Again, I don't know where the days have gone but if tomorrow is June I need to throw a bunch of food away that expired 4 days ago. I had good intentions of cooking when I was by myself in the nice, peaceful grocery store, but then I came home to the chaos and decided that eating at the pool or getting take-out was much more realistic. We are taking advantage of the great weather and Sean's time off and hitting the pool as much as we can. We even spontaneously took a trip to KC so the kids could play at Dave and Busters one afternoon. We have never been spontaneous people and adding 4 kids to the mix certainly didn't help, not sure where that motivation came from. Since Sean should be in Iraq right now, we do feel we need to take advantage and enjoy our time together though. But let's not get all crazy, 2 hours in the van is pushing it. 2 hours of Patrick making up words to sing along with the Barbie movie is more than pushing it....
I did take some pictures with my little camera and if I can remember how to download those I will post later. I did not get a photo of our circus at the Yard House (the restaurant we went to with Nana and Pops last summer) but suffice it to say, when the waitress told us to come again, she also told us which days she wasn't working.... I'm kidding, the kids were actually very good other than fighting us for the desserts. Ah, there is a diet tip for you, split a dessert with your sugar crazy kids. Good luck getting a bite!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Last Day of School
How we got to this point, I have no clue. This year was a blur to say the least and it's pretty obvious why when you compare the pictures from today with the ones from the first day of school. Emily feels the same way I do, oh the chaos that is coming... I think Megan still has the same shoes, not sure how those still fit. Thank God those pants don't still fit me though, yikes. And I need to make some hair appointments...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Pool Time?
If I had 8 arms I would have taken some photos to post on here, but trust me, we made it to the pool. Like an idiot, I told the kids it was opening before I checked Sean's schedule to see if he was working. So off I went with all 4 while Sean stayed home on back up call, which meant he got to relax while waiting to see if he would get called on. Oddly enough, he did not get called on until we got home and it was time to bathe 3 of them.
Lessons I learned: Megan can still kind of swim, Anna can still barely swim, Patrick can drink a lot of pool water via a squirt gun, and Emily can and will demand to be held every single minute. I will have to remember no beverages of any kind for me unless I have an entourage to help me. Along those lines, I think it is best all around if I don't attempt potty training Patrick until after pool season.
Now, let's discuss pool food.... could they put something on the menu that you'd want to eat when you're already feeling fat in your bathing suit? Sure, I'll go home and eat half a pie in my pajamas, but when I'm showing more skin than anyone wants to see at the pool, I could be inspired to be healthy and eat some of those vegetables I keep hearing about. I do force the kids to get "fresh fruit" with their greasy dinner item and for some reason it is always mostly green melon. Why? Who likes green melon so much that they go through all that trouble to cut it up? I don't think the old people even like it, probably this is what's leftover from the salad bar at lunch.
They are all begging to go back every single day, so I need to go to bed now so I can rally...
Lessons I learned: Megan can still kind of swim, Anna can still barely swim, Patrick can drink a lot of pool water via a squirt gun, and Emily can and will demand to be held every single minute. I will have to remember no beverages of any kind for me unless I have an entourage to help me. Along those lines, I think it is best all around if I don't attempt potty training Patrick until after pool season.
Now, let's discuss pool food.... could they put something on the menu that you'd want to eat when you're already feeling fat in your bathing suit? Sure, I'll go home and eat half a pie in my pajamas, but when I'm showing more skin than anyone wants to see at the pool, I could be inspired to be healthy and eat some of those vegetables I keep hearing about. I do force the kids to get "fresh fruit" with their greasy dinner item and for some reason it is always mostly green melon. Why? Who likes green melon so much that they go through all that trouble to cut it up? I don't think the old people even like it, probably this is what's leftover from the salad bar at lunch.
They are all begging to go back every single day, so I need to go to bed now so I can rally...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Lost Nerds
Having watched Lost from the very beginning, hoping that it wouldn't get cancelled like so many other shows we like, we decided to celebrate the finale with some friends. 6 years and a debatable ending that we are too tired to really think much about yet. Sean did put some thought into the party favors though, which the other nerds appreciated. At the other end of the entertainment spectrum, I'm looking forward to mocking the Bachelorette premiere tonight.
