Good old Ottowa

It has been over two years since we made the trek to the Midwest to visit Chris' family on their own turf. The tallies below no doubt give you some indication for the delay, but in any case we were over-due for a visit.

It was a great couple of days! The girls fed their apparently genetic preoccupation with birds, literally, as Mom Mlinek has set up a little bird sanctuary in her backyard. And they had plenty of time to wear Uncle Andy down playing hide-and-seek and whatever other games they've invented that all seem to involve making Andy run around the house. And there were crafts, and cakes to be decorated (for Grandpa Mlinek's birthday), and videos to watch, and videogames to play (uh, for Chris and Andy, not so much for the kids), and weddings to talk about!

Ottowa is always described as a town with very little to offer, but I have to say we found nothing lacking when we came to visit! :)

Oh, and for the curious -- having your father-in-law sit at the dinner table covered in vomit because he doesn't want you to know (as though we didn't!) that he'd been hit and feel bad (as though we didn't!), before quietly sneaking upstairs to change.....priceless.

Thanksgiving Tallies

Hours driven: 24 ish
Accidents (i.e. wet pants): 1
Doses of drammamine consumed: 6
Incidents of vomitting: 8
Grandparents puked on unexpectedly while eating dinner: 1

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wait till your Daddy gets home.....

Claire is in big trouble today.

Our blinds were not looking great, but they were certainly not this terrible until this afternoon, when Claire decided to practice her ladder climbing skills on the blinds while I was upstairs folding towels. I very much so wanted to beat the tar out of her, but instead I put her in a good long time out and then packed the girls up to go blow some steam off at the gym.

Now, the ceiling light in our van is on a timer, so that it shuts off a minute or so after the door has been closed. We had some trouble with Claire turning the light to "on," as in "on all the time" a few months ago, but I thought we had resolved that little issue. Guess not. No gym for us, because the car won't start.

Um....why did we have kids? I can't remember. I'm pretty sure our reasons didn't include having our stuff destroyed, and our car killed a week before Thanksgiving.

On days like this, I often will have that old nursery rhyme running through my head -- you know, the one that ends:
She gave them some butter without any bread
Then spanked them all soundly
And sent them to bed.

Sounds like good advice to me.

Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The older two girls and I just came back from a trip into Pittsburgh and I'm due to write an update about that, but first I have to talk about this crazy day we've had.

First off, we are all okay. No one has been seriously hurt. But I couldn't tell you, with one disaster succeeding another today, how we've managed to stay whole.

The morning began badly; Abbie again woke up every few hours all night, eventually just refusing to go back to sleep around 6am. My state of mind was much like a fox caught in a trap -- you know, the ones who chew their own legs off to escape? Yeah, I wasn't doing so good. So Chris got up to let me sleep the last half-hour before we needed to get ready for school. Around 6:45, Claire woke up and promptly fell down the steps, doing some bizarre move that - according to Chris - resembled a cartwheel. She landed directly on top of Abbie.

Lots of crying, and a few years off the old heart for Chris, but in the end they were both okay. I got up and we took off for school. On the way, the girls and I stopped to pick up something at the grocery store and while we were in line Beth and Claire started climbing on the side of the cart. I told them to stop it repeatedly, but got distracted when it was time to pay. So, you guessed it, the cart came crashing over onto its side, pinning Beth under it. The scariest thing was that Abbie had been in the seat. I remember the whole thing as a hazy slow-mo, but I think that I managed to grab Abbie's jacket enough to keep her head from crashing onto the floor, plus I think Beth's poor little body cushioned the blow for the baby. The immediate aftermath, though, was pure chaos. Everyone was crying, including the checkout clerk. Abbie's nose was covered in snot as she screamed, and I didn't know which kid to comfort/check over/berate first.

I gathered them all together - Abbie still screaming - and headed for the parking lot, while several pairs of hostile eyes followed me out of the store. I am sure that there will be many dinner-table discussions tonight about that awful woman who had too many kids to handle. *Sigh*

Once safely back in our car, though, I was able to check Abbie out enough to feel fairly sure that she didn't have a concussion. Beth was just fine, beyond being frightened. And I doubt I'll have to remind any of them not to climb on the cart again.

So from Katie's school we proceeded with our usual routine, heading over to my gym. No sooner did we walk into the gym than Claire -- I don't even know how she did this -- closed her hand in the door. She's okay, though, despite that being her third trauma before 9am.

Oh, and Chris? When he woke up, for no reason that we can discern at all, his left eye had swollen to about twice its usual size. He looks a little bit like Rocky after the fight, without all the bruises.

I think we're just going to chill at home for the rest of this day. I just wish that I had a padded room.

Update:
It actually gets worse. Someone had to go out again today, to pick Katie up from school. On their way home, Chris and Katie were almost in an accident. They hit a slick part of the road, smacked off of the curb and made a complete donut, stopping just a foot or two from a (very big) ditch.

How many calamities can you dodge in one day? I don't want to test that quota.

Lord of the Menopausal Women

This past weekend, we drove into Pittsburgh to accompany Grandma Niccoli to the newest Michael Flatley extravaganza. I have to say that my girls, especially Katie and Beth, have been obsessed, absolutely obsessed, with an old VHS of Riverdance they found downstairs. They have the opening dance number memorized, with all three of them beginning with the group routine and then Beth breaking off to do Michael Flatley's part. It's very impressive. Katie also does a killer rendition of the Spanish dance.

So my mom has tried to capitalize on this to the fullest, since it gives her an excuse to indulge her crush on Michael Flatley. Needless to say, when she found out he was coming into Pittsburgh -- we were there!

Seriously, though, I have to say thank you to her for the tickets. I hate to admit it, but we had a really good time. The girls loved the show, and I had fun watching all the old women in the audience go crazy. And, bonus!, Michael Flatley managed to stay mostly clothed most of the time. (I cannot say the same for his young female dancers, however.) So thanks to Mom for the tickets, Margaret and Rachel for the sarcasm, the kids for the innocent enjoyment, and Charlotte (my mom's friend from high school) for the crazed applause that reminded me of my days as a New Kids on the Block teeny-bopper.