Leaf Us Alone!

The snow has finally stopped thank goodness! I couldn't take one more day but alas while it is not currently snowing, it did leave behind a good 12 inches of new snow. And on Thanksgiving! I couldn't believe it.

Luckily before it started, we were able to get one entire raking of the leaves done. The whole family got together (all whopping four of us) and raked, bagged and dumped a ton of leaves. The sad part is that we have maybe two trees in our entire yard. But the trees for our surrounding are attracted to our force field of a lawn.

But our family project was super fun. Cam Cam insisted on wearing boots that were at least three sizes to big for her. And her idea of helping was grabbing one leaf at a time to walk over to the trash bag. She was so sweet while doing it though that we couldn't complain. 

Naturally you could barely even tell that we did anything the next day. And then the snow came. So those leaves have met a suffocating death. That's ok with me :)

I Hate Idaho

I don't know if you can tell by this picture but it is snowing baseball size snowflakes. I can't take it for one more day. I have to leave!

But being that we can't leave on a permenant basis right now, we are stuck inside. So we are playing paper dolls. Isn't my life too exciting for words?

But it's going to be a good opportunity for me to finish up this little project.

Izzy's new room!

The before:

And the after! The paint is dried, so now I just need help getting the big stuff out because I just painted by sliding everything that Cody left.

 I will have to post more pictures once I get everything finalized. This project has been a little secret because Chase is kind of against painting rooms for a specific gender or age group as it makes it harder to sell the house. So not a secret, but a HAPPY SURPRISE!

So twenty years from now when we get ready to move, I will repaint. Until then it stays. But as an FYI, if I ever mention color blocking again, please remind that a slow torturous death would be easier.

And It Was Rockin'

The best part about staying home with my kids is that I don't have to miss things anymore. I might be late :) but I at least the opportunity to be there. So last Thursday I got to go to Stone Soup at Izzy's school.

Which basically means I ate hodge podge soup sitting in a chair that was maybe one foot off the ground, drinking room temperature water out of a Dixie cup. And it was awesome!

I know this is a crappy photo but it was the best I could do. As I was 10 minutes late WITHOUT turning around to go get my camera.

Everyone had to bring something to put in (Izzy brought potatoes that I stole out of my dad's fridge at 10 pm the night before) and they spent all Wednesday cutting and washing. And they cooked it overnight.

A concerned parent even made a gluten free version. This is the point in the story that I am trying to bite back a comment about some people having too much time on their hands.

But then Cambri and I got to eat with Izzy at school. It was really sweet time seeing all the excited kids with their parents. Izzy said it best when halfway through the meal she loudly announced, "This party is rockin!" It was sweet.

Her little friend, Luke, had her to redo so he could record it with his iPhone. I wanted to ask him to email it to me but then I remembered I was dealing with a five year old.

Preschool has changed these days, hasn't it peeps?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bad, Bad, Bad Blogger

Wow, it's been a while. Don't worry peeps, I'm not gone for good. Just handing over my 10 year old career to somebody else.

It's emotionally draining.

The Chicken Most Def Came Second...

Happy Halloween from the Burke house!

Izzy decided early on this year that she would be Sleeping Beauty and Cambri would be a bunny rabbit. But I already had this amazingly cute chicken costume. I make such cute chickens.

 Not the actual costume, I'm not that crafty. I leave the hard part up to Old Navy. I just help mold the people inside.

Aren't they cute?

This year, the Golicova girls invited us to their church Halloween carnival.

Where we had our hair dyed...

 And our faces painted!

There is more to this story though. We won a goldfish. When I say "we" I mean Izzy. And she blatantly cheated but the church officials deemed it appropriate enough to still let her "win." In her defense, she really didn't understand that she cheated. She was told the objective of said carnival game was to get the ping pong ball in the bowl. And it wasn't clear to the 4 year old who was hopping around on a high fructose corn syrup high that she couldn't just walk over and drop the ball in from a few inches away.

Now I have a fish to take care. And a four year old who is in love with the fish that she lovingly named "Ryan" after her uncle. If I hadn't just quit my job, this fish would put me over the edge. I feel such an obligation to this thing, I mean it is a living creature of God, right?

