But why?

Yesterday I turned on the TV for a short time during Oprah. I heard something that was very true.

There was a man on stage and he said, "In our culture, when a man says No - the answer is No. When a woman says No, it's the beginning of a negotiation".

I find it to be absolutely true. But why? Why, as women, do we allow this to happen?

Really. I'm asking.

Click on the comment and leave one....because I'm asking.

Stop reading please.

Think about it - and leave your thoughts.

Thank you.

Claire sings

Predicting the future

Me: Nathan, did you stay on green today?
(Remember: This is how kindergartners track their behavior at school...green is no problem, yellow is some sort of infraction and red is just not good)

Nathan: YES!

Claire: I stayed on red.

It felt like some sick premonition.

Baby Jack update

People have been asking how Jack is doing. I guess it's time for an update on him.


Justin took him to the clinic yesterday because he's had a few hard nights. Monday night / Tuesday morning he started having a barking cough. It's music to a mothers ears, right? (sigh) Poor baby.

Tuesday night when Justin came home for supper he said "Did Pam tell you that Jack was exposed to croup?". I said "I TOLD YOU!" He looked at me as if I'd just lost my mind. Apparently I hadn't told him. I guess I told one of the girls at the salon that I thought Jack had croup - not Justin. When he said that Jack was exposed to it I knew right away that he had it. He just got in 4 more teeth and I was sure that he had an ear infection on top of it all. I asked Justin to take off work a little early yesterday to take Jack to the clinic. He did and Jack does, have croup that is. Poor little guy. They gave us a prescription for ear infection medication just in case we needed it. They say there is nothing they can do for croup. As of now Jack's ears are ok. Lets hope they stay that way.

Now for an update on Jack and the Birth to 3 program.....he's doing pretty well. I'm not sure how age appropriate he is right now. We have a meeting next week to talk about all of those things. One thing we know for sure is that he has very low muscle tone from his belly button down. Sometimes he'll be standing and one foot is pointed forward and the other foot is pointed the opposite direction - completely backwards. He did that Tuesday and I about lost it. I really don't have a weak stomach, but for some reason his flexibility creeps me out.

He's not yet able to walk unassisted. It's very strange to watch him walk when he is assisted. He looks like a lab puppy. His feet go in all kinds of goofy directions. It's crazy to watch. He's strong enough to walk along the furniture and he'll speed crawl up to you and pull himself up, but he's not strong enough to stand on his own unassisted.

At the meeting next week we'll talk about getting orthotics for his shoes. I'm not positive what all that entails, but I was informed that it will cost $2,000 (yes, you read that right - two thousand dollars) if we have to pay for it on our own. The physical therapist thought that the program might pay the entire cost. Lets pray that they do.

The only other thing that is a concern is that Jack still clinches his left hand quite a bit. He really shouldn't do that now unless he has something in it. That's obviously a result of the brain damage, but we still don't know if it will cause limitations. At this time it's not. He doesn't seem to mind crawling with one hand in a fist - or sitting with one hand in a fist. Doesn't bother him at all. =)

Well there you go. There is your update on Jack-a-woo .....as Peach calls him. =)

Bowling

On Sunday, Nathan, Claire and I met Tracy and Dawson at the bowling alley. It was so much fun watching Claire. She'd never been bowling before. She had a blast! We all had a great time. For quite some time, Tracy and I have boycotted the bowling alley. It irks me that they could care less about anything other than league bowling. Trying to find a time to bowl is very hard. I realize that they cater to the league people, but what about those of us that would show up every Sunday just for some fun time with our families? Why don't we matter? Whatever!

Dawson didn't know that we were coming. We just kind of showed up out of the blue. He was very excited and it was cute.

As I said, Claire had never been bowling before, so she was beyond excited. Lucky for her, she had two 5 year old helpers. Here she is after getting the ball to the pins for the first time. She was making sure Dawson was cheering for her. Nathan's turn. Notice he's still wearing his hand warmer? Yeah. He'd wear it to bed if it were allowed. He wants to wear it to school too.Here is Dawson waiting to see how many pins he knocked down. They had so much fun.

