Here are the stories of our busy life. We hope that you see God's Hand at work in our various adventures! Running/Flooring Vice President Al, Teacher/Photographer Lisa, Swimmer/Writer Addie, Master Mischief Maker/Swimmer Alden, Jewelry/Hello Kitty Lover Annalise, and Water-Obessed/Car Expert Asher.


Friday, September 26, 2008

Favorite Blog

My friend Karen nominated me for an "I Love Your Blog" Award... so now I need to complete the ONE WORD ANSWER survey below and then nominate someone new for the award. So here goes...

Where is your cell phone? Diaperbag
Where is your significant other? Nearby
Your hair color? Brown
Your mother? Solo
Your father? Loyal
Your favorite thing? Beaching
Your dream last night? Happiness
Your dream/goal? Motherhood
The room you're in? Family
Your hobby? Scrapbooking
Your fear? Failure
Where do you want to be in 6 yrs? Together
Where were you last night? Inlaws
What you're not? Bored
Where you grew up? Southeast
The last thing you did? Facebook
What you are wearing? Comfy-clothes
Your TV? On
Your pet? Shedding
Your computer? Laptop
Your mood? Calm
Missing someone? AuntyBeccaUncleThomas
Your car? Pilot
Something you're not wearing? Socks
Favorite Store? Gymboree
Your summer? Paint-Filled
Love someone? Absolutely!
Your favorite color? Blue
When is the last time you laughed? Now
Last time you cried? Dumbo

I nominate Sarah and Elsie- I check their blogs all the time! I check other friend's blogs, but they have already been nominated!!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Addie and her Elephant

This is so cute, it really deserves it's own post!

As we were waiting in the Honda dealership for them to officially diagnosis our Pilot's transmission issues, I took the kids to play in their playroom. It was full of blocks, cars, a play kitchen, etc. You would think that my kids would have been thrilled to play in it for hours. Actually, they played happily for about 10 min, which is when they noticed that the showroom was full of cars. Addie loves sitting in the driver's seat and "driving" so this looked like a perfect playground to her! It didn't help that the CR-V was sitting outside of the playroom door- and that is her MarMar's car. She and Alden had fun "driving" it and getting buckled into the back seat (a novelty to them). All of a sudden, Addie spotted an Element on the other side of the showroom.

Addie: Oh Mommy! Wat's dat?
Me: That's a gray Element.
Addie: Oh Mommy! Can I go play in the Elephant? Oh peas?!?"

She proceeded to play in her Elephant for the next 30 min, very happily. She told anyone that happened to walk by that she was driving her "Elephant." The car salesmen, most of whom had kids, thought it was hysterical!

I will forever think of Elements as Elephants thanks to my 2 year old!

Our Honda Miracle

It all started a humid summer afternoon, about a month ago. I had just picked-up the Pilot after having new brakes put on. The mechanic (a guy named Stacy), asked me if I had heard any strange noises when I drove. I told him that I didn't usually hear anything other then my 2 kids and/or the music that I always have on. He then showed me a torn piece of some car part, and said that I should have heard a clicking noise as I drove and turned. He said in his lovely country accent "Ya know, Ma'm, I would highly encourage ya to turn off da music, roll down da windas and just take a listen every once in awhile. You never know what ya'll hear and possibly be able to fix early on." I have taken his chastisement to heart and have tried to listen carefully at least once a week.

Just over 5 days ago, I was actually driving WITHOUT kids, and I noticed a new noise. I had Al listen to it, and he confirmed that I wasn't crazy, it wasn't a normal noise. Once Al described it to Stacy (the mechanic) he asked for me to bring it in for him to test drive. When he walked into the waiting room at the shop, the look on his face told me the prognosis wasn't good. He said, "I hate to tell ya this, but I'm pretty sure it's your transmission and that kin be a bit pricey." He then sent me to Aamco to have them confirm his diagnosis. Unfortunately, Stacy is rarely wrong- he works on everyone's car where Al works and has an impeccable reputation. Aamco confirmed what Stacy said. I was then encouraged to think about trading it in as the transmission wasn't bad yet and we could still get a good value for the Pilot.