This is more commitment than I can stand.

Alive & Aware THANKFULLY

The Burke house was put under a little stress this last weekend. Due to some faulty work performed on our furnace/air conditioner, carbon monoxide was being pumped into our home. It started out like a normal weekend. If you consider normal running around like mini demons with lots of estrogen. Normal for us anyway. Saturday evening I turned on our heater for the first time this season. I noticed an odor but thought that maybe it was just the unit burning off dust. I went to bed with a bad headache but managed to fall asleep. The next morning, I could barely open my eyes. Izzy was complaining of a headache as well. Then the nausea started in and she and I were sharing the throw up bowl. When Cam Cam finally got up, she started throwing up as well. It was odd that all of us were sick at the same time but I had had dinner with Paula the night before, so I texted her to see if her kids were sick because I thought food poisoning might be the culprit. She was fine except for a headache left over from my house the night before. Odd? Yes! I finally got to the point where I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. But the girls were sick too, so I couldn't. We were all in so much pain that none of us could move. Cam Cam would fall asleep mid crawl and not move until I would wake her up. She would then resume crawling and again fall asleep mid crawl. Being that I really am an orphan, I called my Grandma out of church. And she made it to Idaho Falls from Ashton in 45 minutes. When she arrived, she had to knock on the door because it was still locked. I have a 5lbs chihuahua with a bladder the size of a peanut. I couldn't figure out why I hadn't let him out for the morning. Then everything started to click. Gordy wasn't even moving. The girls and I threw up together, every time the furnace kicked on. I grabbed my kids and Bev drove us to the doctor. Even being out in the fresh air for 10 minutes made Izzy and Cam perk up. My headache started going away. The doctor examined us and determined that we were being poisoned by carbon monoxide. When the gas company came to check out the house, they found 25,000 ppm of carbon monoxide in our house and that was after the doors and window had been opened for over an hour and the furnace was off. The gas man kept saying over and over again. "Thank goodness you called. Thank goodness you got out of the house. This is so dangerous." It turned out that the return air vent had been removed and not replaced. So when the furnace kicked on, it was venting carbon monoxide right into our house. Cam Cam had to go on supplemental oxyagen for a little bit but other than that, we are back to normal.

First Call Jewel, you were worth the $483 to fix our furnance properly. Thank you.

Slap With Me The Bad Mom Stick

Someone hit me. It just occurred to me that in this forum, the place where I love to talk about my kids most, I never mentioned that Cam Cam learned to walk.

And it happened two months ago.

I know that all of you in blogworld would get a kick out of her little tottle. I do! It's so cute. Sometimes she gets really excited and tries to run.

It doesn't go well. And she usually falls down.

And Izzy and I laugh and laugh.

It may sound cruel but it's not. I am not a coordinated person so I know that she gets it from me. She looks like a crippled monkey trying to move quickly. I should get it on tape and bore all of you by posting it here. It's really that cute.

So next time you see little Cam Cam, grab a treat and encourage her to run to you. I am giving you permission to laugh when she falls down.

 She's used to it.

My Road to Orphanhoodness

Well peeps, October is historically a good blogging month for me. Not this year. I'm a tad overwhelmed with wrapping up my entire holiday plan for both malls in time to turn it over to the new person. I can't wait. I CAN'T WAIT. It's going to be this huge weight off my shoulders and hopefully my personal situation.

My person situation. I have decided that I have become completely alone in this world. But it wasn't always this way. Here is my ophanhoodness timeline.

May 2008- My sister and brother-in-law move to South Dakota. Yes, this is pretty much the middle of nowhere. And I was very sad.

August 2008- Chasey switches companies. New company keeps him on the road three weeks out of the month and me without my bestie three weeks out of the month. Very sad!

October 2008- My grandpa died. Sad is not enough of a word. Devastating.

December 2009- My aunt Carol died. She used to bring me lunch and have me over for dinner. Overall the world is just not as bright without her.

March 4, 2010- Nope still can't even type the words without crying. It's safe to say the best part of me went to live in heaven that night.