Eyes hurt
I type this urgent blog update with one finger and a teething baby on my hip. The new house that is being built next door to us is so ugly that I might have to move. They somehow managed to take stucco and make it look like plywood, much like the half finished house we had to look at for a couple years before a bank took it over and finished it. Why? Who does this? And why don't they know that you are at least supposed to make the trim lighter than the house to make the windows look bigger? I would post photos but I don't need anyone recognizing their house on here...
Thursday, May 20, 2010
6 Months
All the usual thoughts, how has it been 6 months, etc. Here you go, here's a picture for the grandmas.
Paper Service
Yes, in his sister's slippers... insists on getting the paper each day. Much appreciated in unfavorable weather conditions. Unlike our neighbor, Sean refuses to put on red cowboy boots with his pajamas to go get it, so at least Patrick can handle it.
Jobs for your children and grandchildren
Okay, let's review the jobs that you hope your children or grandchildren get one day:
1. doctor, nurse, PA, medical technician
2. lawyer, judge
3. teacher
4. any of those finance and banking jobs where no one quite understands what they do, but dang, those bonuses (nice kitchen Andy!)
Now, jobs you do not hope your children or grandchildren end up working their whole lives for little pay:
1. day laborer
2. factory worker
3. migrant farm worker
4. dishwasher, grounds crew, housekeeping at hotels and restaurants and resorts
What jobs are often filled by immigrants, who YES, pay social security tax because they pay someone to get them a fake social security number, which means they can never reap those benefits later. Thanks for the donation, suckers! After years of hard and often times dangerous jobs these poor people don't often live that long anyway, or else they return to their home country where it is cheaper to live.
Now, how can we create more jobs in the other category... hmm, those are professional service jobs, so you need more clients, where could you get more clients? Oh I don't know, how about we set up a work visa program with a legal path to citizenship? Then they can pay for health insurance and the medical industry can get paid and thus afford to hire enough people to properly staff the place, not to mention pay primary care docs more so med students might actually consider going into that field again. This would of course create more jobs for lawyers and it might even be more satisfying work... helping someone achieve their dream of becoming a US citizen, as compared to being involved in some of these ridiculous lawsuits. I know a lot of good honest hardworking people who went to law school and who are now unhappy and disillusioned in their careers.
Education is paid for mostly by property taxes, so the more houses you have, the more property taxes to collect. I doubt an apartment complex with 20 units pays the same amount as 20 single family homes. 20 affordable single family homes, hard to imagine in Kansas. (Full disclosure: I love the day laborers who built me a good house in Texas for a very small amount of money. Love them. Going back and seeing how cheap they can build an awesome house for the amount we paid for our decent house here, well, that was painful. Painful. It's a good old boy network here, enough said. I need my amigos.) And anyone who doesn't want to educate poor immigrant children (who are US citizens if they were born here), well, that's ridiculous. Do you want them to learn English? How about achieve their full potential to become productive members of society? I send money to poor countries to build schools there, I don't mind doing it in my own country too. So build more schools, hire more teachers, pay them more.
I know I am simplifying a very complex issue but no one mentions the parts that are in fact simple. We all benefit from this cheap labor system and the parts that people don't like (illegal border crossings for example) are a result of the government not implementing programs that would resolve those issues. If there wasn't a demand for this cheap labor, these people would not risk so much to get here. As jobs dried up in California the past few years, the number of immigrants there has gone down. I could find articles that cite many of these facts but this is not an academic paper, it is merely a blog that very few people read. In case you were looking for more humor today, just imagine how much fun I had working in a factory one summer during college. Loud, hot, mind numbing, much like the bar scene in college....
1. doctor, nurse, PA, medical technician
2. lawyer, judge
3. teacher
4. any of those finance and banking jobs where no one quite understands what they do, but dang, those bonuses (nice kitchen Andy!)
