Uncle Tom and Grandpa

Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Tom were here this past weekend and helped us hand out candy to the trick or treaters Sunday night.  Today when we were having dinner, Cora looked at me and said, "Mom, Aunt Sheryl and grandma passed out candy, but Uncle Tom and grandpa just sat on the couch and read magazines and didn't talk much."  Since most of you are family, you realize how very little Uncle Tom and Terry talk, so the fact that they were sitting on the couch not talking is not very surprising.  Dan and I just thought it was cute that Cora picked up on it.  Good to see you as always, Tom and Sheryl !!

But don't ask Ms. Jade 'bout it . . . . .

The latest joke in our house is with Cora and her daycare teacher, Ms. Jade.  Every afternoon after lunch the children are required to lay down and take a nap at daycare.  Often, Cora doesn't fall asleep and she's quite crabby in the evenings.  Well, in our house the rule is, "If you're crabby and you didn't take a nap, you have to go to bed early."  One evening a few weeks ago Cora was particularly crabby and I just knew she hadn't had her nap at daycare.  So I asked her if she had taken her nap.  She thought about it for quite a while and you could just see the wheels spinning in her head.  "If I didn't take a nap, mom is going to make me go to bed early."  And she just didn't want to miss out on anything around the house.  So she looked right at me and said, "Mom, I taked a nap today, but don't ask Ms. Jade 'bout it." 

I couldn't keep myself from laughing.  She lied right to my face but was smart enough to know that she could cover her tracks if only I didn't talk to Ms. Jade about it.  So since I busted out laughing, Cora uses the phrase, "but don't ask Ms. Jade 'bout it" all the time to make me laugh.  Silly little Cora . . . .

S'mores

The night we were at the pumpkin patch they had free s'mores for everyone there - man, did we take advantage of that.  Henry decided that the s'mores were the "best thing he'd ever had" and Cora finished the whole thing in about five bites !!

The pumpkin patch

We made it down to the Pumpkin Patch last week and had a blast.  The kids really enjoyed the corn maze, the pedal go-carts, the various play areas, and of course, picking out their very own pumpkin from a real pumpkin patch !!  A good time was had by all . . . .

Being sick

Ugh !!  I hate being sick and it's happened twice in the last week now.  Last week I went down on Wednesday with what turned out to be strep - felt like I was swallowing cut glass for a few days.  Then this week Henry and I both spent a day puking our guts out - I know, pretty gross.  Man, it's time for a hard winter frost to come in and kill off all the germs so I can get back to living a normal life again. . . . .

Apple Orchard

A few weekends ago we went up to the Apple Orchard near Sioux Falls and had a blast. The weather was perfect and there were hardly any people there. The kids had so much fun walking up and down the rows of trees and picking their apples right off the tree. (I probably should have told them that apples don't really grow in grocery stores before now). There was a hay stack to climb on that Henry loved, a petting zoo that Cora loved - she announced that the sheep's coat felt like carpet. How cute !! They had pony rides and of course we picks a bunch of apples. On our last tractor ride in Henry and Cora spotted the pumpkins growing and announced that we would be coming back once the pumpkins were "all growed up" so we could pick pumpkins for Halloween. Here are some pictures from our fun day !!

Chores

As do most families, we struggle with teaching our children to help around the house and do their chores on a regular basis. I have tried sticker charts, magnets, bribes, threats, marble jars (explanation some other day) and all kinds of other incentives to get them to do their work.

A couple weeks ago Henry came up with a solution that even I have to admit was pretty smart. He doesn't really like making his bed, and I will agree that it is difficult since his bed is pushed up against the wall and it's hard to tuck the sheets in. So he announced that from that day on, he would be sleeping on top of the bed with his Hawkeye blanket covering him. And that way he wouldn't have to make his bed anymore because the sheets wouldn't ever get messed up. And, he's right !! So I have to give him credit for solving that problem.

Now if we could figure out how to make the dishwasher unload itself . . . . . . .

Socks

I realize most people don't put pictures of socks on their blog, but I was folding laundry the other day and washed Henry's new socks with a few pair of his old socks. As I was folding them and had them side-by-side, I realized how much our little man has grown. There is quite a size difference in the "old" versus the "new" I wish I could keep him little forever . . . . . .

Kids professional pictures

I just love this picture of the two of them with their "birthday presents."

And we even got smiles here.

In this picture, I can just see Cora as a young lady a few years from now. Luckily, her impish grin gives her away in this picture and you can tell she's only three.

And my big man - I can just picture when he's sixteen and flips a chair around to sit on it, just like this one, as he talks to Dan and I.

