Just when I was starting to feel superior

My heart nearly dropped to the floor when I spied the most insane instructor headed towards the class I was taking this morning. I thought briefly about fleeing to the weight room or track to avoid having her teach a cardio & core class, but I decided to suck it up and followed her to the classroom. Where I was surprised to see that there was already an instructor there. And then it dawned on me that she was actually there to take the class, not to teach it.

This particular instructor is well known for being the toughest. In fact, if you mention her name in some of the other classes, the instructors will often take their class to a whole new level. Just at the mere mention of her name. I've only taken her spin class. And it's tough, but it's VERY good. Well, here she was. One of us. The nervousness in the room was nearly palpable. I'm sure everyone was thinking the same thing I was thinking. Oh Shit!

This is sure to put me on some short list into hell, but here are some random "good thoughts" I had during the class.

- Wow! She's not very coordinated off of a bicycle.
- Dang, she sweats a lot.
- Look at me! I'm doing the high impact/high intensity moves. Look at her! Low impact! Pphhhffft!
- I am catching up to her on the track! Woo hoo!
- Dang, she sweats a lot.
- Aww, look...she had to leave early!

And then? Just as the class was ending, she walks back in. With the next class. That she was teaching. So forget about the lack of coordination or the low impact moves. This woman is a machine.

In other news at the tennis club, my Veteran Family Representative was in the class this morning (which I had feared, which is why I haven't been to this class in 2 weeks). She distracted me from a good warm up by talking to the woman that was next to her (the two of them were in front of me). And then? Then, she had the audacity to make a comment while we were up at the track that she couldn't hear what the class instructor said BECAUSE SOMEONE WAS TALKING. Oh please!! When we got back to the room, she turns to me and asks if I got her email. I just smiled and said "Yes. Thank you." when what I really wanted to tell her was that we're not going to get all BFFs over this. I figure that will sort itself out later.

In even more news from the tennis club, Lance and I successfully spent our club credit. I now have some smashing new workout attire, a new water bottle, Lance has a new shirt, and was treated to an hour long hot stone massage. Life is good. :)

My default response is to sit on my butt!

As you may remember, I was warned about "cutting my husband out of my life" by taking on all the work around the house. I was advised to create a spreadsheet with all the week's tasks on it and ask everyone to pick the things they LOVE to do. So, I spent a good portion of time yesterday, taking everything out of my normal format and putting it into a new spreadsheet. I did this, because I guess I expected a response of joy and happiness over DOING CHORES! Because I apparently just met my husband yesterday.

Instead, I got a "oh, yeah, I read your blog" and some half hearted glances at the spreadsheet. After promising him that he didn't HAVE to pick any of the chores, he reluctantly selected his chores. Except the chores he picked (cleaning sinks and toilets in bathrooms, cleaning bathroom mirrors, replenishing toilet paper, and sorting through coupons and disposing of expired ones) are ones that I normally do on Mondays. And since he didn't do them this morning at 5am, before he left for work, I'm feeling a little bit like hmmmm. What do I do today? I do have a whole list of other stuff that needs to be done (that I would normally do on another day), but no. I'm stuck thinking about my normal Monday chores. I've solved the issue by deciding that I'll sit on my butt. Because that will get it done. :)

I dropped Morgan off at school this morning and headed to the tennis club. I got a decent workout in (my arms will be hating me later), got a shower, and then tried to figure out how to spend the $300+ credit I have at the tennis club before it expires on Wednesday. I decided to rent a locker and get Lance a massage. Still, have lots of money to spend. I'm about to buy some very overpriced athletic gear, but if I don't, I'll have nothing to show for the credit I have! I shouldn't have waited so long! After getting the locker and massage set up, I picked Bennett up from the nursery and we headed to the Terrific Toddlers class at the club. He normally LOVES this class, but he kept grabbing my fingers and leading me to the door. Wanting to leave. Or wanting to be held. With his fingers shoved in his mouth. I'm thinking he's working on some teeth? He's not usually that clingy in social situations like that. Not even "If you're happy and you know it" could get him to break away. Poor guy!

After the gym, I went home and cooked up some grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids and packed them up. We went to pick up Morgan from school and then hit the park for lunch and playtime after with some friends. Bennett lightened up with food and play and now the kids are napping. We didn't get home until 2pm, so they'll probably sleep until at least 4. Which gives me only a couple of hours to kill before Lance gets home. This just might turn out to be a good one! It's also the only night this week that I'll be home, so I need to make sure I take my turns with bath time, pajamas, teeth brushing and bedtime stories. My poor hubby - I have something every other night this week!

At least he gets to DO CHORES! :)

Can someone please tell him he's 17 months old?

He insisted on eating exactly what his big sister was eating this morning. Cereal. With milk.

Why does he want to grow up so fast??

"You did a wonderful job on my son's circumcision!"

Yes. Those words actually came out of my mouth tonight. At a child's first birthday party, nonetheless. People, you can dress me up, but you can't take me out.

The funny thing is, I was looking at this woman and thinking that she looked awfully familiar. I was thinking maybe she was a news anchor or something, just without all the makeup. I knew something was missing - I just didn't realize it was the whole lab coat thing. It was then that the hostess said something to her eldest son about the doctor. And then it hit me! She is the one that did Bennett's circumcision. And before I knew it, I blurted it out! "Oh, I thought I recognized you!" Followed by several statements about my son's circumcision. And what a nice job she did. And how apparently she does the best ones. Because that's what I was told over and over at the hospital. Inappropriate much?

Coming out of the jumpy house, all red-faced, sweaty and smiling is my little walking beautiful circumcision. I figured asking her to take a look at it, or showing it off to the crowd of people that had to endure my bragging was crossing some sort of boundary that I really didn't need to even be thinking about.

On the way home, Lance asked me if I thought she had been invited because she was a family friend, or if it was because she did the birthday boy's circumcision. I told him I didn't know. He said, "Now I'm feeling bad that we didn't invite her to Bennett's first birthday party. Maybe I should get in touch with the one that did mine."

We are such the pair, aren't we?

We have a winner!

The past few days have been a whirlwind around our house. Yesterday, I was running all day. Dropped Morgan and her friend of at school, came home and made a fruit salad and then headed to MOPS. Left MOPS and tried to do a quick trip to Costco, but had to leave my buggy with the food in it because there were way too many too long lines and I never would have made it to pick the kids up from school in time. During nap time, I did dishes and prepped stuff for playgroup and then I loaded the kids up in the car and we headed over to the park for playgroup. After they got nice and sandy at the park, we loaded back up in the car, swung by Little Caesars for their $5 pizza, and then came home. We walked in the door at 6:04 and I was able to get Morgan in the shower and bathe Bennett, get him in his pajamas, brush Morgan's hair and get them settled at the table with pizza for dinner before the babysitter came at 6:30. Lance was at a Giant's game with his coworkers and I had bible study. So, I showed her around and gave her my pre-printed instructions. I asked her if she wanted any pizza and she informed me that she'd already eaten (which I took as a good thing, since she obviously plans!). I said goodbye and goodnight to the kids and went to bible study. I came directly home and she had put all the dishes in the sink (I had run the dishwasher while we were at playgroup, so it was full, but clean) and was just hanging out watching TV. She said the kids did great. She said that Bennett cried for like a second and then just went to sleep. Yeah!!

I explained to her that our niece used to babysit for us but that she is now going to college and has two jobs and just doesn't really have the time for us anymore. She told me that she also works two jobs. So, in addition to the tennis club job (Monday through Friday), she's also a nanny for an 8 year old boy. She works for them from 6am to 6pm and does the tennis club thing while he's in school. So, she may become my new regular! I told her that Lance and I were excited about the possibility of going on dates again and she said that she just adored my kids. :) I think we made a connection. Bennett even woke up this morning asking for her. Apparently they played with balls. Which is just about the best thing that you could ever do with him.

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! I *heart* her! :)

Today I was working in the classroom and it was Johnny Appleseed Day. Which apparently is the next best thing to Christmas and Easter because Morgan asked (1) if we could go out to dinner to celebrate the really special day and (2) if she could wear a dress to school. Who knew?? I got to run the "cool" center at center time today, where we weighed and measured apples and counted how many seeds they had in them. The kids kept asking, "Can I PLEAAAASSSE eat my apple now?!" It was fun, though and I'm exhausted! I'm about to "call in sick" and not do any chores today. Because I'm tired and because tomorrow is another busy day. Soccer, park, party, luau. Sunday shouldn't be too bad though. Just church and the park.

It's not all about me

This morning, after dropping Morgan and her friend Colin off at school, I ran home to whip up a fruit salad and then headed over to my MOPS meeting. This time, instead of a craft, we had a speaker. Since the theme of MOPS this year is "Adventures in Mothering", the topic of today's discussion was "A Three Ring Circus".

