Last stop on the insanity train

I'm sitting here, eating a tootsie roll and although we had a FABULOUS time today, I'm so glad that Halloween is officially over. It's been too much, all lumped together and I'm looking forward to some weeks of NOTHINGNESS until we roll through Thanksgiving and straight into Christmas.

Yesterday, I met a friend at the gym to do the track and stairs with, after dropping Morgan off at school. I haven't done cardio quite that intense in a couple of weeks, and I was REALLY feeling it. In fact, after sprinting my last lap, I felt as if I were going to pass out. We were walking laps around the track to cool down and I got that chilled, shaky feeling that I know all too well. Luckily, I just kept breathing deeply and it subsided.

After the gym, Bennett and I came home and I did a few chores and then we went to pick Morgan up from school. The kids came home and had lunch and then went down for naps right on time, since we had planned to go to the park for playgroup after. While they were sleeping, the rain started to fall and playgroup was canceled. I took advantage of the atmosphere, and took a nice long nap, leaving my dirty floors to be mopped at another time. By the time we all woke up, it was nearly time for dinner! We did leftovers for dinner and then I headed off to bible study.

Today was Morgan's parade and party at her school, followed by Trick or Treating tonight, of course. The party was open to siblings, so Bennett tagged along. I was SHOCKED by how well he did. Yeah, he threw a few goldfish on the ground, but that's not something that the five year olds weren't doing. He even played with them when it was "choice time", playing and SHARING at the doll house and chalk board! I was so proud of him! All the true kindergartners seemed to be having a really good time at the party. There were stations for decorating cookies, making spiders, a witch's cackle station, monster hands, fishing for treats (my station) and other cute crafts. The kids had a blast and it was so fun to be able to be there and experience it all with them. :)




After school, we came home and had lunch and then I got to work finishing up the chores I had put off on previous occasions. I worked non-stop until the kids woke up. I'm so glad I did too, because now I won't have that stuff hanging over my head. Pretty soon, it was time to cook dinner. I made a chicken pasta dish (artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, goat cheese, and chicken) with the remaining chicken that I roasted the other night. Lance said again tonight,"you need to always make this with the chicken leftovers!". I think he likes it!

After dinner, the kids got back into their costumes and we took the obligatory cheesy pictures and then took off for trick or treating. We went with our neighbor, who's son went to preschool with Morgan. They did the whole neighborhood and filled their buckets! Bennett hung in there the whole time and was rewarded when he got home with his first Reese's peanut butter cup! He's officially hooked on Halloween!

Where have I been?

Yesterday it was the school to drop Morgan off, the tennis club, the grocery store, the school to pick Morgan up, home, dance class to drop Morgan off, home, dance class to pick Morgan up, home, and finally the movie theater (where I saw The Secret Life of Bees - GREAT movie!)

Today it was the school to drop Morgan off, Peet's, the school to help with the book fair, home, park for Bennett's playgroup, the school to pick Morgan up, home, Girl Scout meeting, picked up a toddler slide from a freecycler, and then finally home.

Yesterday when I was home, I did a good job of not sitting down and getting a lot done. Today, not so much. Although, I will brag on myself for a moment that even though I am flying solo tonight, since Lance left at 5pm for a geocaching event, I STILL cooked a full dinner. Yes, I had to talk myself back into it several times, but I managed to squeak out BBQ meatloaf, risotto and green beans for just the kids and I. And got them to bed on time. With homework and reading done. I even cleaned the kitchen.

The truth is, that what I should be doing with this time alone is catching up on ironing, sweeping and mopping floors, and filling out my absentee ballot. But, instead I'm sucked into Facebook and blogging and the mindless things I have been missing out on since I've been having to share a laptop with Lance. My power cord better be here tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is a relatively mild day, compared to the rest of the week. I'm meeting a friend at the gym for the track and stairs combo and then I plan to catch up on whatever I don't do tonight before picking Morgan up from school. After naps, we're heading to the park for playgroup, then we'll come home for dinner and then I'm off to bible study. Sometime, I need to actually carve my pumpkin. I like doing it, but I don't want to do it by myself! I think it's something that should be shared with someone you love over a nice glass of wine.

Now that I look at tomorrow, I think I should just go to bed. :)

Someone needs to call CPS

Because I keep hurting my poor kids today! It started this morning, when I went to take Morgan to school. We are driving Lance's Eos today, so it's 2-door and, I'll just go ahead and use that as my excuse. Anyway - I go to get in and totally elbow Morgan right in the forehead. It was really hard, too. Poor girl. Immediately, I'm apologizing and telling her that I'm so sorry and I didn't mean to hurt her. The poor girl has tears all welled up in her eyes and she's looking at me and telling me that it's okay. "Accidents happen." I'm watching as the red spot on her forehead grows to about the size of the knobby part of my elbow. Oh my. I just continued, all the way the way to school, "I'm soooo sorry!".

After the gym and Bennett's toddler class were over, I came home and decided to finish up today's chores so that I could bake some cookies during nap time for our afternoon Halloween party for Bennett's playgroup. I'm doing this while also cooking corn dogs for the kids. Well, time crept away from me and before I knew it, I was running about five minutes late. I grabbed Bennett up, put his shoes on him and then started literally running out the door, through the garage to the car. And that's when I totally whacked his head on a cabinet in the garage. Nice. Poor guy started shake-crying and rubbing his head. I'm repeating from this morning, "I'm soooo sorry! Momma didn't mean to hurt you!" I ask him if he's okay and he nods his little head yes. Poor baby. We get out to the car and I swing the passenger side door open, slide the front seat forward and then go to put him in there, when I bump his head on the roof of the car. He's looking at me like, seriously??

It's just one of those days, I suppose.

In happy news, I baked the sugar cookies during nap time. It's amazing how a little music on the iPod can get you all dancing around the kitchen doing crazy stuff. I'm signing out loud to Erasure and shaking my booty to the Beastie Boys. Imagine the surprised look on the faces of the two teen aged boys who rang my doorbell and I answered with my iPod on, flour all over my hands, and having just wrapped up my part of the duet in "Power of Two" by the Indigo Girls. Carry on, nothing to see here. The funnier thing, though was seeing the looks on their faces when they asked what I did for a living. I told them that I am a stay at home mom now. They nodded their heads as if this explained it all. Then I added, "I used to be a Program Manager. For Lockheed Martin." They suddenly had a fearful look on their faces. Ha!

