We will miss you Grandpa

There are so many forwards out there about making the most of each moment and cherishing those that you love and I always get choked up reading them. This story really hits home now more than any of them because tonight our Grandpa Ebeling (my mom's dad) passed away. We were able to see him for a little while on Monday at the Memorial Parade - we've been meeting him for the parade since Connor was born. Grandpa lived through his 80th birthday and according to this story below he had about 4172 marbles in his jar and just took out his last one. We love you grandpa and will miss you so much. Don't give Grandma too hard of a time up there ok - dance away though!





3900 Saturdays

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about 'a thousand marbles.' I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say "Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I 'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's 'dance recital; Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities - the thousand marbles theory. You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. 'I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.
There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight. Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time. It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band."

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh.

Getting Married

I stayed home from work today with Nolan and Jacob and icky diapers still. My excitement for the day was when Jacob's diaper was finally solid! Yippee. More information than you need to know, I know. Sorry. They both are in great spirits, they just keep exploding. I've washed sheets, changed clothes, and given baths way more than I want to for a long time. Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, I swear Jacob has grown up and changed so much just in the last week. He is so happy, lovey, responsive, and repeating everything you say. It's so much fun. Nolan's just having fun copying his older brothers (major monkey see, monkey do going on at the Ginskey house), he will definitely give them both a run for their money.

We had coed softball tonight, so grandma and grandpa watched the boys. When we came to pick them up Connor was in a baseball hat, cowboy boots, and a vest. They were playing catch with the stuffed animals. Wish I would have had my camera! As Matt was putting the boys into the car, Connor and him were talking about full names. This discussion continued the whole ride home. They were talking about how Jacob's middle name is David and that's grandpa's first name, and that somehow lead to last names and that my last name used to be Skala. We then got into a whole conversation about how the woman's last name sometimes changes to the husband's last name when they get married and we went through a bunch of examples for him. His response was "Oh, that makes sense!"

He then tells us that we (as in Matt and I) are going to get married again tonight. Matt said "Oh, really - and how would we get married - what do you do?"

Connor said, "You kiss each other and give each other roses." (wouldn't that be nice and CHEAP if that's all we had to do to get married!)

Matt replies "Oh yeah, what else do you do?"

"You kiss each other, give each other one rose, and hold hands and turn around."

Too funny. I wonder where he got those ideas about getting married from.

He also told us as we were getting into the car that he's not tired and has infinite miles of energy still.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial day everyone! What a beautiful day -we started the day off with the parade. The boys are taking a nap right now (well Connor takes a "quiet rest" just to give me a few minutes to get things done) and then we plan on heading out to play at the park.

The boys' pictures are ready. Wow, was that fast - Kelly is great. She captured the boys' personalities perfectly. We're going to have a really tough time deciding because there are some fun ones. We had a fabulous time and if you're looking for someone Kelly does a terrific job. Here are a few.....

Connor's graduation and MC day

Friday was Connor's preschool graduation and MC (Mommy Connor) day. I took the day off to spend it with him, however at about 8:30 am (as I'm doing laundry at my mom and dad's again) Matt calls me telling me that I have to go pick up Nolan from Mary's - he had a temp and really icky diapers . He has had terribly runny and gross explosive diapers (Jacob and him still had them today actually), so I picked Nolan up and headed to Connor's school. It was so cute, they sang a bunch of songs (Our computer is on the fritz again, but when it gets fixed I hope to download some video from it), walked out with their caps and gowns (Connor didn't get a cap because he's in preschool again next year), got certificates, and then we had ice cream.

I was dreading having to tell him that we would have to do our MC day another day because Nolan was going to be home with us. We're sitting down eating our ice cream and I told him everything. He looks up at me with this sad look and this big sigh, "Ok, Nolan can come with us, but it doesn't make the day very special".

My heart broke.....We were lucky because daddy and grandpa came to the rescue. Matt took off until 1 and grandpa took off from then on, so we could still have our day together. Once we finally got things figured out we started the day off with "exploring" the Nature Center across the street from our house. I had never taken Connor in there before - it's so cool and we were in there for over an hour.