The speaker did an excellent job talking about balance and what that means. She talked about how people typically fall into one of two categories - "people" people or "task" people. She talked about how you'll know the "task" people because they have all their cereals and pastas in Tupperware containers. Neatly organized. Alphabetically. And lined up properly. To "task" people, these types of activities bring them happiness. The "people" people would rather do activities with other people and their cereal and pastas are in the cabinet in the general vicinity of the grains. :) While I believe that I have a talent for organization, I'm very much a people person. I love hanging out with my family and friends.

The speaker talked about balancing your life by adding more of the things you LOVE to do to your daily life. Yeah, we all have things we don't want to do, but we have to be responsible adults. They need to get done, but does everything have to get done every day? She suggested picking three things. And making at least two of them things you LOVE to do. She said to not add anything else to your plate until the three are done. And then, when they are done? Add just one more. If you have to put that one off until tomorrow because you can't do it, that's okay, too. Also, there are things that maybe you don't LOVE to do, but that you do well. For me, that's organization. I do it well, but it's not what drives me. So, it's something that I would just naturally do.

Does it all have to be done by us (meaning us moms)? This was a point that really struck me. Because since I've been staying at home, I've been trying very hard to "do it all". To do all the things that I couldn't do because I was working. Couldn't organize my house. Couldn't even keep it clean. Couldn't spend time with my kids doing their activities. Couldn't take them to the park every day. Couldn't spend much time with my friends. Couldn't enjoy every weekend with my family because there was always something that I had to do because I couldn't get to it during the week. So, now? I'm trying to do it all. And I'm not letting anyone else help. I have taken sole responsibility for the house, the food, the activities, the financial planning and tracking, the yard, etc., etc.

The speaker pointed out that by trying to do it all ourselves, we are doing a disservice to the other people in our family. When we do it all, where does that leave everyone else? It's true that maybe the kids can't mop the floor the right way, but why not let them try if that's what they want to do? Why not let them contribute? And with our husbands, why not hand some of it over to them? What makes us think that they WANT us to do it all? Maybe they feel cut out.

This really hit home with me. My husband is wonderfully indecisive. I say wonderfully because I'm not at all indecisive. And this has worked for ME. But, maybe this isn't the best thing for us. We need to continue to live our lives as a couple, even when sometimes it's easier for me to just do it myself. Because that's not fair to him.

Here was her idea. Make a big spreadsheet of all the stuff you have to do. Each week, let every member of the family pick the things they LOVE to do. Then let every member pick the things that they do well, but maybe don't love. What you'll be left with are the things nobody wants to do. And then, do them together and make them fun.

I'm going to have a discussion with my hubby on this and see what he thinks. Because you know what, this isn't just about me. It's about my family too. And if there's a way to make everyone happier, then I'm all about that. Just wait until I spring this one on Lance. Honey! I'm going to make you soooo happy! You can do laundry again!! :)

I could get used to seeing my name up there..

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=357563&altf=Qbjhf&altl=Lvfnqfm

Thanks, Lara, for your vote of confidence! :)

Making plans for the future

Today during lunch, I was talking to Morgan about how we are going to have a new babysitter come tomorrow night while I'm at bible study. I told her who it was, but she can't place the name to the face. I'm sure she'll recognize her when she gets here tomorrow night. She asked why her cousin couldn't just babysit and I told her that because she has two jobs and is going to college now, she isn't as available as she used to be. So, I thought it was time to try a new babysitter and given that I won't be gone very long tomorrow night, it seems like a good way to test it out. She goes on to tell me that she knows that I'll tell the new babysitter about reading books to Bennett before bed and about her having to be in bed on time since there's school the next day.

Me: "That's right. And if it works out, maybe we'll have her come every few weeks and so Daddy and I can go on a date."
Morgan: "Yeah. When I go on a date, will you have to get a babysitter?"
Me: "For who? Bennett? No, you'll be MUCH OLDER when you are able to start dating, so Bennett won't need a babysitter. Besides, are you thinking that you'll invite Daddy and I along?"
Morgan: "Yeah. You and Daddy will come with me on my date. Then you'll have to get a babysitter for Bennett."
Me: "Well, if you promise me that you will let Daddy and I come on your date with you, then I will promise to get a babysitter for Bennett."
Morgan: "Okay. Because I will always be older than Bennett."
Me: "That's true. And if we were to have another baby, Bennett would be older than that baby but you would still be older than both. You'll always be the oldest."
Morgan: "I bet you wanted me to be a boy."
Me: "Nope. I was very happy to find out you were a girl."
Morgan: "Yeah. Then I bet you wanted a boy when Bennett was born."
Me: "Yes. I did."
Morgan: "We are so lucky. We have a great family!"
Me: "Yep, I think we do! We are very blessed!
Morgan: "Yep, we got just the right things. We have a perfect family! I never want to leave."
Me: "Okay."
Morgan: "Except I probably will want to later. And when I have my own kids, if my husband agrees (that part kills me!), I'll let them do whatever they want except be mean."
Me: "Well, when you have your own family in your own house, you can make your own rules. Will you let them paint the floors?"
Morgan: "If they do it with me or the Daddy, the that is okay."
Me: "Will you let them play with sharp knives?"
Morgan: "Of course not. They will only be able to do things that are appropriate."
Me: "Like what kinds of things are not appropriate?"
Morgan: "Playing with knives. Or water."
Me: (laughing) "Why not water?"
Morgan: "It's too messy. They will get it ALL OVER their clothes."
Me: "But you'll let them paint the floors?"
Morgan: (thinking a moment) "Yes. I'll have a room that is a TOTAL DISASTER and they can paint whatever they want in there."
Me: "Sounds good."
Morgan: "Yep. But they cannot play with knives. Or water."
Me: "Okay, those will be your rules then. You don't have to have the same rules as me."
Morgan: "Yeah. That's right!"

Don't ask me how we got from a babysitter to painting floors, but that's how conversations with a five year old go, I suppose!

Now what?

Blame it on hormones or whatever you will, but by some stroke of happenstance, my entire house is clean and all my laundry is done. I had a burst of energy, starting Sunday morning and I've managed to get almost my entire week's worth of chores done in just a few days. Now what??

Bennett and I enjoyed a nice quiet morning at home. Just me and him. Giggling. Talking about animals, him making me taco and baking powder soup for lunch (play kitchen). Then, me chasing him around the house as he went from one thing he wasn't supposed to get into to another. We did manage to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store, where he really charmed everyone. Starting with the Fed Ex driver we saw on the way in. He has this thing about waving to the workers. Don't know how he knows it, but when he sees someone doing their job, he waves and says hi. Not to the other shoppers in the store. Nope. The Fed Ex guy in his truck. The butcher putting out meat. The cashier in line or the mail person in their truck. Never to anyone else. Ever. Kind of reminds me of Sesame Street for some reason! :)

Morgan has ballet this afternoon and while she's dancing, I'll be strolling around with Bennett, getting my exercise in. Since I managed to miss my 5pm class yesterday due to the kids oversleeping their naps, I ended up walking on the treadmill after the kids went to bed (but before the new Heroes!) I'm walking tonight and then I'll be meeting my kindergarten mom friends in the morning to walk before playgroup. My poor arms are going to feel neglected! But, you squeeze in what you can, right? Maybe I'll do some push-ups and sit-ups before the kids wake up from their naps.

Girls night at the movies is tonight. We are going to see The Women. I heard that there's not a single man in the entire movie. Which, I understand it's about women, but c'mon. Can't they throw a Brad Pitt or a Johnny Depp in there for us? We have needs, people! :)

Oh, and for those wondering how things are going on the babysitting front, I had no choice but to suck it up and call one of the girls from the tennis club. On Thursday night, I have my new bible study and Lance is going to a Giants game with his coworkers. Bible study is during bedtime, so I didn't feel right about bringing them to the childcare at the church when they would rather be in their bed. So, I called one of the girls from the list and she'll be here on Thursday! I figure it's a good trial run to see how she does and if all goes well, maybe we can see about getting a once or twice a month date night into her rotation. Wouldn't that be heaven?

A big girl talk

On Saturday morning, Morgan was playing in the playroom and then she came into the kitchen where I was cooking breakfast and told me that she saw someone drive by our house and take a picture. I asked her about the car and she told me that it looked like a silver minivan. I thought it was strange, but I didn't see anything myself and you never know what an imaginative five year old is going to come up with. Shortly after, we left and headed over to a local festival where I was working the booth for the mothers club and the kids and Lance roamed around, having fun (or at least that was the idea). We dropped Morgan off at a birthday party on the way home and then when we got home and started unpacking the car (with a VERY tired Bennett), we were approached by our next door neighbors. They told us that they had seen someone drive by our house that morning, very slowly, taking pictures. This corroborated what Morgan had told me, so they definitely had my attention. They proceeded to tell me that the SAME CAR (silver minivan) was parked across the street from our houses a couple of weeks ago and had been taking pictures of our house and their house. When they realized what was happening, they started to approach the car and they took off. They described the person as a clean cut white man.

