Baby, it is COLD outside.........

It was downright cold this morning when we all woke up! The kids, bless their hearts, want to have snow so deperately and so the few flurries we had were SO exciting to them. Unlike all our friends that live up north, we don't get to see snow much at all here, so even flurries are exciting! Dan, Dalton and I got our H1N1 vaccines this a.m., Dalton had the shot and we had the mist. Yuck, I hated it. No more mist for me, shots only. It has made me feel weird and I don't like that. Dalton was so brave, I was proud of him.

I have to go to the dr. today for my check-up. I have severe white coat syndrome, which is weird since I love the medical world, google surgeries and wish I had gone to med school myself. When it comes to ME though, uh I'd rather pass on getting jabbed and nabbed. And I HATE getting weighed. HATE IT.

My goal is to try a detox diet for 4 weeks, and see how that makes me feel. Fresh fruit, veggies mostly is what I need to aspire to. That won't be easy, b/c although I eat mostly very healthy, I have trouble getting fruits and veggies in :(

I have started back on a very regular exercise regime. This time around, I am doing longer cardio intervals with less resistance and doing weights with lots of reps and low weight. I need to tone, NOT build biceps Tina Turner.

The other thing is water. I have a love and hate relationship with water. I KNOW it's the best thing for me, and sometimes I crave it, but there is this other beverage that makes my heart palpitate, his name is Diet Cherry DP, and he "looks like a cool drink of water, but he's candy coated misery."

I know the holiday season is a hard time to be health conscience, but I think I am up to the challenge!!!

Sit back and be happy...........

I am at work today. Taking a little break from the ty cards I was writing to committee members, and since NO ONE is working in this whole building (the day after Thanksgiving) but me and some girls here, it's quiet to say the least. My phone rang three times, Dan 2 times and the wrong number once, so I thought I would jump on and write a few things down.

Life can be so stressful; we get caught up in buying all this stuff for Christmas, and keeping up with the next guy and I just don't think we (including myself at the top of this list), just sit back and think about how lucky we are. I am truly blessed. I have two amazingly smart, healthy, wonderful, beautiful children, a husband who adores me, and would do anything for his family, and my extended family too, whom I love very much. I also have friends that are TRUE friends. They aren't about appearances, they are loyal, dependable and wonderful all the way around.

Last but not least, I have God. I know he is there, but sometimes when life gets to be too much, I seem to forget he also loves me, is loyal, dependable and wonderful all the way around.
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for all these people in my life who make me a better person, and a God who has compassion and love for all of us and who sacrificed the most precious thing, his Son for all of us.

Here is to a Happy, healthy holiday to you all. May you sit back and be happy.......................

Toe-tally unexpected

Tatum was getting dressed for gymnastics the other day and didn't have her shoes or socks on, she opened the door and the massive door sliced her second toe on her right foot very badly, I thought the toe nail was off, it was black almost immediately and I though for sure the toe was broken. She bled all over the place and I picked her up and ran out to the car with her and over to pediatric urgent care. 3.5 hours later the radiologist FINALLY got around to reading the x-ray and she had no breaks; Dan took her by mcdonald's (she was starving), and home. I really thought the worst part would be the cleaning of the toe, bandaging it, and all of that. But she was such a trooper, she stuck her foot in the water and was really great about it all. I stayed home with her on Monday, I was just worried about it, she didn't wear a shoe for 3 days and today wore flip flops!

The one thing that is great is that since she had to sit around so much, it gave her ample time to write Santa Claus numerous letters......for her and on behalf of her little brother.

She wants a nintendo DS, and she is adament about that......along with 10 other things, at least.

Dalton would love a Castle Gray Skull and something else and lizard man, and a 'rideable cow'

I tried to explain that Santa doesn't bring everything, I even told Tatum that the DS is pretty expensive and she smiled and said 'THAT IS the GREAT thing, you don't have to worry about it, Santa will take care of it"

Uh huh. Same thing with the Castle Gray Skull, which hasn't been made since 1987, alas not to worry mom, Santa has some pretty crafty elves on his team and they can make "anything mommy, ANYTHING"

Uh huh. Shhhhewwww, I am glad Santa has all these connections and knows how to get the best stuff around.