October 2010- My dad leaves for AZ (albeit for two weeks but still!) and my grandma goes to New York to take a tour exploring fall colors. Graciously my best friend Paula commits to helping me watch my girls for extra hours just so I can keep up with a the bare minimum of expectations in my life.

And this is why when I tripped and slammed by head into the corner of a table during Biology that I had no one to call. Yes, Paula would have come but she would have had to pack 4 kids with her. I would have rather walked home than put her through that.

It only bled for a few minutes. I recovered. Honestly I was more sad that I had no one to call because that is just a depressing thought.

Wow, I need a vacation. I just depressed myself again.

I probably should look at the positive things in my life. Cam Cam was born in 2009. She's awesome. My babysitting situation is so nice. Paula loves my girls the second most after Chasey and I. My friends Kelly and Sherri each take a night watching them for FREE so I can go to school. Chuck & Bev do a lot for me, for which I will be eternally grateful. There is a silver lining, right?

Fish Hook 2010

Hey peeps! In case you didn't notice, I gave myself a little blogging break. Mainly because I was the victim of a senseless tragedy. Trust me when I say, if you want to get a drama queen all worked up, put a fishhook through her finger.

When I reached my hand into the back of the car and came out with a fishhook attached to my finger, I went into shock. I was hopping around, threatening to throw up and pass out and screaming like a baby. Chase was extremely pale. And guess what? No medial establishment in Island Park is open over the weekend. So I had to go to Rexburg. Where I BEGGED for an epidural. They didn't give me one. But I did get a nice numbing shot and was sent home with a finger that was mainly in tact, wrapped in a Scooby Doo band aid.

Now you know.

Loving Pancake Covered Life

Ok peeps. I love being a parent. I really do.

But aren't there some days when you just want to hang up the towel?

Give up the ghost?

Give parenthood the old heave-ho?

Wow, I bet you're impressed with my cliche usage. I'll stop, I promise.

But I really had one of those days yesterday. It started super early in the morning with me shoving NutriGrain bars down my kids throats while trying to put their seat belts on. Breakfast at the Burke house. The dog (darn you Gordy!) wouldn't get out of the car. And Cam Cam kept feeding him little bites of her bar. Then screaming like a mad man when she realized it wasn't coming back to her. Then she would calm down. Feed Gordy. Scream over losing a bite. And this went on for probably four bites. Gordy was loving life. I was hating it.

Then I dropped Izzy off at school where I got a hearty "Congratulations" from a teacher. I honestly thought this was a sarcastic way of saying "Wow, you are on time." But I have been so good about being on time, I thought this behavior would be a little premature. Let's give it another month so I can really show them what being late means.

Come to find out, Izzy announced duirng circle sharing time that her mom was FINALLY marrying her boyfriend. Well doesn't that just make us sound like a happy family. I mean, we are FINALLY getting married.

Never mind the actual wedding that happened six years ago.

Things just went down hill from there. I will spare you the boring details. But later that night I was standing next to the kitchen table talking to my dad, who had just made pancakes. I swear that when you have kids, you lose all personal awareness. Izzy is always hanging all over me, so why would it ever be different?

Oh wait, she was lifting my shirt, sticking her fork on me and dragging a piece of syrup covered pancake down my back. Sweet. Syrup comes off easily you know. Especially in an easily reached location, such as your lower back.

I give up.

Merry Christmas Mom!

I did something really scary at work. REALLY SCARY!

I gave my notice.

AAAAHHHHHH!

Words cannot even express how difficult walking away from great people and 9 1/2 YEARS is going to be for me. But I'm excited to see where this new road takes us. My mom always said that being a stay at home mom benefited her and her kids and she wanted me to try it. I always felt like I was doing the right thing for my family but Chasey and I have decided to try something new and have me stay at home.

Starting November 5th, I will officially be a stay at home trophy wife who goes to school full time. CRAZY!!

I'm UnIdahoan

I was told by a coworker that I was unIdahoan.

I rectified the problem.

So now it's official, I AM an Idahoan. Forget the fact that I was born and raised here.

The peeps and I went to Bear World, a place I had never been to. Which I guess makes you unIdahoan. But now I have been. And let me tell you peeps, I found the whole experience to be exciting. The not-so-exciting part? It cost us $55. Wowza.

