in their seats to better see around the wall of hats, most of our photos of C actually ended up being snapshots of the brightly colored bonnets instead.

As part of the celebration, we were supposed to present C with a special memento from his first year of life. Since I really don't hold onto a lot of things (that's why I take lots of pictures - so I don't have to keep all the "stuff") we decided it was probably time to give him his baby book. The only problem is that...umm... well... I never really finished it. I had written in it & filled out about 75% of the information when he was a baby (that would be around 6 years ago now), but I never really got around to putting any pictures or other sentimental items inside the book. So, as you can imagine I spent most of my day yesterday printing out photos to get everything pulled together before the evening's festivities got under way.

We had a great time. It was fun looking at the book with him to see just how much he's grown. One of the things I put in the book, was a shot of him in April 2003 (when he was just 4 months old) and another shot of him this past April. He's certainly changed a lot, but he's still got those cute cheeks though!

It's official, my oldest child is now done with kindergarten (where did the year go?) and I have 3 more years before we go through the same thing with K. That means I have 3 more years to put off finishing her baby book. If I know myself (& after 39 years I think I finally do) something tells me I'll be madly cutting and pasting her book together the day before her Growing Celebration too. I'm nothing if not consistent!

Really!? Middle age, already!?

I don't know if it's the fact that 40 is less than a year away or that I am just paying a little more attention to my surroundings, but lately I seem to be feeling ... well, kind of older. Not octogenarian old, but I guess I am finally starting to realize that I am a lot closer to 45 than I am to 25.

Umm, when exactly did that happen anyway? Hello, middle-age nice to meet you. For some reason I thought my kids would be on their way to high school when we were first introduced, but surprise! It looks like we'll be meeting while I still have a child in kindergarten. Realistically speaking if I am going to live to the average female life expectancy for this country of 81 - I'm there. Middle age is upon me ( of course it could be much worse - the female life expectancy in Mozambique is 40 years old. At this point, if I were living there I'd have much more serious issues to worry about!)


The thing is that a lot of the other Moms in my neighborhood are right around my age, so I really never considered myself an "older" Mom. All of us are the twilight moments of our 30's or our early 40's & all of us have pre-schoolers at home. There are a few younger Moms in the neighborhood, but I guess I never really thought about the "age factor" before.

So, you can imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when it slapped me right across the face. I was sitting with my neighbor Lisa and a group of other Moms in the waiting area while our kids were in their swim lessons. Somehow the subject of age came up & I discovered to my surprise that most of the other Moms I was sitting with were still in their 20's. I knew they were younger, but I didn't realize how much younger they were.

Apparently the age difference came as a bit of a shock to them as well since I heard one of them exclaim to Lisa "I had no idea that you were that old!" Lisa was very gracious about it, but I was reeling a bit. Who me, old? You've gotta to be kidding right? And then I started thinking ... if I had a kid in my mid-twenties, my oldest child would be getting ready to enter high school instead of first grade. Hmm...

Then a couple days later I got another slap in the face courtesy of one my neighbors. She and her husband moved into in the house across the street about a year ago & we are glad to have them as neighbors - they are really nice people. They happen to have 2 grown boys who visit from time to time to help them out around the house.

My husband & I had thought they were probably in their early 50's based on the ages of their kids. They both work out a lot, so we just figured they just looked really awesome for their age. The other day we were talking & she looks me in the eye and asks "Just how old are you anyway, if you don't mind me asking. My husband & I were trying to figure it out."

"Oh, I replied I just turned 39 & Mr. Crackers will turn 40 in a week or so."

"I thought you guys were our age! Joe wasn't sure, but I told him that I didn't think you guys were really young. Joe & I are 43."

Thankfully, I had the presence of mind not to blurt out - Gee we thought you guys were a lot older (sometimes my social filter kicks in just in time to save me from more embarrassing and awkward moments).

"You're right! We're all about the same age - I guess we're just in different stages of life." (I'm observant like that.)

She looked at me, and then shot a look at my two hooligans and said, "So, you guys kind of had your kids late in life, huh? I mean my two boys are 21 and 24. How old are your kids again?"

