We have not fallen off the earth

She slept through lunch after going to the zoo and
me holding her while we were moving her car
seat after lunch didn't please her, so this happened.

I have recently been informed on multiple occasions that I have not posted in a while. I apologize for my absence. As always I have been busy. Here comes a scattered update riddled with errors and way too many pictures because I doubt I'll have the time or energy to edit this like I normally like to do.

First day of school.

 

It has been a crazy, mostly good summer. I don't even know where to begin really. Oh wait, yes I do. We had a bad storm here a few days ago and when I woke, Dan asked if I heard the storm. I said I didn't. Want to know why I didn't hear it? BECAUSE WE GOT NEW WINDOWS!!! That's right- three years of windows that leak but don't open, rattle when the stupid truck with the subs goes by, shake obscenely when there is thunder and block absolutely no sound whatsoever. They. Are. Gone. FOREVER. We can get a massive breeze throughout the place now and it is absolutely glorious. They are also REALLY white. Every time I come home it's like my house is looking bug-eyed at me or like it's surprised. It is probably surprised. Like, "Holy crap my windows open! I'm so happy! I'm freeeeeeeeee!"

Because there is nothing else to do at Mt Rushmore except for dance.

We are also getting some lawn treatments done so hopefully next summer the grass to weeds ratio is more in our favor. Downside is that the lawn is going to look worse before it looks better. And boy oh boy does it suck. Luckily the worst of it is in back so we can mostly keep it a secret.

So, the sun is a spotlight and he couldn't stop dancing.. That is what is happening here.

My babies went to Mt. Rushmore! Oskar was way over tired when we got in the car and kept on saying that he didn't want to see the mountain with faces. He had a short nap in the car and when he saw it, he spoke a genuine, "Wow!" Elena was less amused. The 20 minute nap did not work well for her and she remained pretty crabby throughout the trip.

My babies also went to camp! Oskar was not a big fan at first and that made me laugh a bit. Could you just imagine if Dan's kid hated camp? That would be some seriously comical irony. So funny that I almost wish that sentiment remained, but alas Dan sent me a text saying Oskar said he wants to live at camp. Apparently he also picked out a new dad. I wasn't able to stay the whole time, but luckily we had some surrogate grandmas from church who were also at the camp and who were able to help Dan out.

Brother-sister first day of school.

Boating Booga.

Oskar started Pre-K this year and from what I can tell he is having a blast and doing pretty well. He came home from the first day and said it was the best day of his life. I was happy to hear this, but I was also a bit sad because in the preceding two weeks we had gone to the state fair, renaissance festival, mn zoo and the sea life aquarium. Yes, it was exhausting, but it was so much fun to watch them eat such.

Before

Before

Our upstairs bathroom has been remodeled. This was not an expected update. The little pull thing that turns the water from the spout to shower head broke, so obviously we had to remodel the bathroom. I know it seems extreme, but it really did make sense. It of course took a thousand times longer than we thought which wouldn't have been that big of a deal except we have just the one shower in our house right now. We had a couple weeks where we had kids bathing at friends' houses, in sinks or just wash cloths. Dan and I had more difficult time. One good thing to the whole having to shower at the gym was that it actually made us go to the gym, so although the whole thing was annoying I guess exercising is beneficial so that can be viewed as an upside. Oh my goodness it was so annoying. And tiling a shower? Never again!

After

After

Dorisa Gets a Job

Oh my goodness I'm such a blogging failure. Pretty sure on Facebook when I said "blog coming soon" that was like a month ago. Whoops. This might not be as well written as usual, if you consider the typical post well written. If you don't, keep it to yourself.

I was able to get one decent picture out of a billion attempts.

Okay, so here is the story of how I got a job.

First of all, it must be noted that in 2008-2009 I sent out about a billion resumes with almost no response.

Fast forward to a Friday in late March, 2017. I had had a cold and just returned from a MOPS meeting where we talked about organization. I was all gung ho about getting organized and getting stuff out of my house to sell at the rummage sale. Meanwhile, I'm was also trying to sell something on the Brandon Rummage page. I hadn't heard anything from this woman who said she was interested, so I decided to check my FB inbox because FB doesn't alert me when someone who isn't a friend contacts me. Lo and behold I find a week old message in there from a guy saying he needs help at his firm and he was talking to his neighbor (a congregation member) who said I had a degree in architecture. I texted him back (that's what he said to do) and while awaiting a reply, I took my sick self and climbed back into my pantry and kept cleaning. He texted me back and asked if I could come in for an interview THAT AFTERNOON. I pondered this option while hacking away and covered in dust in my pantry and asked if we could please do Monday instead. Went in Monday and had a job in about 30 minutes.