Nothing to do today

I guess I'm losing my mind, because ever since Friday, I've been thinking we had nothing planned this weekend. Except soccer yesterday. And the harvest festival (that we skipped out on) and then church today. Oh, and then the park. Oh yeah....I almost forgot! Today was my first time to volunteer to be the banker at the Bingo game for the fundraising arm of the school. OOPS!

I got home from the park after church, we had lunch and then I had just enough time to get my week planned and hollow out one pumpkin before it was time for me to go over to work the Bingo game. I got home at 9:30 tonight and right now, I'm too exhausted to give the full download, but suffice it to say that those Bingo people are one of a kind!

This week is stacking up to be another crazy one. Is it Thanksgiving yet?

The sad part is that this was really the only night to carve pumpkins with the kids....so Lance did it with them while I was working Bingo. That stinks!

Haunted must mean hysterical!

Last night, after dinner, we packed the kids up in the car and headed over to Ardenwood for their haunted train ride. We had about an hour to kill, but we had fun with our friends and watching the kids run around in the dark. :) When it was time to go, we loaded up on the train, and we were off into the "haunted woods". The train ride was fairly slow and the scary scenes not overly scary, but any sense of fright was immediately diminished by my 18-month-old-greeter-of-all-scary-things.

Seriously, there were "ghost riders" riding horses on one side of the train. Bennett waves, "Hi!" The headless horseman was riding up along the other side, Bennett blows him kisses. It was this to one scary thing after another. It was hilarious! Everyone else would be quiet, taking it all in, and Bennett would be screaming "Bye!", which I totally expected him to follow up with "Call me, you've got my number, right?"

As if that wasn't funny enough, when the train ride was over and we all got to our cars, Morgan asked if we could take a shortcut home. I let her know that there wasn't really a shortcut, and that it would take a while to get home. She said that she "needed to do something", to which I asked if she needed to go potty. Bingo! So, she and Lance head off to the bathroom and she comes back announcing that she wasn't scared at all. Because she knows that they wouldn't take little people. Just adult people. Ha! So, I sarcastically add that maybe they would take Daddy. To which she replies, "Yeah. You probably want them to take him. Since he toots and is stinky." Yes, headless horseman, please come snatch up my farting husband. LOL!

Time for rest

After a crazy week, excuse me if I want to just hunker down on the couch, watching football and curled up with a blanket. Thankfully, Lance let me sleep in a little this morning, until around 8:30, when I had to get up and help get us out the door to soccer.

After soccer, we finally made it over to Costco (I've been trying all week!) and then we came home for grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. After catching up on my blog, we're putting the kids down for naps, and I might snooze a little myself. I decided to ditch the Harvest Festival at the tennis club tonight, because I honestly just CANNOT bear to dress the kids up in costumes again tonight. If all goes well, we hope to have the energy to go on a "haunted" train ride tonight. But that all depends on nap time. :)

Other than that and church, we have NOTHING planned this weekend. And I kind of like it that way.

The Fall Festivities continue!

Yesterday was a lot of fun, but certainly crazy. Morgan dressed up as a scarecrow for school. She looked very cute! The fall festival started at 9:30 and the kids were busy busy busy until it was time to go home at noon. Lance was home, so he was able to take Bennett to Tot Drop and then come join us for the festivities. There was a pumpkin patch, a wagon ride, apple fishing, face painting, and an old fashioned water pump. There were pictures and scarecrows and lots and lots of hay! They staggered having the kindergarten classes out there, so it wasn't too chaotic and the kids really had a great time.

After the kids picked their pumpkins, they rolled them back into the classroom, where we had various activities to do with the pumpkins. We weighed them and measured the circumference in blocks. We dropped them in a bucket of water to see if they would sink or float. The kids colored scarecrows and drew faces on pumpkins. And they even got to watch a Garfield movie, which I knew would please Morgan to no end.

Here are some pictures from the fall festival yesterday morning. The scarecrow is the one the kids did during centers last week when I helped in the classroom. You can't see it, but there is a Diet Coke can in the apron of her pocket. The kids loved that finishing touch!











While the kids were finishing up their pumpkin stuff, we were able to put the finishing touches on the door for Trick A Dooring last night. Morgan and I went home and then while the kids were napping, I finished getting everything together for Trick A Dooring. Around 4:30, Morgan and I went over to Kristin's house to help her finish wrapping candied apples that she had made for the kids in Morgan's class. Once we were done there, it was time to go to the school to set up for Trick A Dooring. We put out a touch box with eyeballs (peeled grapes), ears (dried apricots), teeth (unpopped corn kernels), brains (scrambled eggs), and fingers (Vienna sausages). Once everything was set up, Lance and Bennett met us there for the festivities. We went from classroom to classroom, getting candy at each stop. I thought our door was good, but these other doors BLEW OURS AWAY! We didn't think about using the hallway at all, and some of these other classrooms had elaborate tunnels and canopies set up. WOW! I was taking mental notes for next year, now that we know better! It was pretty crazy at the school, with a ton of the kids and their parents and siblings there (this school is K-8!). But, we had a good time and then had to go to eat dinner and get the kids to bed.


After dinner, it was time for a moms night out to the fondue restaurant for dessert. It was fun to hang out with some friends, drink a glass of wine, and unwind over chocolate decadence! I even managed to come home at a decent hour and get to bed at a decent hour. Which is a good thing after a week like I've had!

Busy Bee

I feel like I've been going non-stop since my parents left on Tuesday morning. After getting the BOO out on Tuesday, I spent Wednesday running around a bunch. I met my friend, Kristin, for coffee after dropping Morgan off at school. We drank coffee and chatted for a while and then I ran home to do a few chores before heading off to playgroup. By the way, it is cute that Bennett grabbed some baby wipes and started wiping up the toilet while I was cleaning the bathroom. It's NOT sanitary, however, and no matter how many times toddled in with a baby wipe in hand, I couldn't bring myself to allow him to wipe it down.