The hair is standing on the back of my neck. My mothering radar is going off. Something isn't right here. I start mulling it over and the more I think about it, the more I'm getting freaked out. The town we live in is one of the top ten safest cities in the U.S., according to Forbes magazine. I guess I wasn't prepared for something like this. And, while it may be nothing, it also might be something. And my gut is telling me that it's just not right. So, I decided to call the police department and make a complaint. They inform me that there's really nothing that they can do unless the car is out there at the time I call. I asked them if they would like to talk to the neighbor to get a description of the car and they said, "sure, you can have them call us". I had also emailed my friend who is an ex-Oakland police officer for her advice. We went back and forth on email, but the bottom line is that there really isn't much they can do unless I get a license plate number or they are out there at the time. She suggested having a code word with Morgan, not keeping the same routine (hard with school aged and active kids!), and just being cognizant in general. I also talked to a friend of ours who happens to work for the police department in our city and he's promised to drive by our house a couple of times a nights on the nights he's working.

I decided to also talk to my neighbors and have them be on the lookout. So, this afternoon after lunch, we go over to Morgan's buddy's house and I'm talking to his Dad about this. She is, of course, all ears. On the way back home, she wants to know why I called the police department. So, I put Bennett down for his nap and spent the next thirty minutes having a "big girl" talk with her.

I explained that we were going to have a code word that only she, me, and Daddy would know. If every anyone needed to pick her up and she wasn't expecting them, they would need to provide her with the code word. We picked our code word, she told me what it was a couple of times and then we role played.

Me: "Hi Morgan. Your mom sent me to pick you up"
Morgan: "Hi. CODE WORD"
Me: "No, YOU never say the code word. Not to anyone! You ask them if they know the code word. And if they don't, you politely tell them that you cannot go with them, that's your mom's rule".
Morgan: "Oh, okay"
Me: "Want to practice again?"
Morgan: "Yeah"
Me: "Hi Morgan. Your mom said I should come pick you up"
Morgan: "If you don't know the code word, there's a rule about me not going with you"
Me: "Code word? Oh, I know the code word. It's "
Morgan: "I can't go with you"
Me: "Good!"

We did it a few more times, sometimes with me giving the right code word and sometimes with not knowing it. She's got the idea now. We talked about how it could be a total stranger, or it might even be someone she knows, but who is not allowed to pick her up. We came up with a few examples of those kinds of people, and I could tell that she was getting it.

We also talked about safety when we are together. I told her that if I were to ever tell her the code word when we are at home, she's to go get Bennett and take him into her room and lock the door. Or, if we are out in public, she's to take him to a safe place, like our car and shut the door. I told her that I would show her how to lock it. Morgan says, "I know that whenever it's dangerous, we should always lock the door." I explained, that that's sort of true, but the main thing is that she should only be concerned with getting her brother to the safe place we've talked about. I explained that if something were happening to me, she should only care about her and her brother and not what's happening to me. She was all, "Yeah, because we're little. And you're big, so you have to deal with it." Yeah, something like that.

Then, we went on to talk about taking things from strangers. I pretended I was a stranger offering ICE CREAM. You LOVE ice cream, Morgan! She looked for a moment like she would tell them YES, I'LL HAVE THE ICE CREAM. So, I explained to her that there may be something in the ice cream that could make her very sick. "Or kill me", she chimes in. Yes, or kill you. I told her about how when I was little they caught people putting razor blades into apples and candy at Halloween, so we would have to check the candy and all VERY CAREFULLY. I reminded her of how we've done this in the past. She asked, "Can't I just ask them if they've put something bad in the candy?" Ahh, my innocent daughter. I explained that BAD people aren't exactly going to tell you that they've done BAD things. She got it.

Next, we talked about inappropriate touching. This conversation nearly had me in tears. It's hard to even go there. But, we talked about it and I told her that no matter what, if this were to ever happen to her, she HAS to tell me. I told her that someone might do something bad to her and then tell her that they would hurt her or me or someone else in the family, but that she has to trust that I will take care of it and she HAS to tell me. She told me that she knew that I would take care of it. "I know just what you would do!" And I'm thinking, "yeah, I would find that SOB and..." and she says, "You'd call the police!" Smiling, I say, "Yes, you are right." That's the first thing I would do.

Hard discussions, this big girl talk. But, I want her prepared and I want her to know that her mother is NOT GOING TO LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO HER! I hope I was able to walk that fine line of preparing her for what could happen and not freaking her out.

I guess this is the scary part about having your heart walk around in the real world. All innocent and unknowing. Parenting is not easy.

I need to invest in one of these

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

On academics

Being the parent of a school aged child is enough to send this perfectionist momma into a panic attack. The range of levels of the kids in Morgan's kindergarten class is quite vast. There are kids that are struggling with a word like "is" and others that can read and write at a first grade level. My daughter falls squarely in the middle right now. I'm kicking myself for not having worked with her on phonics and the elements of reading before starting Kindergarten. I wish I'd made a bigger stink about her preschool teacher last year, who did not work with the kids on these types of skills as much as I would have liked. I know that she'll be fine and I know that she's catching on quickly, but I can't help but want her to be at the head of the class. With the girl who can spell read and spell words like animal. I know she's smart. I know she has so much potential. If only....

But also, part of me is glad she's not at the head of the class. She can go through the process of improving herself, and she'll have something to strive towards. I just hope that she keeps her hunger for learning and her drive for getting ahead. Right now, she's been learning roughly 2-3 new words every day. She's already up to 17 words that she can read on sight. When she was first tested, she knew two - "a" and "I". We've been working with flash cards every night. She reads them to every living thing in our house. Twice. I know it's working because words that she used to struggle with, like "the", she's quick to call out now. We try to make it fun by making crazy sentences, having her "teach the dog to read" and basically making games out of it. She's still hungry. She's proud of herself for her progress, especially when she masters a word that she considers hard, like "look".

I'm also proud of her. I can't help but start to wonder how the rest of her academic life will go. Will she maintain the hunger? Will she lose her drive? Will she get to the head of her class, or will she always be struggling to get there? Will she have more of a literary mind like her mother, or will she be more of a math and science kid like her father? Will I have to nag her to do her homework, or will she happily get it done on her own?

Welcome to parenting a school-aged child, huh?

The good news is, that Morgan is teaching Bennett the stuff she's learning. He's becoming a pro in Zoo Phonics! This can only mean great things for his academic future, right? Welcome to parenting a second child, huh?

All prepped and ready to go

I overslept this morning and didn't make it to the early service at church. I got up with the kids who are like little angry trolls this morning. Bennett screamed at me when I put him in his highchair for breakfast because I dared to put cheerios on his tray instead of in a bowl. I'm obviously the most ignorant momma in the world, at least according to his reaction. Morgan is driving me nuts with her non-stop made up songs and noises just for the sake of making noise.

I realized that we were out of waffles and knowing that they will likely want some hot food this week, decided to whip up another batch of homemade waffles. Both kids had cereal and waffles and Bennett also insisted on having peaches. As I was making breakfast, I peered into the refrigerator and saw the pork tenderloin that I had thawed earlier in the week to cook and had not yet managed to cook. So, I prepped it and put it in the crock pot to make my yummy Slow Cooked Pulled Pork. I decided to go ahead and also prep the tomato, cucumber, celery and onion salad as well as the home baked potato fries so that all I have to do is throw the potatoes in the oven about half an hour before we are ready to eat. This led to me going ahead and dicing up some celery and onion for tuna salad sandwiches for lunch. So, I've now managed to prep all our food for the day. I also managed to miss the late service at church as well. Oh well. That's what they make podcasts for, right?

Lance was corralling the kids while I was doing all the prepping and cooking and I'm pretty sure he's having "a morning" right along with me. After he woke up (he slept in after I got up with the kids), he came downstairs and one of the first questions to me was "isn't there that park play date today?" No such luck. But, I told him, we can take the kids to the park. Not as appealing as me removing them from the house and him having time to watch some football in peace and quiet.

Plan for the rest of the day is to get my weekly planning done and maybe even some yard work. I feel a burst of energy, so I suppose I should take advantage of it, huh?

My husband, the convert

Growing up in the south, going to an SEC school, and generally breathing in the southeast means that there's one thing that's sacred on a Saturday in fall. And that's football. Regardless of what else is going on, football is something we all make time for. My husband? He now falls squarely into this religion of ours.

