New Year's Eve

Our plan was that we weren't going to do much on New Year's Eve, probably just stay home & watch a movie. Sam even said that we needed to use up some of the left overs for dinner. Not really very exciting, even for us. I had thought about going to First Night at Grand Center, but the forecast was for it to be 25 degrees-way too cold for me!!!
Well, Ben had other plans and asked his friend Zachary to come over to do sparklers with him, and we ended up with 5 adults and 4 children spending New Year's Eve at our house.
The kids had a great time outdoors lighting sparklers, despite the cold. I even rushed out of the door for a few minutes to take some pictures.

This is a good one of Maggie doing the two-handed approach

I like the way that the flash captured the smoke patterns in this one

The sulphur was hanging low and almost unbearable as can be seen by Ben's face in this picture

Sam was keeping a close eye on what was going on as the boys were getting a little carried away with using the sparklers as swords (of course).
Our visitors left around 10 and we managed to stay up until 11.30, not bad for us!!! The kids stayed up until the ball fell in New York at 11, but they volunteered to go to bed right after that.

New Year's resolutions

I told Sam I was going to put my resolutions in print so that it might help me keep them. I seem to have a lot this year, I usually break them before January is out!!!! Every year for the past 30 of them, I have said I am going to stop picking/chewing my fingers. The only time I have been able to do this is when I had acrylic nails because my own were splitting. I had the acrylic taken off when we went to Ukraine & immediately started picking again. My nails have been better, so I never went back to acrylic, maybe I need to but the expense and time commitment is a bit much. So, on top of my usual finger resolution, I will compile a list of what I need to do in 2009
1. I will only get lattes at the weekend
2. I will exercise more
3. I will not chew as much gum
4. I will drink more water
5. I will lose weight
6. I will wash my face every night
7. I will brush my teeth after drinking coffee
8. I will not yell at the kids when they are fighting or driving me crazy
9. I will teach Ben to be more patient, kinder & more considerate
10. I will figure out how to stop Maggie crying at every twist and turn

Ben's growth hormone

Now that another year is approaching, we are the victims of the insurance company/supplier agreements. United Health Care will no longer cover Ben's Norditropin and we will have to switch to Nutropin. This is the same growth hormone, just made by a different company. Unfortunately, the user group that I belong to has many people that report that Nutropin stings when it is injected. It is probably because the pH is different or something like that. The other drawback is that they don't have the same autoinjector that we have been using so I am going to have to go back to injecting myself. Depending on the formulation we get, we may even have to mix it ourselves every day. We have just got used to one routine and now have to change. Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem. Apparently, UHC has signed a 5 year agreement, will be good if we get used to it but bad if it really does sting when you inject.

Christmas in the time of electronics

This Christmas, I have had cause to reflect on just how much life has changed since electronics came along. Our children are growing up with things that we did not have when we were young and life is just not what it was. Ours is not the first generation to say this, I have heard "things are not what they used to be" several times in my past. Things are never what they used to be, but we always ask ourselves are they better or worse. Of course, I am sure the answer is always "in some ways better and in some ways worse". However, surely the advent of computers and electronics has to be one of the major changes in our lives between one generation. I can remember when my Dad got a calculator at work. It could do basic mathematical functions and cost a huge amount of money in those days. We thought it was wonderful & much easier than that old slide rule. I can remember when computers took up a whole room: now you can hold them in your hand and access the Internet (and hence the World) from wherever you are. In fact, I am currently sitting at Monkey Joe's while the kids are playing on the bouncy toys. I can work on my computer while they are here, or at McDonald's, or any other number of places that have free WiFi access. Now, I can take the kids somewhere that they enjoy, but I can do something to occupy myself at the same time. Is this better or worse than how things used to be? Should I be standing around watching them and telling them how well they are doing rather than sitting in my comfy chair bonding with a machine?

When we went to Molly's on Christmas Eve, I looked in their family room to find Megan and Julie looking at Facebook on Megan's computer, Ben playing with Anne's iPhone and Maggie taking photos with Megan's phone. I remarked "family time in the electronic age"

The Prize presents this year were Ben's Nintendo and my eReader. I never thought that I'd prefer an electronic reader over sitting with a paper book in my hand. I can remember reading an essay in Time by Stephen King where he remarked that people would read electronically before too long. That was in 2000 and I said "not me, there's nothing that can replace holding a book in your hand". 8 years later, I have apparently changed my philosophy.

Even after Maggie opened all of her gifts on Christmas morning, she came into the kitchen and asked me if she could play Playhouse Disney on my computer. Instead of "the family that prays together, stays together", we've turned into "the family that clicks together, sticks together", or at least I hope so....