We went to playgroup, where we ate our lunch and then headed over to the school to pick Morgan up after her reading group was over. We went straight home, kids were put down to nap and then I spent the entire nap time catching up on all the things I DID NOT do while my parents were in town. I actually got a lot done, which is making me feel a little better. The pile of laundry alone is enough to make my chest get that tight feeling.

When the kids woke up, we ran over to the hardware supply store to get a huge bamboo pole for me to use to tie the scarecrow we made in the classroom last week to. Back home to cook a dinner that I had to, in turn, stuff down my throat in the span of five minutes because OMG! I'M LATE to decorate the classroom door for Trick A Dooring. I got there at 7:05 and we got to work. We finished up at 10:30. That includes the door and the scarecrow, thank goodness. And there were FOUR of us there! I had to come home and iron Morgan's shirt for today since it's BLUE day and also class picture day, so I had to pick something that was not only BLUE but also looks decent. And that sometimes requires an iron. I think I finally went to bed somewhere around 12:30 by the time everything was said and done.

This morning started early again, as I had to get up and showered and actually dressed (somewhat nicely!) for MOPS. I woke Bennett up just as we were ready to walk out the door to go pick up Colin. I walked the kids to class because I wanted to see their reactions to the door. The kids LOVED it! They loved the finishing touches we put on the scarecrow (which is made to look like their teacher) that included a Diet Coke in her pocket since that's what she likes to drink. :) After I soaked in all their cute faces and expressions, it was time to head home to feed Bennett and tidy up before heading to MOPS. I was able to get the downstairs dusted and vacuumed before we left, thankfully. MOPS was nice and relaxing and then before I knew it, it was time to pick Morgan up from school. We were bringing her friend Kaitlyn home with us, so I gathered all the kids and off we went to go home and have lunch.

I managed to impress upon the girls the need for them to be quiet during Bennett's nap time and they were absolute angels. They watched Cinderella and a little Mickey Mouse before it was time to go to playgroup. I was able to vacuum upstairs, fold laundry, and do a few other odds and ends while the girls were entranced with the one who wears a glass slipper. We were lucky to have Kaitlyn join us today and the girls had a fun time at the park. When we were leaving the park, I got a call from Kaitlyn's parents that they would be home a little later than expected, so we came home and I fed the kids and got ready to go to Bible study. The minute Lance walked in the door, it was time for me to go and I was dropping Kaitlyn off on my way there. I got home from bible study around 8:45. And now? I'm watching TV. Because I'm pretty sure that's the only thing I can do right now. I'm that tired. So I should probably be going to bed, right?

Tomorrow? Just as busy. Dressing Morgan as a scarecrow/farmer for school, Harvest Festival in the morning, working in Morgan's class, Trick A Dooring tomorrow night and then a moms outing to get chocolate fondue for dessert. At least there's that, right?

She reads to ME now!

I'm so proud of the progress Morgan has made with reading and her sight words. She now knows over fifty sight words and can read books to ME! Check it out!

BOO it forward!

Last night, as we were preparing for my parents' departure, we noticed a little Halloween basket of goodies that had been left in our courtyard. We brought it up to our front porch and left it there for Morgan to find this morning.

She was so excited to find this bucket full of fun stuff for the kids. Two Cinderella pom poms, a Disney coloring book, some candy necklaces, glow in the dark stickers, pumpkin peeps, glow sticks and LOTS of candy all in this cute pumpkin bucket. Immediately, I wanted to know who had delivered it, so my mind went to work trying to figure out who it was.

According to the really cute poem that came in the basket, we have 24 hours to BOO two neighbors. We were to make two copies of the poem and two copies of the BOO sign to deliver with our treats. After dropping Morgan off at school, Bennett and I did the grocery shopping and then came back home to unload before heading to Target to find stuff to "Boo" our friends with. I had decided that I would have to Boo my friends Kristin and Andrea since I wasn't sure if either of them had BOO'd me, and I just wanted to anyway. Then, I decided I should pass it along in the neighborhood and pick two here. I picked Morgan's friend, Nolan, who lives part-time with his Dad across the street and the family down the street who has two older daughters and a son who is just a little older than Bennett. Yeah, I probably spent more money than I should have, but it's nice to do nice things for others. Here are two of the baskets I made for them.


The one on the left is for Nolan and the one on the right is for the family of three. I had so much fun making these baskets and Morgan had so much fun being super sneaky and delivering them to everyone's front porches after school. Unfortunately, we weren't sneaky enough because Kristin already called to see if we left something on her porch. To which I innocently replied, "I have no idea what you are talking about". :) She told me how she had wanted to do this to me, but didn't. So, I really have now I'm even more clueless as to who could have BOO'd us. There are so many different groups that this could have been from - the moms group, church, the charter school, MOPS, the neighborhood, the tennis club, etc. I really have NO IDEA! My husband can attest to the fact that it WILL drive me crazy until I figure out who it's from. :)

The passing along of knowlege and wisdom

In most societies, the extended family is very close and they hand down all kinds of wise words and lessons. Well, today we passed down the wisdom of shopping to our youngest girl, as any good tribe would. As I recently told a friend of mine, my mother didn't teach me how to sew. She didn't need to. She taught me how to shop! :)

After the going to the gym, Bennett's Terrific Toddler class and picking Morgan up from school, we came home for lunch (my Dad and I went out for sushi!) and then Morgan was allowed to skip her nap and go out for a shopping trip to the mall with the girls. She was very excited about this and promised to be on her best behavior, even though she was missing her nap.

We had her try on jeans that DON'T SHOW HER UNDERWEAR when she sits down, which apparently all the jeans she has (even the ones we just bought for back-to-school) do and are therefore deemed too small. We had her try them on and sit on the floor and we inspected her butt crack. No underwear! Yippee! We also got her Christmas dress and Bennett's Christmas outfit -- they are going to be so cute! Grandma successfully bribed her to behave on our trip with promises of the MATCHING HANDBAG! *gasp* She was good and earned it and is so excited to put her chap stick in it. :) That's my girl! She even waited patiently while my Mom and I checked out the sale at Ann Taylor and shopped for shoes at Macy's.