When I met him, he didn't watch football at all, really. Much less college football. But, all it took was a few seasons of me hogging the remote during the games and him enduring my screaming, cussing and enthusiasm. He became a fan. He's seen my reserved mother come unglued, screaming and cussing while watching our Auburn Tigers. Then a few years ago, I brought him to my home school, Auburn University, to see what all the ruckus was about. This is when his conversion truly came about. We were there for the Auburn vs. Florida game in October of 2006. For any fans out there, this was the single defeat that Florida suffered in their 2006 National Championship season. This was one hell of a game and that's when Lance truly fell in love with college football and became an honorary Auburn Tiger. It also happened to be Morgan's first game. :)

Out here in sunny California, the weather may be nice and the sights very scenic. But on crisp Saturdays in the fall, I long for the orange and blue and the smell of Jim Beam and coke accompanied by screams of "war eagle". Having experienced it for himself now, Lance understands and cusses and screams his best "war eagle" with me, helps wrangle kids from out in front of the TV, helps to keep them quiet, and offers to make dinner. Because Momma's watching football. And around here, that's sacred.

Tonight, if you are an Auburn Tiger, let's just say that it was a good game, despite the final score. It was nice to see the offense show some signs of life this season. It was a long fought game, and overall we played nicely. War Damn Eagle!

And the universe laughs in my face

Remember the woman at the gym I was talking about? The one who was experiencing some sort of disease that causes you to do socially inappropriate things like talking non-stop during an exercise class and telling someone who doesn't care about your early entrance into menopause? The one that I've tried to avoid for about five years now. Yeah, so check this out.

At the Boo Hoo breakfast on the first day of school, we were asked if we wanted a "veteran family" to be a point of contact for us to help us with any questions we might have. Figuring that it wouldn't hurt to know someone who has been around for a while, I put my name and email address down on the paper.

I got an email from my veteran family contact today. Guess who it is??

Yes, you cruel universe you!

A nap does a world of good

It wasn't a long nap, but it was still a good solid 25 minutes of sleep. I woke up happy and feeling rested and that's always a good sign. When Bennett woke up, we hung out and had graham crackers and snuggled on the couch. When Morgan woke up, Bennett and I hugged on her and scratched her back (this is her favorite thing) and then I got some toys out for them. Morgan had some snack and then asked Bennett if he wanted to play in the playroom. He said "yeah" and they've been playing in their nicely since. Before I know it, Lance will be home and our weekend will have started.

Leftovers for dinner, so no cooking required. At some point, I'll have to catch up on all the chores I've put off over the past few days, but they'll wait. For now, I'm enjoying a restful afternoon!

Too tired to blog

Those kids just wipe the energy right out of me. I worked in Morgan's class all morning long and then we hit the park after. Now we are napping. The End.

The things we do for our kids

Like going to see gigantic vegetables sing crazy songs. And chasing a screaming toddler around while the gigantic vegetables are singing. Not MY idea of a great time, but a certain five year old would certainly disagree with me. Here, you can see the back of her and her friend Collin, and clearly they are entranced by these enormous vegetables. Go figure.

At least there was a cute moment at the end where Morgan and Bennett were dancing together. Not that you can see it in this video, with it being nearly pitch black and all. :)

Damn I'm old. I have to rest up for Veggie Tales.

This morning was the first morning that we picked up Morgan's friend for school. His mom is watching Bennett for me on Fridays while I work in the class and we worked out an arrangement where I'll do drop off and pick up on Thursdays and Fridays to help her out. This means we have to leave our house about ten minutes before we normally do. We reset Morgan's alarm time for ten minutes earlier and Lance was nice enough to brew coffee before he left at the crack of dawn.

We actually got out of the house this morning quite easily. We picked him up right on time and they were super hilarious in the car on the way to school. Talking the whole time about how he woke up with snails all over his room. It was quite an elaborate story and Morgan was eating it up! When we got to school, I knew that I needed to walk them up to the classroom lines since this was his first day being dropped off by someone other than his mom. They really got each other wound up and it was hard to keep them on the sidewalk! I'm thinking as soon as he's comfortable and his mom is comfortable, that on Thursdays, we'll be doing valet!

After they were taken into the classroom, Bennett and I came back home and played for a little bit until it was time for the kickboxing class. The instructor wasn't the same one that I normally have, but she was heavier on the cardio. My heart rate sky rocketed to 174! After class, I took my time and got ready and then went and picked Bennett up from the nursery. He was such a happy camper and we had about 20 minutes to kill, so I drove him to a near by park. When I parked the car, I looked in the back seat and asked him if he was ready to go play. "No". You don't want to go play? "No". Hmmm. Do you want to get out? "No". Do you want me to keep driving? "Yeah". Okay. So, we drove around, stopped at the grocery store to check out produce, and then finally headed over to the school to get the kids.

On the way to drop Morgan's friend off at his house, he and Morgan were back and forth with Bennett trying to get him to say silly words and he would and they'd all laugh. It was quite funny. Until the moment he decided he was DONE WITH THAT CRAP and they didn't get the memo. And then it was all screaming and crying. Luckily, that's just as we drove up to the house.

We came home and were eating lunch when Bennett started doing his new trick. It's where he gets milk into his mouth and then lets it slowly pour down his chin. THIS DRIVES ME NUTS! This started a couple of nights ago at dinner. Well, I have a very strict rule that if you are going to play while eating, you must not be that hungry and therefore you are done. I wiped him up and took him to his room to change his diaper and put him down for his nap. I was eating my lunch during this time and had taken a big bite right before all this happened. I look down at him on the changing table and he's mimicking me eating. He's totally over exaggeratedly eating. It was so funny that I couldn't help but laugh. Of course, that just made him do it more. And more exaggeratedly. Funny boy.

The kids are napping now and I'm trying to talk myself into not mopping and taking a nap instead. After all, after naps we are going to see Veggie Tales. LIVE! And then I have a new bible study group tonight after that. What do I need more? Sleep and a positive attitude or clean floors? Okay, so that may be a slightly skewed question. Feel free to give me the answer I want to hear. You know how much I love to mop floors. :)

My first responsibility as room parent

So, as you may recall, I was lured into signing up to be one of the room parents for Morgan's class. While working in the classroom last week, I inquired about what our responsibilities entailed. The teacher let me know that our first duty would be to decorate the classroom door for the "Trick-a-Dooring" night at the school, where the kids go door to door for candy. And, in her words, "It needs to be good. It's a total competition!" She mentioned possibly using music and making it a little scary, but not too scary for the Kindergartners. Hey - no pressure!! Especially for someone who was clearly blessed with all the creative talent of a slug. So, the panic began to set in.

Now I'm nearly a week CLOSER to the date that this is needing to be completed by, and I'm no closer to an idea than I was when she first explained it to me. I'm heading over to the craft store tonight to look for favors for the moms club in and out board dinner and thought I could also check out their Halloween decorations to see what I could come up with. I'm explaining all this to Lance and he's all, "So, it's like Pimp my Door?" Yes, but only in a scary way I tell him. But not too scary. So, this sick-o that I'm married to, comes up with this idea. "You can get a noose, and hang a large Barney from it and play garbled 'I love you, you love me' music". The witch and broomstick idea that I had seems like Holly Hobbie next to his deranged Barney idea. He's a sick puppy, I tell you.

So, if you are reading this and have your creative juices flowing, please share your ideas with me. Maybe you've seen something somewhere else I can recreate and call it my own?? I'm all about reusing (it's a form of recycling, isn't it). :)

A new obsession

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Bennett enjoying his new obsession with stickers on the backs of BOTH hands (must be BOTH) yesterday morning.

Unplanned pleasant surprises

My no-plan morning turned into a play date with my friend Cristina and her daughter Fiona. Fiona and Bennett colored and did stickers, played in the playroom, and ultimately got rice all over the entry way. But they had fun. Bennett was not too into sharing and was really being a pill. I finally had to put him into a timeout for hitting me and that seemed to do the trick, as he straightened up after. :) Cristina and Fiona stayed for lunch, which was nice so that I didn't have to haul Bennett across town to pick Morgan up from school when he was already hungry. We came back home and after all the kids were done eating, Morgan got to play with the rice also. :)

After the fun was over, the kids went down for naps. Bennett slept until 4:15, when I had to wake him to take Morgan to ballet. That was a nearly three hour nap, which is pretty good for him lately. Morgan slept until 3:45, and then asked to practice her site words. Asking to do homework?? Wonderful! I dropped Morgan off at ballet and then took Bennett in the jogging stroller on a nice three mile walk. We got back to the dance studio just in time to pick up Morgan and then the three of us walked home.

