Noon? Right?

Okay, so when you're on vacation you can start drinking at noon, right? Because clearly I am whooping it up on summer vacation, so tequila on ice is an appropriate drink to go with PBJ. Not for the children, for me... Can't risk them being the type of people to get hyped up when they have alcohol, unlike me who falls asleep. We do not need any hype around here. But, what I could use is some ice. I recently had a date with Mr. Sears to fix my oven and then for double the service fee I was going to have him fix my ice maker too. So Mr. Sears looks at my ice maker and asks if I have tried turning the switch to on. If it would save me a $130 service fee, I was willing to withhold profanity and sarcasm and merely say that I had indeed tried that, but let's try it for the 107th time. And lo and behold the magic touch of Mr. Sears... I hear the sound of the ice maker filling with water after he turns it on. And I get exactly one batch of ice. (Not even enough for a single margarita, sob!). No matter what magic words I use (usually some variation of the f-word), it will not turn on again.

And thus I have to keep buying my ice at the store, which is so lovely to visit with my children. Last time I took Patrick he insisted on finding and buying a turkey baster, thanks to the inspiring episode of Curious George where George uses it to fill a bathtub. Thanks George! Cheaper than the handcuffs the girls wanted to buy in the cereal aisle. Again, I cannot make this stuff up. I could use a random sentence generator program and not ever come up with that one. Handcuffs in the cereal aisle. I stood firm on that one because I did not have the energy to decide which child to handcuff first and they only had one pair left.

I do sometimes use a naive, sweet babysitter to escape for a couple hours. I know that is the limit though before the sitter vows to never return (and never have children of her own). So sometimes I have to make a choice between meeting friends for a child-free lunch or going to the grocery store. I guess for other people that would be a debate, but clearly I am all for lunch for me and cereal for dinner for the kids. Again. Of course they prefer cereal over most dinners I make, so win-win and some wine for me! Always time for a quick stop at the liquor store and you know what, they sell ice.

Emily has a big brother

Emily just came and handed me a live beetle. No fear of bugs here, unlike with the big girls. I realize this should be a facebook post instead but I don't think 272 "friends" would all be interested in that.

Sean post

Not by Sean, but about Sean. He would like it officially documented that he won the long drive contest at the ND Club golf tournament this past Sunday. And I already asked what you are all thinking... yes, it was a straight shot, not a shank. His team also won but I cannot verify what role he played in that since I was obviously home with the children. Towards the end of the day I realized if I didn't act bitter when he got home after 12 hours then it could count as his Father's Day "day off". I also ended up getting myself the grill before I died from eating another meal that I had to cook inside. So now I get to have my favorite meals and everyone else can gag them down so they can get dessert.

My other Sean story is that I was getting him some running stuff yesterday and told the sales guy Sean's name to see if he was in their computer already and another customer asked if Sean was a doctor. I admitted that he was (can I still get that military discount?!) and the guy told me that Sean is his boss. He then told me that he didn't even know Sean was married! He said he'd never seen me come into the department so I explained how I feel it is inappropriate to come disrupt everyone by parading my circus through. We do sneak in on the rare occasion that we are there for shots or a well baby checkup but I keep it quick. When I told Sean all this he assured me that he wears his wedding ring at work and he does have an office full of photos of us. This guy has even been in Sean's office. Apparently it was to get chewed out though so the guy must not have been looking around...

Tyrant Update

The three year old continues his tyrant period, adjusting his demands to meet the needs of summer. Specifically he wants to be outside in his underwear constantly. I can trick him into a bathing suit if I allow him unlimited use of the sprinkler or Gatorade to drink. He is addicted to Gatorade and knows that I will not allow it in the house. I also don't chill it for him, no need to make it more refreshing, trying to wean him off the staining beverage.

Other activities lately include walking around with a train track toy in his mouth, even at church, and trashing his room on the occasion that I just can't take his crap anymore and I have to put him in time-out. Why I bother to fold his clean clothes, I just don't know. How much longer will this last?!

Poser

Emily instinctively knows that she should pose for the camera, even when I catch her doing something naughty like hanging out on the desk watching for Sean to get home.

