Breakfast of Champions

Whenever someone feels guilty eating a caramel bar I point out that it has oatmeal in it and thus counts as breakfast. I don't recall mentioning this to Patrick however so I was a little surprised this morning when he got out his bowl, went over to the pan with caramel bars in it and demanded that I put one in the bowl. There was some militant pointing involved, I had no choice but to give in.

Not sure how to feel about this...

Anna got a punch in some good behavior card at school and she was so proud telling Sean about it. She had answered a tough question about what a community is. Proud to say that I sit down and review vocabulary words with the kids every night and of course as I drive them around town. I keep a list with me at all times and we just review them when we have a spare moment. Ha. Ha. Ha. Of course she learned it on TV! Good old Martha Speaks taught her that one. Cyberchase is teaching her about fractions and the Bachelor is teaching her about drinking and hot tubs. She may not have to actually study until college, unless she goes to a really fun one, then who knows, she might just slide into MBA school without even noticing.

The other incident that we aren't sure how to feel about happened when we were out on date night this week and the waitress asked if the check was together or separate. I found it hilarious at first, reminded me of Modern Family where Gloria plans a trip to Hawaii for the whole family and surprises Jay with it. Everyone talks about how generous Gloria is and Jay finally says, where does everyone think Gloria gets her money?? Anyway, then we later wondered just what the waitress was thinking... awkward first date, who pays for that? Or business colleagues with separate expense accounts? Should we have been making out at the table to help clarify the situation? It could always be worse... I remember more than once people thought my high school boyfriend was my brother. Definitely knew how to feel about that comment.

10 Months

Yes, 10 months about 11 days ago... anyway, Emily is crawling everywhere, getting lots of teeth and starting to pull up. She says ma-ma a lot which might refer to me or perhaps to the bread she wants me to give her. She also says something that Anna thinks is her name and we're all going along with that. Anna is having some pretty serious middle child drama, anything to make her feel special. Hard to believe we will be in the new house before her birthday! Tuesday mornings she has me to herself and gets to enjoy a quiet nap, hence computer time.

The Packing

I was so proud of the two boxes of stuff I packed up, had them sitting by the stairs for Sean to take down to storage, but apparently forgot to tell him that's why they were there. Almost 15 years we've been together and he still can't read my mind? So today when I snuck off for a shower, letting the Incredibles babysit Patrick while Emily was safely locked in her room sleeping, Patrick tested his incredible strength and knocked one over. I didn't wrap the Christmas dishes that well since I figured I was just going to drive them across town myself, so they of course broke. If we can keep this system up we will have very little to move which is a good thing now that I think about how many trips across town this is going to involve...

Here is a random motorcycle shot. He tried to bring it to mass on Sunday but I refused to let it out of the van.

Sunday Comments (in no particular order)

Best Cake Ever: www.carolinescakes.com

The caramel cake is worth every cent (and calorie). We first had this at the Outer Banks Keenan Reunion thanks to the Buffalo Keenans. Warning, it is not as big as the picture leads you to believe, and thus if you try to share it with 35 Keenans, you will get a very thin slice. So to make up for that tease, I am eating the entire thing by myself (pretty much), thanks to the best in-laws EVER for my birthday treat. I did share with a dear friend who is going in for surgery though. She is very thin and needs the calories, and I'm not totally selfish and heartless. Of course I am not letting my own children have any. I mean, come on, they think the best dessert ever is an Oreo, it's good for them to have something better to look forward to someday. I have also learned that something else delicious is coming in the mail and that I need to hurry up and finish this one. I am afraid that the second piece (TODAY's second piece) may have pushed me over the edge though. Sean, you have permission to have some after your shift is over tonight, I suppose you have earned it.

UND on my caller ID

I am a loyal alumni, but there is a limit. That limit is 1 and 3. Do not ask for more money until I can fly my flag again. Also, you have lots of money already. Let's just say there was a high five yesterday after the 3rd loss, celebrating the timing of us canceling the season tickets. You know what I am going to love way more than a bunch of heartbreaking football losses? Hardwood floors in the kids' rooms. They are going to look awesome, unlike the defense AND the offense.