Now, jobs you do not hope your children or grandchildren end up working their whole lives for little pay:
1. day laborer
2. factory worker
3. migrant farm worker
4. dishwasher, grounds crew, housekeeping at hotels and restaurants and resorts
What jobs are often filled by immigrants, who YES, pay social security tax because they pay someone to get them a fake social security number, which means they can never reap those benefits later. Thanks for the donation, suckers! After years of hard and often times dangerous jobs these poor people don't often live that long anyway, or else they return to their home country where it is cheaper to live.
Now, how can we create more jobs in the other category... hmm, those are professional service jobs, so you need more clients, where could you get more clients? Oh I don't know, how about we set up a work visa program with a legal path to citizenship? Then they can pay for health insurance and the medical industry can get paid and thus afford to hire enough people to properly staff the place, not to mention pay primary care docs more so med students might actually consider going into that field again. This would of course create more jobs for lawyers and it might even be more satisfying work... helping someone achieve their dream of becoming a US citizen, as compared to being involved in some of these ridiculous lawsuits. I know a lot of good honest hardworking people who went to law school and who are now unhappy and disillusioned in their careers.
Education is paid for mostly by property taxes, so the more houses you have, the more property taxes to collect. I doubt an apartment complex with 20 units pays the same amount as 20 single family homes. 20 affordable single family homes, hard to imagine in Kansas. (Full disclosure: I love the day laborers who built me a good house in Texas for a very small amount of money. Love them. Going back and seeing how cheap they can build an awesome house for the amount we paid for our decent house here, well, that was painful. Painful. It's a good old boy network here, enough said. I need my amigos.) And anyone who doesn't want to educate poor immigrant children (who are US citizens if they were born here), well, that's ridiculous. Do you want them to learn English? How about achieve their full potential to become productive members of society? I send money to poor countries to build schools there, I don't mind doing it in my own country too. So build more schools, hire more teachers, pay them more.
I know I am simplifying a very complex issue but no one mentions the parts that are in fact simple. We all benefit from this cheap labor system and the parts that people don't like (illegal border crossings for example) are a result of the government not implementing programs that would resolve those issues. If there wasn't a demand for this cheap labor, these people would not risk so much to get here. As jobs dried up in California the past few years, the number of immigrants there has gone down. I could find articles that cite many of these facts but this is not an academic paper, it is merely a blog that very few people read. In case you were looking for more humor today, just imagine how much fun I had working in a factory one summer during college. Loud, hot, mind numbing, much like the bar scene in college....
Monday, May 17, 2010
Family Obligations
This is not to say that Sean is a demanding husband but he does expect frequent blog posts to entertain him during work breaks. He also got used to having photo albums done in the decade that the photos were taken so I am finally getting around to that now and it is using up all my computer time. And let's not get ridiculous here, there is certainly no scrapbooking going on, I just make photo books online and order them. Prior to that I have to wade through many, many photos and then edit them before I upload them. I am technically only one year behind and now have Jan and Feb ready to go. I am boring myself just typing this so you can imagine how tedious this project is.
Other demands from family members include the girls begging me to watch TV downstairs when they go to bed and Sean is working (otherwise he is happy to fulfill this request). I do not have energy for TV and besides, do I look like wolf bait? No, wolf bait is small and tender, I can't help them out there. Any wolf bursting through a window is headed right to their room, won't even look at me. Patrick is also working on his bossing skills and learning more and more words, all the better to tell me exactly what he wants. And I am learning that we cannot have anything dessert-like in the freezer or he will go to great lengths to convince me to let him eat it. So this means I also do not get any desserts from the freezer. Even worse, Sean put all sorts of healthy food on the shopping list last week as part of a project that I am not allowed to discuss on the blog yet (anyone who has insomnia from 2am to 5am can guess which infomercial) so tonight I made everything left in the fridge for dinner. It was heavy on fruits and vegetables which is not helping the hunger issue. I need to stop talking about it, making it worse.
In case you thought this dessert deprivation conspiracy is limited to just my house, my favorite restaurant is also in on it. They only have dessert some days (I don't even know which ones, it is random), when the food man remembers to order some from his other restaurant. Not only am I too lazy to walk over to that other restaurant to get one, but the ones there are usually stale (is their demographic drunk college students who will eat dry cake?) so it is so not worth the 1 block walk. Much like how I could be an alcoholic if they sold wine at Target, if there were easily available fresh desserts I would have some junk in the trunk. So don't hate me for losing the baby weight, it is not my fault. Instead, you can send me cheesecake in the mail, I promise to eat it!