"Umm, well they're 6 and 3". I replied in my calmest voice.

"Wow! Well, I'm sure that being an older Mom you have a lot more patience than I did with my kids. I mean I was so young, I didn't know what I was doing. You've got maturity on your side (well, I guess that's one way of saying it) I mean, now mine are finally grown & living on their own. Joe & I are having the time of our lives."

"Oh, that's great. Yeah, Mr. Crackers & I didn't get married until our late 20's & then we were having fun just being a couple, so we waited awhile before having kids. I guess we're a little behind you on the whole life-stage thing, but we'll be joining you guys in about ...... umm 17 years or so (gulp)."

Dagnabit! Where did all those years go? If the last 6 years are any indication, I need to hold onto my hat because these next 17 years are going to fly right by. Before I know it I'll be looking around & realizing that I'm closer to 60 than 40!

Oh well -- Looking back on it, I realize that I wouldn't change a thing about the course my life has taken. I enjoyed my footloose and fancy-free 20's and have loved my family life and everything else that has blessed my 30's. Even though I may be doing things later than some people, I'm having the time of my life. I think someone once said it's not the destination but the journey (or something like that). So far it's been a pretty terrific ride.





**UPDATE: Since I am actually on the computer I figured I should probably do some internet research on the quote I was talking about above. The actual quote I was referring to (I think) was:

"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” Don Williams, Jr. (American Novelist and Poet, b.1968)

I still agree... and I've loved the journey so far!

Mr. Crackers' birthday weekend continues...

We've been celebrating Mr. Crackers' 40th birthday since Thursday. Here at the House of Crackers we don't settle for just one day of celebrating...we like to drag the festivities out for as long as we possibly can. A week is ideal, but in a pinch we'll settle for a long weekend.





Yesterday Mr. Crackers took the day off work & we took our two hooligans to our local amusement park. A lot of our friends and family have season passes, but we've resisted buying them so far. We thought we'd get a 2 day pass & do a trial run to see how the kids liked it.



We got there right as the park opened and had the entire kids area pretty much to ourselves for most of the morning. We didn't have to wait in line for a single ride.



After some initial trepidation, the two kids threw themselves right into the fun and we spent much of the day running between the 7 or so rides that were open (& that they didn't think were too scary - the Cracker children are not really thrill seekers).

K's favorite ride was the kiddie swing. She loved spinning (slowly) around & around. My favorite part was that I didn't have to push her (for once). I'm wondering if Mr. Crackers can get something like this set up in our yard soon. Maybe it can be his next large building project.

Of course, C liked the ride as well. By next year he'll probably be too tall to ride it, so I'm glad he got a chance to try it out.

But his favorite ride by far was the bumper cars. I lost track of how many times he rode this ride.

The ride that they both seemed to love in equal measure was the miniature driving course. It had a small hill that was as close to a roller coaster as K would come.

Trouble, pure & simple.

C has also been a little resistant to riding roller coasters in the past (It must be a family thing - Mr. Cracker only started riding them himself in the last couple of years). I've always loved roller coasters & thought maybe that once C took a ride on one he'd have so much fun that we'd wipe all those fears away.

Unfortunately, the coaster I used to try this theory on was the Thunder Mountain Railroad Coaster at Disney about a year and a half ago. I told him it was a train & a roller coaster. (I may have overemphasized the train aspect of the ride). In hindsight, I can say that my trick did more to confirm his fear of coasters than alleviate them. I just remember him screaming over and over " OK, Mom I'm done now. It's time to stop the ride!". It was a lot more than he bargained for...Mr. Crackers thinks I may have scarred him for life.

This is why I was glad to see him having so much fun on the kiddie coaster. We tried to get him on something a little bit bigger but when he resisted, we let it drop (proof that occasionally I do learn from my mistakes!).

After about 6 hours spent on the same 7 rides and more money than I care to think about spent on really bad amusement park food, we took a ride on the train & then made a beeline for the exit.

In all of the fun, we skipped K's usual mid-afternoon nap which we were punished for the rest of the evening. After a light dinner and a bath we got the kids down early for bed.

