Bein' Cultured

On Saturday morning we were trying to figure out what to do with three kids who were bouncing off the walls. Naturally, Joe came up with the idea of taking them to the Art Museum. I have to confess that it has been many years since I had been there so my memories were quite distant and slightly off-track.

For some reason, I had it in my head that the Columbus Museum of Art was really small and really boring. Color me surprised! The first floor is mainly interactive stuff for kids. The girls had a great time!!

Here is Mary trying to put together a four-sided George Bellows puzzle:

And here is Sarah trying to draw a figure in the George Bellows style:

Of course, once Mary and Leah found out that they could also draw something, they had to be in on the action. I wouldn't say that any of them had a George Bellows reproduction on their hands, but they all did pretty well. My girls all really enjoy drawing and creating some art so this part of the exhibit was right up their alley. When we were finished with George, we moved on to the Elijah Pierce exhibit which was also very interactive. Mary really had a great time playing with the magnet replicas of his scuptures. For some reason, Satan was her favorite. She called him "the guy with the tail". I suppose I should be happy that she is so innocent, huh? Here she is with her favorite magnet. Some people would say that her Hannah Montana T-shirt actually depicts satan! LOL!!

After we were finished with Elijah, Leah suddenly had an attack of being a Terrible Three and we had to go through the rest of the museum at break-neck speed. By the time we hit the Egyptian exhibit, I had a security guy following me giving me the evil eye. It was definitely time to go!

All-in-all, it was a nice activity for the girls and who knows? Maybe they might have absorbed a touch of culture while they were there. HA!

Guilt, guilt and more guilt

Every once in a while (like a couple times per year), I have to travel for work. Generally it is one of those deals where you get up at the butt crack of dawn, fly out and then return later in the evening. The last couple of trips have been slightly longer than that though. I had to go to Jackson MS in December for a couple of days and I'm here again right now for some follow-up work for a full week.

Well, a couple days of being gone really isn't such a big deal, but an entire week? Geesh! So now I'm wallowing in guilt after being gone for about 36 hours. It all started Saturday night when Sarah was slightly weepy that I wouldn't be able to tuck her in for the whole week. Then Leah chose Sunday (when I was flying out) to throw up everywhere. Just in time for me to walk out the door and leave Joe with that mess.

And then today. I call home and I'm informed that Mary had an extremely rough day at daycare today. She was reprimanded 5 + times for not being able to keep her body to herself. Not-so-coincidentally, the last time she had these troubles at daycare was when I was in Jackson in December. Now I truly feel like crap because she obviously isn't happy that I'm gone. In some ways, it would be a lot easier if she just reacted like Sarah and vocalized her feelings about being Mommy-free for a week.

I would think that they would be excited to be free of me for a while! I have a few more rules than Joe. Joe will make them very kid-friendly meals while I'm away. Why wouldn't they be thrilled to be free of me for a little bit? I just don't get it.

Ah, and then there is the guilt of leaving Joe with ALL the work for the week. Once again, a couple days is no biggie but it starts to really be a pain in the bahookie after that.

I guess I will just have to get over it and just convince my colleagues to work a bit harder so we can go home sooner.

A little bit of guilt is healthy, right?

The face of a sickie

After being cooped up all day with her sisters yesterday, Mary woke up crying and screaming that she was sick and needed to stay home. Being the fabulous mother that I am, I just assumed she was trying to play hookey from Pre-K. It wasn't until she refused to eat her cottage cheese that I KNEW she wasn't lying. That child could eat a gallon of it if you gave her the opportunity. She is like that about feta cheese as well. She has a "unique" palate which is why I know something is wrong when she is off her food.

So here is a picture of the sicko in action. Note the really lovely red-ringed, puffy eyes. In my defense, she didn't look nearly this bad earlier this morning, but she certainly has degenerated throughout the day. Now I'm trying to figure out how to convince her that a nap is a good thing. Why do kids fight napping? I would give my left arm for a good nap!