Hoarders Support Group


Whenever I get a box in the mail, I quickly pack up some of our stuff for the move. I know, I could actually make an effort to go get boxes and do this for real, but that would require planning. This is about all the motivation I can manage with 5 weeks to go. So as I am packing up stuff I won't need for 5 weeks it occurs to me that unless it is holiday stuff, it is stuff I can probably manage without forever, so I reflected back on some lessons learned from the show Hoarders, and started filling up the van.

I have posted about this so many times that no doubt some of you question whether there is indeed anything left IN my house. Yes, yes there is, thanks to the children and their little backpacks. They're like circus cars... how can so much crap come out of one bag, night after night after night. I think magazine sales would be more successful if you didn't punish the parents by giving the children prizes to bring home. No, I do not need 3 squishy brains, thank you. Every time I throw one away, another appears. Are they mating behind the dryer? How is this possible? And if I step on one in the middle of the night and think that it's a snake, well, someone is going to have to pay for my therapy. Ah, well, the army is good for something! That and how they pay for packers and movers if you move on their schedule, i.e. not just to another house in town because your children are too loud for your current home. Which brings me to my final point tonight:

LOUD CHILDREN

Now that we have decided to move, it can't come soon enough. It seems that the children grow louder every day and I spend most of my day trying to keep them quiet. Someone is always sleeping or working and the remaining occupants try to prevent that. I keep hoping that when Sean has to call the ER with results that they don't notice the noise in the background because it is also loud where they are. I was just going to start training the children to make hospital type noises and use medical words (code brown instead of change my diaper, for example) when we lucked into this new house. We will miss this house but I am ready for more wine, I mean, more space.

Revenge of the Baby?

I mean, seriously, first the van and now Emily is trying to prove me wrong. Guess she thought I wanted to kick off the birthday party early yesterday and was up at 4:30, then 5:30 and then I gave up at 6 and just got it going. Patrick took the lead this morning at 6 and she wasn't far behind. I realize this is standard behavior for years in other houses but in general our kids have learned that nothing fun is going to happen early so no point in getting up before at least 7. I hate when the big girls come trudging out of bed early on the weekend, clearly exhausted but motivated by the thought of unlimited TV shows so I put an end to that by refusing to let it on before 8.

I am usually pretty easy going and flexible unless it interferes with my sleep. I also hold firm when Patrick begs and begs for some of my hard cider. He brings over a little cup and tries to get me to pour him some. Oh and don't go thinking that one sip might cure him of that. That was my plan with my iced tea (unsweetened GREEN iced tea I might add) because surely he would gag like Sean, but no, now he is always swiping that from me. Love when I get in the van and realize after we're on the road that my iced tea is all gone and someone is looking peppy in his car seat. He fell asleep on the way to school pick up though yesterday and even transfered to his bed (floor) when we got home. Talk about a great birthday gift! Also appreciated was the Modern Family DVD, which if you are not watching this show, you have to. Go to hulu.com right now and pick an episode. Or come borrow my DVD and start at the beginning.

I was going to give a shout out to Kitra about how her personal version of Coach Eric Taylor is doing (and if you don't know who Coach Taylor is go get the Friday Night Lights DVDs, now!) but I think a blog mention is now bad luck, based on the van and Emily... I will wait until the season is over and then we can also discuss how he keeps his papers during the game. I am going to have to get a photo of that...

Go with the flow baby

We just wrapped up a rather hectic couple days with my parents here, various house inspections, contractor meetings, transportation problems, general lack of sleep, etc. and through it all Emily barely made a peep (she even got another tooth during this). We always have kid chaos here but I try to keep things low key for the neglected baby. Today I had to take her on a crazy ride in the stroller to go get the van and then later I had to wake her up from her nap to go talk to the floor guy and she was totally fine. Not a single fuss. I also kept giving her food all day, easier to keep her in her highchair while I cleaned before the inspection, so maybe that helped. Now Patrick was pretty much the opposite so maybe we are just working off the good kid/ bad kid dynamic.

Whatever is working there is much appreciated and frankly, it's all I want for my birthday. Anna asked me if Sean could take her to the store tomorrow to buy me a present and I told her I would rather just have good behavior from her. Yeah, she wasn't going for it, much easier to spend Dad's money. Kind of reminds me of Modern Family where Gloria pays for Jay's birthday trip to Hawaii. "Where does everyone think Gloria gets her money?"

ps Thanks to whoever sent me the awesome cake! I know it's a Keenan, just not sure which one. It's too good to share with the kids...