When we got home, the first thing I noticed was that Lance's car was in the driveway. The kids noticed too, because suddenly I was some second class citizen who was keeping them away from their Daddy! Morgan was running and Bennett was yelling "Daddy!" We walked in and Lance got his kisses and hugs from us all. He was home an hour before he normally is, which was, in itself a pleasant surprise. But then, Morgan asked if she could work on her Starfall stuff on the computer and Bennett played and so Lance came into the kitchen where I had started dinner and asked if he could help. It's been AGES since we were actually able to prepare a meal together in peace. It was really nice.

Add to that that I was throwing together a mish mash of stuff to make our leftover roasted chicken into something else for dinner tonight. That turned into a yummy surprise. I diced up the chicken and threw it in a skillet with some diced sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and sliced olives with a little bit of fat free Italian dressing while I was cooking the pasta. When the pasta was done cooking, I combined all those ingredients with the pasta, added a little more of the Italian dressing and some goat cheese. Mixed it all up and it was delicious! Lance made the salad to go with it and everything was on the table in under 20 minutes. Nice!

Since I missed out on the grocery shopping this morning due to the play date, I was planning to go after the kids went to bed. Instead, after Lance bathed Bennett and put him to bed, he offered to go and I stayed home and helped Morgan with her homework and did the bedtime stuff with her. She's been working hard at her "sight words" and learned three new ones tonight alone! I'm so proud of her!

All in all, not the day I had planned. All in all, a day full of pleasant surprises!

Opting out

Every Sunday, I plan out my week with our activities, what workout I will do, and what errands need to be run. The only two things on the agenda today were an 8:30 cardio & core class and Morgan's ballet class at 4:30. This morning, as Bennett was still sleeping when it was nearing the time to leave to drop Morgan off at school, I decided that I would use her ballet time to walk and ditch the class this morning. That way I could just bring him to school in his jammies, come back and he could eat his breakfast at a leisurely pace and not be under the gun.

We got back home and I enjoyed a second cup of coffee while he ate his strawberries, grapes and the last of his pancakes. I decided that since I had time this morning, I would go ahead and make up a batch of waffles for him to eat on over the coming days (half batch since Morgan is "over" hot breakfasts). He DEMANDED a waffle instead of his leftover, reheated pancake. The boy is no dummy! :)

So, here I sit with ample time at my fingertips. I've already done today's chores, just need to run by the grocery store before getting Morgan and then I'll have the entire nap time to myself. What will I do??

Sometimes it's better to not be so scheduled, I'm thinking.

For now, I'm going to go enjoy my little tyrant until it's time to go.

Meaningful discussions at the bowling alley

After naps today, I whisked the kids out of the house and headed over to my friend Melissa's house. Melissa has an almost-one-year-old and a four year old. There was an outing today to go bowling and knowing we couldn't bring the little guys, Melissa agreed to watch Bennett and Brandon while I took the big kids, Morgan and Collin, to bowl.

We had lots of fun bowling, then eating hot dogs and playing video games. Collin and Morgan were having all sorts of meaningful discussions about babies, marriage and Transformers. By the way, don't ever try to tell Morgan that men can have babies. Because they can't actually HAVE babies and she'll get quite hostile when relating this to you. When we stumbled upon the topic of marriage, Collin informed us that he has three girlfriends he is going to marry. I told him he'd have to pick one and then watched as Morgan began pleading her case with him. "MARRY ME!!!" Oh my!

The trip home was a lot of the same, with Morgan explaining to Collin that her Daddy's car is a transformer. To hear her describe it, it sounded REALLY COOL. He asked if it could fly and she acted like she didn't hear him and changed the subject. He'll be sad when he actually sees the car is just a hard topped convertible. :)

Melissa was nice enough to tell me that Bennett was so easy (*cough* *cough*) while I was gone. I'm noticing a theme here - dream child with others. Crazy tantrum climbing child when with mom. Hmmm. Next time, we'll swap and Melissa can take the big kids while I get the droolers. Fun times!

Rice box

One of my purchases at Costco yesterday was a 25 pound bag of long grain rice. Before you get too worried about what type of lamb meat I might be pairing with this, or as Lance asked, what third world country I'm trying to feed, let me assure you that this isn't to be eaten. No, I got the idea to make a portable "sand box" using rice and a large under the bed bin from Parent Hacks.

So, this morning after getting home from the gym and Bennett's Terrific Toddlers class, I wanted to tidy up the kitchen and make lunch. I decided to give the new rice box a whirl to keep Bennett busy and out of the kitchen, where he's magnetically drawn to the rounder where I keep the sugar and flour. I set it up on the tiled entry way so that if he accidentally spills some outside of the box (quit snickering, Melissa!), I can easily sweep it up. I opened the lid and you should have SEEN the look on his face. I show him how to pour the rice from one little toy cup to another. He grabs a handful and holds it outside of the box and I sternly tell him to keep it inside the box. I show him what I mean. I figure it's not that big a deal because I can just sweep it up if he keeps doing this.

Want to know what I didn't think about??

I didn't consider that he might actually WALK AROUND with rice in his hands. I don't know why this didn't occur to me, but it didn't. So, when I was done making lunches, I went to see how it was going and there was not only a HUGE pile of rice on the entry way floor, but also a matching one in the living room on the carpet. Thank goodness it didn't take me too long to make lunch because I now have visions of finding piles of rice all over the house.

And Elizabeth, if you are reading this, YES, I know you told me so. I heard you. I swear. I just thought....I dunno. It would be different?? :)

Cursing Costco

Why do they have to give out the samples?? I think they must lace them with crack because that's all Morgan can talk about or think about when within a 1000 ft vicinity. "Can I get some of those little food things?" or "Are they handing out little foods?" It's enough to drive you crazy.

I took her with me after nap and she asked if she could bring some money to buy something. I was all, "Uhhh.....sure. What are you thinking you want to buy?" And she was all, "I don't know but whenever I ask you to buy me something you always ask me if I brought my money." She's getting too smart. But, if she wants to contribute $10 to toilet paper, who am I to break her heart??

So, we load up her Disney Princess wallet with a five dollar bill and five one dollar bills and find an appropriately matching purse. She can hardly STAND IT. This money is so on fire and burning a whole in her purse. The whole time we are there, she alternated between "Can I get some of those little food things?" and "Can I pick out something to buy now?" DROVE ME CRAZY.

But, the upside is that there were no toys to speak of. So she perused the books for about ten minutes and finally found INCREDIBLE ANIMALS and was sold. We got in line and she paid for her book separately. It was $10.10, but I cut her a break and gave her a dime. I know, I know. Maybe there's a floor she can wax to make up the ten cents to me. ;) She even wanted to keep the receipt and have them "check her" at the door on the way out like they always do. And instead of asking them for a smiley face on my receipt, like she always asks if she can do, she looked at me and informed me that she was going to ask them for a smiley face on her receipt. Because it's hers. And she can have one. I guess this was the most magical smiley faces of all, because it was worth oooohhhing and aaaahhhhing over and then she insisted on tucking her receipt away in her purse. So she could show Daddy when we got home. It's the little things!

Sleep and religious discussions

What is up with all the sleep? Not just me, but the kids also. I was asleep last night by 10:30 and slept for over nine hours. Bennett was in bed around 7:30 last night and slept until 8:45 this morning! Not that I'm complaining, but it's just very bizarre!

My plan this morning was to get the kids off to church with me (we leave between 8:30 and 8:45) to give Lance some more time to himself. Who knows, maybe the stuff I've been wanting to be put in the attic might magically make it's way up there given enough "alone time". :) I woke up with a start at 8am, because NO KIDS had woken me up. Luckily, I had showered last night, but I had thirty minutes to get myself and the kids ready and out the door.

I got dressed and headed downstairs. Morgan was awake, but was sitting in her pajamas playing quietly with her Barbies. Bennett was still asleep, and I just couldn't bring myself to wake him. So, I asked Morgan to put on the clothes that had been laid out the night before. I assisted her to make things move more quickly. She wanted to know what the big rush was and I let her know that we had fifteen minutes to get dressed, eat and get out of here. I told her that she didn't have to go to church, but she just jumped up and started taking clothes off because, "I just LOVE church!" She ate a quick breakfast of cereal and I made coffee while I woofed down an English muffin with cheese on top. We left the house at 8:40, not too bad. I never would have been able to do that if I'd have woken Bennett up. Ahh well.

On the way to church, Morgan saw the theater where we saw Willy Wonka and she told me how much she loved it. She asked if we could maybe buy the CD with the music on it someday like she has the soundtrack for Annie and Cars. I told her that she could put it on her Christmas list. She got all excited about this and said that would be "AWESOME!" Then she started talking about how sometimes Santa makes the toys and sometimes he buys them from the store. But the elves really make the toys. And they are so small. They are "CUTE!!" I was relieved to hear this since last year we had our first visit from The Elf on the Shelf and I was warned by many friends that I would be scarring her for life. Take that, you skeptics! I'm wondering if September is too early for him to visit??