We saw an Albino Elk.

And we saw super cute bear cubs.

The most random part of the day was when this huge A grizzly bear parked himself in the middle of the road and wouldn't move. Yet the employee opened the gate out and motioned us to continue driving with no regard to the beast that less than five feet away from him.

Chase used the car to nudge the 1000+ bear out the way. And the bear didn't even care. Isn't there something wrong with a wild animal that doesn't react to a car pushing it away? What are we doing to the animals?

Not that I'm some kind of weird bear lover. I actually think the wild would be more enjoyable for me if all bears went away. But being that they are here, are we allowed to make freak shows out of them?

Hmmmm....

Cambri thought sitting next to this deer was awesome. I couldn't pull her away. I did object when she moved in for kisses. I had no idea what kind of diseases to fear but I know there are some.

Chase had fun because he talked Paula and I into stopping to fish. Seriously, he likes to fish more than he likes me. I'm probably not even lying.

The House Fairy Makes Me Beat You

My friend Paula invented the house fairy in order to motivate her children. It's a fairly basic concept. If you make your bed and keep your room clean, then the house fairy comes and leaves you presents. Isabelle has completely and utterly latched onto this concept. Every morning, she jumps out of bed and make it before even leaving to use the restroom. Once the house fairy actually made an appearance at the Golicova household, she was especially excited. Here is an actual conversation that went down last week. When she realized she forgot to make her bed. Not because I reminded her but because she remembered.

Katie: Let's go. I'm going to be late again.

Isabelle: Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I forgot to make my bed. I'm so sorry.

Katie: Uuuh o.k.

Isabelle: Are you mad? Are you mad? I'm soooo sorry. I'm soo sorry. I'm going to do it right now.

Katie: Uuuuh o.k.

Isabelle: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll be right back.

Katie: Uuuuh o.k.

I was actually completely stunned. Happy but stunned. I have never made that kid make her bed ever. I'm sure it's a good habit but not one that seriously ever occurred to me. But this conversation left me feeling bad because it seemed like she was an abused child, scared to death of me. Which if you have ever read this blog, then you know this kid is not scared of anything, ESPECIALLY me. But it made me realize that this is important to her (yay!) and maybe the house fairy should make an appearance.

So when the princesses went down to bed, I left out their loot.

But little Izzy didn't want to wake up. Good thing Cam Cam got her excited.

The first thing out of her mouth was, "I need to call Tashy & Jhanny. The house fairy only left them rubberbands."

Paula's kids had gotten bend a roos the previous week. Not quite rubberbands.

The second thing out of her mouth was said with much outrage. "How come Cambri got something? She only messes things up."

Doesn't it seem like I'm always a step behind around here?

Animal Dander & Other Fun

Wow, it's already the week of the Eastern Idaho State Fair! Super fun! The fair always reminds me of my dear friend Holly for reasons I can't divulge on the public outlet. But I can tell you that it was always good times. Yesterday I ate a bambino, which also makes me think of Holly. It was like memory overload day.

But on with the point of this little story. Chase and I took the girls to the fair Sunday AND Monday night. I double committed us to two different parties (yes, we are popular) and so we just went twice. Poor Chasey starts swelling up like the marshmellow man though because of the animals so it can only be fun for so long. Your body can actually only handle so much Clairtin, I imagine. But not all animals turn Chase off.  I actually had to pry a puppy out of his hands. He reached down to pull out his wallet and I saw my opportunity or I kid you not, we would have another dog right now. I can barely handle the one we already own. And Chasey tries to bring home another one. I don't get him! Love him but don't get him. We always have this fight at the fair. It really is one of our favorite times of the year though. We always have fun.

Even little Cam Cam.

Hello! It's A River That's Barely Deeper Than My Knees!

So the Burke ladies went to good old Island Park over the weekend. For those of you who don't know, it's pretty much a get away staple for those of us in southeast Idaho. Staying in the cabin was nice and relaxing.
The real morale of this story is that Paula and I are super women. We paddled the Buffalo river with four kids. It's five miles peeps! And some of those hours were spent with a baby sleeping on my shoulder. Every time I rowed, I closed my eyes and hoped baby wouldn't wake up. Because when she wasn't sleeping, she was screaming. And if you have ever been in the great outdoors with people who are trying to fish while holding a screaming baby, then you understand the death glares I was getting.

