I'm a Christmas Tree

A few days ago, I was summoned to the bathroom. Lo and behold, my child had turned into a Christmas tree!! hahaha At least, that's what Daniel told me. We discovered that we were missing a set of colored Christmas lights (I think they stopped working and I threw them out last year) for a small alberta spruce out front, so I bought a set of 35-lights at A.C. Moore craft store over the Black Friday weekend. Little did I know that my little man would find them and that he could be so creative!

One Little Indian

Daniel's preschool had their Thanksgiving Feast yesterday. The parents and family members of the 4-year-old and kindergarten classes all brought food for a good old-fashioned potluck dinner. I made a corn casserole. I arrived 5 minutes before the start of the lunch and there was hardly any food on the table. I didn't think that there would be enough. But soon enough all the parents arrived with their food and the Thanksgiving Feast table was loaded!! We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn casserole (of course!), green beans, rolls, fruit salad and pumpkin pie.

All the kids dressed up like Indians, except for one 4-year-old class that dressed up like Pilgrims. The kids sang a few songs and then they all put their hands together and said the cutest little prayer.

The table top decorations were all made by the kids--a totem pole, homemade Indian corn (made with beads) and a placemat with a Thanksgiving poem and turkey made with finger paint.

We all ate really good, an easy thing to do since there was so much food readily available. Daniel surprised me by eating really well. What else is a hungry little Indian boy supposed to do, right? :)

Farley the Frog

Daniel is in charge of taking care of Farley the Frog, his preschool class's mascot. Each child takes turns caring for Farley over the weekend.

That includes putting on his pajamas and tucking him in to bed at night, getting him dressed in the morning, and taking him around town. Daniel did a really good job getting Farley dressed this morning. Farley wore a black leather "motorcycle" style jacket and black leather shoes to match. The shoes are the kind you might see a dog wearing, but they fit Farley's feet really well!

We took Farley to Daniel's Primary activity this morning. The Primary was practicing for their program in church tomorrow, so Farley got to hear all the songs as well as Daniel's speaking part. We also took Farley to the movies today to see Madagascar 2. Unfortunately, Farley had to stay in the car. I don't think he minded one little bit. I have to double-check Daniel's homework file. I think we're supposed to print pictures of Farley and record what he got to do this weekend and Daniel has to take the report to preschool on Monday.

Yes, We Are Alive

My friends, I have some advice for you. Yes, my friends, that advice is this: do not move to North Carolina! At least, don't move to Wayne County, North Carolina. There is definitely an awful, awful bug going around, and Joshua and I have both picked it up. For me, it started out as bronchitis and eventually turned into pneumonia. I am on my 2nd round of antibiotics. For Joshua, he just got pneumonia. He is on his 3rd round of antibiotics. At one point, I had severe chest pains that lasted two days and were very sharp whenever I took a breath (so about every second or two, at least). That's when the doctor put me on the 2nd round of antibiotics. Thankfully, the chest pains are completely gone and I am not running a fever any longer. Joshua has not slept in our bed in about three weeks. He can't sleep laying down flat without having terrible coughing fits, so he has to sleep sitting up in the recliner, not the most comfortable of positions. It seems as though everyone I know has gone through the same illness and the general consensis is that it took about 3 months for everything to go away. Yikes! At that rate, it'll be Spring by the time I start to feel better! Joshua and I are very thankful that the kids have not gotten sick. If we're both not feeling well, then the last thing we want is for the kids to suffer as well. So, remember my friends, do not move to North Carolina! Don't even visit. Treat it like the plague. That is, at least until the pneumonia bug is gone. :-)

Raelee turns 2!!

We are so proud of our little girl. It's hard to believe that she is now 2 years old!! She had a really great birthday, and we celebrated with a little party. Her cousins, grandparents, aunt and uncles came. Raelee got lots of presents and became glued to a new baby doll that makes "sucking" noises when you feed it a bottle.


Raelee didn't want to eat any cake until her cousin Meagan offered to feed her some. Then she was quite content eating cake. She had a lot of fun opening presents, with the help of her brother and cousins, of course.

Raelee is growing up before our eyes. She loves singing songs, talks nonstop, counts 1-10, and copies nearly everything Daniel does (which sometimes frustrates him and we hear, "Mommy, Raelee's copying me!"). Our lovely daughter had her 2-year checkup Friday, Oct. 31. Everything checked out and show is growing at a steady rate following her growth curve almost perfectly. She got two shots -- the 2nd & last of the Hep A series as well as a flu shot. Her finger got pricked so her hermoglobin, cholesterol & lead levels could be checked. Her bottom lip got very droopy but she didn't cry with the finger prick, but boy did she holler with the two vaccines!

