"Busyness" as Usual

So, the Welshes have been busy as usual. Nothing too exciting, but I'll catch you up on what we've been up to.

Football season is over! Hooray - we have Andrew back. Unfortunately, Andrew's team didn't make the playoffs this year. It's what you would kindly refer to as a building year (no size, and little talent - not a good combination). People always ask if I am happy when they don't make the playoffs because the season is over sooner. Actually, no. Andrew and the other coaches (and the players, too) put in so much time and effort into the season that you really want them to do well. Adding a couple more weeks of playoffs to the end of the season isn't a big deal when you've already survived three months worth of it. Andrew and I are always glad when the season is over, though, no matter how the team does. It's REALLY nice to have him around again on the weekends.

We celebrated Andrew's birthday last weekend and this weekend. Now for the next two weeks I can say that he is a "year" older than me.

We bought mattresses for the kids, and Kayla moved to a "big girl bed" this weekend. She is so excited to be growing up, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it yet. We had to get extra long twin mattresses for our kids because a twin bed is only 6'2" long, and for 90% of the population this would probably work fine, but these are Welsh kids we're talking about. I think Matthew will definitely be over 6' tall, and Kayla may even hit the 6' mark herself.

Matthew graduated from his first round of ice skating lessons. He has really gotten the hang of it. He's taking the second level now, and then he can sign up for hockey when he turns 5. Although now he says what he really wants to do is play baseball. He is very excited about being able to play t-ball on a team this year, and I must admit I'm looking forward to watching him play, too.

Andrew and I are looking forward to having 2 full weeks off at the end of this year. We have this time off every year, and it's always a great time for us to hang out as a family, after a very busy Fall. We usually keep the kids in daycare for a couple of days the first week so we can shop for gifts, see movies, clean the garage, and just hang out together. Can't wait for some time off!

So much to do before then...so little time.

For crying out loud!

So, I am rather annoyed that NBC aired that incredibly heartbreaking episode of ER on TV last night. I hadn't watched the show in about a year, watched it for the last half hour, and ended up turning it off in tears. Darn you NBC!

I am not a cryer. I don't cry at movies or books, or sappy wedding commercials. It's not that I have no feelings, it's just that things don't get to me very easily. I also am very careful about what I choose to watch and read. I avoid Oprah books with a passion. If it's on Oprah's book list, it will immediately be scratched off mine. Don't get me wrong, she chooses good books I'm sure. But the topics are way too depressing. They are all about overcoming intense personal struggles, and I just don't want to read about that. When I go to watch TV or read a book, it's because I'd like to have a few moments to escape reality and be entertained. Being depressed is not entertaining for me. Real life is tough enough, and in my lifetime I've already faced my share of grief and challenges to overcome. I don't want to watch other people suffer, and I don't want to read about other people's pain when I am trying to escape for a short while.

Now, again, don't get me wrong. I care deeply for others, especially my friends and family. Helping them through their struggles and sharing their pain goes with the territory, and there is nothing I would not do for someone I care about. The thing is, when someone else is hurting it hurts me too, and when given the choice for how to spend my free time, I choose not to experience those feelings when watching TV and movies, or reading books.

So, on to the ER episode... it was a flashback episode that showed Angela Basset's character (a doctor on the show) and her husband suffering through the death of their 5 year old son. Hello? Who wants to see that on TV? I have an almost 5 year old son, and this is not something I want to think about. The death of a child has to be the most painful thing that anyone can experience. It's one of those things that, as a parent, when you find yourself even starting to think about losing your child, you immediately make yourself think about something else because the feelings are so incredibly intense and painful. You don't even go there! I didn't realize what the episode was about when I turned it on, and I had to turn it off before it ended because it was just too hard to watch. It took me quite a while to recover after that, too.

So thanks a lot NBC. Thanks for the pain and sadness when I was just trying to sit down and unwind before bed. Thanks for the nightmares that I had about my children last night. Next time you should put a warning label on your shows. Forget about warning me of brief nudity or violence, how about warning me "this may cause intense sadness and depression." I'll certainly think twice before I turn that show on again.

Kayla cracks me up...

Kayla is always doing something that just cracks us up. Last night I was putting Kayla to bed. We had just finished reading stories, and she turned her bedroom light off. Sometimes we sit together in the rocking chair in her room and snuggle for a few minutes before she gets into her crib, so I asked her if she would like to snuggle for a couple of minutes, and she said yes. But then she told me to get up from the rocking chair. Confused, I said to her, "Kayla, I have to sit in the chair if we are going to snuggle." She proceeds to crawl into the rocking chair, turns around to sit on her bottom, extends both arms in front of her, and says, "come here Mommy." She actually wanted me to sit on her lap for a change! So, I oblige her and partially sit on her lap (hardly any weight on her, mind you). She says, "too much. Off Mommy. I go bed now." That girl is just too funny.

Halloween 2008

Here is an update on the Welsh Family's Halloween festivities. The kids and I finished up our decorations for the yard, and had such a great time doing it. It's hard to tell who had more fun...me or the kids. Our favorite decoration (and the favorite of passers by) is the Witch Crash (see photos below). We also added a lawn cemetery this year, and made all of our tombstones, and then we made a huge spider out of trash bags. All ideas came from the internet, of course, because I need inspiration (i.e. other people's ideas) to get crafty.


I'm pleased to announce that we had the coolest house on the block for Halloween this year, and since I am a huge fan of Halloween, this gave me much pleasure. Other houses in the neighborhood go all out for Christmas with Santa on the roof and tons of lights. The competition is steep for Christmas. But Halloween was open for the taking. I told Andrew that we had to get in there and claim it before someone else did. He gave me that look he gives me when he thinks I'm doing something silly, but isn't going to say anything because he knows how much fun I'm having.

We carved two pumpkins, and Matthew was all into it, while Kayla didn't like the idea of getting her hands messy. She is a tough little thing, but if her hands get sticky, she is not pleased. Dirt on the hands is ok, but sticky or goey is out of the question for Kayla. The pumpkins turned out great, but unfortunately we carved them the Sunday before Halloween, and by Halloween morning they were moldy and pumpkin juice was running down our front porch. Yuck! Into the trash they went, and after a quick trip to Michael's, a fake carved pumpkin went into their place. So, I'm quite sure we had the ugliest pumpkin ever thanks to my 20 second, last minute carving attempt.



Halloween was spent trick-or-treating with my family in downtown Los Altos during the day. The kids had a lot of fun. Here is a pic of Kayla and Matthew in their pirate costumes with their cousins (my sister's kids...Will the firefighter, Emma the chef, and Marie the ballerina). At night the kids went trick-or-treating with friends Colin and Jared, and since they were dressed as Batman and Robin, Matthew felt compelled to bust out last year's Spider-Man costume.


So, now it's on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can't believe how fast time flies. The Welsh family is having lots of fun, and life for us all is still crazy busy. Football season is winding down, though, and we're all looking forward to having Andrew around more.