New Dentist

The kids' new dentist is awesome.  His office knows children very well.  Poor John had to suffer through Disney/Pixar movies, toys, posters, and music playing over the intercom.  As an (almost) adult, he was a REALLY good sport and a huge help with the kids when he was done with his cleaning.  Dr. Higham's (hi-um) office is the coolest thing for kids.  They have a train station and princess castle...

 arcade games with multiple games on each machine...

 a race track, complete with Cars characters to race and...

 a mini movie theater complete with theater seating, surround sound, and popcorn (after your cleaning, of course!)

My kiddos did NOT want to leave.  Except John, who was patient but completely over the High School Musical and Chipmunks soundtracks playing overhead.  (In all fairness, I was done with that as well.)

For Ariana's 1st time at a dentist, she did amazing!  She allowed them to take x-rays, clean her teeth and put fluoride on them.  The hygienist and dentist were so impressed that she allowed that, especially because she is  only 2.  Aedan was a little more nervous, but followed all instructions without a hitch.  He unfortunately has some cavities between his molars, which we have to fix in a couple of weeks.  John also has some cavities that need to be fixed, but the dentist is old hat to him so he was slightly less than amused by his cleaning.  Not too shabby for a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon.

Chaos continues

There is a reason I named the blog "McClure Clan Chaos".  Chaos is the key word.  It is the word that seems to reign over my life some days.  Days like today when I am trying to clean my kitchen thoroughly and do laundry.  We "camped" in a cabin in the rain over the weekend and had to walk through mud to get to the bathrooms for Nate's family reunion.  I am trying still to clean up from that.  I am also just crazy enough to try to continue working with Ariana on potty training.  I have no idea what possessed me to do such a thing on a day when I have so much cleaning and laundry to catch up on.  Probably Loki, the Norse God of Chaos.  I will blame it on a false idol anyway.  Since 10:30 am, Ariana has been through 5 pairs of underwear.  It is now 3:30.  I have set the timer for every 30 minutes for her to sit on the potty.  Every 30 minutes we sit on the potty.  Approximately 15 minutes after we try the potty, and 15 minutes before the next potty break, once an hour, she pees all over.  Or poops.  Even better.  I made a potty chart today and potty stickers as a reward and less than 1 hour after I made them, she ruined them.  Partially my fault for leaving them on the newly cleaned kitchen table, and mostly hers.  I just finished cleaning up another accident and was taking the towels and panties downstairs to put in the washing machine on a sanitary cycle.  I left the disinfectant spray on the table.  While I was stuffing the washing machine, she was spraying disinfectant all over the newly printed stickers and potty chart.  Such is the chaotic life of potty training.  Tomorrow will be better.

Neglect of the Blog

I have been TERRIBLE about keeping up on this.  Since my last post, we have transitioned completely.  After some stress over moving to Colorado or Wyoming, we ended up not having to move at all.  Nate ended up working in Williston, ND.  He does 15 days on and 6 days home.  I have (mostly) transitioned back to being a stay-at-home (again mostly) mom.  I am not the best housekeeper, so sometimes that inhibits me.
Nate has transitioned to both night and day shifts, traveling, and being away from us.  He has made some friends with some of the guys who are on the same rotation as he is.  They all fly in and out of here on the same days and usually the same flights.
February: Ariana turned 2 and decided to really test out the terrible twos.  Nathan, Aedan, Ariana, and John were in a terrible car accident that totaled our Stratus.  Still counting our blessings because the car was damaged beyond recognition, the car seats showed spiderweb signs of strain where the latch system held them and everyone walked away.  No bruises, scratches, concussions or worse.  The airbags deployed, seat belts held, car seats held, and the car's accident system (including a solid steel band all the way around the vehicle) did their jobs.  Our guardian angel, (thanks, Daniel) had his work cut out and was there for us.
March:  Spring break wasn't really spring break but we made the best of it by car shopping and eventually found a 2012 Mazda 5 "used" and got it for a really great deal.
April:  Nate and I passed our 6th wedding anniversary.  I took our 2 children to New York for my sister's beautiful wedding, where Ariana was an absolute terror the entire time we were there.  The flight over was atrocious (thank you Delta for cancelling our flight, placing my parents on different flights and leaving me to travel across the country with 2 small children in 21 freaking hours instead of 14).
May:  My brother and sister-in-law celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary (8? years together).  I am so grateful to have an awesome sister-in-law.
Nate's mom passed away after battling colon cancer for 15 months.  She was a tough and determined lady, but determination of our own will is not always in alignment with God's will.  She is missed terribly and we continue to grieve for her.  We made it through the month by the skin of our teeth and have been enjoying the beginnings of summer.
June:  After 7 strep infections and 1 rheumatic fever in 7 months, we had John's tonsils taken out.  He is recovering nicely and even went camping this weekend.  Aedan celebrated his 6th birthday and enjoyed every minute of it.  He got everything he wanted including Harry Potter and Transformers legos, Avengers and Spiderman action figures and clothing and a new swimming pool.  He also got books on science questions mostly for my own sanity.  My parents celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary on the same day.  At the end of this month, Nate and I will have been together for 13 years.  Holy cow!  Now that I am mostly back on track and adjusted, I will be trying (again) to keep everyone more up to date.