I'm sorry that there aren't more pictures on this post. I'm having problems posting them ever since I upgraded to Internet Explorer 7--arggh! So much for technology. I have some pictures posted on my Facebook account, so feel free to look at my album.

Lazy O Farm -- Field Trip

Daniel's preschool had a field trip to the Lazy O Farm in Smithfield, NC, today. I decided that, not only would I chaperone the trip, I'd take the whole day off from work and then Raelee could go with us, too. The kids had such a blast!

House of Pain

Welcome to the house of pain, where every member of the family suffers from an illness. Raelee has allergies and a constant, clear liquid dripping from her nose. At least she's happy and a good helper. Daniel coughs in his sleep, coughs watching TV, coughs while getting dressed, did I mention he coughs? At least he's a morning child and loves to get up and get ready for preschool. Joshua has a cough, left arm pain, hives, and no one knows what's causing any of it. After a round of blood work, x-rays, an EKG, etc., the doctors' have both responded, "We don't know what's wrong with you." He gets to take antibiotics "in case there's a small infection somewhere", allergy medicine, cough syrup, and whatever else makes him feel better. At least he got a check from the General Contractor so his electrical company can still afford payroll! DeAna is now post-bronchitis with a cough that won't go away. At least she can still work and the fever that lasted 4 days hasn't resurfaced. Did I miss something? Did we move our house to the Bermuda Triangle?

Our Family Photo

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Family Fair Day

We went to the county fair this past weekend and had a blast. My employer, Cooper Bussmann, bought tickets to the fair for all the employees and their family, as well as tickets for a meal at the Mar-Mac Volunteer Fire Department booth. So all we had to pay for were the rides and any souvenirs. Daniel was "all about" going on the rides. Raelee rode several rides as well (all of them with Mommy tagging along too) but she didn't get into it quite like Daniel did. We tried to ride all of the kiddie rides. There were some that Raelee couldn't go on, so Daniel rode by himself. He didn't mind one bit. All 4 of us rode the Ferris wheel twice. Joshua took several pictures for me since I was on the rides with the kids about 90% of the time.

Friendship Tag!

Okay, so I blame Lara Haymore for this. ;)

This is a friendship tag. Below are 25 questions, answer and post to your blog. This is a great way to get to know your friends better!

Your full name- DeAna Marie Heinrich Boren
Day/month birthday- May 27
Where born- Eglin A.F.B., Florida
Cds listening to- Lightning McQueen, Veggietales, (my kids tend to determine what "entertainment" we will enjoy
Books last read- Book of Mormon
Book reading now- Book of Mormon (I'm realizing that I don't have much time for myself)
# siblings- 5 (including me)
Where in line of siblings- oldest
Favorite thing to wear- my slippers
Perfume you wear- Bath & Body Works "honeysuckle"
Lotion you wear- Jergens
Favorite time of year- late Spring, early Summer
Favorite holiday/season- holiday Christmas, season late Spring early Summer
Favorite food- Tex-Mex
Favorite restaurant- Mamacitas (we always have go to there when we make a trip to Texas)
Last movie saw- Space Monkeys
Favorite movies- Monty Python's The Holy Grail
Favorite flower- Lily of the Valley, Pride of Barbados
Favorite vacation- the trips I've taken to Mexico top the list; also when I'm able to take a "vacation from my vacation" by just sitting at home and regrouping after a long trip
What want to do before die- visit my ancestral homes and locations
Dreams/goals- to be a stay-at-home mom (or should I say Household Engineer)
Your values- Church, quality time with family, hard work, education, being wife and mother, gratitude, service, enjoying the simple things in life
One thing you want to accomplish in life- fit into my wedding dress once again
Something you’d like to learn- jewelry-making
What have been some of your greatest moments of happiness and fulfillment?- getting married twice to my husband (once at the magistrate and once in the temple), the birth of my children, watching my children grow and develop and reach their milestones
What are some activities of the most worth you do?- spending time with my family, spending individual time with my children, recording our family memories and milestones (journaling, scrapbooking)

I tag...EVERYONE who reads my blog! :)

Raelee's not afraid of water!

Raelee has been very afraid of water since about 12 months of age, even scared of the water in the bathtub. For the first time in nearly 11 months, she got into water on her own free will! We went to Joshua's parents' house to go swimming in their pool. I dressed Raelee in her swimsuit and she climbed right up the ladder to go swimming with her brother. It was the most shocking and wonderful thing! She floated around in a floatie for about 30 minutes and loved it. The next day, Joshua started the bathtub water for the kids. Daniel got in and next thing we knew, Raelee was pulling off her clothes and got in the tub right after her brother! Another shocking and wonderful experience!! We didn't worry about washing her hair that night (why ruin a good thing by dunking water on her?). She had a blast and laughed and giggled, sounds we have missed hearing from our little girl since it's been 11 months since she last had fun in the bathtub!