Other demands from family members include the girls begging me to watch TV downstairs when they go to bed and Sean is working (otherwise he is happy to fulfill this request). I do not have energy for TV and besides, do I look like wolf bait? No, wolf bait is small and tender, I can't help them out there. Any wolf bursting through a window is headed right to their room, won't even look at me. Patrick is also working on his bossing skills and learning more and more words, all the better to tell me exactly what he wants. And I am learning that we cannot have anything dessert-like in the freezer or he will go to great lengths to convince me to let him eat it. So this means I also do not get any desserts from the freezer. Even worse, Sean put all sorts of healthy food on the shopping list last week as part of a project that I am not allowed to discuss on the blog yet (anyone who has insomnia from 2am to 5am can guess which infomercial) so tonight I made everything left in the fridge for dinner. It was heavy on fruits and vegetables which is not helping the hunger issue. I need to stop talking about it, making it worse.
In case you thought this dessert deprivation conspiracy is limited to just my house, my favorite restaurant is also in on it. They only have dessert some days (I don't even know which ones, it is random), when the food man remembers to order some from his other restaurant. Not only am I too lazy to walk over to that other restaurant to get one, but the ones there are usually stale (is their demographic drunk college students who will eat dry cake?) so it is so not worth the 1 block walk. Much like how I could be an alcoholic if they sold wine at Target, if there were easily available fresh desserts I would have some junk in the trunk. So don't hate me for losing the baby weight, it is not my fault. Instead, you can send me cheesecake in the mail, I promise to eat it!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
My Laugh for the Day
Some guy asked me to be facebook friends but I can't see who his other friends are to see who we know in common. His name is familiar but his profile photo shows his company logo so I can't even see if I recognize him. I know he is from college so I googled and found his profile on the film and television alumni page. Anyway, my laugh came from some other guy's profile that I ran across:
'My present job as a television sports anchor is a lot like my days as a Notre Dame student. Only now I get paid to talk about sports. Oh, and I don't have to drop Statistics every semester.''
Sean's dream job.... guess when he dropped engineering calc for pre-med calc he should have just dropped down to the liberal arts math instead. Not sure how army would have thought about that, but we probably would have started dating sooner, what with my mom saying to avoid all pre-med guys. Yeah, but who loves having a radiologist in the family now for free 2nd opinions? Ah well, Sean can talk sports all he wants while golfing every day once he ditches army and goes full-time telerad. 4 years, one month, baby!
'My present job as a television sports anchor is a lot like my days as a Notre Dame student. Only now I get paid to talk about sports. Oh, and I don't have to drop Statistics every semester.''
Sean's dream job.... guess when he dropped engineering calc for pre-med calc he should have just dropped down to the liberal arts math instead. Not sure how army would have thought about that, but we probably would have started dating sooner, what with my mom saying to avoid all pre-med guys. Yeah, but who loves having a radiologist in the family now for free 2nd opinions? Ah well, Sean can talk sports all he wants while golfing every day once he ditches army and goes full-time telerad. 4 years, one month, baby!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Random Tuesday Notes
Other people have blogs about specific topics or themes, no point in pretending mine is one of those. This post will be more random than usual, lack of caffeine here.
1. Patrick's favorite toy is the lettuce spinner. He currently has it in his bed with him. I find that darn thing everywhere, it is so annoying. The girls also love it and I recently found it acting as a hot tub for many, many Polly Pockets in the downstairs bathroom (all that was missing was the Bachelor doll). Ugh, walking into that bathroom is always an adventure. Piles of pink toothpaste, stacks of wet hand towels (not from bathing down there, no, from playing in the sink), various treasures from outside in the drawers....
2. Speaking of toys that annoy me, for Mother's Day I allow myself to throw away one hated toy. I have no problem tossing kid junk on a daily basis, but everyone has those expensive toys that a child received as a gift and it is so annoying but you feel guilty getting rid of it. Not on Mother's Day! I don't want to make any gift givers feel badly so I won't identify the toy but will mention that when Sean took the bag out to the trash bin tonight some animal noises were made in protest. This is an item that when it goes dark the animal noises start up. Oh my, I had about 6 years of torture from that thing, enough already.