I was devastated. We had 2 payments left on the Pilot! We had bought a Honda because we wanted it to last forever- and it hadn't even lasted 105K miles! Chagrined, we test-drove some other used SUVs and even some minivans. We even found an amazing deal on a Honda minivan, but when it came time to actually put an offer in, Al just couldn't do it. I was a little irritated and surprised, but I knew I needed respect his decesion. We left the dealership prepared to just put the money into the Pilot and hope that this was a fluke repair.

Once home, Al started to do more research on-line to see if anyone else had had this issue- or anything like it with the minivan. He was shocked to find out that our Pilot's transmission had actually been recalled right before we purchased it! He made a call to Honda and found out that there had been a class-action lawsuit against Honda about this whole transmission issue- and that the engine warranty had been extended from 100K to 105K! Our mileage was 104, 940. We had 60 miles to "spare"!

We drove the Pilot to the local Honda dealership and sure enough, they confirmed that our transmission was going and yes, they would repair it and several other things, all for FREE! I am even getting a rental car for 2 days while they do the repairs! I am so thankful that God gave Al a sense of hesitation about the minivan and the wisdom to Google Honda Transmission Problems. So I guess it really is true- Honda's DON'T die! Hopefully after all this work, my Pilot will run for another 100K miles without incident! And for the record, this is the 1st "problem" we have had with our Pilot!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Roller Skating First

Several of Al's coworkers were going roller skating in Dover Saturday night, and they invited us to come along. We told Addie where we were going and she was excited- clueless as to what skating is, but excited nonetheless! I thought the grin on her face was going to split it in two as walked into the rink and started putting her skates on! I kept waiting for her to not like it- before we even hit the rink- but no, she held my hand and walked/skated right out onto rink. The first lap she refused to smile- she was totally focused on her skating. It was so cute to see! In the end, she actually make it around 4 laps! Granted, she gripped my hand and the wall, or both my hands for all laps, but that's not bad considering that she's only 2 1/2! When she was done and I was taking her skates off, she told me this:
Addie: Oh Mommy! Dat wuz so fun! I wike kating!
Me: I'm glad you liked it! What was your favorite part?
Addie: I yike de kates. I need to ask MarMar and Pop-pop for kates. Can I call dem now?

That's my daughter- tunnel vision!

Alden laughed and danced while Addie and I skated. Evidently I have withholding his favorite types of music- rap and hip-hop. When those style of songs were being played, he would just smile, laugh and dance his little heart out- his little tooshie just bobbing all over the place! He loved the booths there- he could stand in the seat, holding on to the table, and see the entire rink. The grins he shot us when we skated by where heartbreaking!

Once Addie was done skating, we were able to trade in her skates and Al and I actually skated together. Don't worry, one of Al's coworkers watched the kids! It was the 1st time I had actually skated WITH A BOY- and possibly the 1st time Al had skated since Jr. High! Needless to say, we were by far the oldest and most uncoordinated pair out there, but we had fun!

Addie cried when we had to leave. I think we may be taking more trips to skating rinks in the near future! I do have some pictures and videos of this event and will post them soon. I'm going to try and find the software somewhere on the internet, and worst case scenario, I'll download them at my in-laws this weekend! Stay tuned for that! And yes, I will update all the other posts as well!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Recent Funnies and Accomplishments

So much has gone around here, I just know know where to start! I teach for an on-line school, teaching 6th grade writing. I have about 50 students, so I am fairly busy! On top of that, the camera died, so now I am now forced to practice what I preach- and actually describe what is going on instead of depending on a picture for help!


Addie:

Holding a doll up to her chest. I ask her what she's doing (I know she's pretending to nurse her baby, but I want to get her description).

Me: Whatcha doin' sweet pea?

Addie: Jus nursin' my Baby Becca some choco milk.


Another day:

Addie bursts into tears and starts pulling everything out of her toy basket, then begins to wander around the living room, looking under the couch cushions. I finally get her calm enough she can tell me what's wrong.

Addie: My tails, my tails! They gone! I need my tails! Where they?


No, my child does not have a tail... She is obbessssssssssssed with ponytail holders, aka "tails." I bought a package of them, to use in her hair, but I have yet to use one as they are her prized possessions of the moment. And yes, she did find them.

She has been taking her naps just in her panties and KEEPING THEM DRY!!! We both celebrate when she wakes up to a dry bed! I actually was looking at her in the monitor when she woke-up the other day. Her eyes flickered, you could see she was processing if she was wet or dry, then she sat bolt-right-up in bed and shouted "Mommy! My panties dry! My panties dry! I get ice cream!" We have had to call several people to share the good news- and strangely, who we have to call is different each day.