6 hours

I stained my hands today making playdough in my attempt to be Super Mom. Okay, I made it because that liar Carrie told me that her kids played with it for 6 hours. Oh, what I wouldn't give for something that would keep my kids occupied for 6 hours. I would even stain my hands with food coloring. The girls lasted 15 minutes and then complained that they couldn't think of anything to make but could they now look on my computer for something that they want to BUY? They specifically want more Harry Potter wands and I noticed that some are made of wood. Umm, a stick? Yep, got a yard full of those so I sent them out and told them find a wand in the yard. Now they are asking if they can carve on the sticks. Oh sure, here's my carving knife, have fun! At least Emily naps... and Patrick would spend 6 hours playing with the hose if I let him. And some days I do. Can't wait for that water bill!

Quote

From The Holiday:

Cameron Diaz: I have never had that much to drink before.

Jude Law: Yes, I don't think anyone has ever had that much to drink before.

And that sums up wine club for the month. I think I got the biggest pours.

Ice Water Park

Kids were freezing last night at the splash park but Sean rarely agrees to take them there so they sucked it up and gave it a try even though it was really windy and not at all hot. Poor Emily wearing hand-me-down wet suit, looking like a boy in pink swim shoes. Kind of freaking me out in the photo with Megan, it's like seeing Megan at 18 months and Megan at 9 years old. This did wear them out a bit at least. I have been working hard to keep Patrick busy the past couple days so I don't have to pay for daycare. Parks and pool every chance we get...

Case settled

The guilty party in the case I was supposed to jury the next three days must read my blog because he/she settled and my jury duty is cancelled. I'm pretty sure after shelling out $400 for babysitters I would have declared anyone guilty. Citizen of the Year!

Patrick has been such a challenge lately that I could have used three days off though. If we can't get to the pool, then I can't wear him out and he is extra defiant. Between Emily nap time and big girls' activities, we don't get to the pool every day, so on those days it gets not pretty around here. I could use some suggestions on what to do, other than names of wines. Although if you would like to suggest a good wine, I am always open to that. Today though I need things that would wear out a three year old tyrant. Here is what I have tried so far:

1. Letting him jump on furniture while he watches Max! And! Ruby!

2. Letting him eat all the popcorn he demands.

3. Letting him go outside and drink Gatorade, per his extra loud demands.

ps I enjoy white AND red wines, so feel free to suggest in either category.

Wide Eyed

The other day I put Emily down for a nap around 12:30 which is normal and I thought she fell asleep. Rather, she played quietly for an hour in her crib, no doubt wanting a break from her siblings. Then she yelled for a while and I gave her a snack and she finally went back down at 2pm and slept until 5pm. Surprise, surprise, she wanted nothing to do with bedtime and yelled until 10pm when I finally gave up and got her up for a snack and some books. Like all children past their bedtime but allowed out of bed, she poured on the charm so I wouldn't put her back down. Here she is in her highchair, wide awake while I was ready for bed...

Escapee

Emily took a super long nap today, or so I thought. I was getting a little concerned after hour three and was going to sneak in and check on her when I heard a thud and then a lot of crying. Yes, unlike her sisters, Emily learned to escape the crib. Patrick only did it once and then we got him a real bed. Of course he did teach her this as he climbs in and out of her crib on a regular basis to jump with her (whatever uses up his energy, I don't care). Her mouth was bleeding so I took her to see Sean in his office. No need for a head CT, just some milk to drink.

Anna has put every spare pillow and blanket around the crib in case she tries it again so we will see how tonight goes. It is far too early to move her to a real bed, mostly because there is no room for a third twin bed in the girls' room and the bigs refuse to move to the basement (although I threaten it on a regular basis, like every time they wake up Emily as they are going to bed). She also ate a cough drop today and liked it so much that she refused to spit it into my hand. I think we have passed from sweet baby to Patrick's partner in crime. I told Sean to start pricing day care and he thought I was kidding. Instead he is trying to switch all his moonlighting to that 5pm to 10pm shift.

The Record

Let the record show that while Sean did make it to his Father's Day golf lesson, a mere 5 hours after he finished his shift last night, he did not get to enjoy a round or two of golf afterwards. No, he got to enjoy another full length mass (looked like it might be a 50 minute record, but no, they added on 10 minutes of extra stuff so everyone got their money's worth) with wiggly children before he headed over to work another shift. The noon to five? I didn't even know it existed but apparently everyone else did and knew to block their schedule. So on this beautiful Sunday afternoon he is power scribing away and I have the children sequestered in the basement with a movie (and the required 3 bags of popcorn) while Emily takes a nap. And I have my favorite activities planned... laundry, dishes, and bathroom cleanup, wheeeee! I will give Sean a rain check for another day off later this summer and perhaps in the fall he will get that round of golf, in Ireland?