P.S. I tried to take a picture of the toe, but she told me absolutely NOT, I would NOT take a picture of her toe, so do NOT even try. I don't like to be threatened and she meant business so no pictures were taken, but let's just say it wasn't pretty.

There's a New Moon tonight

I did this with Lord of the Rings; I knew that for 4 consecutive years, in December, a new Lord of the Rings movie would come out. It was exciting. Now, I would NEVER compare Tolkien to The Twilight Series author Stephanie Meyer, but move over Harry Potter, the vampires are in TOWN.

It's addicting. Sure, the fan base it mostly female, and I will admit that the romance crap out there, lovey dovey...kissy huggy movies are not my top pick. BUT....mix some hot vampires, a few werewolves in there and you have a recipe for success. It's hard to not get caught up in the poor girl in love with a vampire who struggles to protect her, whilst also trying desperately NOT to kill her...then he leaves her....she is hollow....clings to new guy friend (werewolf---and hot), then werewolf falls for her, and OH MY WORD she finds herself in a bloodsucking hairy love triangle. SIGN.ME.UP.

Movie #2 (New Moon) opens tomorrow night. I sure hope there are some tickets left for the weekend because I have seen the trailer several times and SQQUUUEEALLLLL....I am pumped.

Back, from a long absense

It has been far too long since I have posted on our blog. No great excuses, just that I am so busy I do not know which end is up....

Everyone seems to be doing well in the House of Rice. Wait! Well, I guess anyone who reads this already knows this, but Dan got a new job with Jack Henry, an awesome company with their home office here. He is now 'corporate consel' it's exciting. He now wears jeans every day to work, had better hours and makes more $$$.....pretty cool all the way around.

We are also coaching, and I say that term loosely, Dalton's indoor soccer team. 5 girls and 3 boys, 3 & 4 years, old, it's a riot, although Dalton seems to not be that into it. I have no idea why, he is bigger stronger and faster than all of them, but unless he is playing goalie, he's not happy.

My brain is fried, and tired. This week beat me up and tossed me around, so I am MORE than happy to welcome the weekend!

The only thing that is freaking me out is Christmas. I love it, the decor, the food, the festivities, etc. what I do not like is the stress of some parts of it, but for whatever reason, I do not feel like it is 6 weeks away, and lo and behold it IS. I have NO idea what to do for the kids, NO idea.
I will figure something out, I always do.

Happy weekend to everyone.

Oh crap, was that today?

One of my co-workers sent forwarded me an email that I just laughed so hard that I can't get it out of my mind. It's a picture of two dinosaurs on the shore and Noah and his ARK have sailed on into the distance, and the caption from one of the dinosaurs is: "Oh crap, was that today?"

It is PERFECT. It is my life in fact. Okay, for one thing, I have to brag and say with everything going on, I rarely forget anything BIG....knock on wood. That said, I have several 'oh crap that was today' moments.

I awoke to the sound of Tatum in the bathroom. She is 6 now, and well, she likes to take a nice hot shower in the morning----this child has been up at the crack of dawn since the very beginning. SO I hear her talking to her daddy in there saying that today WAS in fact 'wear your school shirt day' and her shirt was red with white letters, but she couldn't bring herself to wear her black long sleeve shirt underneath it! AHA! I jumped up and walked in and said,

"I BOUGHT YOU A NEW long sleeve white shirt on Sunday!!" I so rocked for remembering that one. :)


This morning I took Dalton to get his flu shot. But I did NOT say anything about it. NO need to fret for an entire hour before it happens. So we pull up and he says very happily, "OH MOMMY, do I have an ear infection? Strep throat? Fever?"

I said no, he just kept on walking happily with me. Then we get in and fill out the information, and he goes nicely over to the nurse, whom I happen to know too. She asks him his name, and how old he is:

"Dalton Patrick Rice, and I just turned 4"

She says which arm, and then asks to see his strong mucscles. HE SMILED and said "SURE!!"

Then she looked at me as he sat on my lap and picked out his candy and I nodded to just DO THIS THING!!! Wow, she said, you are brave and she stuck him. He didn't even flinch. He sat there, everyone roared with applause (okay people clapped), and the nurse announced he was probably the bravest boy she had ever seen.

