My mom sent me this quote today:

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled,and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”
- Cicero – 55 BC

Sounds like a good plan for today and every day!

So, those of you in places where it snows regularly probably won’t appreciate this as much (although I distinctly remember waiting for it to snow when I lived in Colorado, before I cared about things like ice on the roads and shoveling snow), but a storm dumped a bunch of snow in the mountains this morning.  Given that it’s already March and Chatterer has been asking “when are we going to go to the snow again?” off and on for about 3 months, it seemed serendipitous that we had nothing planned today.  After an hour or so of loading the car, making sure we had everything for cold and wet weather for both boys (more of a challenge for ToaM than Chatterer, since most of Chatterer’s stuff from 2 years ago he finally grew into) and actually loading the children, we were off.  MM drove the new Suburban and tested its mettle on a narrow mountain road until we arrived at a clearing that seemed optimal for throwing snow at each other.  MM, Chatterer and I had a great time.  ToaM wondered why in the world he awakened from his nap to get out of the car in the cold to “play” on ground that wasn’t flat just to move white stuff from one place to another.  In any event, a good time was had by almost all, and we managed to get good pictures of everyone.  Most importantly, it is anticipated both boys will be out cold tonight since Chatterer didn’t take a nap and ToaM only slept for about an hour on the way to the snow.  (Admittedly, that isn’t actually the most important thing, but it’s really high on the list!)

Here’s a link to some video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VemlJITHIws

ToaM has taken to tackling Chatterer.  Chatterer goes along with it, until he gets tired of it.

Tackled!

We all went to Target this morning for our “daily outing.”  We needed lots of different things, and found that they had swimsuits already.  Here’s the trick with swimsuits: if you don’t buy them when they’re in the store, you can’t find them when you really need them.  So, with kids the age of Chatterer and ToaM, we kind of just guesstimate what their sizes will be in June, July and August.  (Note: the same rule actually applies (without any guesstimation) to adults, but, as adults, we don’t think it’s nearly as important, even though, by default, one or both parents will also need to be in swimsuits at the same time as the children.  Don’t ask me how I know this.)  More importantly, since we have two trips planned where ToaM will likely be in a real pool (as well as the usual wading pool in the backyard) he needed the “floatie” type swimsuit to prevent drowning and the standard short-type swimsuit for the wading pool and park.  ToaM was really excited about his swimsuit.  I guess he’s ready to see Thomas in July!

Ready for summer!

I left my earphone at work today, and since I’ll be telcommuting tomorrow, I’m without it all weekend.

Additionally, MM actually lost his earphone today.

California has a rule that drivers can’t talk on cell phones unless it is using a “handsfree” device or a speakerphone.  Both MM and I have Bluetooth earphone thingies for our phones.  As some of you may have experienced, it’s really pretty darn easy to lose these things, especially if you have the less expensive variety.  What’s worse, if you do lose the thing in your house and the battery runs out, you’re doomed.  Before the battery runs out there are things you can do: call the phone and see if it’s in range of the earphone and then try to track down the ringing.  Once the battery is dead, however, it’s game over.

I know this because I recently misplaced my earphone somewhere in our house.  It happened about 4 days ago.  Anyone who has seen our house (or my dorm room in college) knows that this could be a disaster.  I tried to find it using the method above, to no avail.  I had been getting away with talking on the speaker phone on my drives home, but, frankly, I hate the speaker phone.  I was about ready to just call it lost until this morning.

Mornings at our house are probably typical of any American house with two working parents trying to get two kids age 4 and 20 months out the door to get to school and work.  In the process of moving things and finding things this morning during the last phase of the dash to the door, my earphone tumbled out from somewhere near the front door onto the floor as I was bending over to pick up Chatterer’s things and ToaM.  The conversation follows:

Me:  I was wondering where that had gone to.  Good thing it showed up!

MM: Maybe it’s been caught in your hair for the last few days.

The sad part is, I couldn’t even dispute that it was possible because, well, my hair is capable of such a feat, despite daily showers.  I’m fairly certain, however, that it was just sitting on top of something that happened to move the right way at the right time.  The world will never know…

It occurred to me on the drive home today that it had been a while since I’d posted anything here.  Mostly, we’ve all been surviving the “downturn” in the economy, and everything is going well.  The new job is still going really well, which is good.  MM is the same, the boys are doing extremely well.  ToaM’s vocabulary grows on a daily basis, although his favorite phrase is definitely “choo choo.”  He has added “car,” “cat,” “chugga chugga choo choo,” and many many more.  

We were all sick at some point over the last month or so, which could explain the lack of blogging.

We also did our part to stimulate the economy by trading in our old SUV for a new one.  It seemed too good a deal to pass up, and MM has always wanted a Suburban.

Other than that, it’s pretty much business as usual.  Hope all is well with everyone else!