Entering the land of Nintendo

Ben had really wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas and has talked about it since the Summer. Santa finally brought him one and he spent much of the day trying to figure it out (with help from Dad and Maggie)

....and aren't their new robes great?

Then, Maggie arrives

Ben got up at 7 am this morning, which really wasn't that bad, but then it was almost midnight before we went to bed. He had to go & wake up Milly and Rich, but resisted getting Maggie up. By the time Maggie woke up at 9.30, Ben had opened all of his gifts, so he was more than ready to "help" Maggie get going on hers, even before she was fully awake.....

Maggie is still not too sure what Christmas is all about, as soon as she was done unwrapping presents, she went over to my computer and said "Mum, can I playhouse disney?" Since Santa brought them a bubble making kit for in the bath, they both had to take that and all other bath related toys in the bath for a while. After that, they both wore their new robes for most of the day.

Ben does Christmas morning

The kids always get two DVDs each. This year, Ben got Spiderwick Chronicles and Prince Caspian

Ben's big present from Santa was a Nintendo DS. He was so excited to get it

Milly & Rich bought him a cast & paint tarantulaFor some reason, Ben just HAD to have the Littlest Petshop stuff, so Mum & Dad got him some...

Santa Clause came to town....

Christmas Eve

We went to Molly & Tim's for dinner on Christmas Eve. We had 14 people altogether & amazingly Molly has a table big enough to accommodate them all!!! Ben & Maggie had a great time, Ben got a magic kit and Maggie got some kind of cake educational game.

Anne & Ben

Megan & Maggie

Yes, it's butter

I bought some cream at the grocery store today and Ben immediately latched onto it and wanted to make butter with it because they had used the same cream to make butter at school last year. He said all he had to do was shake it up and it would miraculously turn into butter. Even though I insisted it wouldn't work, he managed to make butter after all. We'll be eating it with the rolls tomorrow.....

Christmas with the Js

We have started Christmas early this year. We went to Jan & Julie's for dinner last night because they are leaving to go to Arizona on Christmas Day. Ben could hardly wait to open presents until after dinner, but he managed to hold out and we took pity on him after he'd been doing his "sad puppy" face over the back of the sofa while we were enjoying our after-dinner coffee.

Maggie had fallen asleep before we ate dinner and she had just woken up when Ben had sorted out the presents and started opening his. She was having nothing to do with getting on the floor and ripping off paper, so Ben got to go first. It looks like he had quite a haul. Jan and Julie look like they are enjoying themselves.... they bought Ben and Maggie skateboards for Christmas. They were both very excited. Of course, Maggie just wants the same as Ben does all the time!!!! They got all the stuff that goes with it, helmets, knee, wrist and elbow protectors. Here's Ben in his "armour". Maggie finally got around to opening her gifts, she soon got into the swing of things. After that, all the kids wanted to do was roll around on their skateboards. Ben did figure out how to balance and turn around on his, as long as it was on the carpet and Julie was holding his hand. Ben was so excited about his skateboard that he slept with it all night!!!!!

It is flipping freezing.....

We are in the middle of a Winter chill. We hardly went outside at all yesterday as it was so cold. When we finally did venture out, we were instantly chilled. When I came into work this morning it read 4 degrees on my rear view mirror, and it usually errs on the warm side by 4 degrees!!!! The wind whipping around the building didn't do anything for my ears either!!!! Then, to make matters worse, a water pipe burst in the vaccine center around lunchtime, the fire alarms went off and they expected everyone to evacuate the building. Since the temperature was still at 6 degrees, most people stayed exactly where they were.....

Maggie's development assessment at Parents as Teachers

This post is a little late as we have been bogged down by many other things going on around us, not least of all the impending holidays. However, I took Maggie two weeks ago to have her assessed at P-a-T. We feel that she has some delays compared to her peers and since we are hoping to start her in kindergarten in August, we want to see if we can get her some help through SSD to work on some of the things that she needs help with. As we suspected, her P-a-T assessment shows that she is at a 3 year old level with some things such as letter recognition and numbers. Her speech is also delayed. She was sufficiently behind that she can be referred to SSD for evaluation. We were in the same position last year and then she had an epiphany at the SSD appointment and did not qualify for services. I think she's going to do the same again as all of a sudden she seems to be doing so much better with her speech and vocabulary. I will try to coach her in the liberal use of "I don't know" before her appointment. However, this year they will be testing at a more advanced level than last and there should be no way she'll have a giant leap forward with counting or her letters.