Things were so successful, we stopped at my new favorite yogurt place for a post-shopping treat. All in all, a successful trip and I'd say that this is one thing we can check off of the "things to pass down to the granddaughter/daughter" list.

Cutest Cowboy

Go ahead, try to look at this picture and not smile. It's IMPOSSIBLE.

You would never know, by this picture, how very cranky this little guy was today. I guess it started when it was time to get his costume on. I wasn't there since the girls had all gone to church, but my Dad and Lance informed me that he wasn't too keen on the costume, but mostly the boots they had forced his fat little feet into. I removed the boots and put on his brown shoes and this seemed to make him a bit happier, but still cranky as all get out.

But doesn't he look like he's having the grandest time? I think his favorite parts of the day at the pumpkin patch today were the cows, the snake they saw, and trying to feed the already-full goats. He really could have cared less about the pumpkins.

He's so cute. How can you not smile? Yeah...I know! IMPOSSIBLE!

I'm a slacker!

I've been such a slacker since my parents have been here. I've done pretty much nothing around the house, and it sure does show it! Not to mention that I haven't been keeping up on my blog or email. We've been busy having fun, so I'll cut myself some slack.

Yesterday, we took Morgan to soccer and then afterwards headed to the zoo. We don't normally save time at the zoo for rides and what not, so we started with those this time. We even rode the train, which we hadn't done since Morgan was about 9 months old. She kept saying how COOL it was to ride the train. Bennett liked it also. When we were done with the rides, we had some lunch and then meandered down to the children's zoo. Before we knew it, it was nap time and time to go. Lance and my Dad took the kids home and my Mom and I broke free for an afternoon and evening to ourselves! We went to an outlet mall nearby and shopped until we dropped. Bennett has been living off of mostly handed down clothes, so it's nice to get him some new clothes. Now he won't have to wear his high waters anymore! Both kids got heavy winter coats and Morgan got some new sweaters. Cute stuff! And we got such good deals! They practically paid US to buy these clothes! We got sucked back into the Gymboree Outlet by the bins out front that were 9.99 or less! Got lots of cute stuff in size 6 for Morgan. Bennett was already done by the time we got there! :)

After shopping, we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner and then walked over to the movie theater after dinner to see if there was anything coming on soon. Nights in Rodanthe was starting in 15 minutes, so we knew it was a good sign! We got our tickets and some coffee and headed in for the show. My Mom and I have an issue of choosing BAD movies to see together. I think the streak started when we went to see Duets in 2000, so the streak has been going strong for about eight years! The last movie we saw before Nights in Rodanthe was The Happening, which was HORRIBLE. We were really hopeful that this movie would break the streak and it succeeded! The movie was good! Now I want to go back and read the book by Nicholas Sparks.

My Mom and I didn't get home until after 9 last night, so the kids were already in bed. It was really nice to be able to get away and spend some time with just my mom. Not to mention the family time we spent at the zoo.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the zoo.

My longest nap EVER!

Today, after working non-stop in Morgan's class this morning, I was actually able to take a nice long nap. We are talking about HOURS. How refreshing!

Today was the day that we made the scarecrow for the class' fall festival next week. We made it to look like their teacher and the kids all had a blast. But, we were short a parent at the centers today and it was just crazy in there! All the kids were really excited about the scarecrow, and it's Friday and they were just CRAZY! So, you'll understand why I came home and crashed. Afterwards, I felt so much better!

As luck would have it, the steaks I took out of the freezer this morning for dinner tonight weren't quite thawed in time. So, we ended up getting take out from a local Italian restaurant for dinner. So I didn't even have to cook! Then, Lance and I took off to see Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which I thought was really cute and am now wanting the soundtrack for my birthday!

Gee, this must be the most boring post ever. Guess that's what happens when things are busy but good. :)

Little pumpkin

Today, after dropping Morgan off at school, my Mom and I were able to take Bennett to a local nursery for a hayride and tour of their garden. At the end of it, Bennett got to walk a hay maze and then pick out a pumpkin. His favorite things were the chickens, who also chose him as their favorite since he came bearing a gift of a waffle, which they tried to take from his hand. :)

Here comes the cuteness!

I did something totally stupid today

I closed my right hand pointer finger up in my jogging stroller as I was getting it out of the car for our walk this morning. My jogging stroller folds in half, and where it goes together, yeah...that's where my finger was. Only the jogging stroller was not folded in half. It was all one piece, including my finger. I panicked and called for my mom to come help me. I directed her to push down on the two buttons on either side of the stroller, which she does, but it's not working. I finally realize it's because I normally PULL UP. So, finally I get my finger out and it's flat. Literally flat.

And then I get all light headed and nauseous. I guess that's my body telling me it didn't care for the pain too much.

I was able to sit down and gather myself and then still managed to walk almost 3 miles, go to Bennett's playgroup, and then do Daisies (Girl Scouts) with Morgan. Yeah, I'm tough. :)

The funny thing was that when I was telling Morgan about it after school, my mom asked her if she thought I learned a lesson today. To which Morgan replies, "no" and proceeds to tell my mom that I'll likely to do it again.

Wish I could say she was wrong.

I guess that's why I'm made tough. :)

We're crazy happy around here

Morgan: Grandma and Grandpa are here! Yippee!!

Bennett: Me-maw and Pe-paw are here! Yay!

Me: Mom and Dad are here - thank God!

We are so happy to have them here for a week! Bennett is definitely Grandpa's boy. When you ask him if he is, he nods his head matter of factly. Morgan is proud to be reading books to Grandma.

Life is good. :)

I should take my kids to the doctor's office every day

Why wouldn't I want to when I go and the doctor says things like, "Your children are so delightful to see" and "sometimes I feel like I should pay to see patients and today is a day like that"? Yes, he actually said those things. And it was us he was talking about.