How cute is this!!!

After the kids bowled, they played Foosball. I don't enjoy playing this game, but the kids sure had a good time.

The Answers!

My middle name is:
A) Beth
B) Lynn
C) Anne
D) Jo


My favorite color is:
A) Pink
B) Black
C) Yellow
D) Red
I'll accept yellow as an answer too. I used to love, love, love yellow. I've moved on to pink.

My favorite food is:
A) Steak
B) Lobster - YUMMMMMMM!
C) Sauerkraut
D) Taco

My favorite beer is:
A) Old Milwaukee w/ tomato juice
B) Miller light w/ tomato juice
C) Coors light w/ tomato juice
D) Bud light w/ tomato juice - I don't drink beer w/o tomato juice. Yuck!

My favorite pop is:
A) Mt. Dew
B) Cherry coke
C) Sprite
D) Pepsi

I was born in:
A) Midland, TX
B) Milbank, SD
C) MiddleOfNoWhere, USA
D) The Boondocks

My favorite flower is the:
A) Rose
B) Lilly
C) Mum
D) Tulip

My favorite smell is:
A) Vanilla
B) Anything floral
C) Chocolate - I love chocolate, but I hate the smell of it. Yuck!
D) Fresh cut grass - I don't like the smell of fresh cut grass either.

I used to have a dog named:
A) Ca$h - I cracked myself up with my other choices. We had to give him away when I was pregnant with Claire. He kept peeing on Nathan's things. As far as I know, he lives in Sioux Falls. The reason he was named Ca$h is because Justin used to have a black lab named Tango.

B) Check
C) Visa
D) Charge

I met Justin:
A) while on a traffic stop
B) at my first job dispatching - he was a deputy and I was a dispatcher.
C) on a blind date
D) because someone broke into my house and he took the report

My nickname in beauty school was:
A) Woodrow
B) Ker Bear
C) Woody - There were two Kerrie's (although I don't remember how the other girl spelled hers) in our class, so my friends started calling me Woody. It stuck - very well. After beauty school, I moved back to one of my friends home towns. She and I were like pea's in a pod. You might have seen her comment. Her name is Loni. Anyway, once we were watching her dad play softball when someone asked him what my real name was. He looked at me, looked back at the guy and said "I guess I have no idea". HA!!!
D) Ker-a-lot

When I was pregnant with Nathan, my favorite girl name was (and Justin hated it):
A) Ava
B) Molly
C) Savannah
D) Jasmine - I really liked the name Savannah too, but Justin thought both of those names sounded like stripper names. I still would like to know why he knows so many strippers names.


How many tattoo's do I have?
A) 2 - I got the 1st one when I was 22 or so. It's of a puppy, although nobody ever thinks it looks like a puppy. It's more of a cartoon looking thing. My dad etched it on a wine glass for me when my brother got married. I took it to a tattoo shop and they free handed it on my leg. The other is of a butterfly on the top of my foot. I got it just days before Tracy and Ferber got married. It hurt - bad.
B) 3
C) 1
D) I don't even like tattoo's.

True or False: At one time I owned more than 70 pair of underwear. - It's true. I love new underwear. I just got some from Old Navy and I love them. It reminded me as to why I love new ones so much.


True or False: In high school I had purple hair. - Lord no! I've never had purple hair in my life. Not even in beauty school.

True or False: I got into a fight when I was in high school. - You had to know this was true, right? This girl was mad at me because she thought I'd been seeing her boyfriend....or something. She pulled my hair and I punched her in the face. I know - what a proud moment. (rolling my eyes)

True or False: I know how to knit and love doing it. - This was a trick question. It's false because I don't know how to knit. I know how to crochet, and yes, I enjoy doing it.

True or False: My favorite ice cream is pistachio. - I discovered it not so long ago. Don't knock it until you try it. =)


There you go. Now you know all kinds of useless things about me. =)

How well do you know me?