After another day of tears and whining from my little K today, I think Mr. Crackers & I have decided that we will not be getting a season pass this year. It was fun, but I think the 10 hours of tears & whining we've experienced since our visit have now officially offset the 6 hours of fun we had while at the park. Thankfully, Mr. Crackers' headed out to the golf course today for some more Birthday fun, so he was spared at least a portion of the amusement park backlash.

Next stop on the Birthday Party weekend of fun, our very first beer brewing party. I have no idea what to expect other than a good time. Happy Birthday (day #3) Mr. Crackers!

Mr. Crackers turns 40!

Today is the day Mr. Crackers turns the big 4-0! I would make some wisecracks here about his age and the passing of time, but since I am just 9 months younger than him I would just be setting myself up for similar abuse next February.

(I know this is a Christmas picture - clearly I need to get some more shots of Mr. Crackers in the coming months!)

In honor of Mr. Cracker's birthday, I am dedicating this post to him. To give proper credit where it is due, I got this idea from Maggie Mason over at Mighty Girl whose husband turned 40 back in March. On her husband's birthday, Maggie listed the 40 things she loved most about him in her blog. That seemed like such a nice tribute that I filed the idea away to use when my own hubby turned 40. (Maggie also gave her husband 40 gifts on his big day which unfortunately for Mr. Crackers I chose not to do. After all, unlike Maggie, my blog generates absolutely no income for the family & merely serves as a distraction from all of the chores around the house that I should be doing instead.)

So without further ado, here are 40 reasons why I love Mr. Crackers (in no particular order):

1. You have a terrific sense of humor.

2. You take tremendous pride in your work.

3. You always say "thank you" after eating every meal I cook for you.

4. The fact that you always pitch in to help clean up after every meal.

5. You always go out of your way to help your friends and neighbors.

6. You are an idea man.

7. You are always willing to sit through chick flicks with me.

8. You will eat almost anything I put in front of you and you can always seem to find something positive to say about the food no matter how awful it really is.

9. You pick up trash laying on the ground no matter where you find it.

10. You can be a bit of a rule breaker from time to time.

11. You are definitely not a push-over (unlike Mrs. Crackers)

12. You make an excellent batch of spaghetti.

13. Your tendency to tackle large building projects in the backyard.

14. Your tenacity at seeing those projects completed.

15. You've got a truly great head of hair.

16. The fact that you love your parents (& mine).

17. You look great in glasses.

18. You always pitch in to help keep the house clean.

19. You willingly spend a week with my family on vacation every summer.

20. The fact that you insist on cooking dinner every Saturday night.

21. You are great at coming up with fun family activities.

22. You enjoy shopping as much as I do.

23. You are fun to hang out with - you can always make me smile.

24. The fact that you don't complain even though I am driving a new car and your car is over 10 years old and is starting to fall apart at the seams.

25. You agreed to let me stay home and raise the kids instead of sending them to daycare.

26. You always say I love you to me and the kids before you leave for work in the morning.

27. You've got a beautiful smile Mr. Crackers.

28. You are always working on the yard and the house.

29. You play Wii with C on the weekends.

30. You encourage me to go on Mom's Night/Day Out activities.

31. You are friendly and outgoing.

32. You willingly give the kids their bath.

33. You take good care of yourself and your family.

34. There is no one I would rather spend my free time with.

35. Let's face it, you are an attractive guy.

36. You are a terrific problem solver.

37. Two words: low maintenance.

38. You have great taste when it comes to picking a wife.

39. You are a wonderful husband and...

40. A terrific Daddy to your kids.

Happy 40th Birthday Mr. Crackers!

We are so lucky to have you in our lives - we love you!

Shopping, mud, Readi Whip and 5 seconds of fame: A Mother's Day recap

I have to say that I had an awesome Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday Mr. Crackers took care of the kids (and managed to clean the house & mow the grass - Mr. Crackers rocks my world!) while my Mom, my sister Linda & I met up with each other for a day of shopping at an outdoor mall. We had an great time being outside, trying on clothes and sharing the day with each other.

