Umm, Happy Birthday, isn't it?

Jonas turned three yesterday, but I thought the date was Jan 11th until about 5 pm, and so I wasn't telling him he turned three all day or singing happy birthday to him at odd times or anything to make it a special day. Then we realized that there was a fam-demic stomach virus in our midst, and so we didn't even eat cupcakes or blow out candles. Lousy birthday for him.


But now their ages are easy to remember again- 9,7,5,3.

I'm not a good birthday mom. I want to be, but not as much as other things, apparently.

With the fam-demic, Eli was the worst, so I pulled the toddler bed mattress into our room and looked around for a place to set it up. Unfortunately, we'd cleaned up our living room/play room and a lot of stuff got dumped in our bedroom. So I was blocked by a big pile of empty boxes, some boxes of kids'school mementos that I have no idea what I'll ever do with, a basket of laundry, a basket just of unmatched sock, an assortment of socks on the floor that had been flung from the sock basket and never returned, some books, lesson manuals, etc. I promised to work on cleaning it up today, but blog first! Right? I mean, don't tell, okay? This is our little secret.

I'm ready to be organized. And that means throwing stuff away. And that means taking the time to sort through things. Which I like having done, but not the doing.

And I'm ready to lose weight. I've done well before on "The Eat to Live Diet" by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and think it's the best choice for health, too. A pound of raw (lots of leafy green) and a pound of cooked veggies and a cup of beans, plus some flaxseed, and 4-5 pieces of fruit a day. Trust me, you don't get hungry eating like that.

These aren't exactly resolutions, because I make resolution type decisions on roughly a monthly basis. Yes, I get off-track that easily. But anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New year, and can you believe it is 2010? Let me check that date in my planner. Now where did I put it again? It was right here a second ago...
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Catching up...

A few pictures from out Thanksgiving trip to Stone Mountain, GA

followed by some of our favorite parts of this trip.

They have hand-tossed rolls at the restaurant in the park. Our table only dropped one. Sooo yummy.

I swear Emma is my daughter, not my sister Cindi's.

Jonas loves his ketchup.

Jonas and Daddy. Note the weapon.

My sister and me.

My mom and Bill- one of my favorite pictures of them.

Isaac wearing Daddy's sunglasses.

My favorite memory of this trip is me beating everyone at Chinese checkers on Thanksgiving night in 40' weather at a partially enclosed campground rec area. It would have been Cindi's favorite memory except she lost. (Yeah, we're competitive like that.)

My mom her friend Marie had set up a very nice campsite right on the lake and it was gorgeous. But the wind came right across the water and we were freezing on Thanksgiving day. But we used our cars to make a windblock and then ate huddled beside it. Our kids were coughing, so Nathan and I didn't camp with the rest of the clan. (The hotel was warm. So nice.)

The activities at Stone Mountain itself were fun- a train ride, a glass blowing studio, The Polar Express 4-D movie, and an interactive computer graphics show where the goat talks and responds to members of the audience. There's also a giant 'barn' with slides and rope bridges and it is a great place to play hide and seek. There's a small Christmas parade that is mostly annoying because you can't move for twenty minutes until it goes by. And the Snow Fairy flies over the mainstreet and says a poem and it starts to snow. Then she flies away. Jonas spent days saying, "Snow Fairy fly away, right?" He had a funny moment when we were waiting to take the cable car up to the top of the mountain when he grabbed a tall stranger (in jeans and a dark jacket just like Daddy) on the upper thigh and walked right through his legs. The guy was a little startled, but laughed, which was a nice reaction.

Emma and Isaac's favorite part was when we walked (ran?) down the mountain. Eli liked the cable car, riding bikes, and the playground.

Nathan went on a long bike ride, and since he's at work and I can't ask him, I'm going to guess that was his favorite part- although he enjoyed the walk down the mountain, too. My sister Cindi- not so much in her slippery boots.

Definately worth a trip and the cold brought us closer together as a family. *wink*  
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