My middle name is:
A) Beth
B) Lynn
C) Anne
D) Jo


My favorite color is:
A) Pink
B) Black
C) Yellow
D) Red


My favorite food is:
A) Steak
B) Lobster
C) Sauerkraut
D) Taco


My favorite beer is:
A) Old Milwaukee w/ tomato juice
B) Miller light w/ tomato juice
C) Coors light w/ tomato juice
D) Bud light w/ tomato juice


My favorite pop is:
A) Mt. Dew
B) Cherry coke
C) Sprite
D) Pepsi


I was born in:
A) Midland, TX
B) Milbank, SD
C) MiddleOfNoWhere, USA
D) The Boondocks

My favorite flower is the:
A) Rose
B) Lilly
C) Mum
D) Tulip


My favorite smell is:
A) Vanilla
B) Anything floral
C) Chocolate
D) Fresh cut grass


I used to have a dog named:
A) Ca$h
B) Check
C) Visa
D) Charge


I met Justin:
A) while on a traffic stop
B) at my first job dispatching
C) on a blind date
D) because someone broke into my house and he took the report


My nickname in beauty school was:
A) Woodrow
B) Ker Bear
C) Woody
D) Ker-a-lot


When I was pregnant with Nathan, my favorite girl name was (and Justin hated it):
A) Ava
B) Molly
C) Savannah
D) Jasmine


How many tattoo's do I have?
A) 2
B) 3
C) 1
D) I don't even like tattoo's.


True or False: At one time I owned more than 70 pair of underwear.
True or False: In high school I had purple hair.

True or False: I got into a fight when I was in high school.

True or False: I know how to knit and love doing it.

True or False: My favorite ice cream is pistachio.



Answers tomorrow!

I've got nothin'

.....to say, that is.

I talk all day at work - to my clients and/or co-workers. When I worked at dispatch, I had a lot of visitors and I talked almost non stop on the MSN messenger, but I always had time to post something here. Now I don't feel that I have the time.

Today I'm going to work at noon. Justin had to work early, so I decided not to go in until noon. We've been pretty slow this week. It's to be expected. January and February are always slow. Anyway, I decided to stay home with Jack and Claire until noon, when they are expected at daycare. There are many perks to my job, that's the biggest one.

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend Linda. I hadn't seen her in quite some time, so we got together for lunch. We were able to do this at dispatch too, but I was connected to a phone and radio there. If I was going to have lunch with someone - a call was for sure going to come in and I was for sure going to be too busy to visit. Murphy's law LOVES me.

I guess I better run. Jack needs a bath and Claire needs some milk.

Looks like my nothin' turned in to somethin'.

Have a good weekend. If you're in SD - STAY INSIDE!!

Someone got a hair cut!!!

Today was a big fun day at our house. I took Nathan and Claire to the salon to have hair cuts. They LOVED it. They ran around and blew off some steam while I was cleaning up the hair. Claire loved looking at herself in the mirror while she got her hair cut. This is the first time she's ever been able to do that. She's used to sitting on a pot to make her tall enough to get her hair cut. She had a blast!

Nathan likes to get his hair washed after his hair cut. That's kind of his new deal. He really enjoys that. He encouraged Claire to do it and she did with no problems.

After hair cuts it was out to Pamida to pick up a couple of things. Then back to the house for a bite to eat. After we ate I took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. This was Claire's first movie. It was so much fun to watch her enjoying the movie. She kept on saying "Oh my gosh! My movie is so big!" It was her movie. She calls the chipmunks 'chick-a-wow-wows'. There is a part in the movie where one of them dances and says that. If you try to tell her they're chipmunks, she says "No! They chick-a-wow-wows".

Both kids did very well. They sat for the first half hour and then wanted to stand. We only had to leave once to go to the bathroom which, believe me, is a shock. Nathan always has to go to the bathroom.

When we got home from the show the Cowboys were playing. They ended up not winning, but Nathan and Justin watched. I was going to write enjoyed watching, but I'm not sure that Justin ever enjoys a game. I'm not even going to get into it.