Bennett is a good 6-12 months ahead of his age with his large and small motor skills, social skills, verbal skills, etc. I gave the doctor an example of when Bennett had taken an asparagus off his plate at dinner the other night and pretended like it was a snake - complete with the hissing sound. He let me know right away that this behavior is that of a three year old. The doctor suggested that Lance and I start studying up now for when he hits school. I guess we're going to have to keep up!

As for his physical development, he's tracking straight up the middle of the curve, always coming in at 50th percentile for height and weight. Poor baby got three shots today and was NOT a fan of the ones in his legs. He was, however, easily distracted with promises of stickers in the lobby.

Proud momma moment!

Note to self

Since you now have a dedicated locker at the gym, how about you just go ahead and leave a pair of underwear there. Because obviously packing your bag at night when you're already dead tired is not getting the job done. I've had to go commando one too many times over the past few weeks. Normally not such a big deal, as I can just run home and get the missing garment, but today we had Terrific Toddlers right after.

See, my planning and stuff is really just my own idiot-proofing. :)

On my soapbox: The Economy

While we all watch the stock market plummet on a daily basis, it's so easy to get wrapped up in the nation-wide panic. Particularly when you have the DRAMA of it broadcasted practically all day long, every day. How many times do we have to hear the words "worst since the Great Depression" or "recession" before we start to feel the weight of it on our shoulders? It seems to me that this 24/7 shoveling of crap in our faces is definitely having it's effect on people. I have several friends who are panic stricken over what will transpire over the coming years. And while I understand their worry and concern, I can't seem to get myself in such a frenzied state.

Maybe it's because, unlike many other Americans, Lance and I live in a house that we can actually afford. When everyone else is living the "American dream", which apparently includes upside down mortgages and buying everything on credit, we've been buckling down. Budgeting and scrimping. I have to admit that sometimes I would go to my friends' houses and think to myself how nice it would be to live in a brand new house. In a new development with new decor and which didn't have an embarrassing 1970's bathroom with gold-flecked mirrors and chandeliers. We even talked about moving into a new house in a better neighborhood before I quit my job. But we agreed that what we wanted most was for me to be able to be at home with the kids, and that sacrifices were necessary. Thank God that we made that decision. Because, I can see how easily it would have been for us to get in over our heads. Trying to keep up with America.

But right now? As those people are worried about making their mortgages, Lance and I are not at all worried about our home, which is still valued much more than what we owe on it. We can focus on the other stuff - cutting corners more at the grocery store as costs increase, making sure we don't overspend in other areas of the budget; but overall, I know we'll be just fine.

While I realize that it may sound callous of me to say this, I am almost looking forward to this "recession", which I see as a correction of the overall economy to get back to what is true. I guess you could even say that I see it as the great equalizer. And I am feeling much more comfortable in my skin. And in my 1960's home that still needs lots of work. Because we can afford it. I'm looking forward seeing people put an emphasis on quality of being, rather than quantity of possessions.

My main challenge right now is to look within to see what I can give. Because there are a lot of people who haven't been nearly as blessed as we have and who where already living barely paycheck to paycheck. They are going to get hit hard by the rising prices of groceries and fuel. We don't have the excess money that we had when I was working, but we certainly have more than we absolutely need. And sometimes, what you need is to help someone else who's in trouble. Even when you don't feel like you can afford to. This is what pulls people together and makes communities one. I'm looking forward to, what I consider, getting back to basics.

I guess that makes me old fashioned? Just picture me; I'm like an 80 year old woman in my "new" 1960's house. If I start sewing our clothes, please be concerned.

The sweetest kids

We spent a cold windy morning at soccer and then after lunch, Lance and Morgan took off to go to a geocaching event. She was very excited to spend time with Daddy. Bennett woke up from his nap around 3:30 and since then it's been just me and him. We've been playing and tickling and laughing and cuddling. We had dinner alone and then we did bath time and stories and then bed time. As I'm swaying with him in my arms, back and forth, before I'm about to put him down for bed, I whispered to him, as I do on many occasions, "Momma loves you". I could barely make it out over the music, but I heard him whisper back "Wuv Ooo". He says it to me all the time, but somehow hearing it whispered over his lullaby CD just made it so sweet. Then he kept saying it over and over again. Wuv Oooo. Wuv Oooo. Such a sweet boy I have.

Morgan and Lance just got home and the first thing out of her mouth was "I haven't seen you all day!", to which I responded that I was missing her. She said she was missing me too, and ran over to give me hugs and kisses.

Someone please remind me of my sweet kids when they are throwing themselves on the ground in a tantrum, or crossing their arms at me with attitude. Because at those times, I forget how sweet my kids really are.

TGIF

We had a pretty good morning, getting out of the house on time and picking up Morgan's friend Colin for school while dropping Bennett off so I could work in the class. I figured out how to keep Morgan and Colin from getting too wound up in the car on the way to school. We play a game that I made up with Morgan a couple of years ago, called the animal game. Basically, we take turns thinking of an animal and then the other people ask questions and try to guess what the animal is. It's normally a fun game, but I have to admit that now that it's part of the morning ritual when we bring Colin to school, I'm officially DONE with the animal game. I'm tired of brown and black animals with fur who live in the forest. I'm tired of naming all the animals that are on the tables in the classroom. I know kids live for routine, but it has a way of grating on my nerves. :)

We had a great time in the class today, all the kids have really come a long way even just from the month and a half that they've been in school. After school was out, I took Colin and Morgan to meet Colin's mom, his sister Natalie, and Bennett at the park. It was chilly out and the kids didn't want to sit and eat, but that's somewhat to be expected. Bennett was super happy and made me smile when he went and picked a flower and gave it to Natalie, whom he is totally enamored with.

We had to leave the park abruptly when Morgan had to go to the bathroom and there wasn't a bathroom at the park. We got home and Morgan went potty while I got Bennett washed up and diaper changed. And then he LOST it. I don't know what he lost it about, but he totally started screaming and didn't want to be held. He was doing the whole arms straight up so he slips out of my hands when I'm trying to pick him up. The whole time he's literally SCREAMING "MAMA!!!" I tried to redirect him with books or his blanket and nothing was calming him down. Finally, I had no other choice than to just walk out of his room and leave him in there. I came into the living room and asked Morgan to go get her book so we could read before nap time. Suddenly, Bennett walks out of his room, TOTALLY FINE. Not a tear shed. Face not red at all. TOTALLY FINE. ???? Whatever!