On Sunday morning, my little gang of four headed out to a local park to hang out as a family & hopefully get a few shots of me and the kids together. Since I am usually the picture taker in the family, I like to make it a point to get in front of the camera once a year. That way, the kids have photographic evidence that they did have a Mom while they were growing up. Right as we got there I was interviewed by a local TV station about our plans for Mother's Day (If you click on the link, don't blink for the first 5 seconds or you'll miss seeing us). After our brief time in the spotlight, Mr. Crackers & I both decided it was good that neither one of us had dreams of a life in front of the camera. I couldn't bring myself to even look at the thing when I spoke. It had the opposite on Mr. Crackers who couldn't look away and seemed to loose his entire train of thought once the camera focused his way. Clearly, we are more behind-the-scenes kind of people.

It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time running around looking at all of the beautiful plants and flowers. I was glad the TV guy caught us on our way into the park, because (as usual) my little calamity K had an accident while we were chasing each other in the children's maze. The good news is that the fall wasn't as bad as we originally thought. We watched her drop out sight behind a bush & let out a blood curdling scream - since she's already managed to have broken several bones in her short life, we expected the worst. I went running to her rescue and discovered she wasn't injured, she was just really, really muddy. Apparently, she managed to find the only patch of wet mud in the park and fell right into it - bottom first. Yep, there's no doubt about it, she's my daughter alright!

Once we assured her that the mud would wash off, she calmed down a bit & we started to make our way to the exit. We didn't want to get too far away from the car since neither Mr. Crackers or I wanted the honor of carrying her back to the car if she got too tired of walking.

Later that afternoon, my parents, my grandma and my in-laws came over for a cook-out completely planned and executed by Mr. Crackers (have I told you how much he rocks?!) . For dessert, my Dad brought all of the fixings for an ice cream sundae bar, including a can Readi Whip.

I'm not sure how much Readi Whip my parents go through on a monthly basis, but I can tell you they should start thinking about buying some stock in the company. Have I ever shared with you my Mom's obsession with this dessert topping? She loves the stuff. Not only does she love to eat it, she delights in spraying into the wide open mouths of her willing grandchildren. Almost all desserts now served in my parents home are accompanied by Readi Whip. It doesn't always stop with dessert either. I know for a fact that on a recent overnight stay at her Grandparent's house that K's breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios was served with a mound of Readi Whip piled on top.

Who am I to argue? The stuff is delicious & after all it is a dairy product right? It's practically a health food. Besides, what's the point of being a Grandma if you can't spoil your grandchildren by spraying dessert toppings directly into their little mouths.

A tribute Mom (and to the plaid sofas of days gone by)

About 42 years ago the cute couple sitting on this really ugly brown couch decided to tie the knot. Along the way they raised 2 daughters and were the (not so) proud owners of several ugly plaid sofas.




They didn't have a lot of money, but that never seemed to matter. They were creative and always found a way to provide their kids with the things that were most important (even if those kids did not always realize that at the time). In short, they were great parents -and still are.





Since Mother's Day is this weekend, I just thought I'd take the time to say thank you to my Mom for all she did for us over the years. Through all of the ups and downs, she was always there for both my sister and I. She was a terrific Mom - and still is.




I think I mentioned that money was really tight when we were young. And, as those of us with one household income know, lack of money is quite an obstacle when it comes to decorating the house. There is always something more important to spend money on. So, as you can imagine, the early part of Mom's life was filled with hand-me down furniture, including several couches covered in disturbingly ugly plaid patterns. Let's get out of the cold and go on inside to see what my poor Mom had to put up with over the years, shall we?

Oh, there it is! If memory serves, this couch was particularly uncomfortable, but Mom is making the best of it. And look, I think she may have invented the very first Snuggie! She's always been ahead of her time. Sadly, she did not patent the idea, so she will not be getting any large checks in the mail. Better luck next time Mom!