Anywho, that's all for today. I just wanted to show you Claire's new do. I'm not positive that I love it yet, but it was so many crazy lengths that I thought a bob would look cute on her. She doesn't like a pony tail - so I thought we'd try this. Have a good week!

WARNING!

At the end of this post, you're going to see a very icky picture of Claire. Please be warned - it's real, but thankfully not as serious as it looks.

Last night Justin left for Aberdeen. He has a meeting there today. Tracy and I took the kids to McDonald's for some fun play time. We had a great time.

After the kids played, it was time to come home and get Jack to bed. After he was in bed, Nathan, Claire and I played a couple games of Candyland. Shortly after that it was time for Claire to go to bed. Sleep is kind of a tricky thing with Claire. She's almost 3 and is kind of on the edge of not needing a nap anymore. If we give her a nap then she's up until 11pm. If she doesn't have a nap, she's a bit hard to live with, but usually falls asleep relatively quick at 8:30 when we put her to bed. Yesterday she went to daycare which means quite time for sure. Sometimes she doesn't sleep, but more times than not she does.

I put her to bed last night and we have the usual problems. First of all she's afraid 'the crazy Bobo's' are going to scare her. Are you familiar with them? Here is a picture.

The Bobo Brothers cause problems on Go, Diego, Go!. One of the kids was given a monkey by one of our friends and Claire has been scared of it ever since. I think we've even thrown it away, I'm not sure. It used to be in her bed with all the other stuffed animals in our house, but once she started to complain about the Bobo's in her room we took it out.

Anyway, (this is much longer than it needs to be) I put her in bed last night and she got upset. She didn't want me to leave and she was worried about the Bobo's. I went up there a couple of times to quite her down. I think it was the 3rd time I went up that I found her like this.

I KNOW! Yes, that is real blood. I just about had a freakin' heart attack. I quickly turned on the light and - holy crap! I snatched her out of bed and rushed to get my camera. There was no way in heck Justin would understand how horrible her nose bleed was if I didn't take a picture. After I took the picture (which lasted all of 5 seconds) I took her to the bathroom grabbing my cell phone on the way. I realized after I took the picture with my camera that Justin wouldn't be able to see it until today. I needed him to share my fright immediately. I took another picture with my cell phone and sent it to him.

Nathan kept saying to Claire, "Peachy - are you ok? You've got blood every where." I cleaned her up and pulled a large blood clot out of her nose. It was gross! She was a trooper through the whole thing. I was glad.

I put her back in bed and told her to keep her fingers out of her nose. Thankfully she fell asleep, but not until about 11:30 or so.

I let her sleep in today. She got up at 10. You read that right, 10. I won't put her down for a nap today and my guess is that she'll be ready for bed at 8:30.

Sigh

You've just Experienced like Kerrie Meyer style.

Jack's Collage

I'm not sure if I ever said it here, but the reason we started going to Black Studio's (ohmygosh - I went to the site to get the link and there was Jack. FUN!) was because they do a baby plan. You take your newborn to their studio before they are 10 days old for a photo session. Then you go back for 3 mo., 6 mo., 9 mo., and when they turn a year. Not only does it force you to document their first year, but you also get a collage at the end. I think it was $150 which has to be paid up front. That's the price of the collage at the end. The good thing about Black's is that they give you 20% off anything you order at the shoot - making the collage $120. We got the finshed product of Jack right before Christmas. I LOVED how it turned out. I didn't know about the baby plan until I was pregnant with Jack, so unfortunately he's the only one that we did this with. I really wish I'd known sooner.

Antiquitie pictures

A while back I had the kids pictures taken at a fundraiser for our local Christian school. If you're a member of the blogger community, you'll remember when many of our friends posted theirs. I didn't post mine because I gave them to my kids grandparents as Christmas gifts. Now that we're done with Christmas, I'll post them. I think they're adorable!

More Christmas stuff

You've got to be wondering when it's all going to end, aren't you? I know, me too. Remember when I told you about Santa in the mall in Pierre? Here is The Rest of the Story......

Justin had a great idea. You've seen these, right?

