Until We Meet Again

On Thursday, July 22nd, Greyson said:

• G:  “Are you going to be sad, Mom?”
• Me:  “Yes, I’ll be sad for a little while”
• G:  “Don’t be sad”

We lost our friend Patrick Blessing.  The world lost a son, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a philanthropist, a comedian, a soon-to-be-dad.  Last week we mourned his death and celebrated his life.  We miss him.

My comfort comes in knowing that God enveloped Patrick in His arms. Heaven’s laughter is louder since he arrived. Patrick sang, he danced, he loved.  He didn’t watch life, he lived it.  He was Superman. Peter Pan.  He was loved.

Patrick beat leukemia over 15 years ago and this condition prevented him from qualifying for life insurance.  Mike and I are joining forces with Patrick’s friends and family to make sure that his beautiful wife and unborn daughter are taken care of.  Click Here to view the Memorial Facebook page or Email us directly for more information.

  “To die will be an awfully big adventure”  James M Barrie, Peter Pan

GREY*isms*

(putting on his “magic” Wobble-Goggles)

• G:  “I can see everything with these glasses!”
• Me:  “You can??”
• G: “Yeah…I can see Patrick!!”

I believe he could.

Summertime Sum Sum Summertime

Northwest Trek animal park is a very cool adventure for kids and adults that’s about an hour South of us.  It’s an opportunity to see native animals in their own habitats.  It’s like a zoo without the cages and glass and faux rocks and depressing looks on the faces of animals in captivity.  Don’t get me wrong, we take our kids to the zoo too, but it was a refreshing change; the least of which was the landscape.

So you can walk through the forest at your own pace and view cougars, lynx, bobcats, owls, eagles, brown and grizzly bears and wolves.  Take an hour long tram ride and you’ll see bison, buffalo, moose, caribou, black-tailed deer and other herbivores.  Greyson was like himself in a candy store. A key-lime lollipop unnecessarily added to his natural high.

The climax of the day was a view of Mt. Rainier.  We’ve been out here for 2 years and this never gets old.  It still takes my breath away every time I see it.

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I can’t believe we’re over halfway through the summer already!  We’ve got an action packed rest of July and August and before we know it, Labor Day will be here and in Greyson’s mind, everything starts after that. “First Halloween, then Thanksgiving and THEN Christmas, and then my birthday.”

GREY*isms*

• G: I need a new piece of gum
• Me: Why?
• G: Because mine is crooked

Ireland was a fantastic whirlwind.  I met a guy from Delafield on the Guinness tour.  It was a great trip, but even better to be home again. 

A view of Ireland from the Guinness Factory

What’s Ireland without a leprechaun? 

What’s Ireland without a Guinness (or two)?

Johnsons, Goehlers and Sibleys…can’t wait to see all of you in Colorado.  10 days and counting.  Cheers!

I’m Walking on Sunshine

There is not a prettier place in the United States then Seattle right now.  The locals say (INCESSANTLY) that summer doesn’t start until July 5th.  We landed at Sea-Tac airport at 2:45pm on July 5th after a gorgeous and relaxing but far too short weekend in Minocqua with Mike’s family and we were welcomed by sunshine, no humidity and a beautiful view of the mountains.  We heard that it rained over the weekend but on that day, you couldn’t tell.

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Our faces continue to be warmed by the sun.  The mountains, all of them, have been “out” in all their splendor.  With temps in the “no humid 90’s”, we’ve enjoyed hours outside and a wonderful visit with Carrie Roca-Dawson and Payton Blessing who are in town for a wedding this weekend.  They’re attending the rehearsal dinner now so I’m finding some time to blog a bit before life, once again, gets crazy.  Mike will be in the Tri-Cities tomorrow and I’m on a plane to Dublin, Ireland for the week.  We’ll hit Breckenridge, Colorado for a long weekend with college friends and our kids at the end of the month before going back to Toronto for a week in early August for work and then a much-needed week’s vacation back to Wisconsin before school starts.

Here’s Payton, 13 going on 30 (taken this afternoon) with the Seattle skyline behind her.  It was a beautiful day for a visit to Alki beach, where Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.

Payton’s uncle Patrick, a dear friend to us and hundreds of others across the world, needs prayer, good ju-ju, lots of thoughts and just all around love coming to him and his family as he fights for his life after suffering a major heart attack.  Visit the Care pages website that his wife Christy updates when she can: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/Pblessing.  They need all of the support they can get.