Anyhoo, with all the talk of Christmas I thought I would ask Morgan if she knew what Christmas was all about. We were headed to church, after all. Her response? "It's about getting toys!!" How did I know that's what she was going to say?? So, I tell her that no, that's not really what Christmas is about. And then she goes, "Wait. I know what it's about. It's about Jesus' birthday! I know that because Bennett has a book about the story of Christmas. And it's about when Jesus was born." Yes! That's right! The she said, "When is it that Jesus died on the cross?" and I told her Easter. She wanted to know if that was before or after Christmas. I told her after. She said "okay". I reminded her that Bennett was born on Easter, so by the time the next Easter rolls around, he'll be turning two. "Yeah, when Jesus died on the cross." I wonder if she'll always make the correlation between Jesus dying on the cross and Bennett's birth. :)

After church, we hurriedly got her obligatory "church donut" and headed to the car to get to the park where we were meeting friends. I called Lance and asked him to pack up a lunch for the kids and me. On the way home, we saw a car on the other side of the freeway that was ON FIRE. I'm talking about full on flames. And there was a guy who was still standing there, fairly close to the car. Cars catching on fire is pretty much my biggest fear. I wasn't even comfortable being on the same highway. Going the opposite direction. With a big median between us. I quickly got on the cell phone to call 911 and was promptly put on hold. IN FOUR DIFFERENT LANGUAGES!! I couldn't believe it. Luckily, I saw a fire truck headed to the scene while still on hold, so I hung up.

I swung by the house and Morgan and I changed, we grabbed Bennett and the lunches and headed to the park to give Lance a chance to watch some football and veg out without us around. The kids had fun playing in the sand and water and before I knew it, it was time to come home for naps. The kids got bathed and put down for naps and they are just now waking up. THREE HOURS LATER.

Love it! I desperately need to make a trip to Costco, so maybe I'll do that this afternoon with Morgan. Give the guys a chance to hang out, watching football and farting. :)

Feeling good

I went to bed at a respectable hour last night after suffering through another one of Lance's blockbuster picks. This one was Meet Bill, which wasn't TERRIBLE like other movies such as Drawing Flies. But needless to say, it sucked all the life out of me, so when it was over, I was ready to go to bed. And then the kids slept until almost 8am this morning.

With no solid plans this weekend, I have all kinds of things swarming through my head for us to do. After eating breakfast, I took the kids with me to the tennis club to give Lance some time to himself at home. I took cardio kickboxing and the kids colored pictures. The kickboxing class was really good and we did way more kicks than we normally do. I'm feeling great! I picked up the kids from the nursery and then we came back home after to find Lance staining our back deck (this has needed to be done for over a year!). Maybe I'll have to do this every Saturday! That lengthy to-do list might see some traction as I work out and have someone else watch the kids. Not sure why I didn't consider this before. Heck, I'd even be willing to take a bullet and stay at the club for another hour after the class! I could hang out in the steam room or sauna and then go pick up the kids. Imagine the things that will get done!

It's nice and crisp out this morning. Mid 60s. It's feeling more like fall and with football on today, I'm feeling really good. I love this time of year. Plan for the rest of the day is to get my housework done during nap time and get everything ready for dinner before the game starts. I think I'm going to roast a chicken for us tonight.

Stick a fork in me

I'm done with the week. I made hardly any progress on getting my tornado zone cleaned up today because I'm just that tired. I had no problem putting it all aside and taking a nap. Which is very uncharacteristic of me. But, it needed to be done for the sake of us all. :)

I haven't done a debrief on yesterday's MOPS meeting, but I will have so say that it was really cool! This year's theme is "Adventures in Mothering" and they had it decorated with an amusement park theme. There was a speaker who started this particular group of MOPS over a decade ago and who's youngest child (of four) is four years old. She talked a lot about how hard these preschool years are and how it's so nice to have a group of women that you can share that burden with.

The breakfast was delicious and I enjoyed getting to know the ladies at my table. I actually already knew one of them through the moms club. There was also a "mentor mom" at each table who is there to use as a resource, as they have already gone through the preschooler years. The mentor mom at our table is the mom of two girls who are a junior and sophomore in college. We talked a lot about girls and attitude. She said she never really had a problem with her girls, so I figured I'll be picking her brain a lot over the course of this thing.

After the speaker, we did a craft and I actually was able to finish it. We made magnetic refrigerator lists. They turned out really cute. When I went to pick up Bennett, I was informed that he was so good! I know, I think they might have mistaken him for another child.

Today, I worked all morning long in Morgan's class while another mom from the class watched Bennett. I helped with the various centers she had going on. I was "shaving cream mom" and I worked with the kids on writing their sight words with their fingers in the shaving cream on the table. The kids definitely liked my station the best! :) I heard comments like "I've never done anything this messy before!" It was great. And, aside from the occasional wave to me and "HI MOM!!" from Morgan, she did fairly well with me being in the class. After center time was over, the kids went out for recess and the parent volunteers stayed in the class to do prep work for the teacher. Our particular class has so many parent volunteers that our teacher had to declare Wednesday as a parent free day so that she has a day alone with the kids! I asked if we could help out some of the other teachers that may not have the same level of participation from their parents and we are doing prep work for other classes also. It's so nice to have so many parents interested in their children's education. Not to mention it's nice to have a little bit of time doing mindless tasks and chatting with other moms and not having a 17 month old tyrant around. :)

We have NOTHING planned for this weekend. Absolutely nothing. And I'm loving it. Especially since I have some catch up to do on the house. Like mopping the kitchen floor. It's pretty gross right now.

Stubborn doesn't even begin to describe it

As is now a daily ritual, Bennett decided he was finished with his pancake and oranges this morning and proceeded to rage on all his breakfast goodies. He throws his milk cup onto the table and then proceeds to grab the rest of his pancake in his chubby little fist and starts looking for a good place to throw it. My ninja like instincts kick in and I deftly remove the tray from his high chair and then go to remove the pancake from his hand. So tight is his death grip, that it literally takes BOTH of my hands to do this, but I'm successful. And then?

HE REMOVES THE BITE OF PANCAKE FROM HIS MOUTH.

I think you know what happens next.

I've been having such a lovely day...

...that I'm going to pretend that I didn't set a tiny fire inside my oven. But if there were, say, some drippings from a certain pan of muffins that exploded everywhere, and, say, I smelled them BURNING as I was preheating the oven, I would NEVER EVER (again) try to pull out HOT aluminum foil out from under the lower element that is preheating to 425 degrees. Because, those drippings just might catch on fire when they brush against the heating element. This concludes today's science experiment. Carry on.

I should be more prepared

Today is going to be crazy and I feel totally ill prepared. I spent yesterday napping and generally avoiding all things related to work. I've GOT to stop staying up so late!

I've already dropped Morgan off at school, loaded up the dishwasher, put dinner in the crock pot, and packed lunches. Bennett and I will be heading to MOPS and then afterwards, picking up Morgan from school and heading to a park for a picnic lunch with some friends.

After that is nap time, during which I'll roast a chicken for the mom I'm delivering a meal to (and who still hasn't returned my call from yesterday to confirm drop off time). And hopefully get some chores done because my house is currently resembling a tornado touch down spot. After naps, I'll be dropping the meal off on my way to another park for our other playgroup.

Glad I already have dinner for us going. Glad I have a lot of coffee right now.

She's going to hate me for this when she's older...

Or maybe now for that matter. But my daughter just sharted. She got out of bed and said she accidentally pooped in her underwear. Lance asked her why she didn't go to the potty and she told him that she thought it was just a big toot.

What a lady!

What's balances it all

Things I'm not tired of:

• chunky little thighs
• a little girl who thinks I'm the whole world
• dimples on a smiling face
• giggles
• purposeful acts of kindness to others
• having a helper
• scrunched up nose when he smiles
• a husband who will go out and get me coffee at 7am when we have NO COFFEE in the house (imagine the ramifications!!)
  
• a husband who will also go buy a muffin when I can't manage to bake any
• Eskimo kisses
• butterfly kisses
• hugs
• "I love you"
• watching Bennett point out the brown bear, red bird, yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, white dog, black sheep, goldfish, teacher and children in Brown Bear
• listening to Morgan talk about school
• having Morgan tell me that Ms. Abby (music teacher) has a "BEAUTIFUL voice!" and show me a steady beat
• watching Bennett's vocabulary explode
• seeing the kids play together
• seeing the kids hugging and kissing each other
• nap time
• being able to go to the gym and workout. alone.
• rocking my son who will soon not want to sit still long enough for that
• reading with Morgan and watching her love of literature grow
• not going to work outside the home
• having the opportunity to do fun stuff with the kids EVERY day
• The hours between 10 and noon
• hanging out with my husband in the evenings
• hanging out with my friends
• stubby little fingers and toes
• tickling my kids
• belly laughs
• being silly

Things I'm tired of

I'm cranky, so bear with me.