She knows exactly how cute she is.

I didn't commit to it right away because I had a few things to figure out:
Daycare
Another car
Car loan
Clothes that are appropriate to wear to work and FYI The Limited went out of business
Shoes that one can wear to work
Figuring out if the money will cover everything and be worth not seeing my kids as much
A part time job to quit

After realizing how lucky I was to have this job fall in my lap, I e-mailed him back later that day and said that I was going to do everything I can to make this opportunity work for me. I told him that if everything came together, I would be able to start on April 10. He said he really needed help soon and asked if I was able to move it up anymore. I said, okay I'll shoot for the 3rd. For those of you keeping track at home, that gave me 6 days to get my life in order. And I had a cold. And both my kids were sick. And Oskar wasn't in daycare yet, so I had the privilege of taking him all around to every little thing I had to do. I also want to add that this was a situation that I wanted to bounce off my parents a bit, especially going about the car loan bit (since the last car I bought, I didn't buy) but this was literally the one time in recent memory that they were more than an e-mail away. They were on a Caribbean cruise without internet service. Good timing.

I love this picture of my kid wearing a thermal while playing on the beach.

Luckily, my daycare provider had enough room to take Ellie 1 more day and add Oskar for 4 days. Dan still stays home with them on Friday. We know someone who runs a bank, so I texted him our credit scores and he set us up with one of his loan officers. We searched around the internet for a car, decided on a Honda Fit, got to the dealership and it had just sold. Got a Honda Insight- less expensive, better mileage and now I know a good salesman at Vern Eide Honda if anyone needs one.
Went shopping that Friday and figured out some clothes and shoes. FYI at this point the kids still had colds and it was waaaay past bed time. It was a crazy week and life has not calmed down since. I told my appraisals boss about my job opportunity and he was very excited for me. I continued doing a bit of work for him for a while so he could train in some new help but it soon became too much and I had to stop.

My tiny baby in her baggy swimming suit.

As far as I can tell, the job is going well. I like the people I work with and I like what I'm doing almost all the time. And my boss is even an NDSU grad. It was and at times continues to be a very hard adjustment but we're making it work. I think it was hardest for Oskar. And me. I don't think Ellie noticed anything changed except maybe that I get dressed in real clothes when I wake up now.

A brief moment of sibling cooperation.

I think that Oskar has grown an inch in the last 2 months. He's real big. He recently finished soccer. It wasn't the best. My conclusion is that either soccer won't be his thing or he was too young to start. Or both. He just wasn't interested. Or good. But it's over now and our Wednesdays are better.

Ellie is spunkier than ever and is finally talking and eating more. We found a hairstyle that suits her perfectly. Pikey pigtails. (Pikey is how Oskar used to say spikey.) I wish I had a picture, but I'm sure I'll get one sometime. She is now wearing the pajamas Oskar wore at a year old. She's 18 months. So cute.

Sometimes they are quiet and playing peacefully by themselves.
I try not to look at them when this happens, lest it throw the mood, but this a moment I had to capture.

Dorisa Returns!

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about my beloved blog! It has been a long time though. I just got to thinking it would be a tragedy if the masses didn't have anything to read on a snow day (where applicable 😊). Warning: This post is heavy on photos and video, not so much with on words.

Elena got a chair for Christmas. It is very soft and she loves it.