The first day of school

First picture - Henry at his "desk" in first grade. Last year in Kindergarten they just had tables, but this year he is excited to have his "own desk." Second picture is Henry in front of his locker with the school principal, Mrs. Adams. She's a sweetheart and we are lucky to have her as our princi"pal". Third picture - Henry and Cora getting ready to head out for the "first day of school." They looked so grown up that mom had to cry, of course :-)

Anniversary

And Dan and I and mom and dad went out to celebrate my anniversary last Friday. I say "my anniversary" because in August of 2000 Dan and I moved here from Rapid City and I opened up my own court reporting business. Accurate Reporting, Inc., has been in business for ten years and I'm darn proud of that. Most small businesses fail within the first few years, and I made it. Thanks for helping me celebrate this milestone, mom and dad !!

Medical

It seems we've had our share of doctor visits lately. The kids were both scheduled to go to the dentist last week and this was Cora's first visit. She did awesome until the dentist in the "white coat" came in and she freaked out and jumped down from the chair into my arms. Guess that's it, doc ! From what the nice dental tech could see there were no cavities, but we'll find out for sure next time . . . if she lets the dentist see her teeth. Henry did really good too - they took him away to another dental tech and he sat in there like such a big man. I was so proud of him, even though he was really nervous, he went with Laura and didn't make a fuss. He had one cavity which involved a follow-up visit the next day, but the dentists have it down pat and they zip right through fixing up a cavity and we were done in no time.

Then Cora had been complaining about her "owie toe" on her left foot but would never let us see it or put a band-aid on it, so we figured it wasn't too serious. Then she accidentally walked through some salt water barefoot and screamed her head off when her little toe came in contact with the salt water. She finally let me look at her toe and it had a great big open hole that was oozing yellow stuff. Yeah, I know, gross !!!! So off to the doctor we go. The doctor honestly said it was "no big deal" even though I was convinced her toe was about to fall off from the infection. Our doctor is so cool her comment was, "Well, she has nine other toes, doesn't she?" Love you Dr. Ann !! And after three days on the "magic cream" from the doctor it's almost all healed up. Thank goodness.

Then me - I was feeling a little bit stronger than I actually am and decided to move a tree that had broken off in the storm across our backyard over to the garage where dan could chop it into pieces for disposal. Halfway across the yard I realized that I wasn't all that strong and the tree was way bigger than I thought it was - and I couldn't stand up straight. So off to the chiropractor for a few adjustments and a few days of laying on ice packs and I'm all better. Just in time, this week, to have a severe vertigo attack. Seriously, don't really need this. Room spinning, sick to my stomach, wobbly on my legs. Off to Urgent Care where they prescribe some really great medicine for the dizziness, but the side effect is drowsiness. Yeah, right, one pill and it's off to night-night land for Carin for about six hours. Thank you to Sarah and mom and dan for taking such good care of me. I'm good now. So I guess that means it's Dan's turn to visit the doc . . . . . . :-)

Dad

And the other big thing that happened lately is that Dad decided now would be a good time to have heart surgery. Okay, it's not quite as dramatic as it sounds, but it was still pretty serious. On Tuesday August 10th dad started having chest pains but because he's a Smith (we tend to dislike doctors) he ignored the issue until Thursday. Upon chatting with his doctor over the phone the doctor indicated that based on his symptoms it might be a good idea to check out the local hospital. Dad had a treadmill stress test on Friday and according to his doctor, he "failed miserably" Not just failed the stress test, but "failed miserably"

That afternoon he had an angiogram to see what was going on and the surgeon found an artery (the left descending maybe) that was almost completely blocked and "hanging on by a thread." However, the doctor wasn't as comfortable doing the surgery to correct said artery at the hospital we were at. So they loaded dad up into the ambulance and transferred him to the nationally recognized heart hospital in town and continued the angiogram and later surgery. He had only one stent put in but that opened up three other major arteries and will help his heart tremendously.

He was discharted late Saturday afternoon with very few restrictions, but he's now on a ton of medications. Mom and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what each one was for and how often he should be taking it, etc. And he has to go to cardiac rehab for about six weeks now, but otherwise, he's doing great.

The Good Lord was watching over us and put dad where he needed to be exactly when he needed to be there. The family, of course, wishes he wouldn't wait so long to address medical issues, but we're not going to change him at this point in his life. We were very fortunate and really appreciate all the cards and phone calls and facebook posts expressing care and concern for dad.

Even he admitted that he's heard many families at the time of their loved one's funeral say, "he was having indicators of heart problems, but we ignored them" and we are all thankful that dad decided not to ignore them and get up to the hospital when he did. We love you very much, dad !!

Misc.