Revenge of the Van

Yes, I was mocking the van and exposing how the kids pimped it out with crayons, so it decided to go all crazy on me and not start today after school. Thankfully I didn't have the littles with me because that would have been even more inconvenient. The first thing Sean tells me is that I am not getting a new house AND a new car for my birthday. Hello, Christmas is coming. Yes, but hopefully it's not Christmas for the mechanic.

So here's another tip for those of you who ignored this blog and went on to get pregnant a 4th time anyway... for that 2nd vehicle, go ahead and pick one out that can seat more than 4 people. We're in the midst of the Perfect Storm here, a lot of places to be tomorrow and one small car to make it happen. I'm having flashbacks to the two months before Emily was born when we kept trying to work out a plan for what would happen when I went into labor. I had babysitters on alert, neighbors and friends to help out, and many, many hospital call schedules to consider. Normally it is helpful that a lot of our friends are medical, but not so helpful when I need someone to come stay with my kids in the middle of the night but their husband might be working and thus, they can't leave their own house. I assure you, it was a logistical nightmare. (Of course Emily waited until I was induced when my parents were here, all that stress for nothing except sleepless nights.)

Which brings me to tomorrow... I've got inspectors coming to my trashed house (at school pick up time), a floor guy coming to the new house (at a yet to be determined time, surprise me!), kids who need to get to/from school, Sean who needs to get to/from work, sitter who can't come tomorrow, no room for the littles in the car, and NO HARD CIDER LEFT. Yes, there is a reason for that last item. I need some sleep tonight...

Megan's Van

After the latest round of damage in the back seat I reminded the girls that in 7.5 years Megan will be driving it. This summer they melted some crayons on the seat and then took their shoes off, stuck their feet in them and then wiped them on the carpet. Awesome. Some remains on the seat, forever I would guess.


This was after they just colored old school style on the arm rest thing.


Temporary damage cost me $3.79 this week when the extra loud bag of Sun Chips apparently exploded and then was trampled on (you will notice that some of them are intact which is why I left them... recoup some of my losses there, a snack for tomorrow's riders).


There are days when I think about abandoning it and just starting over with a new van, but it only has 75,000 miles on it after 7 years... the old Volvo had at least 200,000, hard to tell for sure as the odometer broke at some point, along with many other things that we didn't bother to fix. I have seen it limping around town though so apparently someone bought it.

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Anna will be delighted to see this blog entry someday... Morning hair is especially fabulous as is her attitude.

Monday: You're Doing It Wrong

One of our neighbors was talking last night about how he hates Sunday nights because of Monday Dread. He is clearly doing Mondays wrong. Mondays are all about recovering from the weekend. Obviously if you are a stay at home mom with at least one child in school, then Mondays are pretty awesome. Half my workload leaves the house at 7:15am, hard to beat that, well until they all leave at 7:15... In the meantime, we have Movie Mondays where I park Tiny Tyrant in front of the longest movie we own (Cars: 2 hours!) and I get right to work. Let me clarify, I start the washing machine. Oh, arms so tired from loading the laundry in, time for a computer break. But now I can hear the washer going and I feel productive while I catch up on facebook, email, blogs, celebrity news and house obsessing.

(Sidenote: I just realized that Emily, the non-movie watcher, is dusting my lower shelves with Megan's socks. I may home school this child, she's already more helpful than the rest. Just think of what she will be able to do when she can walk! And gets taller!)


Oh, but back to those people who have jobs outside the home... how to deal with Mondays, you just pretend to work, duh. If you're the boss, then you already know that your staff is doing this and unfortunately you probably can't do the same. Sorry Sean and Kitra... at least you have quiet offices to go hide in and there are no children to come pound on your keyboards. The trophy spouses really appreciate the paychecks you bring home! Hmm, feeling a twinge of guilt here, maybe I should make dinner tonight....

A Rare Event

Patrick almost never naps these days and if he does it is usually in the van. It was a wonderful surprise to discover him like this the other day. Emily was thrilled too and enjoyed throwing his toys around. I had to wake him to pick the girls up from school which was rather painful but he did get a couple hours so any more than that and he would have been partying late into the night.