Oh, where to even begin. Life, as always, is a bit crazy. I just went back and looked at my last post to see where we left of an oh my goodness am I behind. To make a long story short, the antibiotics did NOT work for our bronchitis (every other time I've had bronchitis, antibiotics have worked, so I was a bit annoyed) and I proceeded to not only pull muscles throughout my back and stomach from coughing so much and so hard, but to also tear a muscle that runs along my ribs in my back. I could actually feel it coming apart. It was disgusting and excruciatingly painful. I couldn't sit, stand, or lay down and it hurt to breathe and cough so I went to the ER. At 3:00 AM. With the whole family. Yea. We'll be paying for that for a while. I keep thinking that it was a stupid thing to go to the ER for, and it was, but I honestly didn't have another option. That's how bad it hurt. At least when I was in labor with my children there was a reprieve between contractions (I'm talking pre-epidural here). There is no reprieve with rib injuries if you are breathing, much less if you have bronchitis and are coughing all the time. When they discharged me I could not believe they were letting me go and I had no idea how I was going to get myself through the day, and that's without even considering taking care of children. Luckily, the body is tough and heals remarkably fast. I have now decided that I am not going to be sick any more this year. I quit illness. So far, it is working. Okay, so maybe that wasn't a short story, but the people have a right to know.

No one is as comfortable at the dentist as Oskar.

I decided to become an Usborne Books consultant because my kids absolutely love their books. Also, our MOPS group was looking for one and I thought 'Hey, I can do that.' I'm not going to badger my friends and family to have parties, but know that if you ever need an Usborne lady, I'm here. So far I've just done some fundraisers for some groups and individuals and they have been a lot of fun. Plus, free books, hooray! I'm always impressed with how much Oskar learns from these books, but it can come with a downside. For example:

"I need to go potty."
"Oskar, are you sure?" (I've been tricked before)
" 'When the bladder is full, it means the pee is ready to leave the body.' " Yep, that would be my 4 year old quoting a book, ladies and gentlemen. He also uses a different tone when he's quoting something, it is a bit amusing.

We are the proud owners of a brand new water heater! Hooray home-ownership! I think we got the best possible deal we could and at least it looks like a water heater from the future, so that's pretty neat. Also, still paying for that.

Oskar's school pictures. The coloring is better in real life.

Oskar's Ninja Zone pictures. Again- the coloring is better in real life.

We had Oskar's first school conferences today and I was pretty impressed. He can do all sorts of stuff that we didn't know about. He is also much better behaved for his teachers than he is for us. I'm not surprised, just frustrated. I know most parents have kids like that though so at least we can all suffer together. He has been obsessed with The Nutcracker since Christmas and to say that Dan and I are sick of it is putting it very mildly. One thing I have enjoyed is that before bed every night, both kids dance to Trepak in Oskar's bedroom. It is very sweet. Note: Not all Oskar's pajama pants are that small. These should probably go in the donation pile, but the technically still fit and that means I have to do laundry less often. And yes, he has little black ballet shoes. But really, they aren't very little.

Elena is... something else. She is 15 months old now, running full bore, eating all the pretzels and chocolate cake she can find and refusing to eat anything else. She will still eat baby food but this is getting ridiculous. She also won't drink from a cup. I gave Oskar a cup on his fist birthday and we never looked back. I finally thought I would trick Elena by putting water in her bottle and milk in the cup. She chugged the bottle of water and all she will do with the cup is carry it around all day. It's like when Phoebe got a bike on Friends.

I fashioned a device for holding our toys and for sitting on.
That's a touch lamp in the corner. Elena thinks it is pretty neat.

She's getting very good at puzzles and Duplos and likes to clean/tidy-up. For example. I walked over a rug the other day and the corner of it flipped up. She was following me, bent down and fixed it, then continued on her way. She's great. It's spit bubble time!

I've started occasionally taking both the kids to the open gym type thing at the gymnastics place where Oskar does his Ninja Zone class. They seem to like it. And I like not having them home all day in the house with me on Mondays. The downside is that it is at 9AM in Sioux Falls, so we kind of need to be on our game to get ready and get there. It doesn't always happen, but when it does, I can pretty much guarantee that everyone takes a nap that day. It is wonderful.

Explanation for the following video: That is my Barbie from when I was younger. He found it in a box downstairs. I figure if we have to listen to The Nutcracker nearly every day, you can listen to it too. I'm always impressed with how well Oskar sings. This is just mumbly singing too and you can still make out the song quite clearly. Dude loves his music and ballet. We limit the amount of screen time he gets, so I guess this was the next best thing.

Thanks for reading! Stay warm, local friends!

Everyone is Sick

It is indeed the most wonderful time of the year. I know this because when I vacuum, it smells like I'm an elf camped out in a spruce tree of my very own.