Alden:
He is a master at climbing stairs. I know this is a skill he should have mastered awhile ago, but I keep a gate at the bottom of ours so the dogs can't go upstairs. One day I had the gate open and he just shot up them! The look on his face was great- "Betcha didn't know I could do THAT? Try and catch me now!"


He points at everything and says "Ba! Ba!" (Ball) or "Dis! Dis!" (This).

Anytime an item bounces- whether it should or not- he laughs this deep, contagious, belly laugh! He throws items all the time, just to see if they will bounce. He is slowly figuring out that most food does not bounce, but he can sure get Mom and Dad to bounce out of their chairs when he does!

He is already leaning towards 2 types of women. He will bat his eyelashes and say "Hi" clearly and loudly if any woman walks by and has white hair. If you have any other color of hair, you may get a smile out of him, but good luck getting him to talk! At the beach, he certainly tends to gawk at the chubby girls in bikinis. It's to the point that it's really rather awkward for us! He will crawl to where he can just sit and stare at them. Oh well- so my son likes older and chubby women....

He is a standing machine. He stands independently all the time now. He often shoots me a look that says, "Yea, I know. I'm such hot stuff!" He will now walk with us, holding only 1 finger. I know my days are numbered of him being on all 4's.

It looks like Alden may have to be Dracula for Halloween. He only has his 2 bottom teeth, but his 2 eyeteeth on top are about to pop through. I'm not really sure about the other 4 top teeth... If he has fangs, then I will have to scrap my idea of having his costume coordinate with Addie- and will have to take full advantage of the built-in fangs.

There are many more funny moments, I just can't think of them right now.... What a joy children are!!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Standing Tall

As of Wednesday, Alden officially likes to stand independently. I was just telling some friends at Bible Study how he doesn't like to stand by himself- when he looked at me, stood, and just grinned at me! He now does it allllll the time- and he still looks super proud of himself! He's even tried to take a few steps- which has resulted in him falling. I have a feeling he may walk sooner then Addie (15mo) but I'm not rushing him! He is SO much easier to catch when he's crawling!!

Grocery Shopping

This morning, I went to Harris Teeter to do some grocery shopping- they were having phenomenal deals AND double coupons! I had seen that HT offered little shopping carts so I was excited to see if Addie would actually shop with me or if she would want to "drive" the cars in front of the buggies (who ever thought of that is a genius!). She saw the little buggy and her eyes just lit up and she said "Oh! Mommy! I hep you shop! I fill my buggy!" And sure enough, she walked right next to me, filling her cart with what I told her to! Surprisingly, nothing odd ended up in her cart and she only ran into me twice. Thankfully the store was fairly empty at 9am- and the few patrons that were there were all grandparents- so we got lots of "Oh, how cute!" and "Look at Mommy's big helper!" She just puffed up with pride when she heard these comments. It was so cute to see her pushing the little cart, just the right proportion for her- filled with cookies, cooking spray, mac and cheese, cantaloupe, tortillas, and stringcheese.

We did have a bit of an issue when it was time to check-out- she didn't want to let anyone take ANYTHING out of her cart.... It was so cute- I just love going to high-end grocery stores- I was walked to my car with all my groceries, the kids had balloons, and I had saved over $130!! Too bad my camera died- or else you could see HOW cute she looked!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Addie's Tubes....

Wednesday morning, Al and I were awakend by Addie SCREAMING at 6:45am. Waking up at 6 something is just too early for me. I was ready to just ignore her for at least 15 min, but there was something to her scream that just wasn't right- so I had Al go get her (you just gotta love a man that is willing to go get his screaming daughter when his wife is too lazy to get out of bed!). She was clutching her left ear and crying that her neck hurt. After a brief anatomy lesson, she changed from her neck to her ear. Great.

A little side history- Addie has 11 ear infections her first 11 months of life- and had tubes put in. At her 2 year check-up the Dr said that scar tissue had formed around the tubes and that they may never come out, and if they did, it could be painful. Great.