3. I have no idea how to get the girls to not be afraid to go to their bedroom on their own. Yes, it is in the basement but people, it is a daylight basement. I don't know why it qualifies as a basement even, other than the storage room doesn't have windows on one side. The rest of the rooms are normal. And still the girls require an escort or body guard every time they need to go down there, which is especially infuriating when one of them needs socks so they can run out the door and get on the bus in the morning. Megan says she is afraid a man eating dog will burst through one of the windows when she is down there. And she hasn't even seen the coyotes in the yard, she made this up on her own! I keep thinking that maybe we should get a 2 story house and put the girls in bedrooms on the 2nd floor, but then I remember there could be man eating birds. The worst part is that someday they might actually realize what they should be afraid of, things they can't imagine right now and things I can't promise won't happen. The list of tragedies that could happen is unlimited (one reason we don't allow them to watch Little House on the Prairie or the news). Megan is going to need anti-anxiety meds to get to sleep at night. At least we won't need separate bedrooms for all the kids. They would probably be happiest with 2 sets of bunk beds in one room. And this is why we had more kids... so they could use each other (instead of us) as man eating dog bait while they escape.
4. The new house next to us is one of those tornado-proof houses and it involves styrofoam with cement in the middle. Anyway, whatever they are up to now involves lots of little styrofoam pieces blowing into my yard and through the screen on my porch. So it looks like a very fine snowfall in there. This is confusing Patrick who thinks it is now winter again. Not that he is about to put warm clothes on...
5. Some of Sean's family just got back from a wonderful vacation in Puerto Rico and they now have a new appreciation for all the effort we put in to go on many, many trips to the Outer Banks with small children as they have a child of their own now. Let's not confuse Puerto Rico with the Outer Banks now.... going to a resort with a swim up bar, a private island with calm shallow water, and great restaurants is the opposite of OBX. First of all, it is NOT a vacation if I have to unload a dishwasher at some point. Going from cooking and cleaning and taking care of children in my house in Kansas to cooking and cleaning and taking care of children at the OBX is merely changing the venue, taking the circus on the road, same hassles- different location. And to those who say they get sick of eating out every night on vacation, I have to wonder where they are eating. I really can't imagine ever turning down a great dinner out so I can make kid dinner and adult dinner in some house where I can never find what I need in the kitchen. This is not to say we won't ever go back to OBX, but we will be going to Puerto Rico first at least. Three nights in Colorado this summer is a trial run with all four... not even sure how we will fit all the baby gear AND the precious golf clubs. No way could we fly...
1. Patrick's favorite toy is the lettuce spinner. He currently has it in his bed with him. I find that darn thing everywhere, it is so annoying. The girls also love it and I recently found it acting as a hot tub for many, many Polly Pockets in the downstairs bathroom (all that was missing was the Bachelor doll). Ugh, walking into that bathroom is always an adventure. Piles of pink toothpaste, stacks of wet hand towels (not from bathing down there, no, from playing in the sink), various treasures from outside in the drawers....
2. Speaking of toys that annoy me, for Mother's Day I allow myself to throw away one hated toy. I have no problem tossing kid junk on a daily basis, but everyone has those expensive toys that a child received as a gift and it is so annoying but you feel guilty getting rid of it. Not on Mother's Day! I don't want to make any gift givers feel badly so I won't identify the toy but will mention that when Sean took the bag out to the trash bin tonight some animal noises were made in protest. This is an item that when it goes dark the animal noises start up. Oh my, I had about 6 years of torture from that thing, enough already.