Of course, I also have to consider what this means for tomorrow. I have only been actually IN the office for a whopping four hours this week. I suppose I should just be grateful that I have the luxury to work from home when I need to, huh? :-)

I did take a picture of Mary looking not quite as pathetic. this is more like how she looked this morning when I was being mean and telling her she had to go to school! Once again, the four-yr-old wins the battle!

Hooray for Mother Nature!

Like a good chunk of the US, we were slammed with snow and ice overnight. Yeah us! I'm sitting here in my sweatpants and fuzzy fleece sweatshirt hanging out and working from home. There is just something about this time of year that makes me want to hide away in my house and not come out so I'm always looking for an excuse to stay home. We received the much anticipated auto-dialer call last night so Sarah could even sleep in for a bit. OK, "sleeping in " in this house means 6:30 - 7:00.

We actually didn't get nearly as much snow as they were calling (no surprise, we never do), but we got a boat-load of ice. Here is a picture of our deck table. You can see the thick layer of ice under a wee bit of snow. I am digging the icicles too. I also took a couple pictures of some of the trees in our back yard. I just liked how they looked. It makes the sad, droopy evergreen in the back neighbor's yard actually look pretty. I think snow makes everything look a lot prettier though. I'm sick that way!

Here is part of the big tree in our yard. The white, blobby streaks are big, fluffy snowflakes. Did I mention that I love snow? Snow rocks!

Oh, and dontcha love the grey sky? It is perpetually grey here for the duration of winter. This isn't just because we are in the midst of a snow storm.

Oh how I wish for a snow day!

We are supposed to get slammed with snow today. Well, not Cleveland-slammed, but 6 to 9" is quite a lot of snow for Central Ohio. It started falling through the night, but so far we only have about an inch or so. I have been monitoring the school closings online (since I have been working since 5 am) but so far, nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Doesn't Mother Nature know that I want to work from home today? I really don't want to put on dress pants and nice shoes. I REALLY don't want to go out there knowing that I'm going to have a crappy drive home. Yuck.

The magical hour of 6:00 am is rapidly approaching. Why am I thinking we are not getting the phone call from the school district? Yes, we have a hoity-toity school district where they have an autodialer to call you with school closing information. It actually takes some of the fun and anticipation out of the prospect of a calamity day. Of course, when Hurricane Ike blew through here and we lost power for seven days, the auto-dialing was useless without a power source for our phones.

Ah well, I guess it is time to head to the shower, get dressed and slap on some makeup. There is always tomorrow.

Working at home today

I'm so lucky that I can work from home. Right now I'm sitting here in my pjs watching some SAS code run. It is SOOO much better than doing this from the office. It is baffling to me why more businesses don't allow their employees to telecommute. I mean, I understand if you have a job that doesn't involve heavy computer usage, but otherwise, why wouldn't they?

Do they think their employees will get less done? I find it to be the opposite for me. Because I'm more conscious of my time while I'm at home, I make up any goof off time that I might have. I would bet that I get way more accomplished and I'm far more focused here than in my office cave.

The only thing that would make this better is if I had a wireless connection and a laptop. Then I could be the ultimate in telecommuters and be plopped on my couch with my feet up while I worked. Boy, that sounds like heaven! Getting paid to sit around on the couch! I'm really good at that, too.

Why Doodle Bears should be banned...

Yesterday I was thinking I was the blogging queen or something because I actually did a post that included a picture. Yeah Me! Of course, the feeling of euphoria couldn't last. Shortly after I finished my post, Joe came down from Mary & Leah's room and told me I needed to go up there.
Uh-oh.

So I went up (camera in hand after being warned) and this is what I found:

Mary overjoyed at her Doodle Bear experience.

Here are her arms and legs. I didn't capture the best part of her legs. She drew stick figures all over her upper thighs. We just don't need that posted on the internet.

Here is Leah after being busted. She wasn't quite as gleeful as Mary.

Now because I do not wish to give up the crown, I will continue to be blog queen and post some VIDEO!! Leah went to her first dentist appointment yesterday and she did great. She was most excited about finally getting her very own bag of goodies. The minute she sat in the chair, she asked for her swag.