Then we went for a short bike ride and took Nolan to grandpa's house so he could take a nap. We went and picked up lunch from McDonald's and ate it outside at the Blast (ice cream shop). We finished it all off with some ice cream and coloring in his new notebook with his new paint pens from grandma and grandpa. What a great day! We talked about anything and everything too. Here are some random thoughts by Connor:

When I asked him what he thought he wanted to do when he got older he said probably a doctor because he was so smart. OK, so someone doesn't have a big head! ;)

When we came out of the Nature Center I checked him over for ticks. He asked me what ticks are, so I told him. A few minutes later after being able to think about it he asked me what would happen if a tick sucked all of a person's blood. I went on to say that we have too much blood for that too happen, but if someone needs new blood they can get it from the hospital because people donate blood. He asked me what donate means, when people actually need new blood, and later in the day he asked how people get the new blood in them. Quite the conversation that became.

While we were eating ice cream he said it's a good thing that it's not too warm or bugs would stick to our ice cream. (What?) Then he asked me what would happen if we ate a bug or if a bee stung our tongue.

Today I've been changing diapers right and left. If it wasn't Nolan, it was Jacob, and vice versa. On the way home from church Jacob started screaming, clinching his body, and pointing to his stomach. We have some sort of bug going around that's for sure. Connor's stomach has been off a little bit - I just hope he and I don't get it too. On a positive note, Jacob sat through all of church today and did AWESOME! We normally have Nolan and him stay in the nursery because they are so busy. May was our month to work the nursery, but being Memorial Day there were no kids, so I thought I would try bringing Jacob and Nolan up with us. Like I said, Jacob was incredible -he's finally growing up (not that I want him to grow up any faster, but those of you that knew Jacob as a baby......;) )and I had to take Nolan out because all he wanted to do was talk and walk! Oh well, you can't win them all. Little by little huh?! Matt was at Mattey and Kristin's house all day putting up sheet rock. They're finishing some rooms downstairs to make room for Baby Skala upstairs!

Miracles and Good People

I recieved an email this morning from our media specialist at school with this video clip to share with our students and thought it was such a great clip. I knew about the accident here in town, but didn't get to see this on the actual news. We know most of the firefighters and I know the names of the ladies that are a part of it -they're so cute. Miracles do happen, and it gets you choked up a little bit. Check it out.

In-Depth: Ladies In The Lake:
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=6585761&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Cancelling school for the day!

On Friday Connor has his preschool graduation that Matt and I will go to. It sounds like they're going to sing some songs, get a "diploma", and we'll have ice cream. I decided to take a personal day, so Connor and I can have what we call a "MC day" (Mommy Connor day). He already has the rest of the day after school all planned out for us full of exploring, bike riding, playing at the park, planting some flowers, and eating ice cream. I don't know who's more excited him or me?! He's been telling everyone that his mommy is "cancelling" school on Friday to spend it with him! If only I had the power to cancel school for the day - that would be awesome! ;)

I'm so cool in these Sketchers

I had to share this because of my last entry on the boys sleeping in our bed. Friday night we had the Creeker Celebration (end of the year celebration) at school and I was in the dunk tank. Connor got the biggest kick out of it and actually got to push the target to dunk me. Jacob on the other hand was not a big fan of his mom sitting on that platform falling into the water. He would not stop crying and reaching for me. It was too cute. Nolan just hung out in the stroller taking everything in. After the Creeker Celebration Connor and I went to the Huskies Varsity baseball game for a little while. When we got home, Connor took a quick bath and we did our nightly routine. I was cleaning up the kitchen and out comes Connor with this shy little look on his face and he says "Mommy, you know how you told me that I can sleep in your guys' bed sometimes on special nights. Well, can tonight be a special night because you were in the dunk tank?" (and he gets all shy and covers his face).

What am I supposed to say to that?

"Sure you can." He gets all giddy and jumps up next to Matt on the couch to watch some ESPN for a quick while. When we got into bed, I turned on the cartoons for a little while for him while I read some of my book.