I do it, I do it!

Patrick is at that adorable stage where he insists on doing everything himself which would be quite helpful, if he was actually able to do it in a timely matter. New pajamas from Aunt Bridget tonight... he did finally succeed but there was some kicking and yelling.

Fun Surprise!

So glad I didn't go out to the hot tub by myself last night in the dark... would have run right into this. Ah, nothing like a face full of spiderweb and the spider itself.

Fancy Birthday Party

Yes, once again I outdid myself with an outrageous birthday party for one of the kids. Patrick was thrilled to have some friends over (those available with practically no notice), some fancy food (thank you Papa John's delivery man), and a highly personalized birthday cake (the gal at the ice cream place wrote his name on the cake-- that's right, no character cake, no "happy birthday", just his name). Ah, to be 3 and so easily pleased. Last year both Megan and Anna decided to go to the Great Wolf Lodge for a night instead of having a party and they both still remind me that we never made it there. Baby kind of threw a kink in those plans, whoops. Anyway, here is Patrick singing to himself:


Then he licked the cake:


And then he finally found a spoon.

Commands from Patrick

I am officially on the Patrick Diet now. Whatever I am eating, he asks if he can have it. Sometimes he asks sweetly and I give in because I have forgotten to feed him, other times he has just eaten but then will point at my food with his militant finger and demand I hand it over. Kind of annoying when it's the last of the bread. He loves telling Emily that she can't have any yet, something I started back when we were trying to convince him that it's better to be a big boy than a baby. He will probably do this the rest of his life. She can already tattle on him though, she will screech her angry screech until I look at her and then she will look over at him where it is always obvious that he has just taken her toy away. I'm sure this is just a passing phase.... I mean, look at how the big girls turned out.

Patrick's song of the day is "Daddy is a doo-doo head". I don't think he was happy with how the morning boot and belt OCD routine went and Sean didn't have time to repeat it all. A long weekend looming... I might be singing that same song by the time Sean returns from Denver.

A Small Glimpse

For anyone who has forgotten what life with a 3 year old is like, here you go. Patrick got some big floor puzzle for his birthday and I thought it might keep him occupied for a few minutes. Oh, it kept him busy but only for the taking apart portion of the activity. He refused to let anyone put it together and when Megan did it without him realizing he burst onto the scene and brought out the big voice. He tore it all apart, screeching the entire time, just flinging the pieces around the kitchen. He also wouldn't let me pick them up until he went to bed (and then not only did I clean it up but I also hid it well). He may never see it again. Should I mention this in the thank you note? Let the record show that the worst gift by a long shot was from SEAN though, some obnoxious talking Buzz Lightyear phone computer thing. That's the first thing that is going in his new office above the garage. Will just send Patrick over to visit it there.

ps Other things to notice in this photo... Patrick's attire. Not only does he refuse to potty train but most days he refuses to have clothes on. Also, yes, that is a tricycle that he has decided is perfect for riding around the house. At night I go hide it in the garage behind heavy things and somehow he manages to get it back in the house most every day. I would send it off to work in Sean's car but he's never run into a wall or furniture so I can't really complain-- and it does tire him out.

Kid Junk

Ah, as November 1st approaches, I am feeling the need to get rid of kid junk so it doesn't immediately clutter the new house. I am trying to do it gradually so the kids don't realize of course. I just did desk drawers and the art area today, 3 bags to trash, 3 bags to charity (whichever one will accept it, again, I am missing the junk dealers in San Antonio who would troll for this stuff). Anyway, for now I am letting the "rock" collection stay as they are obsessed with it and I am hoping to convince them to find a place for it in the new backyard. But this collection I had no trouble tossing. I realize it is at least better than the acorn collection some friends had... mmm, acorns full of maggots... Let the record show there are NO MAGGOTS in our house, just in case our buyers run across this post.

One Contract Down

Just turned in papers on the new house and am getting ready to turn in the ones on the current house. Now that it's a little more official I can show you the front of the house. To anyone in this small town who recognizes this house and didn't know the owners are moving, now you do! I couldn't fit it all in one shot, had to include one that shows you where Sean will be toiling away late at night. He is currently debating what size TV he will need for his office over the garage. For his "continuing medical education DVDs"?? I am suspicious.