My gripes, in no particular order. Tired of...

• spilling coffee on myself
• being hit, targeted for flying objects or yelled at by my 1 1/2 year old tyrant of a son (can we say rage issues?)
• cleaning up crumbs and food off the kitchen floor
• trying to find time to fit in everything I want to do
• having particular parks and places NOT in the maps on my GPS unit
• being late to outings
• unknowingly letting the dog out when a cat is in the backyard (she tears off and generally scares the crap out of all of us)
• having my daughter purposefully take toys away from her brother
• having my son hitting, throwing things at, or yelling at his sister for taking toys away from him
• not being able to go to the bathroom without SOMEONE standing outside the door either pounding on it, yelling MOMMA MOMMA MOMMA, or crying
• washing out sippy cups
• cleaning up after meals
• having an ungrateful daughter who was all "oh man!" when after asked, I told her that no I didn't have lunch out and waiting for her after school -- SUE ME
• not being able to sit down and eat my lunch in peace because (1) someone is talking incessantly, (2) someone is throwing food, (3) someone needs more of this or less of that, or (4) someone needs help with something
• getting up early to be prepared for the kids to get up early -- this is just exhausting!
• gaining weight when it's a particular time of month
• not being able to eat anything I want
• not having a date night with my husband
• changing poopy diapers
• packing and unpacking the car
• loading up and unloading the stroller
• schlepping around a crap load of stuff from park to park because YOU NEVER KNOW what the kids *might* want to play with
• cleaning up food and crumbs from car seats and the car floor
• having balls and sippy cups thrown at me WHILE I'M DRIVING
• the non-stop noise
• the too-short naps
• the time between 4pm and 7pm

Yep, it's just one of those days.

Stickers

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

The smell is deceiving!

After dropping Morgan off at school this morning, I went to a cardio & core class that totally kicked my butt. I suspect that between last night's workout in the weight room and this class, I may not be able to sit down to go to the bathroom. Wait, I take that back. I'll be able to sit down. Just might not be able to get up.

Anyhoo.....Bennett was in a great mood when we got home from the tennis club and we spent some time building (okay, maybe tearing down) castles with blocks. When we were done with the blocks, I asked Bennett to help me clean up and he did a great job! So, I asked him if he wanted a sticker. He told me he did and pointed to his hand (I think he thought I was talking about a stamp). So, I got a bunch of stickers down and put one on his hand and then got out some paper and crayons and let him go to town. He was loving it! He was so preoccupied that I was able to prep lunch for the kids and also some stuff to bake muffins before we had to leave to go get Morgan.

After we got home and had lunch (Bennett had to be put down for a nap early because he was throwing and hitting EVERYTHING), I baked Raisin Apple Muffins. I substituted applesauce for the oil to make them healthier. And I'll admit that maybe I was a little too loosey goosey on the measurements for the apple (and maybe I didn't cut them small enough). But I was totally bummed when after smelling this awesome smell while they were baking, I took them out and they were a total disaster. They had overflowed all over the place and were all dense and gooey. They didn't rise at all. The problem is, they SMELL awesome. Morgan's already ordered some more, but I'm going to have to recover from this experience before I try again.

I'm not a baker by nature. My husband is always the one who does the pies or whatever when we need to bring a baked good somewhere. But recently, I baked up some banana nut bread and it turned out awesome. And it wasn't even that hard! So, I got all cocky thinking I could just bake something up. Well, I baked something up alright. I should have taken pictures so you could see. They smelled delicious but they looked disgusting!

Open letter to woman I've successfully avoided for five years

Dear Person,

You used to be a substitute in the bunko group. I find you to be....odd. We don't have much in common and I found myself avoiding talking to you unless forced to during bunko (like at the same table). Then you showed up at couples bunko and I was all "not this too!". I saw you at the gym. We've been in some classes together, but it's time for working out, not chit chatting.

Or at least that's what I thought. Until today. When you cornered me during class on the track to tell me about you going into early menopause. Because that's just what I had hoped to discuss with you today. Thank goodness for the instructor, who came along and encouraged me to go faster, so I had to speed by you. What can I say? She told me to!!

Then, when we got back to the classroom? You so rudely TALKED through the rest of the workout. Like, everyone else is all "oooouuccchhh" during the abs work and you're back there half-heartedly doing the work and talking someone else's ear off.

Will I need to figure out your schedule at the gym to avoid future conversations? Perhaps. I'm there to work out. Not to hear about your night sweats.

Things I may have done wrong tonight

1. I took some one's advice on allrecipes.com to make the Sweet and Nutty Moroccan Couscous with the Onion-Dijon Crusted Catfish. They were both good, by themselves, but did not pair well together. If I'd thought about it, I could have figured that one out. Plus, the couscous? SUPER high in calories and fat. I had about a tablespoon of it after all that work. :)

2. I let the kids play outside while I was preparing dinner since Bennett had barely any nap and Morgan took so long of a nap that I couldn't make it to the gym. When they were done, and dinner was nearly ready, Bennett was a MESS! Chalk and dirt and sand and water ALL OVER HIM. And here I am in the middle of dinner. Luckily, Lance came home a little early and was able to assist in a pre-dinner bath.

3. Just as we are sitting down to eat, our doorbell rings and then is followed by three loud bangs on our door. Nobody does that unless it's an emergency, right? So, I'm a little nervous when I answer the door and I see this KID, standing at least ten feet away from me. So, he banged on the door and then took off to put some distance between us?? I took one look at him, knew he was selling something, and said, "No thanks. It's dinner time". "What do you mean?" he asked. I repeated myself and then said "you're selling something, right?". He responded with a "yeah sort of" and I repeated myself, "NO, it's dinner time". Apparently this upset the guy, because he mumbled something under his breath as I was closing the door. I sat down at the kitchen table and then thought for sure I heard something out front. I went back to the door and saw where he'd thrown his water bottle on the ground and left it! Oh hells no!

I took off, water bottle in hand, to do justice for all us proud homeowners across this great nation of ours. I heard him down the street, two doors down. I walked up and very loudly said, "You left your trash in my yard". He said, politely in front of the person he was trying to sell to, "Oh, thank you" and then came over to get it from me. When he got up close to me, he mumbled under his breath that I could have just left it there. Oh no you didn't! So, I VERY loudly said back, "I don't come to YOUR house and leave MY trash", to which he responded that it was okay because he lives in the ghetto. And there's already trash everywhere in the ghetto.

And now I'm sitting here thinking that he's probably going to do something to my house now. Not so smart, Paige.

Another busy day at the homestead

I spent a good portion of the day yesterday mapping out this week. This is going to be a crazy week. A lot of our extracurricular activities start this week. Terrific Toddlers for Bennett today, ballet for Morgan tomorrow, and MOPS on Thursday. Not to mention the little things in between like errands, making a meal for a new mom, General Meeting for the moms club, and playgroups (times two). Busy busy. The jury is still out on whether or not I've over scheduled myself or the kids. I think in some ways, I'm overcompensating for the time that I had to work and couldn't do things like this. I mean, I am ABLE to do it now, so why not? More on this later...

Today was an early release day for Morgan and the first "coffee with the principal" morning as well. Bennett is sleeping later and later, which really gets me since he was totally up at 6am or earlier ALL SUMMER and then once school starts, BAM sleeps in. Yesterday, I couldn't even take him to church with me because he was still asleep when I left. AT 8:45!!! So, this morning, I packed up a warmed pancake and some raisins in a bowl that had a lid and a handle for him to hold on to. I brought a sippy cup of milk and let him have this in the car to keep him happy on the way to school. Once there, I lucked out and found a spot up close and popped out the stroller and we walked Morgan to her spot in line. Afterwards, I meandered my way over to the teacher's lounge where the coffee meeting was. I was one of the first ones there, so I got Bennett set up with his bib and pancake and raisins. He was in heaven and was really good! Smiling at everyone and eating quietly. He wasn't even throwing food! The coffee thing lasted about 40 minutes and we got lots of insider scoop from the principal. I guess she does this every week? Not sure if I'll make it every week, but I figure that the principal knowing who I am can never be a bad thing, you know. Not to mention the information we got with regards to the potential high school and land sale for the new location and building.

