tiffany's spot

26. I wear size ten shoes. I'm sure you really wanted to know that. Sometimes my friends come over and I see their cute little tiny shoes in the doorway and I'm a little embarrassed by my giant ones sitting next to them. Then I remember just how short my friends are - like playing limbo without having to lean over. You know who you are. 27. I threaten to sell my kids to the gypsies sometimes. They ask who the gypsies are. I tell them that the gypsies are the people they're going to live with. 28. My favorite Disney movie as a kid was Sleeping Beauty. Now I watch it and wonder where the character development is. Don't even get me started on falling in love with a guy who stalks a woman through the bush and then steps in and dances with her before she realizes what's going on. 29. I'd love to swim laps, but I'm too cheap to pay $8 each time, especially since I wouldn't last that long for the first while. $8 for half hour of lap swimming? 30. As a teena...

Jordan : Mitchell, do you want me to read you your library book? Lucky Duck? Mitchell : Yeah! Tennyson : No! She's making you smush your brain! Jordan . No. Only TV does that, not books. Jordan loves to read. She especially loves to read to people; me, Steven, the boys and her baby sister. Elliot has learned to sit nicely on Jordan's little lap and be read to. The first few times Jordan tried she had to forcibly clench her in her arms while Elliot struggled to escape, all while managing somehow to hold and read a book. It was pretty entertaining to watch. It's no surprise that she's a reader. We've always read to our kids. I'm pretty sure I bought story books for her while I was still pregnant with her. I remember a few times laying on the queen sized bed beside my infant daughter and reading to her from the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe (not that I ever actually read the complete works). When she got a little older she'd sit on my lap and I'd...

I just got home from diaper gym and the phone rang. I didn't recognize the number and was going to let it go to the machine, but then I thought better of it and picked up. Yes I'm one of "those" people. It was Jordan calling from the student phone at school. She was sniffling and told me tearfully that she fell down and that she wanted me. Being that I just got home and unpacked everyone from their snowsuits I wasn't about to load everyone up to run to the school and hug her. Even though I wanted to. Instead I asked her about her day and we talked about the snow hill and who was on the top of the hill and how many slides were on it. She told me who she was going to play with and that she hadn't had lunch yet. I let her talk until she felt better and ended the call. I know it was the right thing to do, and that if I had gone racing to the school she'd have been fine and running around with her friends before I even got everyone loaded into the van. Sti...

Steven made a skating rink in the back yard. Yesterday the kids finally put on their skates and headed out, or, to be more precise, they headed out into the yard and then changed into their skates once they got where they were going. First they shoveled off the ice and sneaked into the garage to find their skates. They are very industrious. Once I realized that they had shoveled the snow off the ice and were putting on skates I figured I should probably assist them. I slipped on my own boots (my jacket wasn't really needed - beautiful winter weather lately!) and joined them. I tightened Tennyson's skates up and then turned to Jordan. She had tied her own skates but it was obvious when watching her that they weren't nearly tight enough. I glanced at her feet and then looked again. "Jordan," I said. "Those are not your skates. They're huge!" "Yes they are mine!" she said. I looked again. "Nope," I laughed. "They're Da...

Check out this link. It's a really neat video about exercise and your health. I promise it's nothing like the last video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUaInS6HIGo&sns=fb

It's been a fun few days here at the Verwey house. I woke up late Saturday night (early Sunday morning) feeling pretty awful. It was about 3am. I knew what was coming - I always know it's coming. There is no way the stomach flu goes around without having it hit here before it's gone. By 4am both boys were throwing up. Around 5am it was my turn to start. Freaking fantastic! On Sunday evening Jordan threw up a couple of times. You'll be truly happy to know that she does not chew her kraft dinner. At all. I kept everyone home on Monday. No school for Jordan, no diaper gym for the rest of us. We had a jammie and movie day. Happily, nobody dragged the throwing up part of their disgusting illnesses into Monday. I'm still waiting for Elliot. Is it too much to hope that she has somehow avoided this bout? My fingers are crossed so hard they hurt. If you're wondering about Steven, he won't get it. He has never had it since I've known him. He hops in and...

Click HERE to watch. You have to scroll down.