They are both down for naps now and after I finish getting stuff ready for tonight, I'm giving myself permission to skip any chores and just rest. We have the in and out board dinner for the moms club tonight. There's going to be a martini bar. We might be in trouble! :)

Are you ready for Christmas yet??

Because I'm starting to feel like if I don't have everything done by the end of the month, we are totally screwed. It's bad enough that Costco had their gift wrap out in AUGUST and is now totally on board with Christmas trees and what not. It's also bad enough that right next to the Halloween aisles in Target are the Christmas aisles. And that Starbucks has had their "Pumpkin Spice Latte" out for at least a month.

But the number one, top ridiculous thing that I've seen yet is the email I got from JC Penney's Portrait studio. They are advertising their new online scheduler where you can sign up for your sessions on their website. This image was actually part of the email. Because, folks, OCTOBER 8th MIGHT be the last possible date for you to complete your holiday portraits. It's just plain crazy. December 21st is well over TWO MONTHS away! It seems that every year the holiday seasons get pushed on us earlier and earlier. Mark my words. When the stores take down their Christmas stuff, they will IMMEDIATELY put up Valentines Day stuff, followed shortly by Easter stuff.

I think the thing that bugs me so much about this is how this just exemplifies how our society has become so short sighted that we can't enjoy the holiday that we are about to have or that we are having. No, we have to focus on what's next. Never enjoying the moment, only thinking about the next thing we have to do. I admit that this totally feeds into my personality of being a planner, in that I have already made my Christmas lists and already started purchasing Christmas gifts. Partly because I like to take my time and find the right gift, partly because I like to spread the expense out over several months and party because EVERY TIME I turn around these days, I'm staring at Christmas bows or Santa's face. It's almost like we're "over" Halloween before we've even gotten to enjoy it! Not to mention that there is a tiny holiday in between called Thanksgiving.

Maybe this is also the maturing mom coming out also. I am trying hard to be in the moment with my kids. Even when I'm carting them about from place to place. I want to really be there with them and experience their world with them at the time. Because I'm never going to get this time back. No matter how hard, how mundane, how tired or how crazy things seem to be now. At some point in my life, I'm going to look back on these days as some of the best of my life. I'm going to miss being the mom to young kids. I'm going to wish they would sit in my lap and call my name incessantly over and over. It goes by all too fast. Why would we wish it to hurry?

So, here's my "crazy planner" pledge to you. Though I may be doing Christmas shopping, I PROMISE I won't wrap anything until Halloween is over. And I will stop and enjoy the little things day by day. Because when Christmas comes, I don't want to be "over" it also.

Make new friends, but keep the old...

Tonight I attended a parents meeting for a new Daisy Girl Scout troop that is starting. Morgan's first meeting is next week and I'm so excited for her!

I remember doing Brownies and then Girl Scouts and the friends that I made. I remember going to camp and earning badges. Selling cookies and making crafts. If you were ever a girl scout, you know the song "Make New Friends" and you can sing the heck out of it in rounds. :) We had so much fun and I hope Morgan enjoys it as much as I did. I had a lot of those girls as friends in my life for a long, long time. I think my mom still keeps in touch with some of the parents of those girls! I've even reconnected with a few of them on Facebook recently.

Speaking of Facebook, when I got home from the meeting, I updated my status to "Paige just got home from a parent meeting for Girl Scouts!" and the following happens:

My former college roommate instant messages me to ask me if I've lost my mind. In fact, her exact comment was "thank goodness...you need to take on some more responsibilities!!! Are you the leader?"Then my friend Tara comments something about me being a super mom. At this point, I felt it was necessary to clarify that I am NOT the leader. To which my friend Karen from my high school days comments "...just yet!". A few comments later, and it ends with my friend Melissa chiding me with, "It's just good to see you finally getting involved in something."

See how much crap I catch for NOT volunteering for something?? ;-)

I know I'm being overly sentimental here, but...

....my baby is officially not a baby. He's 18 months old today and such a big boy. I am always amazed at how much love I have for this little guy. I wasn't too sure about him for the first few months...he was a difficult baby. And, he still has his moments now, but overall, he's a good kid who lights up my world when he smiles at me. His new thing is to tickle me. We went shopping this morning, and all the while, he's tickling me. And laughing that addictive and contagious belly laugh. He's at such a great age. So fun and funny. Independent, but still needs his momma and likes to give me hugs and kisses. I love him so much. I'm such a lucky woman to have such wonderful kids in my life. What blessings, they are. Even if they are the most stubborn children on the face of the planet.

When Morgan was 18 months old, I was astounded by her vocabulary and the pace with which she was acquiring new words. I took a moment to stop and write down every word she knew. She knew about fifty words at 18 months, which was astounding to me. So, about a week ago, I started jotting down Bennett's words. 90+ words this little boy knows. 94!! And that's just as of right this moment. I added a bunch to it, just today. His favorite thing to say is "Let's Go!" and I think we all know why....

So, for posterity's sake, here are the words!