We left the school around 9:15 and I was able to stop by the grocery store and run the groceries home before we had to be back at the tennis club at 10:15 for the Terrific Toddlers class. I wasn't sure how Bennett would do. Last time I had him in a class like this (6-9 months ago), he had the attention span of a gnat and still required a morning nap, so he was a little grumpy to be all "sing singy" when he wanted to be a "sleep sleepy". This morning was terrific. The class is kind of smallish (six kids, including Bennett) and we did circle time and sang songs and played with egg shakers and parachutes. Bennett even tried to do the spider motion during Itsy Bitsy Spider! I was impressed! There was a song about dinosaurs marching and he was totally trying to march. It was very cute! He had a big smile all across his face the whole time! It was great! There was time for free play and then we did a closing circle. The class was 45 minutes long, which is just right for Bennett's age group. We finished the class with stamps on hands and I'm pretty sure they put crack in those stamps. He had to have one on both hands and then he proceeded to show them to EVERYONE on our way out. I had to stop at the front desk to tie up some loose ends and they kept going ON and ON about how cute he is and they even gave him one of the tennis balls. He was in heaven!

By the time we left the tennis club, it was time to go get Morgan. We picked her up from school and stopped for one errand on the way home from school. Got home and I got lunches ready and then we all ate. After lunch, the kids played nicely (strange!) for a while so I was able to get most of my chores done this morning (bathrooms, unloading dishwasher, replenishing toilet paper, restocking diaper bags, etc). I vacuumed by hand after they went down for their naps and now I'm about to do my August budget vs. actual close out. Which is sorely overdue because I've been putting it off.

I figure that this afternoon, during the witching hours, I'll hit the tennis club for some exercise. There's not a good class (or at least not one with an instructor I like), so I'll probably just run and do weights. Dinner tonight is Onion-Dijon Crusted Catfish, squash, and my version of Sweet and Nutty Moroccan Couscous.

Friends, take two

I've been stewing on this all night because I don't think I worded my last entry about it properly. I think what it sounded like was that I'm looking for something other than what I already have. Which, is partly true. But the big difference is that I'm pretty sure the type of friendship I am desiring in my life right now will happen with someone I already know. I know a great group of women. It just takes time to develop a relationship that makes someone your "go to" person.

And while my entry may have seemed not overly optimistic, in reality, I feel really lucky to know the women I know, from all walks of life. I'm looking forward to taking some of these relationships to the next level. Because I'm missing my go to person.

Okay, I feel better now. :)

Quick rant

I'm looking for Halloween costumes and have a couple of themes in mind for full-family fun.

Buuut.
BUT.

I cannot, for the life of me, find SERIOUS wholesome costumes for adult women. Noooo! It's gotta be sexy this or flirty that. And while Lance is all "yyyeeeahhh!", somehow I just don't think the school or other various CHILDREN'S functions would approve.

/rant

Keeping it real

I have a couple of topics bubbling up to the surface, so you may have to endure a couple of long-winded, incoherent, oh-so-serious entries here over the next few days. I'll try to pepper my blog with the crazy antics of my kids (or myself, as the case may be), just to keep you guys happy, but I need to get these thoughts out. It's cathartic for me.

So, the first topic is friends and authenticity. On more than one occasion lately, I have had separate people tell me that what they are looking for in a friend is someone who's real. Someone who has a grasp on reality and shares not just the good, but also the not-so-good. Someone who doesn't need to overdo the makeup or overdo the concern over appearance. These people are looking for someone to connect to that is real. Because life doesn't always wear lipstick. Sometimes, life involves dealing with things like infertility or arguments. Bad things happen and not everyone lives the life of the Cleavers.

I feel like there have been very few people in my life that have totally accepted me for exactly who I am. Not needing anything. Not wanting to change who I am. Taking the good with the bad. Allowing me to be exactly who I am. I can count on my fingers the people in my life that fall into that category. I have tons of friends whom I have a lot of fun with. We laugh and we support each other, but only up to a certain point. When the going gets tough, some people don't know how to handle it. I will admit that to some, I am that person. I'm the one that is just a casual friend. I'm the one that gets all flustered when bad things happen and doesn't know what to say. To others, I'm more. I guess it just boils down to who you "click" with, what you have in common, etc.

And also? If life is so grand and everything is so great, then what on earth do we need friends for? I have enough people in my life that would love to come along on the celebratory ride. How many would stand by me when times are hard and life takes you down a different path?

The deep friendships I've maintained aren't people I talk to daily. They are friends I've had and kept along the way. Right now, I have a few friendships which are developing. Recently, I've met some new people and have gotten closer to some existing friends. I don't need more surface friendships. I don't need someone who's kid is better behaved than mine or who knows everything there is to know about everything. I need someone that I can pick up the phone and call when I'm sobbing. I need someone who will understand if I tell them that I made a mistake and I'm sorry and will really forgive me. I need someone who acknowledges their own mistakes and shortcomings and allows me to accept them. I need someone that doesn't care if I haven't shaved my legs or if my car needs to be washed. I need someone who cares about me enough to NOT pass judgment. I have a great relationship with my husband and my mom. But I'm looking forward to finding that friend. Because there's nothing quite like a good girl friend that you connect with regularly. To help keep you sane in the very REAL world.

It's the thought that counts

On the way to church this morning, I was explaining to Morgan that on the way home, I thought it might be nice to stop and get a card for her friend who's dog just died. This led us through the usual suspects, with regards to questions about death and animals and what you do with them when they die, and where they go. At the end of it all, she decided that she would like to pick out a card and that hopefully it would cheer him up.

So, on the way home, we stopped at the store and she was determined to pick out a card with a picture of a dog on it. Like, the get well card she brought to me. I had to explain to her that it wasn't exactly appropriate and that I felt like maybe we should steer away from pictures of dogs, since that might actually make him more sad. This conversation took a lot of explaining, because pictures of dogs does NOT equal sad to Morgan, but I think she eventually got it.

So, we bring the card home and after lunch, she goes to "decorate it". She says she knows just what she wants to do. She has pencils and stickers and markers and that will "really cheer him up!" She comes back, very proud of the work she has just completed and reveals it to me. I take one look and can't help but laugh. She has about half a dozen drawings of faces, all with frowning faces and tears coming out of their eyes. But, mixed in with this sad testimony and tribute to the lost pet is a scattering of stickers that say Neat! Way To Go! Cool! LOL She'd gotten a hold of her "motivational" stickers that we use on her chore chart and littered the sympathy card with their positive statements.

Hopefully he'll understand that it comes from a good place in her heart.

Teach that boy some manners

Bennett's vocabulary is just exploding lately. He's saying all kinds of words, mimicking them at first and then using them after. But the one word he REFUSES to say is please. He'll sign it like a champ, but he will not verbalize it. I've resorted to pointing to my lips and saying "use your words!" while slowly mouthing the word PPPP-LLLLL-EEEEEAAAA-SSSSS-EEEE. His response is to point to his lips and say "words". Ahh!!

He can say his name now, sort of. He won't just say Bennett, but if you ask him to say baby Bennett, he'll say it. "baby bebe".

A funny thing he's doing right now is if you ask him what a Bennett says, he'll say "noooooooo". I taught him that Momma says I love you and so, if I ask him what a Momma says, he'll say "wuvoo". Nothing can melt the heart quite like that. Which is good. Because I probably told him three thousand times today that it's NOT okay to stand on the couch, or hit when you're told to get down because you were standing on the couch, or throw things because you aren't allowed to hit. This boy is the definition of a time out.

More of the same

I'm exhausted from the back-to-school schedule. I slept in until 8:20 this morning, but had to get up so I could make the 9:30 kickboxing class and also be ready to hit the beach this afternoon (we were supposed to be 20-25 minutes away at 11 and the class ended at 10:30). We got there about 20 minutes late, which isn't too bad considering we had to circle back home to get the TOWELS that we somehow forgot we needed when going to play in the water and sand. Once we finally got there, it was great. Except, as soon as I got the blanket all spread out and stuff unpacked, Bennett promptly plopped his little tush down and pointed to his mouth and declared "eat". So, he ate lunch and then played in the water for all of maybe 20 minutes before he was done. Luckily, Lance was able to wrangle him while Morgan and I enjoyed the cool water for a bit before we had to leave. It was well over 100 degrees today, so it was nice to spend some time in the water with friends. But if I wasn't exhausted before, spending a few hours in the blazing hot sun was sure to do it.

During nap time, Lance and I finally finished watching a movie we've had from Blockbuster Online for, I dunno, at least three months? It wasn't even that good. And it kept me from napping! But at least we get to progress our queue now. And Lance took all three of our movies back to Blockbuster and got the whole second season of Dexter on DVD. Guess what we are doing tonight?? So much for going to bed early. :)

We don't have anything planned for tomorrow except church. After that, I look forward to getting ready for the week ahead. Morgan has an early release day on Monday, but the rest of the week should be more of us adjusting to the new routine. I even get to start working in her class on Friday.