Tennyson: Can I have some coke? Steven: Coke's not good for you. You can have a dunkaroo.

Where honey comes from, as explained by Tennyson: Bees get nectar from every flower, they gargle it into honey and then they spit it into cones and then they put it into little boxes and they send it to people.

I've decided to copy a few friends and start a 100 Things list. Will it have new material in it? Maybe. Will it more or less be a very close spin-off of the other lists I have made? Chances are good. 1. This list will NOT end with a pregnancy announcement, as did the 2010 list. That ship has sailed. 2. I picked up my coffee habit midway through my third pregnancy. It was repulsive before, now it's delicious. 3. Diaper gym is the beginning and end of my social life in Portage. 4. I have a son who wants to be a princess when he grows up. 5. I'm not really 29. 6. I love my computer - like really love it. Because it brings me the internet; more specifically reader and facebook. I may have to kick this addiction in the new year. 7. I'd love to consider myself a runner, but I'm starting to think it's more of a fair weather friend. My motivation has tanked in the last while. 8. I can still knock off a cool six miles, more if I'm in the mood. 9. I love my ...

The weekend is now half over. Probably more than half, especially considering Steven is up playing Zelda. The kids love watching him play Zelda. I used to forbid it, but it seems my opinion on it has been vetoed. So far Link has been doing a lot of wandering around and flying his bird, but if it gets as dark and scary as the first Zelda game I may have to forbid it again. Yesterday we had family pictures taken with Steven's dad, Step-Mom, siblings, spouses and kids. It was fun, especially the part where there were twenty people in a basement studio. My favorite part was when I heard something fall and assumed it was one of my kids it turned out to be one of the grownups. The same thing happens at diaper gym. We'll be sitting at the table, attempting to ignore the goings on of the children when a scrap will break out. I turn, ready to yell at Tennyson (hypothetically of course) and it's someone else's kids. It's a little like Christmas. Last night we came back ...

Here's a link, read it!: http://www.fromdatestodiapers.com/50-rules-for-dads-of-daughters

Ten Things About Elliot She loves coffee She yells Way! when she's mad at someone or her siblings get in her personal space (It means go aWAY) She's clingy but not necessarily cuddly. She has one favorite blanket and if I try to put other blankets or stuffed animals in her crib she will toss them all out and just curl up and fall asleep on her blankie. She loves snacks, especially if they're not hers. She loves her baths and has a major tantrum if I decide bathtime is over before she does. She's obsessive compulsive about open cupboards or drawers and will follow me around the kitchen shutting them. She's now learned how to take her own pants off. She's probably a little spoiled. She's definitely a princess. She's the cutest little toddler EVER!

This is our yard last January: Yes that is Mitchell in the fire pit. We like to slow roast and eat our children when times get tough. That's why we had so many... This is our yard today: lk It's crazy! It's plus seven out there right now. Kind of makes me want to have a bundled up bonfire out there!

I don't even know what to say. This week I may have to vow not to read anything in favor of housework, my kids, and perhaps getting out of my pjs before supper.

Steven is sitting next to me at the table, at 11:57pm at night listening to some yodeling yokel on the laptop. I don't know who I want to strangle more, Steven or the yodeler. Wait, Steven just started whistling along with him. I've got my answer.

Today flew by. Sometimes I stop and think about just how weird it is that the kids are suddenly as old as they are right now. I'm serious. I know that everyone says that, so it's not just that I've had an enlightening moment. I now understand those annoying old aunties who my mom and I used to bump into at a family gathering or reunion who would spend the first few awkward moments going on about how much I've grown since I was "this big" and doing "this bad thing" at her house when she used to babysit, and did I remember that? No, sorry I never do. Oddly enough my parents had a hard time keeping babysitters. It confounds me too. I mean, who wouldn't want to babysit me? Where was I? Right. Hurtling towards death. Literally. I went to a baby shower today for a really cool friend who is about to have her first baby and join the ranks of the haggard, I mean blessed. Blessed. Think Tiffany, think. Blessed. Carrying on . . . It was just a few yea...

Tennyson: "Mitchell!!! You're the meanest brother ever!!!"