3. I have no idea how to get the girls to not be afraid to go to their bedroom on their own. Yes, it is in the basement but people, it is a daylight basement. I don't know why it qualifies as a basement even, other than the storage room doesn't have windows on one side. The rest of the rooms are normal. And still the girls require an escort or body guard every time they need to go down there, which is especially infuriating when one of them needs socks so they can run out the door and get on the bus in the morning. Megan says she is afraid a man eating dog will burst through one of the windows when she is down there. And she hasn't even seen the coyotes in the yard, she made this up on her own! I keep thinking that maybe we should get a 2 story house and put the girls in bedrooms on the 2nd floor, but then I remember there could be man eating birds. The worst part is that someday they might actually realize what they should be afraid of, things they can't imagine right now and things I can't promise won't happen. The list of tragedies that could happen is unlimited (one reason we don't allow them to watch Little House on the Prairie or the news). Megan is going to need anti-anxiety meds to get to sleep at night. At least we won't need separate bedrooms for all the kids. They would probably be happiest with 2 sets of bunk beds in one room. And this is why we had more kids... so they could use each other (instead of us) as man eating dog bait while they escape.
4. The new house next to us is one of those tornado-proof houses and it involves styrofoam with cement in the middle. Anyway, whatever they are up to now involves lots of little styrofoam pieces blowing into my yard and through the screen on my porch. So it looks like a very fine snowfall in there. This is confusing Patrick who thinks it is now winter again. Not that he is about to put warm clothes on...
5. Some of Sean's family just got back from a wonderful vacation in Puerto Rico and they now have a new appreciation for all the effort we put in to go on many, many trips to the Outer Banks with small children as they have a child of their own now. Let's not confuse Puerto Rico with the Outer Banks now.... going to a resort with a swim up bar, a private island with calm shallow water, and great restaurants is the opposite of OBX. First of all, it is NOT a vacation if I have to unload a dishwasher at some point. Going from cooking and cleaning and taking care of children in my house in Kansas to cooking and cleaning and taking care of children at the OBX is merely changing the venue, taking the circus on the road, same hassles- different location. And to those who say they get sick of eating out every night on vacation, I have to wonder where they are eating. I really can't imagine ever turning down a great dinner out so I can make kid dinner and adult dinner in some house where I can never find what I need in the kitchen. This is not to say we won't ever go back to OBX, but we will be going to Puerto Rico first at least. Three nights in Colorado this summer is a trial run with all four... not even sure how we will fit all the baby gear AND the precious golf clubs. No way could we fly...
2 Year Old Revenge and Other Comments
Patrick has been quite a terror since we went away for the weekend without him. I am pretty sure he is punishing me in particular. He is at that irrational age where you have to give him what he wants or you won't hear the end of it. I know, pick your battles, and there is no point in fighting over how he didn't get to throw the box in the recycling. No, I have to go get it out and let him do it over. The battle I do pick is that when the sitter comes, I leave the house, no matter how much he protests. He gets over it quickly, or so the kind sitter claims.
Other fun things he has been doing lately.... asking me to put his makeup on him as his little friends are all girls and they love coming over to play with our old girl toys, so now he does too. He has been carrying a baby doll around and copying everything we do with Emily. He likes to point out that I have a baby and he has a baby. No, he has not tried to nurse his baby yet, you know I'd have posted that photo already! He does just want to wear only his diaper and like all my other children, has no desire to ever potty train. So, the big white baby in a diaper continues to rule the house. Now that it is almost summer I doubt he will wear clothing for months. And yet my laundry is overflowing every single day. He and Emily like to alternate taking naps, if he actually takes one, so not a whole lot getting accomplished these days.
I did manage to find time to sign the girls up for some art program so they will go to that every single afternoon for most of the summer. When I went to pay for it the lady went to double check the price before she told me but I assured her that I knew how much it is and that it will be worth every penny if I can get the little ones to nap in peace. Better for the girls too, otherwise they would be watching a lot of movies in the basement this summer, with me hissing at them to keep quiet every time they snuck upstairs.
I also got around to starting Emily on cereal. She's not a big fan but we're working on it. I also borrowed a couple exersaucer things to keep her busy, one upstairs, one downstairs. I'm too old to be hauling those monsters around the house. Patrick enjoys them too...
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Relaxing Mother's Day?