Dalton is NOT a humble child, he knows quite well he is cute and brave, he moonlights as a super hero for crying out loud!!!

Well after that he chats non-stop

"I KNOW I was brave, it still was a shot though, mommy, did you see it? I rea--yee big one, and I was so good, so good. Mommy can I have pancakes and eggies? I know how we make chocolate milk, we take milk and put brown sugar in it, and shake it as hard as we can, that's how mommy...mommy, do you like shots? Mommy, did you cry when you had a shot? Mommy can we call Tatum and tell her I had a shot and didn't cry at ALL? Mommy can I have pancakes and eggies? (insert that one 4 times).

What a kid.

Sick? I'm not sick....I am NOT SICK.

I am sick. I have this weird thing about me, it's the I-don't-get-sick-like-the-rest-of-you-people,,,,thing. It's totally cocky, and well guess what, I GUESS I DO GET SICK, B/C THIS WEEK has been HORRIBLE. It started last week with Tatum getting strep and bronchitis, then it just got worse. Going out didn't help either on Saturday, but once again, I laugh in the general DI-REC-TION of sick ahahahaha......the last laugh was on me this time. Cuz I got SICK.

No, I don't have the swine, penguin, dog, parrot or beta flu. This thing started as the tightness in your chest, then the horrible nasty cough, headache, eye aches, sinus aches, body aches, that sent me to the Dr., to determine that I had a severe sinus infection, two ear infection (what the?), and bronchitis. She kept temping me, and although my temperature was a lowly 97.7, she couldn't believe it, and also that I was walking upright and making conversation. She said it was my youth (I almost french kissed her for saying that).....kidding,,,,,,and the fact that I was in good shape (arguable at this point), that had prevented me from basically being in the hospital.

That was Tuesday. I had just come off a LONG day after a BIG event on Monday, and off I went to Walgreens. A LOT of $$$ later, my bag was filled with generic this and antibiotic that......HOLY CROW, I was thinking, I am going to end up like Michael Jackson, or River Phoenix, or WORSE....Heath Ledger, if I take all this stuff. But I took what I was supposed to,,,and then I coughed. And felt worse.

Wednesday....no better, Dalton has strep throat now (but somehow feels just FINE), so I awake to quite a sight. Dan has LEFT ME ALONE WITH THIS MAD SCIENTIST,,,aka DALTON. Dan headed off early to work and took Tatum with him, leaving Disaster Patrick Rice, (also the love of my life), alone to 'HELP' his mama. Or so those were his instructions when last his father left him. Here is what I do know:

1.) He knew 'mommy is sick' so take care of her. So, he sprang into action.

A.) He went to the play room, quickly took off all his clothes (General Hospital?), and put on his doctor's jacket. Then quickly grabbed his dr. kit, he had a sick patient for crying out LOUD!! --Very sick I might add.

2.) I awake to him rolling me over on my back (college) hee hee....and strandling me.

"MOMMY, YOU ARE GOING TO BE ALL BETTER SOON....BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO HAVE SOME SHOTS, OPEN YOUR MOUTH."

I just did what he said, I was THAT tired and worn out to fight him. He shot me here and thumped me there, and pushed me and pulled me, I felt like Maverick in Top Gun during round one of flight school.

Somehow the attack stopped, he mumbled that I needed to go to the hospital straight away, and that 'This looks really bad.' Then Dr. Dalton got bored and moved on to the next thing. Which was the game Battleship...ALL OVER ME AND MY bed. I got up, dazed and hazed and coughing up actual parts of what I swear HAD to be part of my lungs, and we got dressed and played to the best of my ability.

Convincing him of a nap was not easy, but I fell asleep before him in his bed and he finally did get a bit of a nap. That was a long night!!!! I am still coughing, it's getting OLD FAST, but okay I am humbled to the fact that I too can get this sick. I might just even start taking those vitamins a little bit more regularly. Because I have found that NOT having a voice makes it really hard to yell at your kids like you should :) Ha! Thank goodness it is Friday. A word to the wise, wash your hands and lysol the crap out of everything you have, you do NOT want what I just had.

Here are some pictures of Dalton from school. It's like, are you kidding me? What a pimp!