"Mommy, I'm going to go get my bear and my rhino!"

"How about just one of them, Connor, ok?" He comes back a few seconds later and stands at the foot of our bed.

"Mommy, I can't decide which one to sleep with...(again in this shy, trying to be innocent voice) you know, rhinos live in water and bears swim in the water, and this is a special night because you were in the dunk tank water - it's a tough decision." Did he seriously just say all of that to me. I didn't even want to argue with that...so I said to him -

"Get in bed....with both rhino and bear!"

Again, he gives another hearty giggle that I will never get tired of hearing!


Saturday morning we went to go buy some new shoes for Connor. His toes are bursting out of the ones he has. Man, was that an experience. I can normally stay pretty calm through screaming boys, boys that aren't listening to me, crying boys, etc....however Jacob decided to be crazy man and run all around the store. Luckily we were at Famous Footwear because I had coupon to use up, so it wasn't that big of a place. My patience was wearing very thin though. We're looking at the boys shoes and Connor says "Aw, dude- look at these Sketchers Mommy!"

"What? What do you know about Sketchers?"

"I can read the word and some kids at school and Ethan at Mary's have them."

"Oh, really?"

"They even have blue ones, my favorite color. Can I get these?"

We tried them on, they fit great, and my coupon helped get them at a good price. I realized though that I totally gave into the pressure of my kid. Those of you that know me, know that I shop at Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Target...and I love garage sale deals. We don't own too many name brand things at our house. To hear Connor talk like that about a brand of shoes, was unbelievable. He was so excited to show his Sketchers to everyone. It wasn't "See my new shoes", it was "See my new Sketchers!". He even said to me "I'm so cool and fast in these new Sketchers." Got me thinking about the whole peer impression thing and how I already have to be on my toes and start working on that... more than we do already I guess.

One more quick Connor story from the weekend. He turns 5 on September 9th, eight days short of the Kindergarten age, so he will go to preschool again next year, four days a week. Connor told me that Ms. Jane has been telling them that there were only 9 days (or something like that) until everyone else but three of them are going to be in Kindergarten. He told me that Hilary, Thomas, and him are the only ones not going to Kindergarten next year, everyone else was old enough. We got to talking and it came out finally that he thought Ms. Jane meant that next year it was going to only be the three of them in his class! HA! Too funny. We talked about how the three of them will be in a class with a bunch of NEW students their age. He thought that was much cooler. He was a little concerned about being in a class with only two other friends.

Our washing machine has been on the outs for two weeks now. Twice I've had to bring our clothes (2 big baskets full each time) to my mom and dad's to wash. I can't believe how much laundry we already have from a week. It will be nuts in a couple of years. We're having a guy come and look at our washer tomorrow. Thank goodness! It's amazing how you take for granted all of those luxuries...I cannot imagine being without a washing machine for too long! Sad isn't it?!
Papa John and Yaya came to visit today. We had a great day playing outside and grilling out. Thanks for the great new books!

Jacob is getting so funny with saying things are "mine". He uses it a little too much! ;) Everything is "mine"!!! Yet, he is the best sharer when it comes to Nolan and Connor.

Sorry I babbled so much, have a great week everyone!

Full bed and big snuggles

I decided to blog this because it has come up three different times in the last couple of days - At lunch the other day we were talking about letting our kids sleep with us in bed, then I received an email from a friend, and then this morning Connor was so cute about it.

I recieved one of those emails that you fill out answering questions about yourself, your favorites, etc.... and then you send it out to people and one of the questions was "What is your first thought in the morning?" (I don't always participate in these emails, but this one was a little different), and my answer was "I love these snuggles in the morning".

Many of you probably go right to thinking I meant snuggles from Matt, right?! Well, those are very very nice, and we don't do enough of them of course, however I'm talking about snuggles from Matt AND the boys in the morning. Our rule is that everyone sleeps in our own bed during the night, however in the morning our bed is open. Even with the rule, of course we still have those times where Connor or Jacob will wake up in the middle of the night and come into our room and try to get into our bed, but..... we try to always carry them back into their own bed with a few moans and groans from them. Don't get me wrong, there are those times where we give in, for sure, but we try to stick to it.