I swore to myself that when I started this, I would do my best to keep it current. Well, it's been almost three weeks since I last posted anything, so obviously I'm not doing a very good job. There's also additional pressure here - Uncle Ed has made our blog a shortcut on his laptop and he checks it every day to see if there's anything new. Yikes !! The pressure !!! Just kidding, Uncle Ed - we love you .....


A lot has happened in the past few weeks, most noteably Todd and Vicki got engaged in Philadelphis on a short weekend trip and are planning a wedding in warm, sunny Dominican Republic - can't wait to celebrate with you guys. And school started back up again !! If I can get my pictures to upload, I will post some of Henry and Cora's first day.

We've ended up the summer with our last few trips to the pool, the movies, the play place, and Chuck-E-Cheese and are settling back into the routine of early bedtimes, homework (ugh) and early mornings (double ugh). Henry has stated that after one week of school, he's done and he doesn't need to go any more. Yeah, right, little buddy ! But Cora on the other hand loves her new room at Building Blocks. She's a "snail" now, which I find funny because I don't know any three-year-old that moves like a snail. A cheetah maybe, but not a snail. She is having fun playing with her friends she missed over the summer and being a "big three-year-old, mommy"

Cora's cuties

Lately when we put Cora to bed she's been looking at me and saying, "Good night, princess mommy"

And instead of saying "because" she says "a-cause" because "she likes A better than B"

And this past spring she called me on the phone and said, "Mom, I just saw a robber - Dad says that means spring is coming" I quickly figured out that robber actually meant robin.

Then when we were leaving daycare one day and had to take an alternate route because of road construction from the backseat I hear, "Way to go mom for finding a new way out of school."

Just a few cute stories !!

The day everything went right

Have you ever had one of those days when everything went wrong? I know I've had more than I care to remember. However, last year when Dan and I were traveling in Washington, DC for the Iowa Funeral Director's Association, I had a day where everything went right. It was so strange !!!

First, that morning I got to sleep in - which is rare with young children. Then I had a made-to-order breakfast that was free - still don't know why. I met Dan after his meeting and we headed out to do some shopping. Now the state convention for IFDA was coming up in about three weeks and Dan was going to be installed as president. As first lady, there's some pressure to look nice, and I hadn't yet found a dress I liked for the banquet night. The very first store we went into had a pink dress I fell in love with, Dan found the correct size right away, and it was on clearance for 60% off - I love discounts. As we were leaving the store we wandered by the shoe department and found the perfect pair of cream heels that looked great with the dress and as a bonus, I found a pair of black high heels for work that were marked down to $10 - yep, $10.

As we left the store, there was a street vendor (there's tons of them in the big cities) who had Kate Spade purses for sale. Now, I love her purses, but I'm not about to pay the huge price tag she gets for them. These bags however were excellent knock-offs and only $20 - of course I had to get two. Then a few blocks later we found a perfume vendor that still had two bottles of my favorite perfume that was discontinued a few years back and I haven't been able to reorder it anywhere - and the price was reasonable too.

By this time Dan and I are joking that we need to buy a lottery ticket because we can't believe things are going this well for us. We stop in a cute little jewelry store and - you guessed it - find the jewelry that matches the new dress perfectly.

To top the evening off, we went to one of my favorite Brazilian restaurants with about 25 of our friends and had a delicious meal. How could the day get any better than that? So whenever I'm having one of those "Everything is going wrong today" days, I always try to remember my day when everything went right :-)

Winter

Okay, so we're all complaining about how hot this summer is, but if you will recall -we were all complaining about how cold this past winter was too. I guess talking about the weather (or complaining about it) is an Iowa pasttime. Although, whenever I talk to my family in Arizona, they have to tell me about how awesome the weather is down there. Of course, they are originally from Iowa. Maybe it's a Midwesterner thing ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

The Sioux City Journal ran this article this past February and I've been saving it to share with you. Multiple Choice: Which city has received the most snow this winter? A. International Falls, Minnesota; B. Barrow, Alaska; C. Grand Forks, North Dakota; or D. Sioux City, Iowa?

Yep, you guessed it - D. Sioux City, Iowa. As of Groundhogs Day in February we had received over 49.5 inches of snow. I don't know what the grand total was for the winter, but that's pretty impressive.

I guess we could use some of that cold winter weather about now when we're all struggling with the heat and working our air conditioners overtime. Oh, well . . . . .

Dan just sent me a msg that the kids did great tonight on their date with gma and great gma. I'm so proud of them. I love you two "more than infinity"

Mini-golfing

This summer Henry and Cora have been really interested in golfing (Dan is so thankful !) They each got new golf clubs for their birthdays and have taken them out to Whispering Creek a couple of times to play. Then last week we went mini-golfing for the first time and they LOVED it !! Henry ran around the course about five times and did awesome with the putter. Cora decided the best way to "golf" was to take her golf ball and just place it into the hole and then clap for herself. It was precious.