No, not so much. I did get to "sleep in" until Emily woke up (for the 2nd time) at 8:45, so that was a major deal. But then it made the rest of the morning chaotic trying to get everyone ready for church. Megan came skipping up the steps at 9am after a sleepover and donuts, oh the sugar high. Which meant the sugar crash right when we needed to leave an hour later. We had to pull her out of our bed. Somehow Anna made it all the way to church without me knowing she had on old dirty Crocs with her dress, over her socks I might add. Megan's dress continues to shrink and even with leggings under it I fear we are crossing some sort of inappropriate for church line.
Things went downhill as soon as we got into church, what with Anna smashing my foot with her kneeler and Patrick banging Megan's shin with the other kneeler. Then Emily decided to be very unhappy the entire time, so much so that I broke down and nursed her, which I have avoided doing up until this point. Anything to stop the crying. Anna alternated between hanging on me and rolling into a ball of tantrum on the pew. I am certain the people behind us thought that I never bring them to church. What sort of crazy person would attempt this on a regular basis???
One thing is certain, I was not taking this circus out to eat on such a busy restaurant day. I am no rookie. I made Sean grill before he gratefully locked himself in the office to work from 4-9pm. I also bought one of those grocery store cakes that looks really good but that you figure taste like chemicals. Well, after 4 years of being deprived of a decent bakery, I thought it wasn't half bad and it was much easier than trying to bake something myself with 4 kids yelling.
Anyway, a much different weekend than 13 years ago when we got married and 9 years ago when Sean graduated and we found out Megan was on her way. It may not have been a relaxing day but eventually they all fall asleep and I get 12 minutes on the computer before I fall asleep...
ps Congrats to Keely and Julie O who both have #4 on the way. I know they both read this blog but apparently not very closely if they thought #4 wouldn't drive them to the brink of insanity... No really, 4 is awesome. When they sleep.
Things went downhill as soon as we got into church, what with Anna smashing my foot with her kneeler and Patrick banging Megan's shin with the other kneeler. Then Emily decided to be very unhappy the entire time, so much so that I broke down and nursed her, which I have avoided doing up until this point. Anything to stop the crying. Anna alternated between hanging on me and rolling into a ball of tantrum on the pew. I am certain the people behind us thought that I never bring them to church. What sort of crazy person would attempt this on a regular basis???
One thing is certain, I was not taking this circus out to eat on such a busy restaurant day. I am no rookie. I made Sean grill before he gratefully locked himself in the office to work from 4-9pm. I also bought one of those grocery store cakes that looks really good but that you figure taste like chemicals. Well, after 4 years of being deprived of a decent bakery, I thought it wasn't half bad and it was much easier than trying to bake something myself with 4 kids yelling.
Anyway, a much different weekend than 13 years ago when we got married and 9 years ago when Sean graduated and we found out Megan was on her way. It may not have been a relaxing day but eventually they all fall asleep and I get 12 minutes on the computer before I fall asleep...
ps Congrats to Keely and Julie O who both have #4 on the way. I know they both read this blog but apparently not very closely if they thought #4 wouldn't drive them to the brink of insanity... No really, 4 is awesome. When they sleep.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Toddler Talk
I was feeling energetic (and hungry) the other day so I took the two little ones to the grocery store with me. Patrick was thrilled to get to ride in the kid car shopping cart so he was just chatting away down there, honking the horn, etc. I was talking with this one lady about produce (my tips from Barefoot Contessa come in so handy) and felt pretty good about how I had so much healthy stuff in the cart, why I must be a good mom, right? (You know, before we hit the chip aisle.) Anyway, as I walk away from this lady I figure out what Patrick has been saying the whole time.... "cheeseburger plain, french fry, chocolate milk". Yes, he was pretending to order from Wendy's and yes, he has the order memorized because we go so often. At least no one can understand him without an interpreter.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Netflix Survey
The only online surveys I have time for these days are the ones from Netflix that ask me which day my movie arrived. One question, click and done. I was afraid that the one today would lead to more questions though..... such as, "do you plan on actually watching this movie or was this one you put on your list 3 years ago when EW said it was a "must see" documentary and you have been pushing it to the bottom ever since?" Argh, the day has finally arrived and it feels like homework. The worst part: it has 5 more follow up episodes to it.... this is quite a commitment for someone who only has time for 4 hours of TV shows each week. Obviously I could cut down on computer time... Anyway, it is called Seven Up. I will let you know next year if it is any good.