1. Cat
2. Hat
3. Momma
4. Daddy
5. Hot
6. Bird
7. Bear
8. Tiger
9. Water
10. Eat
11. Let’s
12. Go
13. Hi
14. Bye
15. Dinosaur
16. Up
17. Night Night (blanket)
18. Book
19. Airplane
20. Duck
21. Dog
22. More
23. Waffle
24. Egg
25. Chicken
26. Apple
27. Dude
28. Ball
29. Moon
30. Caterpillar
31. No
32. Yeah
33. Car
34. Diaper
35. Potty
36. Pee Pee
37. Poo Poo
38. Icky
39. Nasty
40. Baby
41. Bottle
42. Bib
43. Bag
44. Cheese
45. Cracker
46. Eye
47. Keys
48. Tractor
49. Ear
50. Butter
51. Pear
52. Cheeseburger
53. Messy
54. Bowl
55. Love You
56. Thank You
57. Please
58. Mine
59. Line
60. Two
61. Pickle
62. Sorry
63. Football
64. Eagle
65. That
66. Mouth
67. Nose
68. Lion
69. Zebra
70. Natalie
71. Choo Choo (stairs)
72. Whole
73. Teeth
74. Pooh (Winne the Pooh)
75. Tigger
76. Meal (oatmeal)
77. Taylor
78. Done
79. Backpack
80. Out
81. Mess
82. Pizza
83. Elly
84. Pretzel
85. Tissue
86. Elmo
87. Bug
88. Turtle
89. Wow
90. Bus
91. Memaw (Grandma)
92. Pepaw (Grandpa)
93. Bubble
94. Doctor

I guess I wanted to spend the whole day in the kitchen

After dropping Morgan off at school this morning, Bennett and I headed to the tennis club (even though I'm terribly sore from the half of a spin class I did yesterday). He talked my head off the whole way there.

Bennett: "Mama!"
Me: "Yes, Bennett?"
Bennett: "Water!" "MAMA!! Water!! WATER!!"
Me: "Yes, I heard you. Water."
Bennett: "Mine!"
Me: "Yes, you have water."

Repeat the same with ball. And then water again. Twice. Yes, he's quite a talker. Who needs affirmation, apparently.

After doing the track (3.5 miles) and stairs (40 sets), I got showered and then Bennett and I headed to the grocery store. After doing our shopping, I came home and unloaded the groceries and then we went to pick Morgan up from school. After that, I proceeded to spend pretty much the rest of the day in the kitchen.

First, I made lunch for everyone. For today and tomorrow. Because? Might as well! Morgan has her first after school reading group where they stay an extra hour to have a small reading group with the teacher. So, she needs a lunch for that. And since I'll have a extra hour with Bennett at playgroup, we'll need lunches as well! I took a small hiatus from the kitchen to wash out the AC filter and the outdoor garbage cans and then came back and cooked throughout the entire nap time (while talking to my Mom on the phone, in true multi-tasking fashion). I made banana bread with some over ripened bananas and cooked up a batch of pancakes for breakfast since I don't have time on school mornings to do it and Miss Morgan has decided to forgo her hot-breakfast-aversion.

Once I got all the dishes cleaned up, it was time to get the kids up and going to drop Morgan off at ballet. I ran to Target while she was there and now I'm back home. Guess where I'm headed? In the kitchen, of course. It's time to cook dinner. Turkey tacos for dinner tonight. Yum.

My little stinker

After I vacuumed downstairs today, I left the vacuum in the entry way because I was planning to vacuum upstairs later. It was sitting there, unplugged and turned off. Imagine my surprise when later this afternoon, while I was helping Morgan with her homework, I heard the vacuum turn on. What?

I go into the entry way and see Bennett now UNPLUGGING the vacuum that is turned on. He not only plugged it into the wall, but he also turned it on. Guess those outlets need to be covered as well! He must take after his Uncle Brett, who as a child decided to stick keys into an outlet.

Then later, when giving him his bath, he decides to dump and entire cup of water (like 32 ounces!) on the floor of the bathroom. We let him play with a cup while bathing him. Well, maybe not anymore. He literally filled it up, held it out and dumped it on the floor!

My little stinker!

The quiet before the storm

It's quiet around here today. I was up earlier than I wanted this morning because I wasn't sleeping well. Bennett decided to wake up at 4:30 and was babbling and singing some unrecognizable song. I got up and got the upstairs bathroom cleaned and then came down to start breakfast for the kids. I unloaded the dishwasher and packed up the car with my gym back and diaper bag. After dropping Morgan off at school (and delivering her well-earned potted mini rose plant to her teacher!), I went to the gym. I did 30 minutes of weights and then took the first 30 minutes of the spin class. I felt obligated to tell the instructor that I had to leave early at the beginning of class so she wouldn't make a scene when the time came. So much for that! When I got off my bike and started stretching, she's all "BYE PAIGE! I WANT TO LEAVE NOW, TOO!" The class was packed (in fact, I got the last bike). So, I was a little embarrassed. But I'm still glad I went - it was a good way to spend 30 minutes! She is tough!

After I got showered up, I picked Bennett up from the nursery and we headed upstairs to the Terrific Toddlers class. He definitely enjoyed it more this week than last week, but when "free play" time was almost over, he took my hand and showed me to the door. :)

Today was an early release day for Morgan, so I headed straight from the tennis club to pick her up. We came home and had lunch and then the kids played for a good hour and a half while I finished cleaning bathrooms, dusting, and vacuuming. I have a good head start on this week's chores already, that feels great!

I ended up wasting away nap time working on some favors for the in/out board dinner for the moms club. I finally have the design nailed down, now it's just the tough part of printing, cutting, gluing, etc. I can do that while I'm vegging out in front of the TV tonight, though.

Because now the kids are up and I need to run to Target to look for stuff for the class' door for Trick-A-Dooring. And I need to find the stuff for the scarecrow and schedule the time in the class for the kids to help make it. Oh, and I also need to find time to go solicit raffle prizes for the pumpkin patch party. Not to mention decorating my own house (Morgan is feeling jaded about the fact that EVERYBODY has their decorations up EXCEPT US. She's so deprived!) Seems like all this stuff is hitting all at once! :)

I guess it's a good thing today is quiet and I can get a head start. Because after tomorrow, the week's pace picks up drastically. And then next week my parents will be in town. We are so excited! :)

Shouldn't she check with me first?

This morning, while at the park, Morgan started to make arrangements for a play date. Between this woman's dog that she has been playing with (and the woman with whom she'd been conversing for a good 15-20 minutes) and our dog.

Me: "Okay, it's time to go, Morgan."
Morgan: (to the woman with the dog) "It was nice to meet you. Thank you for letting me play with your dog. Maybe we'll see you again sometime."
Lady with Dog: "Sure. We're here a couple of times a week. Or at the dog park."
Morgan: "Oooohh! Maybe we can bring our dog to the dog park. And then our dogs can play together!"
Lady with Dog: "Sounds great!"