Enjoy the latest of our boys.  Greyson continues to blurt out *isms* but I’m failing miserably at remembering to write them down.  He did ask me why I don’t feed Graham from my boobs.  Geez, even my 4 years lays a guilt trip on me for selfishly depriving my youngest of his mother’s milk.

   

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Happy Summer, friends and family.  Lack of blogging means we’re spending every free minute with each other and when the kids are sleeping, so are we.  Love to you all.

Looking forward to some down time

We’re too tired to blog, to think, to plan…our 4th of July vacation couldn’t be coming at a better time.  So, a few words and a few pics and I’m signing off for another 2 weeks.  Like last year, we’re craving time with our families.  We’re daydreaming about lazy days on Lake Tomahawk, Midwestern beef, and Culver’s custard (you cannot find frozen custard out here so craving is exactly what we’re doing).  We land in Rhinelander on Thursday afternoon.  It can’t come soon enough.

Greyson insists he’s going to tube this year (we’ll believe it when we see it; he wouldn’t get on a pony as tall as him yesterday).

Graham’s still smiling, still mellow and still not crawling nor showing any teeth.  Enjoy the photos and say a little prayer that our flight is uneventful and the weekend brings sunshine and heat to a Vitamin D-deficient, Wisconsin summer-craving, frazzled and ready-for-a-vacation family of 4.

Have a great week and a safe and relaxing holiday with friends and family. 

Cheers.

Graham’s bathtime= fresh mohawk

Greyson cannot resist a photo opportunity

Though Grey prefers to be in front of the lens, every now and then he’ll give up his spotlight get behind the camera  We’re pretending that Graham has the skills to take a picture- not bad!

Leavin’ on a jet plane

 

I’m on a plane to Baltimore as I write.  Technology makes it hard for us to take a break.  On this 5.5 hour flight (plus an hour on the tarmac while we waited for traffic to clear), I have wireless internet and a laptop battery life of 7 hours.  So much for a good book and a snooze.  I did clean up my email over the past 4 hours.  I’m down to 166 messages in my Inbox.  You don’t want to know how many I started with.  I once was organized.  I don’t remember when.

We took the kids to the Redmond Farmer’s Market on Saturday and the sunshine and fresh air got the best of Graham who fell asleep in his backpack while Mike was walking with him.  What a life, huh?

Greyson picked up a cold this weekend but he still managed to play “I broke my leg”.  On his legs?  Why, casts of course!

Really on his legs?  My delicate cashmere finger-less gloves.  Let’s hope he doesn’t decide to cut them off the way a doctor would.

This was a nice little break, pausing to blog.  I’m off to tweak my presentation notes.  Wish me luck.

(Is it the 4th of July yet? )

Everlasting Mess

I might have mentioned that Greyson is reading (i.e. we’re reading to him) Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.  Actually, we’re on the 2nd read at this point.  We’ve got him all jazzed up for How to Train Your Dragon as I’ve heard it’s Roald Dahl-like.

So, I was thinking about Willy Wonka and how much I LOVED the original movie when I was little.  Who am I kidding?  I still love it.  I actually like the movie better than the book and that’s not normal for me.  I wanted an everlasting gobstopper more than anything… ‘you can suck ‘em and suck ‘em and they’ll never get any smaller’.  That was then.  Today, the idea of an everlasting gobstopper grosses me out.  All I can picture is sticky hands and sticky faces.  And where the hell do you keep the thing when you’re not sucking on it?  Lay it on your bedside table?  2 years in and you’d need a crowbar to get the thing off and then what?  You start sucking on it again?  Sick!

GREY*isms*

• G: “Mom, I should have that box!”
• Me:  “Why should you have it?”
• G:  “Because I’m elderly”

*another one*

• G: (removing the napkin from his lap)  "I would prefer not to use a napkin tonight”

We had a really nice weekend with a gorgeous Saturday that made up for last week’s rain.  We all played outside, all day, and got really dirty.  We ended the night with a dinner picnic outside (we cleaned up first).

   

The rain and sun has done wonders for my vegetable/herb garden and our landscaping.  I can’t tell you what these flowers are…but they’re all growing in our yard (OK, I’m pretty sure the last one is a rose?)