Transitions

Well,  I have to say that the last couple of days have been difficult, but we made it through.  Nathan left to go to Rock Springs for training.  He will be gone until the 5th of February.  The kids were OK yesterday until it was time for bed.  Daddy makes cooler voices than mommy when reading bedtime stories.  However, we made it through the evening with only minor commentary.  

Today has been more difficult.  They expect their daddy to be around.  It is unusual for me to be home instead of Nate.  Aedan commented, "I miss my daddy.  You know, Nathan, your honey."  Which just made me chuckle.  As if I didn't know he was Aedan's dad or my honey.  Ariana hasn't really asked for him other than at nap-time.  She was crying and fussing and ultimately just cried, "Daddy, Daddy" and then went to sleep.  Since then, they have been able to speak to him and see him on Skype and they seem to be in better spirits.  

Nathan is a little bored.  His first day of training went well, but was slow moving.  He had to fill out a bunch of tax forms, employment forms, reimbursement forms, questionnaires, etc.  Tomorrow ought to be better for him.  The hotel isn't bad and is right across the street from where training is held and he has a hot tub and swimming pool readily available.  I wish I had a hot tub readily available.  I would sink right in and possibly warm up for the winter.  

We made it through Christmas

Holy cow!  Whew!  Humongous sigh of relief!  We made it through the Christmas season.  For all of you who don't work retail, the Christmas season starts the day after Halloween, accelerates on Black Friday, becomes manic the week before the big day, and culminates with returns and additional purchasing the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.
I just worked my 4th Christmas at Barnes & Noble.  I am very grateful to work at a place like Barnes & Noble instead of a place like Wal-mart.  Call me crazy, but although we have a few eccentric people and a few crazies, we have a pretty decent customer base.  I only had a couple of angry people.  One lady came in on the 21st and wanted several children's books that we were sold out of.  2 of them were backordered at the publisher and she was angry because she couldn't have them before Christmas.  My advice (in my head only) was to not wait until the last minute to shop for Christmas.  "Lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on mine."  The other one called in and asked if we were open on Christmas Day and asked how late we were open on Christmas Eve.  I told her we were open until 6:00 on Christmas Eve and closed on Christmas Day.  She responded by telling me that Christmas was a religious holiday and religion had no place in businesses.  I responded out loud by saying, "Actually ma'am, it's a federal holiday and 1 of 3 we, as a business, observe.  In my head I responded by thinking "You're right it is a religious holiday celebrated long before our country was founded on Judeo-Christian morals, ethics, and principles.  Get over it."  She hung up on me.  I truly believe it was the same lady who called me last year and complained.  2 out of several thousand isn't bad.
Outside of work we had a pretty good holiday season.  We were able to spend 1 more Christmas party with Nathan's Grandpa Nixon on December 4th before he passed away on December 21st.  It was a huge blessing to be able to spend that time with him and also to say goodbye to him the day before he passed.  We spent Christmas Eve with the McClure clan and spent Christmas Day with the Piper crew.  On Christmas Eve we went to church where I played and sang in the service.  The 7:00 service had the Christmas pageant which was a huge and adorable success.  Those kids did a great job.  Aedan and Ariana laughed and enjoyed to service.  We came home and I went back for the 9:00 service which was a traditional candlelit service.  Beautiful and elegant.  We had a huge turkey dinner with all of Nathan's family.  His mom, dad and brother made a photo collage of his parents.  Baby pictures, their wedding photo, and more recent photos of both of them.  It is really cool.  The kids really enjoyed playing with his grandparents.  I will also add that my best friend, Diana was a godsend.  Not only did she bring additional food, but she helped me cook and clean up, helped organize the family and then came to church with all of us to help with our kids while I was singing.  She is amazing.
On Christmas Day our children were surprised by Santa and Ariana loves opening presents.  They are both more fun because they like to play with everything and try on everything before opening the next present.  Their excitement is tangible and contagious.  We went to my parents house and spent a peaceful day watching Christmas movies, playing pool, and playing cards.  My mom is an awesome cook and made a rack of ribs for Christmas dinner.  Yum.  Our only disappointment was that we were not able to see my brother and his family or my sister and hers.
On Tuesday the 27th, we buried Nathan's grandpa.  He was buried with full policeman's rites and honor guard after a 19 year battle with cancer.  While difficult, it is good to know that such a good man no longer has to suffer.  He was funny and courageous and that became more apparent during his life sketch and from both speakers.
Nathan's good news is that he has accepted a job.  He will be traveling with this job for a while and it may cause us to move later this summer, but he has found a job.  He leaves for training on January 15th and will be gone for 3 weeks.  He will come home for a week and then head out again.  He is still looking for a decent paying job here but so far, there isn't much.  After a long year of praying and searching, not to mention school, it looks like we are going to be blessed with a job in the new year.  John will head back to school and then start the process of transitioning to the regular high school at the semester.  Aedan will be heading back to school with stitches (he tripped in the kitchen and split his eyebrow open on the counter) and Ariana is going to have a hard time adjusting to Aedan and John being gone, but overall, I think we have had a blessed, if bittersweet, holiday season.  We are looking forward to the new year with enthusiasm and faith.