Coffee, Anna?

Everyone has someone in their house like Anna, the slow motion morning person. She is beyond ridiculous though as I will find her just standing in the middle of the laundry room, in a daze. I put the school clothes in cubbies in there so there is no debate as to what they can wear and no fighting about escort service to the basement if one happens to forget a key item of clothing like we dealt with last year. Anyway, it should be so easy and a normal person could be dressed in about 23 seconds but instead it will take her 23 minutes, thus leaving 7 minutes to look at her breakfast and then another 5 minutes in the red zone when she makes a mess in the bathroom with hand soap while we yell at her that we are leaving. Meanwhile Megan is ready early and waiting in the van, reading the paper (the comics).

Happy birthday Patrick?

Bad enough being the third child, but to then have a birthday after a week of insane house buying and selling... Well, I did at least tell him it's his birthday as I debated just postponing it until next week. He has no expectations, so far so good. He hasn't even asked for presents which I had somehow bought by chance a few months ago (supposed to be incentives for potty training, hmm, did we forget that?). Now how will Anna react to her birthday being right when we move? I think those are two good bullet points for my Mother of the Year nomination for those of you still working on it.

Handy Stool

Patrick drags this stool all over the place, to get food that he wants, to play in the sink, to help him get stuff out of the bushes.... in this photo he is telling me to take a picture of his hand. He is very demanding and always tells me he wants "more pictures". The Prince is vain.

Homework completed

I finally finished my homework assignment... writing back to my sister's 4th grade students. This may be the last time she asks me to participates. My final letter:

Dear Connor,
I just told your classmate Jacob a hopefully funny story, so now I have a different one for you. One time when your teacher was about your age we went to the county fair. Mrs. Dunn was riding on the carousel that is made up of swings, so it's like you are flying around in a circle up on a swing. It is pretty awesome. However, it is not awesome when you get sick to your stomach like Mrs. Dunn did. Oh no, not awesome at all. Poor Mrs. Dunn threw up and sprayed the crowd below with vomit. I can't stop laughing as I type this. The worst part is that when they stopped the ride the rest of Mrs. Dunn's family was afraid to go claim her, she was a bit of a mess. I'm pretty sure she never went to the fair again and the crowd is quite grateful for that.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Keenan

ps I hope you are very good for Mrs. Dunn this year or else she might spray the class with vomit. Just saying you might want to keep a rain jacket in your desk to be safe.

Why so quiet?

What could keep me from my dear computer, you wonder? What do I rank above computer time?? A new house! Even casual readers know about my house obsession, my magazine clippings files, the hours of research, the hunt for a great lot to build on.... do not think that was all for nothing. No, that just helped me realize a fabulous house when I saw it. It's a small town and after the fourth person told me to go check out this one house before it went on the market, I finally allowed myself to be tempted and asked for a casual showing. I wasn't going to mention it to Sean but he asked what I had going on so I told him. He offered to tag along and prove that he can do more than golf during his time off. That will probably be the last time he agrees to do that...

I did my best to appear that I was rational and was mulling it over when really I was figuring out where my furniture will go and even better... what else I will need to buy! I brought along my two home obsessed friends for another showing, each of whom also put their husbands through an unscheduled move just because the right house opened up (and yes, because they too got bored with their old houses- we admit it yet do not seek therapy), and they too approved. They also gave me some great advice: to let Sean buy whatever TVs he needs for the new house to soften the blow from leaving his ridiculous one behind. So yes, he is on board now. He also gets himself a serious office over the detached garage and he will be able to sleep there during the day. How he has managed to sleep so much through all the noise the past 3 years, I will never know (although he is also VERY good at sleeping through the noise from the children who get up at night).

Not real confident that our house will sell before spring but I intend to be in the new one by early November. The kids are very excited now that they have seen the basketball court and the little tree fort. It is one of the nicest backyards we have ever seen and we can't believe we get to enjoy it without having gone through the pain of doing it ourselves. I will just give you a sneak peek of that and will show more of the house once we are further along in the process. Trust me, it is amazing and it incorporates so many details that I would have planned myself. In the meantime, if anyone wants a house with a ridiculous TV, I'd be happy to give you details and a good deal!