Raccoon!

We had quite a strange night Saturday. Brecklen, Hannah, and I were watching a movie before bed and just as it was about to end I saw something moving in the corner of my eye coming down the stairs and stop about 5 feet from us. It moved like a cat and a thought to myself , how did a cat get into our house? Well it wasn't until I really looked at the animal I realized it was not a cat, but a raccoon! I screamed so loud I am sure that Aric thought someone died. This thing was huge, about 2 feet long. This animal was clearly just as scared as me. As I was screaming bloody murder Aric heard me say something about a raccoon and ran into the room to catch it. It freaked out and ran across our living room up a shelf , knocked down a picture on the wall, fell to the ground, ran across the room again right past Aric, ran down the hall and into our study. Aric slammed the door to trap the thing in.

Meanwhile I picked up the kids and sprinted upstairs to our bedroom so that the kids would be safe. Thank goodness the animal ran to our study which is in our basement. Aric just opened the window from the outside and the raccoon ran out, of course he had to climb over everything first. I am glad it didn't take long for the raccoon to leave the house. He left quite a mess though. I had no idea that they are such climbers!

As I ran upstairs to take the kids to safety I noticed that the garage door was ajar. When things calmed down I looked into the garage and saw paw prints all over my car. And he made quite a mess of the garage as well. It had been raining off and on all day and he must have come into our garage during the day and got trapped when we shut the garage door. He obviously managed to push the door open which probably wasn't hard since it wasn't closed tight, what are the chances of that? We were all a little freaked out and we decided to investigate the upstairs to see if he made a mess up there too. Brecklen thought it must have slept in his bed, so we looked in his room and I was relieved to see that it did not appear that our little visitor was there. I think he is still convinced that the raccoon was in his room. Poor Hannah. She kinda freaked out at my reaction and started crying. While we were looking around the house for signs of poop, or hair, Hannah just Kept saying "Raccoon chasing me", but it was so cute and hard to not laugh because it sounded like "accoon tasing me." We tried to make it less scary for her and had a stuffed animal that looked like a raccoon to give to her. We decided to name him Rocky the Raccoon. I don't think they had nightmares.

I was partly worried there might be another one trapped in the house and it would just pop out at me any moment. Thank goodness no sign of anymore animals, and no poop anywhere. I really did not want to clean up any poop from an animal. As it is I have a hard time not throwing up because of "morning" sickness when my own child poops , let alone a raccoon.

We didn't think that the raccoon went upstairs, but the next day I found paw prints on the side of our fridge, and there was animal hair on the top of the fridge. I kinda panicked. How long was it in our house? It was so quiet, we never knew it was there. I was about to take the kids upstairs when the raccoon decided to come downstairs, what if we had scared it coming up stairs and it really flipped out and attacked one of my kids? What if it decided to go to sleep in my bed and I woke up with some furry thing next to me? All the craziest scenarios went through my mind. We really did get lucky, it was not rabid, or angry, just curious and scared. It approached us instead of us stumbling upon it and feeling the need to defend itself. Well that's not something that happens everyday, in our house atleast.

It's a Girl!!!

We found out we are having a healthy baby girl. I am still due September 19th (I'm 20 weeks right now). Aric was able to be at the ultrasound. When they told us we were having a girl we looked at each other with joy and terror. Joy because of course we are so excited that the baby is healthy and it is going to be a girl. And terror because it is going to be a girl! It was exciting to she her moving around. It always makes it more real to see fingers and toes.

Brecklen really wanted to have a boy, and even named the baby Bennett. I can just see the trouble the girls are going to get into! Hannah is so independent and has a strong personality, I am a little worried about that times two! Brecklen is so sweet to Hannah, and she tortures him at times. No wonder he wanted a boy. But they truly do love each other to death.

When we got home we told the kids we had a surprise for them. I got an "it's a girl" and "it's a boy" balloon for the kids so I would be prepared for either one. We gathered the kids together and brought out the girl balloon and told them "IT'S A GIRL!" We were very excited to tell them, but our smiles and excitement took quite a dive when Brecklen threw himself on the couch and started to cry. Aric and I just looked at each other. We felt terrible. We didn't think he would react so strongly. Aric was prepared. Thank goodness. He brought out a special present for Brecklen. Silver Iron Man. Aric had given Brecklen the regular Iron Man a couple days prior so he could take him to the Iron Man movie and get Brecklen excited about it. Brecklen saw that there was a silver Iron man and thought he was really cool. Aric saved the day. Brecklen was feeling much better after getting his new silver Iron Man. We told Brecklen how much fun it was going to be that he and Dad get to go hiking and fishing and do all sorts of cool things together, just the two of them.

Hannah was much easier to please. She just wanted the balloon. She doesn't really quite get it yet, but was happy to know that she is going to have a sister, a Belle. Belle is her favorite princess. Well I guess there's no reason now to hold out on buying all the princess dresses and stuff now. This kind of validates some of my dresses that I just HAD to have for Hannah. Thanks Janee for reminding me that I get to buy my girls cute matching outfits. I can't believe this thought never occurred me! I can't WAIT to go shopping. Since this is a terrible hobby of mine, and I have been so good lately, I may have a relapse. But atleast my girls will look cute, and match!

The next President?

I was listening to Minnesota public radio in the car since I did not, for once, have the kids with me, and thought I would actually brush up on the news. I am typically the last person to know about anything unless it is the highlighted story on CNN.com. I usually find out news when Aric comes home from having common adult interaction that I hear occurs when you go to work, and then I tell him my news for the day, like Curious George created yet another disaster, or that Dora finally found the city of lost toys and brought all the toys back to all the sad boys and girls. I truly wish she could have found Little Bear #1 and 2, because that would make my life much easier. Back to my point...