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PS. Thanks to everyone who donated to the 8k that Mike and I ran a few weeks ago.  Our team raised over $3000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

Missing Wisconsin – Memorial Weekend 2010

“I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.” ~Benjamin Harrison

Happy Memorial Day. We did not have nice weather this weekend, at least not until about 3pm this afternoon. Our families spent the weekend on motorcycles and boats, in shorts and swimsuits.  We had the heat on at night and wore jackets outside.  It’s been a while since we’ve craved a good old-fashioned cookout with greasy burgers, potato salad and a cold beer.  We’re bummed we couldn’t share that with our friends and family back home.

The good news is that we had a lot of fun on our ‘stay-cation’ even though it rained (the whole time).  Mike and Grey saw Shrek 4.  We shopped, played a bunch of games and made some great meals.  We closed out the weekend tonight at a friend’s house.  The sun joined us just in time to make us wish the weekend was only beginning but we did get our burger and hot dog fix.  It was a great Northwest barbecue (“grill out” isn’t in the lexicon).

GREY*isms*

• Mike: “What’re you doing?”
• G: (drowning his raspberries in yogurt) “I’m sinking my raspberries…like an iPod”

Graham is 7 months old. Greyson is 4 going on 14 and thankfully still smitten with his little brother.  We’re looking forward to visits home this summer so our family and friends can see them up close and in person.  Love, The Guenthers in Seattle…

I Wanna Tell You Something

Have I given you the play by play of Greyson’s bedtime? You can’t wait to hear it, right? You’re on the edge of your seat…I know.

I give Graham a bottle at 7pm and he’s usually down for the count by 7:15. At that point, we get a solid 30 minutes of playtime with Grey. Tonight he wanted to play basketball in his playroom. The best part of it is he has to change into his basketball clothes. “I’ll be right back”, he runs out of the room and a few minutes later returns with his shiny Nike shorts and matching shirt. “Basketball” in the playroom usually consists of Daddy showing off his 1/2 court shot while Grey retrieves the ball for him over and over again. By the time Grey realizes he didn’t take a shot, it’s time for bed.

So, the routine. Mike usually takes the 1st half which includes going potty, brushing teeth and changing into pajamas. Grey is particular about his jammies and usually chooses them based on one of a few things.

• Favorite Cartoon/Movie of the Day
• Favorite Toy of the Day
• Current obsession that has nothing to do with TV or toys (i.e. pirates, Spiderman or bugs)

He’s not beneath pulling pajamas out of his hamper if his heart is set on a particular theme.

After he brushes his teeth (HIGHLY recommend the Sonicare for kids- it’s worth every penny) and goes potty, he gets to pick 2 or 3 books depending on his cooperation and Mike’s patience. We’re almost done with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and recently started Charlotte’s Web so he’ll usually get a few chapters of each and then maybe a Spiderman or Superman. Then Mike turns his bedside lamp off and says goodnight.

This is where I take over. I lay down next to him, he turns his back to me and lifts his shirt up so I can rub his back and sing. For 2 years I’ve been singing the same 6 songs in order and if I skip one, he knows. If I screw up the words, he knows. If I sing too fast he asks me to slow down. If I sing too slow, he sighs and says “Mooommm”. What songs do I sing, you ask? I wish they were original, I wish they were shorter and I wish I had a better voice. Here goes: Twinkle, Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Sunshine from the Bullfrogs and Butterflys CD which is an album I grew up with and finally I’ve Been Talkin to the Son which is a song I sang in 7th grade when I played Hark the Herald Angel in my church play- YES, I remember the words and YES, at the time I thought I was a really great singer.

After the singing is finished, Greyson pulls his shirt back down and we pray. We always thank God for His blessings, for our health, for good food, a nice home and a warm bed. We pray for all of the kids who don’t have good food, nice homes and warm beds and we ask Him to watch over our families and give us sweet dreams and a great day tomorrow, Amen. I kiss him, tell him I love him and start to walk out the door. And every night, without fail, he says “I wanna tell you something”. I play along. His ‘something’ varies but always starts out like this, “Ummmm”…

• “I like to play the guitar” (May 28th)
• “Why do you actually turn my light off?” (May 26th)
• “Why did you leave my Spiderman costume on the floor?” (April 19th)
• “I want to change my name to Mahmobongos” (May 25th)

Tonight, and the reason for this rambling blog post, Greyson chose his Buzz Lightyear jammies. He asked me to tuck Buzz and Woody into bed next to him and as I did so, I hit Buzz’s space ranger shield which made a spastic sound that scared the crap out of me. Grey giggled and said “you hit Buzz’s laser” and I said “I know!” and he said “Woody says it’s not a laser, he says it’s just a little light that blinks”.