How Much Do You Waste?

So I took the Quicken Spare Change Challenge. I found out that I waste about $428 each month!! Well, that's assuming that the Challenge correctly calculated the answers to a survey I took today. Go to quicken.intuit.com or click on the linke above to take the Spare Change Challenge and see how much you might be wasting.
Just a warning, though some of the questions may not be applicable to your situation, but there isn't a "n/a" button for the question, just answer the best you can.

T.S. Hanna Aftermath

Thought I'd share some pictures of our property in the wake of Tropical Storm Hanna. We had an awful lot of yard debris--leaves, twigs, small & medium branches.

My Parks' Whopper tomato plant was knocked over. I had to drain the water out of the planter then reset the stake to stand it upright. We forgot to put the cover back on the sandbox, so it's turned into a pond for tadpoles. We had put a tarp on top of our gazebo, and the hurricane shredded it. That's pretty much all the damage that was sustained, thankfully!

Alive & Well

So if you're wondering, yes we survived T.S. Hanna. The storm woke me up about 6am this morning when it got to our areas. Talk about a lot of wind and rain. Then the rain stopped but the wind kept coming and coming. Daniel's kiddie pool, which was only about 1/4 full of water, was filled up nearly to the top with rain water. We have lots of leaves, twigs and small tree branches scattered all about our yard. Our power went out at 6:45am. After spending a couple of hours being bored this morning, we decided to head into Goldsboro and do some shopping. Thankfully, the power had been restored by the time we got home this evening. So all is well that ends well!

Hanna Heads Home

So Hanna is a tropical storm, not a hurricane...still has lots of wind & rain. Schools are all letting out early today. Daniel's preschool closes at 11am, and Raelee's day care closes at 12:30pm. Joshua decided to stay home today so he can pick up the kids from school. I'm so glad that he owns his own business and can be so flexible with his hours!! Even Cooper Bussmann, where I work, is shutting down early. As a manufacturing facility, we just don't shut down without a valid reason. Second shift has been canceled for this evening, and there will not be any work this weekend. Office personnel can leave early but cannot stay past 5pm. I'm glad that our plant manager is taking the T.S. warning seriously. The original plan as of yesterday afternoon was to keep the plant open; business as usual on Friday. There were a couple assembly departments that were supposed to work Saturday as well. That won't happen now, thankfully.

Hurricane Hanna's A-Coming

So the weather forecast is that Hurricane Hanna will be coming sometime Friday night. Wayne County Public Schools are closing at 12pm on Friday afternoon. That by itself doesn't affect our family. However, because the public schools are closing early, Raelee's Kinder Kottage is closing at 12:30pm, and Daniel's Protestant Preschool & Kindergarten is closing at 11:00am. Joshua has decided to stay home for the day so he can pick the kids up at school closure time. Governor Easley or someone requested that all public schools in Eastern NC close early, "to give parents time to prepare for the hurricane" Friday evening. I guess if you already have your food storage, 72-hour kits, emergency contact #'s, and everything else, then you don't have to worry about spending Friday evening getting prepared!! The only thing I plan on doing Friday evening is unplugging my computer. Our house was struck by lightning a few weeks ago, and it messed up my PC slightly (I cannot plug in directly to the wireless router any longer; I have to use a remote USB cable...not sure what it all means).

Anyhow, I'll try to keep everyone posted. Hurricane Hanna is supposed to make landfall just South of Wilmington, which is only about 1 1/2 hrs Southeast of us. Once Hanna passes, then we get to look forward to Ike's visit. The ground will be quite saturated when Ike arrives, so we'll see how the next week or so goes!!



From WRAL.com:

• Tropical storm warning issued for all of N.C. coast
  Despite sunny skies, coastal counties asked for residents to evacuate voluntarily and planned to open shelters. Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency for all of North Carolina ahead of Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike.
  Updated 5 minutes ago
  Hanna to blow through Triangle Saturday
  Attorney general warns of scams, price gouging
• StoryHanna to blow through Triangle Saturday Updated 32 minutes ago Read Story Video Slideshow
• StoryEmergency officials prepare as Hanna heads northwest Updated at 4:22 p.m. Read Story Video Slideshow
• StoryHanna-spawned erosion threatens beach homes Sep. 3, 2008 Read Story Video
• StoryUtilities protect power lines from potential storm damage Sep. 3, 2008 Read Story Video

Ayres-Terry-Heinrich family website

I created a new family website for my dad's side of the family. Joshua's mom's family has a Bothun website at FamilyLobby.com. It has been a very successful method for the Bothun descendents to post pictures, recipes, birthdates, and so forth, and to see what other family members have done. You know, "keep in touch." So I thought it would be a really good idea to create a similar website for my family. I have plans to create another website for my mom's side of the family, but one thing at a time for now...