This morning I feel a tap on my shoulder and hear a quiet "Mommy, is it late enough in the morning to come and snuggle in bed with you guys?".

I groggily turn around and peek at the alarm clock - 5:30am. "It sure is! Crawl on in buddy!", I say back to him.

With this huge smile and giggle he crawls into bed between Matt and I, holding on tightly to his rhino, Samuel. I love the way he burrows on in between us with this happy giggle and sigh. A few minutes later we're all snoring away.

I'm not sure how much time has passed by when I hear this "uhhhh, uhhhhh". I look down and there is Jacob trying to get into our bed saying his version of "up". I pull him up into bed with us also and again we fall asleep for a few more minutes. The alarm goes off and our morning begins......

It's so hard to get up! Matt and I get up and start getting ready while many times the boys are still sleeping, but when they wake up they stay in our bed and we turn on the cartoons for them. Nolan has been sleeping in lately until we go and wake him up. It's perfect for us right now - we get ready, the boys watch cartoons - we laugh and sing, we help them get ready, and wake up Nolan to get ready right before we're ready to leave.

I love my full bed in the morning! ;)

Happy Mother's Day!

What a super mother's day weekend we had!

Friday night we grilled out. The weather was awesome! The boys love coloring on this white board that daddy hung up in the garage. Uncle Natey came over and we grilled steaks and played outside. I'm not sure who had more fun, Uncle Natey and daddy, or Connor and Jacob. Close call. Jacob is really starting to talk finally. His 2-3 word phrases are getting great. The tubes really seem to be helping. It's such a relief. Connor was up to his typical rhyming and being silly. I wonder if his love for rhyming has anything to do with the fact that Matt used to read Dr. Suess books to my belly when I was pregnant with him. Interesting coincidence!

My mom and I went and had a pedicure on Saturday morning. It was divine! I can't remember the last time I had one of those done - boy could you tell by the shape my feet were in. Yuck! Connor had a great swimming lesson. We're so excited that he's finally loving the water and getting more brave. Then we had a baby shower for my cousin's wife and stopped by the cemetery to visit grandma Skala and grandma Ebeling's grave for mother's day. Matt went into work Saturday night so that he wouldn't have to go in today. What a guy huh?

Today we went to church, and then Grandma and Grandpa, Matt and Kristin, Natey, and the five of us went to go get our flowers from Donahue's in Faribault. That place is a zoo! It didn't open until noon and we got there a few minutes before and we couldn't believe the line outside the locked gate. We were joking about it feeling like the morning after Thanksgiving shopping! I'm surprised no one got ran over or knocked down!
We then went to eat at Boston's and ate way too much food. After eating, we came home and all planted our flowers. Well, actually mom helped Kristin and I plant ours. I also worked on our garden and got that planted with the help of everyone. I can't wait.

As you can see I received some beautiful and thoughtful gifts from Connor. He's just like me with giving gifts, it's so hard for me to wait. He would bring things home last week from school or Mary's and give them to me little by little. You know I will keep each and every piece. I've started the bins already! He was so proud. He was such a big helper all day too. He was getting tired while we were working on my big flower pots and I told him he could go play. He told me no and that he was helping me with everything I did today because it was Mother's day. He wasn't lying either. He helped me with all of my pots and then with the garden. He finally asked me, "Are you done with everything you want to do today mommy?" I told him yes, and he ran off to play! I got a great card from the boys. I am super excited, Matt surprised me this morning with tickets to "O" - Cirque du Soleil show when we go to Vegas in June. I have been wanting to see one of these shows for a long time now. Thank you to everyone for all of the wonderful cards, gifts, and Mother's day wishes. I am very very blessed and fortunate. Hope all you other mother's out there had a great day also.

I feel so blessed to be a mother and cannot put into words what I feel for my boys. It's amazing what motherhood does to your outlook on life.