Oskar was a pirate for Halloween. Hooray for friends who have costumes to lend!

Many things have happened since my last post. Some good, some bad, some ugly.

Oskar vomited his way out of his car seat and into his booster. This happened in the beginning of October. I had planned on waiting til winter jacket weather to move him into his booster because he technically still fits in his car seat, but this occurrence seemed like a good time to make a (not so) clean break. Let it be noted that this was not Dan's favorite lunch break. His car seat has since been cleaned and will soon hold an Elena. Elena still fits in her infant car seat, believe it or not. They recommend now that kids stay rear facing until 2 years old. This was not at all an option for Oskar- he was way too big. Ellie fits nice and snug though and seems very happy to face backwards and look at her brother.

When this happened, I don't think Oskar had any kind of stomach bug. I think the vomit was the result of taking some cough syrup, eating a bunch of applesauce and then going to ninja class. This mistake will not be repeated.

A couple weeks ago when we all got the stomach flu, we happened to be in the car when Oskar got sick. Because I am awesome, I had a giant plastic bag with me. Crisis averted.

It's not the best cake, but it was the first double layer cake I'v ever made and it was worth every bit of the $4 I spent on it.
Honestly, it might be the first cake I've ever made. Period.

Elena is now one year old. Can you believe it? She is kind of growing- particularly in head size and length. Her weight is steady at the 25th percentile, while length shot up to 50th and head size is at 75th. She doesn't look as funny as these numbers indicate that she might. She is so sweet and cuddly and generally just a delight to be with. If you're me anyway. If you're my babysitter you may have an entirely different opinion of her demeanor. Oskar and Ellie usually play together well and make each other laugh. It is wonderful to listen to this.

I know I put this on Facebook, but believe it or not, there are some people who read this that don't use Facebook.

We have a silly nativity scene that is all rubber duckies. I gotta be honest; out of all the waterfowl present at the birth of Christ, Elena prefers chomping on Mary the most.

I mentioned above that our car broke down a while back. That was quite an experience. And an expensive one as well. I'm thankful that it was nice out, the roads weren't busy and I had no kids with me. I'm upset that I did not get my Taco Bell that night, but what can you do. Unfortunately for us we also needed new tires at the time and on Monday we took it in to get new brake pads. This has added up to be more money than I like to spend on a car. Hopefully now we'll be good to go for a while.

Speaking of expenses, our whole family went to the doctor on Sunday. That is going to be SUPER fun to pay for, and yes we have insurance but it only covers about $15 of *extra* appointments. The upside is that after sorting out a prescription misdirection we are all on antibiotics and should be healed in no time. This will be nice after weeks of coughing and a bout of stomach flu. Wanna know what I don't miss from childhood? The stomach flu. It is the worst. And now I've been coughing so hard that I've actually pulled what's gotta be most of the muscles around my ribs. That was when I knew it was time to go in and that it was worth the $400+ we will be paying in about a month.

This is what happens when one refuses to sleep.

You may think I'm exaggerating when I say I've pulled my rib muscles- even I thought I was probably being over-dramatic. I assure you, I am not. Yoga this morning proved to me how injured I am. Do you know how often you use your rib muscles? The answer is almost all the time. Ouch. A friend of mine just gave me some industrial strength cough drops so hopefully they will help give my ribs a break and begin to heal. What makes it even better is that she dropped them off in an offering envelope.

Wake up brother snuggles.

"What is your name?"
"You know my name, Oskar. What is it?"
"Risa."
"Close. It's Dorisa."
"Yes, but that is a very hard word to say."

Oskar turns four on Wednesday and continues to astound and amaze. He says some of the funniest things and he's started making this face when he is in trouble that is just impossible not to laugh at. That being said, he is in trouble a lot and it is annoying. It's possible he's a bit spoiled, so we'll need to work on that, but overall he seems to be an okay kid.

We recently donated a ton of baby stuff. It felt so good. And there is a ton yet to go. It is so nice to clear out some of the clutter. So refreshing.

We have the rare opportunity to travel to the Twin Cities around Christmas this year. I'm VERY much looking forward to seeing many friends that I don't often get to see. I'm hoping that we will be through all our sickness so we can make it to everything we want to.

Dude finally understand the joy of leaf jumping. It took a while though.