Two year old talents
Patrick is getting too good at copying everything we say, including the sighs of annoyance and groans of disgust. No swearing yet but this morning he was echoing my "come on" to the girls to get them motivated out the door. For you Arrested Development fans, to amuse myself in the morning I do say "come on" just like GOB does. In other GOB references, I at least reply quietly when the girls ask me if I want to see them do a magic trick. "It's not a trick, it's an illusion. A trick is something a whore does for drugs- or candy!". That's probably not even the exact quote but I am too tired to google that. Oh, but I bet now Bridget will get me back for using the "let me google that for you" website after I finally got to use it on her yesterday. I would insert the link for that but I have never gotten that to work on here.
http://lmgtfy.com/
Just copy and paste and then next time someone asks you a question that they could easily answer themselves with google, you go here, type it in and it gives you a link to send to them that then gives them a little demo. I am guessing that Stephanie will love this one, just her type of humor!
I know I had other things to share but I am too tired and getting the kids to nap at the same time just isn't happening these days. Emily is also still sensitive to caffeine and even the green tea keeps her up so I can't rely on that. How will I ever find the energy to clean for real?! Right now I am going to at least work on the stickiest parts of the floor....
http://lmgtfy.com/
Just copy and paste and then next time someone asks you a question that they could easily answer themselves with google, you go here, type it in and it gives you a link to send to them that then gives them a little demo. I am guessing that Stephanie will love this one, just her type of humor!
I know I had other things to share but I am too tired and getting the kids to nap at the same time just isn't happening these days. Emily is also still sensitive to caffeine and even the green tea keeps her up so I can't rely on that. How will I ever find the energy to clean for real?! Right now I am going to at least work on the stickiest parts of the floor....
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Quick shots of the Littles
They are both ready for a quiet week after the chaos we just survived. April in general was insane, this weekend in particular was the worst. May is wide open, time to recuperate before school gets out...
The Opposite of Last Weekend
We actually did start out the weekend with date night, so that was nice, but came home to 4 crabby kids to put to bed. Not so nice. Then somehow the rest of the weekend turned into a whirlwind of carting excessive children to various events, some with Sean, some without Sean, some with Sean leaving halfway through... I don't know what was more fun: trying to shuttle 4 kids, 3 bags, and a car seat out of the dress rehearsal after Anna's dance was done (from the very middle of the auditorium in the dark while other dances were going on and Emily was howling) or hanging around after church for 45 minutes waiting for Sean to return and pick us up. He wasn't on call but there was a "perfect storm" that resulted in him having to leave and I decided that sneaking a family of 6 out in the middle of mass (especially during the talk from the finance guy) was not the way to go. I was an idiot and didn't realize that meant he had to go to the hospital, not just home to read a study. Some kind people did offer us a ride home but without car seats (and a key to my own home) I figured that wasn't a good idea. So instead the girls picked up treasures (trash to the rest of us) and Patrick played in the big ashtray of sand. Yum. And I fed the baby again. I fed her so much this weekend to keep her quiet that I surely burned enough calories for some ice cream now that all the kids are finally in bed. Or some wine. Or is there a wine that pairs well with ice cream? Let me google that for you.
Anyway, it was a big weekend for Anna. She had her kindergarten program and it will now take Sean another 2 years to get those songs out of his head. These are the months of the year! Then she had her dance recital. Having missed the last 2 classes I wasn't sure how she would do, but she didn't trip or pick her nose on stage, so I rate that a thumbs up. It was my fear that she would love the recital so much that she would want to do this again next year, but no worries. She was relieved to get off the stage and I'm sure the memory of fighting me each week about having to go to class is still fresh in her mind. Her teachers were wonderful and there were a lot of great girls in her class but this is not the activity for her. I am going to have both girls try a bunch of sport camps this summer to see if they like anything, without having to commit to a whole season of family torture.
Upcoming posts to watch for: before and after shots of our ridiculous storage room, Patrick got the mullet trimmed, and the biggest pile of mail/school papers/newspapers/banana peels you have ever seen. I should get to work on that, right after the merlot and ice cream.
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