 The guy at the dock actually had the nerve to say to us, "It's just you two women with four kids? You'll be out there all day!" I was ultra annoyed considering the deepest part of this river is probably no taller than my knees. PLUS I have floated this thing in the middle of DECEMBER (that was a shout out to you two, Megan & Star ;) GIVE ME A BREAK! I had to hold back the "Yup and being that it is the 21st century, woman are actually allowed to own land as well!" comment. Paula handles these things so much better than I, so I let her respond. She responded with such class when asking what he meant by that. I had mentally checked out at that point, so I can't tell you what he said. Probably something stupid.

While it was a lot of fun, it was still a lot of work. There wasn't a whole lot of floating going on. It was a heck of a lot of paddling. I love being on the water. But between passing out juice boxes, chips, crackers and handling a screaming baby, it was a lot more work that it probably should have been. That really doesn't matter because P and I learned that we could do it and make it work. And yes, with just us. Don't get me wrong, it would probably be easier with more people, just not necessary.

The tragic ending was when Paula fell in (here is her version). By the end of our journey, we were exhausted. I suggested she hop out and drag our boat to the dock. But her vision was compromised by her utter exhaustion and she ended up getting her foot stuck in the boat while already in the hopping out motion. I have a great photo memory of looking over my shoulder to see her shocked face being submerged in the water. My first instinct was to laugh, which I did. Of course then I was super embarrassed and quickly jumped up to help her out. She was completely under though. Ok, it's still kind of funny when I think about it :)

Yup, I would have to say the only negative part about this journey was this demon. She was a terror for certain parts of the trip. And it wasn't like we could just pull over and be done with it. We were committed and she was committed to being naughty. At one point, I was considering hooking her life jacket to the bow and using her as screaming ornament to alert bears, elk and moose that we were coming, but I fought the urge. But once she fell asleep, we started having fun again.

Of course that involved me ROWING with a sleeping BABY on my shoulder. Yes Chase does tell me the story gets more and more dramatic every time I tell it. But I ROWED a BOAT with a SLEEPING BABY on my lap. Doesn't that qualify me for some kind of award?

I Can't Help Myself

A few of you know that I just had the girls pictures taken around Izzy's birthday. AND that really was going to be it for the year.

But then my friend Paula was going to have her girls done and she found an AWESOME photographer to do it. And she volunteered to take my girls along for the ride.

Seriously, how could I say no? They are constantly changing and I love photos. I'm an addict. So they went.

And now I am the proud owner of these pictures. I really think I'm the winner in all of this.

Aren't they pretty?

The Mommy Lesson

I told you all that Izzy started school. She is a proud pupil of Snake River Montessori School which I can tell you that she loves.

Have any of you heard of the Montessori method? In a very elementary definition, it is an approach to educating children that Maria Montessori developed in 1907. She observed that young children who are given freedom in an environment prepared with materials designed for their self-directed learning will sustain and support their true natural way of being and educating. So basically, the teacher (director, really) watches over the environment and removes obstacles that interfere with natural development of learning instead of being a focal point in the classroom. Can you tell that I set through an ALL DAY seminar last Saturday?

Well it has been three days and I am a believer.

I have been shocked at how much Izzy just gets it. It's not about telling your child the right and wrong way of learning. It's really about letting them do things themselves. They pick up very quickly on their own whether things are correct or incorrect. This morning, I watched my four year old walk into the wrong classroom. As I went to get her, the director grabbed my hand and said, "Watch."

15 seconds later, little Izzy walked out and calmly walked across the hall to her classroom. Obviously this is not rocket science peeps. I get that. But for me it was an "AH HA" kind of moment. My four year old doesn't need me to tell her she's not in the right classroom. She went in, observed and corrected without an over zealous mom frantically waving.

And no bones were broken in the process.