Let's jump forward a few years (and an additional daughter) to view the next plaid couch to grace her life. The couch is bad, but I just can't take my eyes off that eagle lamp in the corner. Wow! I know without a doubt the lamp came to us by way of my maternal grandma. Grandma always had a thing for bronze eagles in her decorating schemes. (We'll save the discussion on Dad's hair and sideburns until Father's Day, OK?)

Thankfully, Mom always had better taste, she just didn't have the funds available to use it to pick out furniture. When the money finally became more plentiful, I am happy to say that she was finally able to rid her life of plaid sofas forever. I am hoping for her sake that they don't ever come into fashion again.

Look how happy she is now that she got rid of all the plaid! That's a big smile considering that at the time she had 2 girls standing on either side of her in the throws of adolescence. Clearly we did not do our duty as teenagers to make her properly miserable. What did we do wrong (I mean besides preventing her from wearing a sweater with a collar as large as Rhode Island)?

These days, I consider my Mom to be one of my best friends. I really enjoy spending time with her - she always makes me laugh. She's also a terrific Grandma & I love to watch her interact with my own two hooligans. I think it was love at first sight for all 3 of them.



Look - there is not a plaid piece of furniture in sight - go Mom!

In closing, I'd just like to say that I've been so blessed to have you as my Mother. You are a great Mom, friend and role model. Thanks for everything you've done and continue to do for your family - we love you so much! Happy Mother's Day!

Catching up

I know I've been really neglecting the blog lately. Between a nice stretch of warm weather and the daily tasks of keeping up with the kids and dog, I've cut way back on my computer time. So for an update (if there is still anyone out there occasionally visiting this blog) here are the last 2 weeks at the House of Crackers in pictures.

Sadie (our 11 year old puppy) started limping one evening. We brought her to the vet and discovered she had a tumor growing on one of her toes. Not knowing what we were dealing with, we talked to our vet & decided to have one of her toes removed (I am a worst scenario kind of gal). Thankfully the tumor ended up being benign, so now we feel more comfortable mocking Sadie and her new headgear. The stitches will finally come out tomorrow & she will be freed from further humiliation by her family.

We've spent a lot of time outside in the backyard. C borrowed my camera & took this shot of his little sister a couple of weeks ago. I love this picture. The paper doll she is carrying around the yard is "Daddy". "Daddy" was a project K brought home from school one day. He went everywhere with her for 2 days until she lost him somewhere in the house. That's probably a good thing as poor Daddy was starting to show serious signs of wear and tear.



Since I allowed C to use the camera, K wanted equal time. She snapped this one of her big brother a few minutes later. I think I need to loosen up a little - I am really liking these off center pictures.




The mystery tree in our backyard bloomed for the first time that I can remember (of course I have a really bad memory, so perhaps it blooms every year and I've just forgotten about it). For some reason I have always assumed it was an apple tree, but Mom (who knows a heck of a lot more about green things that I ever will) told me I was totally wrong in that assumption. I'm not sure what it is, but it does have some pretty white flowers.





We "opened" the sandbox for the season and located our gigantic bag of sand toys. Both kids spend at least a part of every nice day covered completely in sand. I had forgotten how good sand feels against the soles of my feet. I had also forgotten how I can feel that sand underfoot without actually leaving the house - now I remember why we need to refill the sand box every summer. Oh well, at least I got a new vacuum cleaner this winter. I'm armed & ready - bring on what you will my hooligans!



And let me not forget to give you an update on our Spring Project 2009. As I told you in my last post Mr. Crackers' got the roof on and his part of the project is now complete. Now I am up on deck. Since I love to paint (I'm not kidding, I really do) I volunteered to finish the clubhouse by putting on a coat of red paint to protect the wood and make it look a little more appealing to our neighbors.

For those of you who don't know us well, this means that all of the rapid progress on this project has now come to an abrupt end. I tend to move at a more leisurely pace on projects than Mr. Crackers - this is probably the reason that I myself don't tend to bite off really big endeavours. I am not always really good about keeping after a project to ensure it's quick completion. In my defense, I have started painting it. I'm even using a primer to make sure the paint adheres better. It'll just take a few more weeks until I get it completely done. That's OK though, now that the warm weather is here, we've got the time!