Family Lobby is really nice because it is a free website. When you create the website, you become the administrator & select the template & format, grant access for someone who wants to register for the website, and so forth. All registered users can add their own pictures, have their own journal (like a blog), add recipes, and read/view what other users have done. You don't have to be registered to view the website links (unless the administrator restricts access). I am very impressed with Family Lobby, so I would recommend it to everyone!

There's a link on the right side of this blog (where all our favorite blog pages are listed). Feel free to click on the link if you would like to view. Perhaps you will find use for Family Lobby for your own family. 8-)

Daniel started Pre-Kindergarten!

Our boy is growing up so fast. His first day of pre-kindergarten was today. In this picture, he is posing with Mrs. Reiss, his teacher, during Open House. His class meets Monday-Friday, 9am-12pm. They get to play outside & have a snack each day, Fridays are "Show & Share", and they go on lots of field trips. The first field trip is to the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair, and later this Fall they will go to the Pumpkin Patch, and will also get to pick strawberries in the Spring. Daniel's cousin Ashley is in the same pre-K class, and their Grandma will be able to take them & pick them up from school. I took Daniel for his first day. He was such a big boy--acted like he knew exactly what he was doing and didn't look back after putting his lunch box in his cubbie. I can't wait to ask him what he learned today!

I'm Published on Associated Content

My friend Melissa told me about a website called Associated Content. You can publish articles, prose, reviews, slideshows, videos, college term papers, etc., and be paid for what you publish. Of course, you can't publish copyrighted material. It has to be something that you created. So I signed up a couple weeks ago and wrote my first article -- simple & easy gardening tips. I was paid $5.04 and it was deposited into my bank account through Paypal. I know that $5.04 isn't much, but it is $5.04 more than what I had prior to publishing the article!! The really nice thing about Associated Content is that I didn't have to wait 4-6 weeks for a check to arrive in the mail. It was a very quick turnaround from the time I submitted my article to when I got paid. Through the end of August, if you submit 5 articles, you receive an extra $10 payment. So I am working toward that goal. I've done a total of 4 articles this month -- Simple & Easy Gardening Tips, Sample Drug Testing Policy (I am in Human Resources, after all), The Leftover Chef (I couldn't help it, I really love this website!), and a slideshow about scrapbooking layouts. So check out Associated Content, whether it's to publish your own material (and get paid doing it) or to read my articles. =)

Leftover Chef

I found a really wonderful -- and innovative -- website called Leftover Chef (www.leftoverchef.com) !! I'm always trying out new recipes. I haven't been taking leftovers to work for lunch like I used to (trying to watch what I eat and limit the amount of meat, pasta, sauces, etc. that I eat during the day), so any leftovers we have either get tossed or fed to the dogs. Joshua does not eat leftovers. Something about growing up and having to eat everything on his plate. Anyways, I figure it's worth a shot trying out the Leftover Chef. There are hundreds of recipes available to help you figure out what to make for supper or what to do with your leftover chicken, pork chops, chili, and so forth.

Free Ziploc brand big bags!

I admit it -- I clip coupons. I also like stuff that is free! I've been a member of Right @ Home (formerly known as Clean Home Journal) for several years now, and they send me a weekly enewsletter with links to print and clip coupons for all kinds of products, like Ziploc. So I got my weekly enewsletter today, printed a coupon for 75 cents off any Ziploc product and then found another offer where you buy one get one free of the Ziploc brand big bags. I've been wanting to get some to put my kids' crib sheets and toddler bedding in since they have both sleep in bunk beds now. So I thought I would share the website with everyone who might be interested. It is:

http://www.ziploc.com/coupon/2008-07-2/

Hope it helps!

We finally entered the 21st century (again)!

Well, we finally entered the 21st century (again)! The first time we entered the 21st century was when Joshua bought me a digital camera Christmas 2007. My 35mm had fallen apart, literally, the back door would not stay closed so I had all kinds of tape holding it together. So even though we have the digital camera, I felt like we still had one foot stuck in the 20th century. Then I finally figured out why -- we didn't have our own blog!! Well, now we do, and hopefully I'll be able to keep our family blog current with updates and pictures so all our family and friends will know how we are doing. We are still alive, I promise!!