The sleepover

Ben had a sleepover with one of his school friends last night. It all started off well, they played around with each other until around 10 pm and I got them into their pyjamas and ready for bed. I left them to go to bed, but I told them that they needed to go soon and that we were going to bed. At around 1 pm, Ben came into our room and asked if he could have breakfast. I told him no and that he needed to go back to bed. Then, he came back half an hour later and asked if he could have something to eat now. I told him no, it was the middle f the night. At 2.30 pm, we got up and found them both playing with the cars in the middle of Ben's room. At that point, I have no idea if they had even been to bed at all. I made Ben go and sleep next door and his friend slept in Ben's bed. At least they didn't get up until 9.30 am this morning, but Ben won't be doing any more sleepovers for a while......

Time for Dinner (again)

Yes, we went back there again last night. This has been the second time this month!!! I had made the breakfast casserole last time and Sam loves it. He cooks one at the weekend and then eats a little every day for breakfast. So, I decided that I would stock up and make some more as I imagine they will also be very valuable over the holidays. They had a couple of great recipes for tartlets and I did not make them the last time. I thought they would also come in handy over the holiday, so I decided to make some of those too. Last night was the first time I had taken Ben with me, he really wanted to go and see what the fuss was all about. It took us longer to make everything this time, not only because I had a "helper", but also because it was extremely busy. Ben was really a great help, he whisked up all the eggs for the casserole, the sauce for the chicken tenders, the filling for the burritos and he scooped all the filling into the tartlets that we made. Of course, everyone thought he was so cute and such a great helper as he was really turning on the charm.

Highway update

My first day traveling without H40 was not too bad. I left work early to get Ben and made it between work and the house in a little over 20 minutes, so it took me about as long as in the morning. I can tell some of the streets are a little busier than they were previously, but it's not too bad right now. Of course, a lot of the schools were out because of the weather yesterday, so there were no school buses around and it is close to the holidays, so we probably won't get a good feel of the traffic until after the New Year. the new stretch of highway is very nice and the interchange between 40 and 170 is great. I can also tell that the on and off ramps are much better. However, our McKnight on-ramp didn't last long. When I went to work this morning, there were 3 police cars parked on the on-ramp and someone has already taken out the metal barrier. I presume they had enough car left to take off as there was no car on the ramp & I don't think it was over on the highway. When I drove home, I was not as lucky as the day before as it took me 35 minutes to get to Ben's school. Forest Park Parkway is at its limit and it took me 7 minutes just to get through the lights at FFP and Skinker. I can see that it is going to be a more difficult year for travel this next year, but hopefully still not too bad. It should be commute Nirvana when H40 opens up for good.....

Highway 40 changes

The day has finally arrived when the Highway 40 changeover has taken place. The section West of us is now open and the section East of us is now closed. The past year has not been as bad as I thought it would be. The extra time it took me to get to home/school after I get off the highway was offset by the time I made up on the highway because it was so much clearer. This next year is a different story though as there is really no good way for me to get between our home/the school and work. For now, I decided that I would get on H170 and then go East on Forest Park Parkway. It doesn't help that on top of this being the first day of the big changeover, we had an ice storm last night that left the roads a solid sheet of ice. When I got my car out of the garage, the rear view mirror said it was 44, by the time I got to McKnight (2 blocks away) it said 24 and by the time I got to work, it said 16-and it consistently reads 4 degrees warmer than it really is!!!! I was very careful driving to work and it took me exactly 20 minutes with very little traffic, so I imagine that my journey is going to be at least 15 to 20 minutes longer at night than it has been for the past year.

To celebrate the big changeover, the new section of the highway was open for walkers and bike riders yesterday. There was a 5K walk/run at 9 am and then a bike ride at noon. Of course, Sam registered for the bike ride. The weather was much better than they had anticipated and so there were a lot of people there. We walked up to the nearest entrance, we took the stroller and Maggie's bike and Ben & Maggie took turns to ride the bike or sit in the stroller.
This is Ben standing on the on-ramp that I will be using every day for the foreseeable future. Doesn't everything look nice & clean?Even though it looks like there is no-one around in this picture, there were people going by all the time. It isn't often that you get the opportunity to walk your dog or ride your bike on the highway
After we left the big walk, we went over to Tilles Park and walked around the lake looking for turtles. Never underestimate the glee that a stick can bring.... We played in Tilles Park for about another two hours and so we'd been outside for 4 hours by the time we got home. The kids were well and truly worn out and Maggie immediately fell asleep on Sam as soon as he sat down

I'm going to have to change my strategy

I have been working in heart disease research for the past 20 years and have always started my grant applications with something like "heart disease is the number one cause of death in the US.." However, a recent WHO report now states that cancer will become the leading cause of death Worldwide in just a couple of years. One of the reasons for this is the dramatic increase in tobacco use, particularly in India and China. I obviously felt the winds of change because my last 2 grant applications have been related to breast cancer and smoking. It must be time to jump ship....