Back to Wednesday morning. It's the first meeting of the MOPS group I'm on the leadership team of, so I can't ditch it and take Addie to the Dr. I'm figuring her tubes must have fallen out and she has an ear infection, or her tubes are falling out and it's painful. Either one, she needs to see our Dr. Al, the wonderful husband and father that he is, offers to take her with him to work, then on to the Dr, and then drop her off at MOPS. All so I can go to MOPS without a screaming Addie. As he is pulling out of the driveway, the Dr. calls me back- they don't open until 1pm that day, but she would be happy to see Addie then. I have to run out and stop Al. He can't keep her all day! At this point, Addie has finally stopped screaming- the Motrin I had given her had kicked in. She is happy, but she does keep reminding me that her ear hurts and that she needs to see a Dr.

After MOPS and our little side trip to Striderite, we get to the Dr's office. She tells me that the right tube is gone- good news! The bad news is that the left tube is stuck in the ear canal- thus causing the pain. She tries, but can't get it out. I am sent home with ear numbing drops and 2 numbers for local ENT's. Great.

I called both ENT's and neither one could see Addie until the last week of Sep! I'm supposed to deal with this stuck-in-the-canal-pain for 3 more weeks?!? Great.

Addie kept waking up, crying ALL night long. At 2am, I finally put her in bed with us, so this way, when she woke up crying, at least I didn't have to walk down the hallway to tell her it was okay, all I had to to was roll over. I'm lazy and at 2am I just don't think very clearly.... This morning, I'm putting the ear drops in her ear when I notice that they aren't going in. Hmmmm. I push her hair out of the way- and lo and behold I see a green ear tube poking out of her ear!! I grab my tweezers and pull that puppy out! Addie comments- "Oh Mommy! My ear not hurt anymore! Oh TANK oo Mommy!"

I wish my camera worked to show you how small this tube is- less then 1/4 of a cm! I am going to keep it- it cost me well over $750!! At least now we know she is tube-free. I just hope and pray that we aren't in for ear-infection-city this fall and winter.....

Never a dull moment in the Perreca House!

Striderite Fan for LIFE!

2 weeks ago I went to the Striderite outlet to get Addie's feet measured. She had been complaining that her shoes hurt and she flat out refused to wear her white sandals. Since she doesn't really complain about her feet (don't get my wrong she complains about lots of things) I decided that since we were close to the outlets that day, I would see what size she really is. Lo and behold, she is a 7!! Her shoes were all 5's! No WONDER she didn't want to wear them!! I bought her a cute pair of brown Mary Janeish sneakers- they were the same price at Striderite as they were at PayLess! Over the weekend, I noticed that the stitching was starting to come out around part of the velcro! Not what I would have expected from Stridrite shoes after just a week of wear! Of course, I had thrown away my receipt- I had purchased Striderite shoes, they never break! I did still have the box. Armed with that, I stopped back at the outlets yesterday after my Mops meeting- which is next-door to the outlets. I was prepared to beg for an exchange. It didn't happen. I walked in, showed the shoes to the girl working the register, the manager walked up right at that moment. The manager said that it was totally not right and would I like to exchange them or just get a totally different pair?! Thinking this was too good to be true, I then admitted that I no longer had my receipt. Not a problem. They were all about helping me find the shoes, getting the right size and color, etc. As if that wasn't enough, they were super apologetic about the original shoes falling apart- their words, not mine!

After this experience, I am going to be a Striderite customer for life! If this had happened anywhere else, I would have been told, "Too bad, sooooo sad." I guess you do get what you pay for- and in my case, I paid the same amount to Striderite as some other cheaper places, and got amazing customer service!!

Rest In Peace

Sunday, after much internet research, being taken apart, cleaned, and put back together, our dear, beloved, and much used digital camera was pronounced dead. This camera was such a vital part of our lives- helping to document the mundane to major milestones. Canon joined our family in a time of need- our other camera's battery was dead, the charger lost at the airport, we were traveling to visit family in Kansas City for Christmas, and we were sharing with everyone the Big News that Lisa was pregnant. A camera was a must- and this Canon was the only one at Circuit City that meet our criteria. Not once did Canon complain about all the battery changes, the various places we took it, or the man-handling it received. It was with us from Richmond to Millsboro, Europe to Kansas City. We will miss you Canon. Regardless of the increased megapixals, zoom capabilities and added features, you will always be special in our heart!

Sorry there is no picture here- but maybe some day we will replace Canon and we will once again be able to take pictures.....