It happened .... again .... the ear saga continues '12

I don't recall the date now. I've tried to block this entire ear issue from my mind. BUT, Randy and I continue to notice Chris messing around with his ear. Pulling on it, rubbing it, poking at it. When we ask all he says is that it feels like it's stuffed up, like his noses feels when he has a cold. We decided to take him back to the doctor to see once and for all, what is going on his his ear. Chris was sure nothing else was in there. He insisted!! The doctor looked in and saw ... nothing. Randy kept talking to the doctor and asked him to really check hard as something was not right with the kids ear. Much to our surprise (not really), the doctor finally said ... I do see something. He was not able to get it out with all the fancy tweezers this time. He ended up flushing it out with saline. Even after the doctor removed it, we have not been able to figure out what the heck it is.

Any ideas??  No, it's not the pen.

Soapbox Derby '12

Chris is in his second year of Scouts. He is now a Bear Scout. This Saturday (same day as Acacia's birthday party), Chris got to show off his (Dad's) awesome soapbox derby cars!! Chris (Dad) worked on the cars for days!! Sawing, sanding, drilling, painting, decorating and weighing until finally they were perfect!!

  

 

Randy and Chris left the house before Acacia's party started to drive to the next town and compete.  There was some uncomfortable moments as Chris' car did not even make it down the track for the first race.  Seems he sprayed too much lubricant on the wheels and they got all goobered up and would not rotated.  This stopped the event for several minutes!  The next several races were much more productive.  He received a participation award and got to go home with one of his friends.  I think Randy was more upset with the overall results than Chris was!

Acacia's 11!! 2012

Acacia turned 11 on the 25th!!  She is in the 70th percentile for her height but only the 25th percentile for her weight.  The doctor gave her a perfectly clean bill of health and suggested that she party like a rock star.  Apparently Acacia's version of party like a rock star is this:

 1) invite as many friends over that will fit in the two cars my parents own (12 total)

 2) take them all mini golfing (9 dip n dots)

And that dude in the far back corner of the room pretty much asleep .... is Randy.

Who does NOT like cheese?

3) return home and have pizza (4 pizzas, 1.5 gallons of cool aide)

4) decorate and eat cup cakes (2 cakes, 3 tubs of frosting and multiple sprinkle variations)

 

5) go sledding, play tons of different games, listen to music and dance, watch home videos

6) get ready for bed, select movie to watch, settle down with 8 water bottles and 4 bags of microwave popcorn

7) watch the move and then wake everyone back up that fell asleep and stay up until 3:30am until my Dad comes down and yells at us to go to sleep.

At this point, the parents have to take control as a couple girls have to leave by 10a. I (Lisa) went down stairs at 9:15a. This is what I found.

Everyone was completely OUT!!  I mean OUT!  I went down and up the stairs a couple times, speaking to the two that had to get moving and took these pictures.  When I had the pictures up on the big screen slide show - the girls asked if I took these shots last night?  Like I might have come down at 4am and taken these??  Yep - just keep on sniffing glue my friend!

BUT - one person was awake ... just sitting there hoping her friends would wake up soon so she would have to sit there any longer by herself!  She is also the only one that fell asleep within the first 4 minutes of the movie and stayed asleep!

Everyone did make it to breakfast (2 pounds of bacon, a pound of sausage, 2 full batches of pancakes and about 1.5 gallons of orange juice and left over cool aide)

Once they got the sugar in them from the syrup they decided to hit the slopes again (in their PJ's)

 

Back in from sledding they had hot chocolate, played some more with the hamster (oh, Acacia got to bring the class hamster home for the week end), avoided all parents that came to pick up their kids ....

We were down to one guest by 1p!!  So, for nearly 24 hours we entertained and fed about 9 girls.  No one got hurt or lost but I am sure the words "I am NOT tired!!" were repeated multiple times today and surely with NO attitude what so ever.

This year Acacia decided that rather than having everyone bring a gift for her, everyone was to bring something to be donated to the Humane Society!  We will have to make a trip out there to deliver all the awesome stuff we got!!  And to stay within the theme of the gifts this year, Emme let Acacia select an animal from heifer.com to be donated to a family in need.  Acacia selected a flock of chickens!!

I imagine some of you might be wondering what we did with Chris during this week end?  Check out the next blog entry to find out.

Wrestling '12

Wrestling started up and Chris had a tournament this past week end.  He won all three matches, got one pin and took first place!!  This is the same tournament he won first place in last year.  He was supposed to go to a second tournament the next day but woke up with a bad knee.  We are not sure what happened but he has since recovered and will wrestle again this coming week end!!  WAY TO GO, CHRIS!!

New Years

December 31, 2011.  I know we did stuff that day but I am kind of blanking out on what it was!!  Auntie Valerie was still with us, but for some reason she is not in any photos here.  We got little poppers for the kids and sparkling cider.  We also has champagne.  We watched the ball drop at 11p (midnight in NY), did the poppers and danced the night away!!  Then went to bed!  Welcome 2012!  Whoohooo ......

Acacia did NOT like the sparkling cider

Happy New Year from the WI Learish

It certainly LOOKS like we had a party anyway!!!

Nono's Famous Waffles '11

For those that do not know, Chris Learish is the single most number one fan of Nono's famous waffles EVER!  Now, don't get me wrong ... EVERYONE loves Nono's famous waffles and many have been known to go off their diets just for this morning treat.  But, Chris is by far the biggest fan.  I recieve the request for Nono's famous waffles throughout the year and often times I even get the request to have them for dinner.  Below are a few little clips of Chris and Nono making the world famous ... Nono's famous waffles.

Making the waffles

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Preparing to eat the waffles

Eating the waffles

Tubing and Sking '11

The first outing of the season to tube and ski was on all man made snow. Antie Valerie and I went tubing with the kids only to discover that you really do not use any energy to tube and you end up being a lot colder than you would think.

One of these things just doesn't belong ...

Acacia and Rachel ready to head out on their own.

Acaica and Chris in the lift line.