I just read Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. I read the entire thing yesterday. It was amazing. The story follows two women; one from a village in India and one from America. The women couldn't be more different. The American woman is a doctor and married to a doctor. Her husband is from India, but his family is well-to-do and spares no expense for their family. The other woman is from a hard-working village where money is scarce and little girls are a burden. When the Indian woman has her first child it is a girl and her husband takes the baby from her and he and his brother bury her. She is not spoken of again. The second child is also a girl, and the baby's mother makes an hours-long journey into Mumbai to leave the baby at an orphanage, where she is eventually adopted by the American woman and her Indian husband. The story is beautifully written, and is told from the points of view of the wives, the husbands, and eventually the daughter. It brought me to tears a n...

Jordan goes back to school on Monday. It's kind of sad that the holidays just whirred by like this. It's been nice having her home. On the other hand, the fighting is driving me nuts. It's not like summer holidays where we spend half the day at the park and the other half the day in the back yard running and digging and sweating and getting tired. The kids are kind of in each others faces all day, and they're starting to show serious signs of wanting to rip those faces off. I feel guilty, because I never wanted to be one of those moms who wanted her kids to go back to school, and I don't, because those days are long and I worry about Jordan when she's not here, but I think the kids need more routine again and maybe a break from each other. I feel guilty even writing this. I liked kindergarten last year. My girl went to school in the morning and was home in time for lunch and the rest of the day she was here where she was supposed to be. It saddens me t...

Happy Birthday to a fantastic dad and grandpa!

I'll be honest. I'm a pretty damn good speller, but there are a few very common words that trip me up - all - the - time. Dad V., don't read this please - I'd like you to keep thinking that my grammar and spelling is exemplary. My words: embarrassed vacuum It's stupid, but I really have to think about them. I actually got them right the first time here. Probably because it's the new year and I'm going to turn 29 this year. Time to be all grownuppy and stop making these mistakes. (I'm not counting segue because it's not all that common. I give myself a spelling pass on that one. Before I get an actual teaching job someday I'll probably have to dust off some of these words and make sure that I'm not spelling them ridiculously wrong.) I almost wrote "What about you? Any words you constantly misspell?" I erased it. It is my absolute blogland pet peeve when people end their blogs with a question for the masses.

I went to Zumba tonight. To be honest, if it wasn't for meeting a friend there I probably would have curled up on the couch with the remote and a buffet of snacks while I lamented the plague that has buried itself deep in my chest. This time last year I was getting up early in the mornings to walk in the cold. I'd get up at 5:30 or 6 in the morning and walk laps around the block until I had to be home so that Steven could get to work. Last winter I was constantly going to multiple fitness classes a week: Lean & Fit, Zumba, Aquafit (only once because it sucks) and yoga. I snuck over to the running track a couple of times a week to run laps around the kids playing or practicing hockey, to the tune of the hilarious parents who wanted me to fetch their errant toddlers the next time I went around. This year? If it wasn't for gaining back 17 of the 29 pounds I lost in the last 15 months I'd probably just lay on the couch covered with chip crumbs and slopped dip. I ...

Just recently I recovered from Ebola. Now I've got something else. It's not exactly the same thing, and I'm sure I've built up some ebola antibodies anyway. This is the plague. I hate the plague. Steven rolls his eyes at my plaguiness and says "What, is this like, 'a man cold'?" No, no it isn't. This is the real thing. A man cold. Sheesh.

The other day a friend of mine told me that she liked my reading list and had been reading some of the books that I had listed there. I was confused for a minute. Then I remembered - I have a reading list! I started it last year but kind of forgot to update it a few months into the year. There are 15 books listed there, and I'm sure I only wrote it down for a few months. I did a lot of reading after Christmas last year. I don't know if you know this, but books are better than movies. It's true. I also have this habit of watching the movies before I read the book. I find that if I read the book first I never like the movie, because I have sky-high expectations, and a love of the characters and a picture in my mind of what the characters look like, sound like, act like, etc. I envision their kitchens, their homes and the layout of the town. Then I watch the movie. It never fails to disappoint. The depth isn't the same, chunks are missing and characters seem sadly one...

I actually hit 1179 miles last year. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get moving more at the end to hit the 1200. This is the year! I'm going to change my ticker to read 1200 and I'll start over. Wish me luck!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!