Mixed feelings about work

Today was a great day off.  I went to church, played in the praise band, saw my mom, came home and played with my children and baked a caramel apple pie from scratch with apples from our tree.  Tomorrow I have to go back to work.  Part of me wants to go because I know that I have several things to get done and I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from that.  The other part of me wants to stay home, pick up Aedan from school and play outside with the kids during this last bit of beautiful fall weather.  I enjoy working and the people I work with, but some days it is harder than others to be motivated to go to work.

It's been a while

There is a reason I named this blog "McClure Clan Chaos."  The last 3 weeks have proven to be just that.  All of us had a nasty stomach bug, Aedan followed that up with a sinus/ear infection and bacterial bronchitis combination which he promptly shared with Nate.  Now that Aedan is almost done with his antibiotic and Nate is at the tail end of his infection, Ariana showed up with a sinus/ear infection and pink eye.  Today.  Well, I am praying for two things for my family right now.  1 - they (we) all get better and 2 - I don't get any of this crap.  Or if I do, my immune system is hearty enough from working retail that I don't become symptomatic or contagious because it is shut out.  

Now that the bad stuff is out of the way, now on to the good stuff.  

Nate's 16 year old cousin is moving in with us this weekend.  It will be a HUGE change for all of us but I think it will give him a chance to be a kid, go to school, and have a shot at something.  I think it will enrich our lives and our outlook and I know we are doing the right thing.  We are looking forward to learning more about John and having him be such a close part of our family.

Aedan and Ariana have said the funniest things in the last couple of weeks.  Ariana's sentences of choice include, "Aedan, dote do dat to me!" (Translation: "Aedan, don't do that to me!") and "Aedan/Mommy/Daddy, where are you?" in a very singsong voice.  As soon as she finds you or you answer her, she puts her hands over her eyes, opens them like window shutters and says, "Peep boo" and runs away laughing.  She has also been saying "Yeehaw" and "Awesome."  

Aedan is extraordinarily animated when talking or trying to sit and talk with the adults.  If he walks into the room or conversation, he pretends to know what you are talking about and then nods his head and says "uh-huh" and "really" and "you don't say" (The credit for that one goes completely to Bampy.)  When performing a checkup on his Amma with the doctor's kit, he listened to her heart, turned and looked at her with a serious face and said, "Amma, you heartbeat says cockadoodledoo." and then proceeded to continue with the checkup while my mom was in stitches (badum ching).  Anything he views as great or above on the coolness factor gets labeled with "That's better than a baloney sandwich!"  Yes ladies and gents, better than a baloney sandwich.  I do not think my son has ever even had a baloney sandwich because I personally find bologna repulsive.  

The kids crack me up on a daily basis and today was no exception.  Aedan got to go with his Auntie and her son, Gryffin, to the movies.  I asked Aedan if he liked the movie and he came to me, "MOM!  I LIKED ALL THE PARTS OF THAT ROBOT MOVIE!  IT WAS AWESOME!"  These two sentences were yelled within 6 inches of my face and included dramatic hand gestures and full body dynamic expression.  I couldn't help but chuckle.  Immediately following that high decibel exchange, Gryffin headed to the bathroom and Aedan hollered, "Gryff, my bathroom smells like candy!"  Now, lest you all think my child is just weird, I put a my Scentsy burner in there with cinnamon and nutmeg waxes.  Gryffin, bless his soul, just said "Ok, buddy.  Whatever you say."  Then comes out and says, "You're right.  It does smell like candy."   

When I came home from work, Ariana needed a diaper change.  I grab a diaper and the wipes and say, "Ariana, come get your diaper changed."  She looked at me, grinned, and said "uh-uuuuh" and raced away at top speed cackling at the top of her lungs with her copper curls bouncing as she ran.  Being 20 months old and having a contagious cackle, a charming personality, and a grin that no person could resist will get you many places in this world.  Just ask her dad.  

Watching Aedan and Ariana grow up more every time I blink makes me so grateful to have such positive and happy children in my life.  They are a marvel.