The apple doesn't fall far from this tree...

I love my husband

We had our girls night out last night, dancing and having fun. I got in late last night, so when Bennett woke up this morning at 8, Lance got up with him. I got up and grabbed a shower at the same time since Morgan had soccer this morning. Looking out the window, it seemed to have rained all night. My friend Kristin called to see if we were going to soccer and that the rain hotline said the fields were still open.

Lance cooked breakfast for us all, and made me a cup of coffee. He agreed to take Morgan over to soccer to see if it was really still going on in the drizzling rain while I stayed home with Bennett so we didn't have to hang out in the muddy grass and rain. When he got home, I showed him all the crazy pictures from last night and he laughed. Then he suggested that I start drinking some water. :)

Just now, I asked how grilled cheese sandwiches and chili sound on this cloudy football day. Everyone agreed that they sounded great and Lance offered to cook lunch too. So, I get to just lounge around, watching football, drinking water, hanging with the kids and recovering from going out last night. I married a good one!

Random offerings

• Morgan would like to be either a scientist, a bird trainer, or become a clown and join the circus when she grows up.
• Bennett finally took a good nap today. You see, for the past two days, I've given myself permission to nap during the kids' nap time and for the past two days, just as I've laid down to close my eyes, he's woken up. Today, he took a nearly three hour nap and I was able to squeak out a little over an hour nap.
• Which is good. Since we have girls night out tonight. We're going dancing! Weeee! I'm sooo looking forward to it. Mom, I promise no whiplash! ;)
  
• Tomorrow is soccer and then not much else planned this weekend. Which is also good. See previous item regarding night out tonight. May need the weekend to recover. Because I'm old like that.
• I was sore from my Tuesday workout, but was meeting my old boss at the gym yesterday to do the 10 laps around the track, 10 sets of stairs, 9 laps around the track, 9 sets of stairs, etc. It's good I was meeting him because if I hadn't been meeting him, I might have wussed out. And I didn't and I managed to get another good workout in this week. The scales are continuing to inch down, which makes me happy and makes these hard workouts worth it!
• Remember the new chore chart? Remember the items Lance signed up for? Yeah. Still not done. Remember me sitting on my butt? Let's call it a week-long-exercise. It's been fun! :) I couldn't stand the kitchen floor any more last night and had to break down and mop. I just have some dusting to do to get caught up, but it was an interesting little experiment in laziness. ;)
• Morgan is learning to read! Like real reading! It's very exciting! I put out seven new site word flash cards for she and Lance to work on last night while I was at bible study and when I got home, Lance informed me that she had earned six new rocks because she got six out of the seven words. She was sounding them out, even, as I was writing them. So proud of that girl.
  
• I'm feeling good. Yeah. Just really good. :) Loving my kids, my husband, my family and friends. Life is good. :)
  

The one that proves he's a genius

Puzzles, animal naming and making their sounds and Zoo Phonics. All wrapped up in one extra cute video. Nah, I'm not proud of him at all. ;)


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Itsy Bitsy Spider

Bennett and I have fun singing this classic children's song. I find it less disturbing than "I Knew an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and it has a better melody than "The Wheels on the Bus". That said, please ignore my horrendous singing. :)


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Just ask the expert

Apparently I'm the expert on not only comfort letters, but also on circumcisions. Because in addition to the 2-3 hits a day on comfort letters, I'm now getting 2-3 hits a day from people googling for information on circumcisions. On, specifically yesterday, "beautiful circumcision". Apparently I'm not the only inappropriate person out there.

My favorite from last night

Last night, I went with my friend, Cristina, to see the So You Think You Can Dance tour. It was really loud and I left with a headache, but the dancers were just as great in real life! This is one of my favorite shows on TV and this is one of my favorite dances that they did. Neither of these dancers won, but the choreography and song and performance of both of them was awesome!

Diary of a horrible mom

Apparently, I'm not your typical mom. I don't allow my kids to play or sing at meals, I make them sit while eating, I require that they use manners and I encourage them to play together and to work it out when they get all "he did this" or "ugghhh! (Bennett's terms for she did that). We use time outs when needed, I take away toys when they aren't appreciated and I sometimes have to let them scream and cry when I'm cooking dinner. I also have no problem with allowing other people to watch my children. Now, these are not your run-of-the-mill street strangers, but I don't really know the people in the nursery at the church or the tennis club. No, but I let them watch my children all the same.

I realized today, that I'm one of maybe a handful of Kindergarten parents who are actually taking advantage of the valet lane. This means that I pull up in front of the playground where the kids line up to go into their classrooms, and Morgan unbuckles her seat belt, grabs her backpack, gives me and Bennett a kiss, and then gets out of the car. Sometimes she's assisted by the valet helpers (back in the day, we called this the safety patrol, but whatever!) and other times she had to do it on her own. Every time, I watch her walk inside the fenced in playground to her line before I drive off. I don't feel like I'm putting her in danger, but with all the parents I see schlepping kids to and from cars, it makes me kind of feel like maybe I'm a horrible mother? I don't do valet on Mondays because I know that this is the day that her teacher works in her classroom up until right when it's time to come get the kids, so I walk Morgan up to the line and we wait for her teacher with the other kids and parents. But on the other days? I just can't help but wonder why I would subject myself or Bennett to getting in and out of the car unnecessarily. If it was just me, that would be a different situation. I would enjoy walking her up to the line and chit chatting with the other parents and teachers. But, with Bennett, it's more like me struggling to keep him in my arms because the minute I let him down, he's off and running. However, all these parents lugging their babies and toddlers along to walk their child up to their line has me a bit concerned.

On the other hand, I feel like I have fairly well adjusted kids. I don't normally have issues with them only wanting me, but I also know that when they do want me, I'm there for them. Like on Monday when Bennett was particularly clingy. This was out of the ordinary and I took full advantage of the extra snuggles and hugs. But, on a day to day basis, my kids are fairly independent and happy. That makes me happy to! Maybe I'm not so horrible after all? Or maybe this is just something I tell myself so I don't feel like a horrible mom? Only time will tell!

Us mothers, the power we wield.