I happened to catch a very interesting interview on MPR. This guy has BREAKING NEWS as he said it! Take it for what it is, I laughed the whole way home because it was absurd, crazy, and it started to make sense. Whether it is true or not, no one will ever know...

So per Top Secret information that this guy received from a nameless source high up in the Clinton campaign (no kidding) in a parking lot. This sounds like the beginning of a movie. Hillary is trying to LOSE the presidential election!! What? But it gets better. Obama and McCain are in on it too. Not one of the top candidates wants to win the presidential election. Why? Because as they said the next president is a sucker and will have to mop up a huge mess. But apparently things can't get too much worse (let's see the peak of the rising gas prices before they go that far) and that whoever will be president in the next election in 2012 will be able to swoop in when things are on an upswing and make real changes, and REALLY be the hero. So this is Hillary's plan, to win the 2012 election! They didn't go into detail for Obama. McCain doesn't really want to win either because the Republicans want to hand the mess off to the Democrats. What is America coming to!

They threw some names out there for the next president- Nader, and a guy named Paul. When I looked him up it sounds like it's Ron Paul from Iowa. But I don't know anything about him. I am really not into politics, but this next election is a big one. When I told Aric all this as I ran into the house STILL laughing he said "Isn't it more heroic to win the election and try to make changes now? " Apparently not. It is sad that IF this has even an ounce of truth to it that no one is excited to step up to the plate and take on the challenge. That one would more rather come in a be known as a good president when the economy is on the upswing, than an OK president or a crappy president just trying to do what they can. I just found this piece of information startling and just couldn't keep my mouth shut. This information was just way too out there. So if anything, this is to be thought provoking, and maybe even spark a conversation. Craig I would love to know what you think since you just love this stuff and know the world of politics infinitely better than me. It will be interesting to see how this election turns out.

Boobie Protectors

I just love the things Brecklen says! A couple of days ago Brecklen and I were in the bathroom brushing our teeth and he noticed my bra hanging up. He says, "Mom, what's that? Is that your boobie shield. Your boobie protectors." I just started laughing, but not too hard so he doesn't feel like I'm laughing at him. I kinda had a feeling of what he meant and I said "Yeah, it's like Wonder Woman's arm braclets, but for my boobs." Then we started talking about superheros and how my boobie shields save me from bad guys. I never knew that I would know so much about superheros in my life, but thinks to Aric and Brecklen's obsession with superheros, I do. And you know what? I love it.

- Wonder Boob

Hannah's 2nd birthday, April 5 2008

It was actually a beautiful spring day, the first day of 2008 it was sunny and NOT freezing, but 60 degrees. Aric had an Oral surgery Anatomy disecting class ALL saturday. I love how his oral surgery program dictates our lives. Do I sound bitter? Aric got to see Hannah atleast before he was gone and we opened some presents. So for the rest of the day she kept asking for presents and would just say "more presents?" Brecklen, Hannah, and I hung out in the morning and went to lunch at Noodles, since Hannah loves pasta. Then we headed over to Mayo Clinic to crash their Anatomy lecture and have some cake and ice cream with all of Aric's fellow residents. Hannah was just dying to touch the cake and shed a few tears in the process. All she wanted to do was hold her precious princesses on the cake. Aric got to skip out on the afternoon Anatomy disecting and we just played outside our house enjoying the sun.

Anna is Hannah's closest friend and they are SO cute together, so Lydia, Jeff, and their kids Tommy and Anna came over for dinner that night. The kids had fun playing, and Jeff , Lydia, Aric, and I just laughed the night away. Hannah blew out her candles for yet another time. I just love a local bakery called Daubes and Hannah picked out the cutest "under the sea" cake with fish all over it. What is it about cakes that look so good that kids just have to stick their finger in it? That's just what Hannah did. On her first birthday she actually stuck her face right in the cake to take a big bite, so were making improvement. I think she had a fun day, so that's all that matters!

My 29th birthday

So I wasn't expecting much for my birthday. Let's face it, what a boring year, 29?! Aric had a big final on friday, the day before my birthday, and then needed to prepare an Oral surgery presentation on Monday. So I told him let's keep it low key, Arby's, or Chipotle. Whatever. I wasn't picky. We were just going to go to a movie with the kids and then Janee ,a friend of ours, was going to watch our kids while we go to to a real sit down restaurant since Aric convinced me that Arby's is a depressing place to go on my birthday. So we ended up going to see "Horton hears a Who." We just loved reading the book so we were all excited to see the movie. We are driving back home "the long way" we call it , or the scenic route to our house since we live on the edge of town. Aric ends up sitting in the back seat which I question and give him a funny look and he says he'd rather sit in the back with the kids, which happens on occasion when he is "in the dog house" and is scared to sit by me in the front seat. Which I haven't quite figured out why it is so bad to sit by me, but since I am pregnant and slightly realizing my emotional instability I let it slide. He is on his phone "checking his messages" which he does about once a year.

So Aric says he has alot to do tonight and lets just have pizza at home since he needs to get his presentation started. I don't really say anything but I wasn't really expecting much anyway since I knew it would be a busy weekend for him. We pull up to the house and the pizza man is there. A little weird, but hey atleast it's Papa John's. Then I see our friend's cars on the street. So the gig was up, but it was a surprise to walk into my own house and have our closest friends and all their kids sitting so patiently on the stairs yelling "Surprise!" It was my best birthday ever!! Jen, Lydia, Janee, and I laughed our heads off while our husbands just shook their heads and laughed at us. The kids just played, and atleast no one got seriously hurt. Thanks Aric and friends for the memorable surprise. This was my favorite birthday so far!