They are made by a company called Franklin. After not being able to find the white Dallas Cowboys helmet (for less than $100), Justin decided to call the company directly to see if we could just buy the helmet. He spoke to a very nice woman who said that we could have had we called earlier. You have no idea how expected that was. Anyway, she suggested that we buy a white helmet and try to find stickers to go with the helmet. To make a long story short, I e-mailed a guy from Justin's e-mail address asking if he could get us the stickers by Christmas. I asked Justin to check his e-mail and somehow it was answered but unnoticed.

Enter Plan B. I decided that I'd just write Nathan a letter from Santa and explain to him why his helmet is naked white. The letter said something to the effect that right before Santa was leaving the North Pole, the Elf's told Santa that the stickers weren't ready. They held a special meeting and decided to bring the helmet as it was. Santa told Nathan that he'd mail the stickers after he approved them and asked that his dad put them on for him.

Ok. This could only go one of two ways, right? I knew it would either be the coolest thing ever or Nathan was going to be angry that Santa left his helmet naked.

Nathan thought it was beyond awesome that they had a special meeting JUST to talk about his helmet. THANK GOODNESS!

Oh, before the helmet was naked it was a Colts helmet. I just peeled off the stickers. Christmas was on Tuesday and the Cowboy stickers came on Saturday. I think it turned out pretty freakin' cool and Nathan loves it!

Here are some other photo's that you must see. We have a variety of things going on in this photo.

Ok, the most obvious thing in the picture is from Auntie Chell. She got Nathan a Transformer that turns into a gun. I know. I know. The picture looks a bit freaky, but he LOVES this thing. Also, notice the stocking hat. It's a Jeff Gordon one and from Tracy. It was another huge hit. Next you'll notice a Dallas Cowboy shirt. This came from Grandma Sharelle. The shirt under it is also new and needs to be worn 24-7, apparently.

Another thing that was a huge hit was the Dallas Cowboy hand warmer (above). Nathan feels he needs to wear this thing 24-7 as well. When he puts his PJ's on, the hand warmer goes on too. This week it hasn't been as much of a necessity, but he still loves that thing.
Peach got some very fun stuff too. Here she is decked out in her new outer wear from Grandma Sharelle.

She got Strawberry Shortcake and a baby stroller from Santa. She really likes them. I think she's going to love to push her baby outside this spring.

I know - it's not the best picture of her, but she'd just gotten out of bed.

I don't have many pictures of Jack opening gifts. I guess it's because he didn't do much gift opening. Here is one where he and Claire are playing with one of his toys.Tomorrow I'll post pictures of our stop in Milbank.

I interrupt this Christmas extravaganza

To Say....

If you don't get this....
Then you simply don't get me. (HA!!!)

Family picture

After the kids took a bath, it was time for family pictures. With a group of 11, this is quite the task. I curled Claire's hair and she looked precious.

Well, she did until she looked like this.......

I'm not sure why she was crying, but I thought she was even cute while bawling her head off. Actually, I do know why she was crying. This is one of the next pictures of her.

She was exhausted. This picture was taken before our family pictures were taken. It was ok, her curls lasted.
Jack was ready for his close-up. He got this outfit from Grandma Sharelle. Justin and Nathan were VERY happy that Jack got a Cowboys onsie. Jack seems quite proud too.

This would be a great picture had Nathan not closed his eyes.

We were trying to get a good family picture of everyone. We had the usual problems; someone would close their eyes, someone would have their head turned, you know - the norm. Well my nephew, Spencer, kept having this ridiculous look on his face. Nathan thought it was beyond funny. Nathan thinks pretty much anything Spencer does is beyond funny. I laughed out loud when I looked at the next shot of the two boys. Spencer had just been told to 'stop looking like a deer in the headlights'. Not to be outdone...

*Sigh*
For the love of Pete!

Rubba dub dub

3 Meyers in a tub! Grandma Sharelle has this wonderful bathtub at her house. Not only do the kids want to swim in it, so does their mother. You, however, will not be seeing pictures of my time in there. You can thank me later. Enjoy!