It was my instinct to grab her and walk her in the right direction. And in this instance, she didn't need that from me. She relied on herself and I think as a parent, that's all of our end goal. Get your child to be a self reliant adult that is a productive member of society. Am I saying that Izzy no longer needs any kind of guidance in her life? Of course not. I'm just saying that maybe I didn't give her enough credit because I consider her my baby. Which I do.

I wanted to share the Daddy Man's reaction to our Montessori schooling experience.

"Wow, we paid a lot of money for Izzy to teach herself."

He really does think he's funny.

Don't worry. I'll educate him.

Or maybe I'll let him educate himself by removing various distractions from him.

Like food, right peeps?

 Get your minds out of the gutter.

I Didn't Even Cry

Guess who started school today? My baby! I can't believe she is old enough to go! But alas it is time. We have been so excited for the last few weeks in our home. I even went and got her this cute backpack at the Gap.

She didn't like it. She wanted this one instead.

So yesterday I took the Gap one back and got the Hello Kitty one. This morning when she was getting ready, I pulled it out as a surprise. She was so thrilled that it made the hour of running around all worth it. But she still forgot it at school. Sigh. We may never see Hello Kitty again.

When we pulled up to school this morning, Izzy jumped out and said "You don't need to walk me in. See you later!" Please keep in mind that she has never even been here before as her personal secretary (me!) was the one who took the tour, filled out all the paperwork and took care of everything else without even being asked.

Katie: "You don't know where to go, let me walk you in."

Isabelle: "It's that door (pointing to the door where all the other kids were streaming in) I don't need your help."

Katie: (thinking this kid is too much of everything for her own good) "Please let me walk you in. Wait, you're 4, I don't need your permission."

Isabelle: "You are so embarrassing."

Katie: "That's the final straw. I'm cutting Hannah Montana off. YOU ARE FOUR! You don't know enough about life to be embarrassed about ANYTHING!"

Seriously I hate Miley Cyrus for being so cute. I know it was her who taught Izzy that parents can be embarrassing because that's was a theme in the episode that we had just watched that morning while brushing the teethies.

So I walked my brave girl in. A few other children were hysterically holding onto their parents, including one boy who was close to passing out he was so upset.

Isabelle: "Mom, I think that kid hurt his foot."

Katie: "What?"

Isabelle: "He's crying because his mom is trying to take off his shoes and his foot is hurt."

Katie: "Actually he's sad because he's going to miss his mommy and he wants her to stay."

Isabelle: "Why?"

Katie: "Because some kids miss their parents when they have to go to school."

Isabelle: "What??? Not me. I didn't even want you to walk me in here."

Katie: "It's ok to PRETEND like you need me. One day when you drop off your kids on their first day of school, I hope you remember that you were sooooo mean to me. "

Isabelle: "Ok bbbbyyyeee."

As most of you can see, this is not the response I was looking for. I was hoping for more of a Hallmark moment when my timid little girl walks into her class and gives me the last glance over the sholder to make sure I'm still there.

The moment I got was watching my four year old race to the classroom, motioning for me to leave.

Seriously if in 3 years Cambri is not hysterical when I drop her off, I'm giving up on parenting all together...

P.S. I didn't cry but guess who did? Cambri! When I loaded her up in the car without Izzy, she went hysterical and started clawing at the windows. Not the response I was expecting from my baby who literally gets dragged around by her older sister. She definitely missed her :(

I AM NOT A Calm Person

You all remember that that it was Izzy's birthday recently, right?

This is her on her brand new BIKE! I can't believe how good she is on it. So good in fact, that we took her on a bike ride.

We rode to Leo's Place for dinner with Paula, Natasha and Jhanna. No, I don't live at Leo's Place. It only feels that way to me.

But the girls made it the whole way.

I almost passed out from anxiety when I saw Izzy cruising as fast as she could over bumps, holes, curbs and other irregularties in the sidewalk. I had to keep repeating to myself that a few bumps and bruises never hurt anyone.

But my mind kept TELLING ME that kids get killed on bikes on streets EVERYDAY.

And Chase kept encouraging her TO GO FASTER. It was really too much for me to handle. There isn't enough antianxiety medication in the world for me to ever do this again.

I just can't handle the stress.

But looking back, we all had a good time. Even Cam Cam.