Toy Story 3 comes out on June 18th. I think we’ll go see it.

We have friends and family who are SAHM’s and DINKS. I’m a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and working professional. Is there an acronym for that? C-R-A-Z-Y. So that is my excuse for going dark since Mother’s Day. It’s not that I haven’t tried. I’ve got 4 blogs in draft and can’t seem to find a way to complete them.

What have we been up to that’s kept me from blogging, you ask? Hmmm…

• Graham is sleeping like a champion fighter, so I can't feign a lack of sleep (well I can, but for other reasons)
• Greyson and Graham take their afternoon nap at the same time, so throw that excuse out too
• Greyson has soccer every Saturday but we skipped yesterday’s class and last week’s too (though we did go to a birthday party instead)…
• We paid for someone to clean our house this week (finally)

You get the picture. So, we should have time on our hands, right? Time to spend lazing in the sun with our boys, time to spend preparing fresh fish with herbs from our garden, time at the park, time making music, laughing, playing...so, here you go. A little bit of documentation from some of the fun we've been having.

And a few other tidbits about all of us...

• Graham is still toothless but is managing a fine array of foods. I'm adding cinnamon to his oatmeal and that's going over quite well
• After smelling his new toothpaste, Greyson said "I'm blowing toothpaste air into my nose". When asked why, his response was "so my nose blows up"
• Graham is not crawling, nor showing any interest in trying but put him on the floor with a teething ring, a book and some crinkly toys and he will happily occupy himself for an hour
• Mike is still flying to Eastern Washington once/week- we try to pretend that traveling overnight is a burden but secretly revel in the peace and quiet
• Mike and I ran an 8k for charity last week. We finished the race together (because I went as fast as I could and Mike insisted on running with me) and enjoyed it enough that we're talking about doing another one in June.
• We threw a party on Friday night for a co-worker. Our last guest left at 9:30am the next day. We got some sleep, but not much.

More to come. Maybe next week, maybe next month, but we'll be having some fun around here!

Happy Mother's Day 2010

We are in the midst of a phenomenally beautiful Mother’s Day weekend. May marks the beginning of ridiculously long days in the Pacific Northwest.  8pm bedtime for Grey feels like late afternoon. 

I was trying to remember what we did on Mother’s Day last year so I checked my blog (I am aware of how lame that sounds, thank you very much).  In May of 2009, I wrote about our visit to the park and Greyson’s official transition to ‘potty trained’.  I find that quite ironic today, given the fact that Grey came downstairs this morning with an obvious guilty face and admitted that he just pooped in the bathtub.  Take note that he wasn’t taking a bath at the time.  He just climbed in, took a dump, and covered it up with a foam letter “H”.  He should have picked a letter with less gaps.  Maybe an “M” for MAD MOM.

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Have you seen this You Tube clip?  Greyson loves it and has been reciting it word for word, with the accent.  He’s recently begun putting his own finger in Graham’s mouth.  Lucky for him, Graham is still toothless.

I’ve been lamenting the fact that our Greyson is no longer a baby.  He is all boy and is demanding his independence, his own voice and his space.  But I can’t go to bed without watching him sleep, tucking his quilt around him and brushing the hair off of his face.  And sometimes I’ll risk waking him with the flash of my camera when I feel like capturing a moment like this one – head on his baseball pillow, monkey blanket tucked securely under his arm…he’s still a baby to me.

Speaking of babies…Graham is cool, calm and collected.  The antithesis of Grey in every way.  He’s moved beyond rice cereal and into the realm of peas, carrots, avocado, sweet potatoes and apples.  His doctor tells me that a local pediatrician started her own organic food line that supposedly expands a baby’s palate. I say ‘why not’?  If a jar of Japanese-inspired puree increases the chances of Graham eating grilled fish tacos with a homemade pineapple salsa on a warm May night when he’s 4 years old, I’m game. 

GREY*isms*

• Me: (after returning from a business trip to Toronto) “Tell me about your week!”
• G: “I put a leaf in Graham’s mouth…and he puked”

GREYSON’S AMERICAN DICTIONARY

Cropernating (Cropper-nate-ing):  Don’t touch anything!

Happy Mother’s Day!