Thanks for reading! Have a very happy Christmas!

Oskar High Fives Elena

I'm just going to start by saying that tonight Oskar high fived Elena in the face. He was in the tub at the time so it left a bubble hand print on her face. It was very hard to convey my anger while suppressing my laughter while looking at Elena's stunned bubble face.

Siblings! Sure, he's got, like 10 lbs on her, but you can't deny they look pretty similar.

Sometimes when I'm doing home improvement projects I feel like a monkey in a lab. I know what I want to do and how to do it but I don't always have the right tools for maximum efficiency so improvisation is key. For example, someone (in my mind, it's Sir David Attenborough) who is watching might say:

"Hmmm. She has thirty 50 lb bags of paver base to move. She moved the first three one at a time and now she is standing there and it looks like she might be thinking. I wonder what she's thinking. Interesting. She's moving the car. Oh, and now she's moving the bikes. Looks like she is going for the trailer. She is! She got the trailer! She rolled it to the pile of paver base and now she is loading the paver base bags on to the trailer. Oh my! Looks like she forgot about physics. That second bag teetered and tottered the trailer the other way. She puts about 8 bags on the trailer and then pushes it through the garage- reducing the distance she needs to carry each bag by 60-90% depending on the final destination of the bag. It isn't a perfect solution but with the tools she was provided I would say she's done splendidly. Well done, monkey, well done."
It's possible I let my mind wander too far when doing physical labor.

It's odd that all the projects I do create havens for that which I despise most.
"Hey! Lets put landscaping rock around the house!"
-Turns out very large spiders are very large fans of the environment this provides.
"Let's excavate for a patio!"
-Spiders like wompus, giant dirt piles too. Who knew?
"Okay, this patio is taking forever, but it's not like the materials are going to go bad."
-Well, that's true. How did you like killing those spiders you found every time you picked up another bag? What about the earwigs? Did you like the earwigs? Haven't seen those in a while!
"Let's just put a pile of brush and twigs in the back of the yard- we'll burn it off eventually."
-Aragog or Shelob- pick your fantastical giant spider and she could live here considering the amount of webbing we have in that pile. We also used to find the hawks lurking around there. It may or may not be a refuge for small rodents. Or maybe they enjoy a giant spider as a snack. We'll never know for sure.

Speaking of the hawks, I think they are gone! It's been a while since I've seen them, or a small bird carcass. And other birds have returned to the yard. It is quite pleasant to hear bird calls that are not screeches or the sounds of birds being attacked to death.

She is getting extremely hard to photograph. She is so fast.

I believe that violence usually does not solve problems. The version of me who finally gets her kids down for a nap after a long morning of single parenting and no sleep the night before just as a dog of unknown origin starts yipping outside highly disagrees with rational me. Luckily we don't let that version of me make many decisions and that dog owner remains unpunched in the face.

This happened:
BOOM.
"Oskar, what happened?"
"I broke the side of my head."
"Okay."

We successfully made it through the madness of two days with two kids at 2 outdoor fairs/festivals. It was absolutely exhausting, but the weather was phenomenal and we had a lot of fun. RennFest was full of interesting people as always, but my favorite person I saw was Doctor Who (11, for those of you who are interested). He really sold the act by never walking or interacting with anyone. He just wandered around looking and observing things. It was great.

I told Oskar to keep his sucker away from Elena because she obviously can't have candy.
He rolls around in front of her and sings, "Deeeeelicious!"

Elena and I discovered that she can easily fit a ping pong ball in her mouth without causing distress. She has a really big mouth. Then I poke each of her cheeks and it pops right out. She finds this quite amusing. For those of you who are not aware, she is walking and has been doing so for about a month a half. So yea, we're busy. Today especially we are struggling with Oskar not knowing what he can and can't do to Elena. For example, hugs are okay. Laying on top of her, not so much.

So sweet.

My major victories of late have been finishing my patio and Costco's new milk jugs. Man, they were bad. I wrote a comment card and then they were fixed. I know many people probably complained and the switch was probably in the works long before my comment, but I'm calling it a victory. I can now hold a baby and pour a glass of milk without spilling. That's all I was looking for.