Vacation Bible School

The kids went to vacation bible school this summer at our church and had so much fun. The theme was "Growing God's Children" and they learned all kinds of fun things about the love of God for them and for everyone. They put on a concert for the parents the last evening of VBS and they did awesome - I was so proud of them for learning the music and words and the actions. This is a picture of Cora as a flower and of Henry (he's the very last kid in the front row with the red shirt on).

Summer Fun

One of my favorite things about summer are the spontaneous neighborhood get-togethers. A few weeks ago on Sunday afternoon we invited Halle, Ella and Peyton to come down and swim with us in our backyard pool. Pretty soon, Kayla from next door came over also. Then before too long, the parents all migrated down to our yard and set up their lawn chairs. We ordered pizza and hung out together for hours. Everyone had a blast !! It's one of my favorite memories from this summer. Here are some pictures of the kids in the pool. We really are blessed to have such great friends !!

Ms. Sarah

Ms. Sarah is our summer babysitter and, to be honest, our lifesaver. She has been our regular evening babysitter for the past year or so and this summer we were fortunate enough to have her come to our house every day and take excellent care of Henry and Cora. She is doing all these wonderful field trips with the kids; picnics in the park, playing at the mall, summer kids movies, the pool in Sergeant Bluff, gymnastics, bible camp, children's museum, library storytime. She is totally awesome and we'd love to adopt her. We just wanted to say a big "thank you" to her !!! Here's some cute pictures of them at the pool . . . . .

Language

At our house, we have certain words we can't say such as "stupid" or "shut up." We've told Henry that those are words he can use when he gets to be 15, but until then we don't want to hear them. So picture our house last weekend when Henry was frustrated with a Transformer and couldn't get it to transform correctly. He says, "Mom, this toy is stupid !" And Cora marches right up to him, puts her hands on her hips, wiggles her finger in his face and says, "Henry, you watch your ang-uage" (language)" It was way too cute !! So now Cora is handling my scolding of Henry for me and making my life easier, I guess . . . .

Easter

Easter this spring. Okay, I realize this is getting quite a ways back in time, but I had to put some pictures of Easter in. The kids had a blast coloring eggs and hunting them. To try to keep the sugar content down we hid a few coins in most of the eggs and the kids loved putting the money in their piggy banks.

Our best friends

At our old church we met one of the best families. Matt and Yvette are very sweet people and their daughter, Ava, and Cora hit it off immediately. These are some pictures of some of our playdates together. We are so thankful for you, Ava and Yvette, and are looking forward to the new baby on the way. We're excited to meet the newest member of the Townsend family !!

Railroad Park

Another favorite of ours is the McCormick Stillman railroad park. We discovered it on our last trip to Arizona and had tons of fun. They have playground equipment for the kids, a life-size railroad they can ride around the park, a carousel, and an "Old West" town complete with a stagecoach. I love the pics of the kids on top of the jail.

Children's museum

We found the Children's Museum of Phoenix and had a blast. They had converted an old school into a three-story playground for children. We loved the two-story climbing structure, the noodle forest (hundreds of pool noodles hung up from the ceiling that you walked through), the pretend grocery store and kitchen, the art center, and the move-it area (motorbikes and such). What a wonderful gift to the children of Phoenix to have this musem available to them.

Pedicures

Cora and I had our first manicure/pedicure while we were on vacation in Arizona. She sat still for so long and was soooo good. I was really proud of her. This is what the final product looked like.

Arizona

I earlier posted some cute stories about our vacation, but here are some pics. We had a fabulous time. Everything went so smoothly and the family had tons of fun together. Thanks to Chris and Kerri and Todd and Vicki for being our "hosts" so much in the afternoons and evenings and letting us crash at your pool and eat all your food !! We loved being with you and the kids were ready to go back to Arizona about as soon as we came home. Thanks mom and dad for being around so much and making our vacation so much fun.

Papa's flag

A few years ago for Christmas, mom bought dad a flag at the local cemetary. Now, for most families, that would be really weird, but not in ours. The flags are put up for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. There's a really nice plaque at the base of the flag that says In Honor of Terry Smith. Each year we take our pictures by the flag to see how much we have changed in the past year. Here is this year's picture.

Summer Fun

The best part about summer is putting on the swimming suit and heading outside to play with the neighbors and splash each other !! Our friends are Kayla, Halle, and Ella. Thanks everyone for a fun day !!