Thank you to my mom for being who she is and for making me who I am also! Thank you to Matt's mom for bringing Matt into this world! Happy mother's day to you two special women!

Balloons and Material

Quick background: Last Wednesday night we went to the Generations of Faith night for church and the boys got balloons (moose, monkey in a tree, and an aligator). Connor brought the moose to school to show for Homebox (like Show and Tell) and then to Mary's and his monkey in a tree we put on top of his bookshelf. I told Mary to just throw the moose away and I popped the monkey in a tree balloon because it was loosing air. The last thing we need is Nolan choking on that.

Tonight Connor comes out of his bedroom and quickly says to me "Mommy, I have a quick question (because he knows he isn't supposed to get out of bed), where are my balloons?"

Gulp....."Honey, maybe they popped and lost their air. Those balloons don't last all that long. We'll have to get more again sometime."

"Oh, ok", he goes back into his bedroom and I go back to my work.

Three minutes later I hear "Mommy.......!!!!" coming from his bedroom. Matt goes in to talk to him, and here is their conversation.

"Daddy, I have two questions for you; mommy put my balloon up on the bookshelf and it's not there anymore. Do you see it up there? She said that they sometimes loose air and pop. If it popped do you see the thing that the air goes into?"

"I don't see it up here Connor. Yeah, that's true, they do loose their air."

"Ok, then my second question is; I have that Spiderman hanging up there. It has air in it and is a balloon, how come that hasn't popped or lost its air like my moose?"

So Matt went into the explanation that the Spiderman is filled with air, but it's not a balloon. It's like a blow up intertube, or like the swimming pool we have. It's made out of different MATERIAL than the other balloons.

"Oh, that makes sense, because I've had that Spiderman for a really long time and I was wondering why it hasn't popped too."

Matt and Connor talk a little more and he tucks him in. I go in to check on Connor a few minutes later to talk about the balloons since I was feeling guilty about getting rid of them. ;) He was fine with it. I gave him a big kiss and hug and we said our " I love you to the moon and back" and as I'm walking out the door he asks me, "Mommy, what is MATERIAL?"

Oh my, too much thinking and reasoning for one night......... I wanted to say good night Connor man. Go to sleep!, but I went back and we talked about what MATERIAL was.

Wow, was it awesome out tonight! We've had fun being outside lately. I cannot wait until school is out. Sunday we cleaned out the garage and did some spring cleaning making sure we got some playing time in. Today after I picked the boys up from Mary's we played outside until supper and then went right back out. We went for a walk while Connor rode his bike and then Matt hit some whiffle balls onto the empty lots while Connor and Jacob ran to chase them. They love this game - it's hilarious. Jacob has a good little stride going on with his swinging arms. Connor's favorite is riding bike right now, Jacob loves chasing those balls or throwing the balls down the slide, (more balls of course) and Nolan loves the sandbox. I caught him eating the sand today. (A good contender for my friend Wendy's daughter Jorey who has been caught eating worms and wood chips lately!)

Carrots have Protein and Daddy's Woman,

We were at the Huskies Varsity baseball game tonight, but because it was raining/sprinkling off and on we stayed in the van to watch it. Connor asked if I could get some hotdogs for the boys. So, as he's eating his hotdog he tells me that hotdogs aren't very good for you.

I said "Oh, really?".

As he's taking a bite, "Yeah, they're not as good for you like carrots are. Carrots have a lot of protein, hot dogs don't have so much protein. Candy probably doesn't have any protein".

What???????

"What do you know about protein? Where have you heard that before?", I asked.

"I don't know, I've just heard it before and know it means healthy for you".

Did you know that carrots have a lot of protein everyone?

He was on a roll tonight. As we're still sitting there, waiting for daddy to come and join us, he's looking up the parking lot saying "I see daddy's car", to every car that's coming.

He kept saying it trying to be funny and then all of a sudden says " I see a woman!".

"What?", I ask him.

"I see a woman! You're a woman, mommy. You're daddy's woman!"

Again, WHAT????? ;)