Everyone is welcome to come over to enjoy a homemade margarita on the patio. And by homemade, I mean factory assembled by Costco. Feel free to critique the patio as you see fit. Understand then, of course, that in doing so you are volunteering to fix it and you will receive no margaritas. That is all.

Tadaa! Coming soon: furniture and depending on sales, maybe a new grill!
Obviously there is still some finishing work to be done, but I think we should all be
impressed that I pretty much made this all by myself. Yay me!

I signed Oskar up for a Ninja Zone class and it's probably the best parenting decision I've ever made. He is in Lil Ninja (3-4 year olds) and we go on a weekday morning so there is just him and one other little guy there with an instructor. It is so much fun to watch him learn how to do stuff (and watch his instructor laugh at him because let's face it, Oskar is a hoot). The video below isn't showing up in great quality, but hopefully you get the idea. Oskar is the one going across the trampoline. This was a couple weeks ago now and it is amazing how far he's come even since this video.

 

Oskar and Elena Provide Amusement and Exhaustion

I had a fly in my mouth the other day. It was not my favorite.

This is the best family picture we could get at Dan's sister's wedding. Goodness it was tricky.

My kids. Man, oh man. They are equal parts brilliant and exasperating. We have crazy oozing out of our crappy windows.

Oskar loves play-doh. And I love play-doh primarily because it can keep Oskar busy for a long time. He usually makes birthday cakes. The other day he requested that I help him make a necklace. I told him it wasn't necessarily a great idea, but I helped him anyway.

"Oskar, play-doh doesn't make a good necklace."
"Yes it do. It's called play-doh necklace."
Who can argue with that? We got the necklace on and he says, "Oh thank you! Now I need a star and a genie bottle." No idea where he gets this stuff.

Cake is in the oven.

During the same play-doh session he was trying to ask me to help him with something and I was not able to understand what he meant:

"Oskar, I'm sorry I can't understand what you're saying."
"That's okay."
"Thanks, because I feel bad about it."
"Sometimes disasters happen."
Sometimes disasters happen. He really has a way with words, don't you think?

I know lots of people do feet pictures when they are on vacation.
I do not. This is probably the only feet picture I will ever take.

Generally Oskar does very well with the amount of attention Ellie gets. The other day he may have reached his breaking point:
"Yes, Oskar, I will help you. (Ellie bonks her head on the table.) Oh Ellie, are you okay sweetie?"
Oskar: "Ellie. Is. Fine."

We were making a list of things we needed to get for preschool (because Oskar wanted to make a list) and this is what it looked like:
Preschool
Notebooks
Play-Doh
Suitcase
Hawk

Solving problems and going after her goals.

Another gem of a conversation, where my three year old schools me with the proper use of 'can' and 'may:'
"Oskar, you can NOT go over there."
"Ya-huh. I CAN. My legs are PERFECT."
Stifling laughter. "YOU MAY NOT GO OVER THERE."

That took less than 30 seconds. First try.
I put the box there because the track tips when she tries to climb it.
No, she can not be stopped from trying to climb it. The box placement backfired a bit.

And then there is Ellie. Ellie, Ellie, Ellie. Let me begin by saying that she will be 9 months old on August 11. Most of you saw that we ended up sending her to daycare a month earlier than planned. She is practically walking (she has taken a couple steps by herself) and worse than that, she is climbing EVERYTHING. And she does it very quickly. She is extremely clever and has absolutely no fear. This is a bad combination. Because of her, let's call it rambunctious spirit, I wasn't able to get any work done during the day so then I would be up all night working and exhausted the following day. That schedule was working for no one. She is in her second week now and we are all happy. Yay.

Ellie rocks this romper.

Oskar knows how to party.

Oskar has been really excited about finding feathers in our backyard this summer. I haven't the heart to tell him that there is a full on avian war taking place over our yard. You may think I'm jumping to conclusions. I assure you I am not. One or two feathers can be expected, but between hawk tail feathers and tiny downy feathers I'm positive there have been HUNDREDS of feathers in our back yard. And then there are the small animal skeletons on our driveway. I'll leave it at that. I went out to work on my patio today (yep, still working) and I found my hawk friends in the back yard. Just chilling. I'm pretty sure they are the reason my bird feeder has not been well attended this summer.

They sat really still for a long while, like half an hour.
Then they got up and hopped around each other for a bit.
It's possible they were playing a game.