Cutting the tree

We went out to Pea Ridge to cut our Christmas tree today. This a yearly tradition that we have done with Molly & Tim Bosch for as long as we have been in St Louis. We haven't been to Pea Ridge for a few years, but it's a cool place to get a tree from as they have a big barn with a Santa and another where they sell a few ornaments, have an enormous fire and serve free hot chocolate. It was only 20 degrees when we got there and the kids went immediately to visit Santa

In the same barn, they have a huge rocking chair that all the kids like to sit in. This is Ben & Maggie sitting with Anne.

When we got out to the field, we started looking for a suitable tree.

Luckily, the sun came out while we were cutting down the trees and it warmed the day up by about 10 degrees

We found a tree way at the top of the hill. I was looking for one that had room between the branches so that the ornaments would hang off it well. This was the one that we chose, Ben said it was too small so he refused to stand in front of it and get his picture taken.

They had flat bed trailers to get us out to the field. Ben and Maggie just had to sit right at the back of the trailer


It was so cold outside that we were very grateful to find this fire in the barn

The finished project looks good. Ben helped me with the lights, but I was pretty much left to do everything else myself.

Getting sucked in......

When Ben started scouts, Sam swore that he was never going to get that involved and be a den leader or anything else like that. He has taken Ben to all the meetings and, as I mentioned before, we both got involved in the last meeting because Sam spent his time checking books and I sewed all the brag vests for the boys. After the pack meeting, I offered for us to arrange the blue & gold banquet, the event where the boys all get their wolf badges. Sam spent quite a bit of time researching ideas and coming up with some suggestions. He was invited to go to the pack leaders meeting this month and the meeting ended up being at our house because we have the room. Sam has almost got sucked in to being a co-den leader for den 2 because one of the leaders never shows up for anything. He's also now heavily into organizing everyone for the foreseeable future so that everything gets done for the banquet. On top of all that, they voted to have the meeting at our house in future. How did we go so quickly go from intending to be hands-off to being in the middle of everything???!!!!

This is truly disgusting

In our constant quest to find the source of the fruit flies in the break area on our floor at work, Gail found a bag in the cupboard that contained something that was presumably edible in a past life, but was now black and semi-solid. Luckily, the bag was closed because it was full of fruit flies & larvae and it smelled disgusting. Since I had my new camera with me, we took a picture & I emailed it to everyone on the floor to remind them to discard all food when they are done with it. No-one mentioned whether they knew who the culprit was, but hopefully it won't happen again. As a scientist, I have to admit that some sick side of me was quite fascinated with this circle of life and the ease with which fruit flies can get colonized and established. Unfortunately, this is an ongoing problem & not one we had in our old building. There were even fruit flies in the refrigerator at the weekend and someone else found about 50 of them floating in the coffee pot-lovely!!!! My carniverous plant is not able to eat all of them, but he has captured 7 or 8 of them right now

How does that happen?

Just as I got up this morning, the power went out for a couple of seconds and then immediately came back on. I didn't think anything of it, but it was a pain to go around and reset all the clocks. The plus was that we had a light out over the jacuzzi that could not be fixed by replacing the bulb & miraculously it came back on with restoration of the power. How does that happen???!!!!
After getting to work, my friend called me to see if we had power at the house because she had heard on the news that there was a fire at the Shrewsbury station and there were 52,000 people without power. I checked the Post Dispatch website and, sure enough, there was a story covering the outage. Luckily, I read down to the bottom and saw that our area had over 9,000 people without power and that there were several schools closed today, including Hudson. I called Sam to tell him that there was no point rushing to school this morning because there would be no-one there when he got there!!!!

More snow

I was taking Ben & Maggie to school on Monday morning and I knew that Ben would be excited that we had more snow on Sunday night. It still wasn't sticking on the roads or sidewalks, but there was a little more on the grass. As I was dragging Maggie out of bed, Ben came in her room and said "Mum, look, it snowed again, I bet we don't have school today, you need to look on the website and check". The first thing he did when he went downstairs was to check on the computer to see if the school was closed, but he wasn't disappointed that it was going to be open. He wolfed down his breakfast and insisted that he had to go outside to play in the snow, so he played outside for 20 minutes before he went to school. He was wearing a pair of pants that I had bought for Daniel this year and they were a little long on him, so the bottoms were soaked by the time he went to school. Why do kids not care about that kind of thing at all?

When kids get bored

After the long trip back from little Rock, the kids were completely bored on Sunday. They had way too much energy and they couldn't play outside as it was so cold and damp. It didn't help that I had to spend so much time getting caught up with laundry and grocery shopping that I didn't have much time to do anything with them. When this happens, they want to be around me the whole time & one of their favourite games is playing at being cats. Since I knew they were bored, I caved in & fed them milk and tuna in the kitchen....

Holiday photos