Oh, to be three

Sean likes to quote a bit from Ray Romano's book about how he thinks the happiest life stage is when you are three. I think Patrick would agree. This is how he works out. He takes two chocolate chip pumpkin muffins and puts them in the bottom of the stroller that he shares with Emily. Then he runs down our driveway in his crocs, shouting that these shoes are good for running. Yes, nothing like those loose plastic slip on shoes for running. Why don't people wear those for marathons, I just don't know. Anyway, he continues to run until the bottom of the hill, then he jumps in the stroller for the uphill portion of the route. And he demands that I hand him his muffins so he can get more energy. Once we reach the top of the next hill and I accidentally start going down it without his permission he launches into hysterics until I turn around and walk back up that hill so he can get out and run down the entire thing. He repeats this on every hill but I did learn my lesson and thus I stop to remind him to get out so he can run it. Towards the end he hangs on to the stroller so I don't go past him. He does have to win what he thinks is a race down every hill. There is so much stop and go and fighting that it really isn't a workout for me and I give up half way through and just take him home. As I am pushing him up our driveway, the steepest hill of all, he sighs contentedly and declares that it was a fun workout. Yes, Prince Patrick, enjoy your muffin as I push you to your destination...

I'm sure at least once he declared that he is a good runner. He does the same thing no matter the activity... no lack of self confidence here. Today he was a good swimmer, umm, in a life jacket? He was also "very good at tennis", which he reminded us every time he swung the racket. Anna found this especially irritating. She is a bit competitive but hasn't figured out that all she has to do is announce that she is good at something too.

Random add on story: The girls begged to go to the library today and I didn't have a good reason to not take them, other than general laziness. Megan did pick out some books as she loves to stay up way later than me reading every night. Well, Anna managed to find the DVD section and found two iCarly DVDs. Yes, it's like when I go to the Farmer's Market and come home with cookies.

My husband is a genius

I wasn't going to post this at first, rather just send it to a few who get my "off the blog" stories, but then I thought, no, maybe if another husband sees this then I won't suffer alone. So you three male readers, let me break it down for you. This is how you get your dream Father's Day Weekend Extravaganza.

First and foremost, you must strike down all attempts to get you a much needed, but not wanted, gift item. In Sean's case it is a grill. Yes, we no longer own one, it was "reluctantly" left behind at the old house with lots of insincere talk about what kind he would like for the new house. This has gone on now for 7 months. I have done a lot of legwork researching new grills and I discuss it with anyone who is forced to listen. Should I be embarrassed that my Schwan's man's opening line is asking if we got a grill yet? He is dying to sell us some grilling items and every two weeks I have to admit my defeat. The bottom line is that Sean can't be conned. No, he knows that standing over a hot grill on a 97 degree evening while I "make the side dishes" inside in the a/c with a carafe of wine is not ideal. Well, not ideal for him at least.

Secondly, if there are any actual gift items that you want, go ahead and order them under the guise of them being your Father's Day gift. Make sure it arrives a few days early when you know that your 3 year old tyrant son will insist on opening it and thus, negating it as a faux surprise gift to be given on the actual Father's Day. So, you get what you want and it doesn't count! Well played, Sean, well played.

Third, be sure to mention all the fun trips that you are passing up, in theory because of work schedule, but in reality it's because you are saving points for something bigger. Vegas in the hottest part of summer or international golf in the fall? Hmm, I wonder. In the meantime, oh, slaving away at the hospital, no time to play. Never a free moment, nope, certainly not reading every article and blog post about Notre Dame football, oh no. Yes, free time away from whiny staff and children, so rare, so precious.... such an affordable Father's Day gift... cough, cough.

I GIVE UP! Yes, I am giving the gift of time off. I deal with this circus the rest of the week, I suppose I can suck it up for two more days while Sean hides in his home office with a TV so big that we can no longer take the home office deduction on our taxes. I know there is some golf scheduled too, shocker. Yes, a lesson at 8am followed by 36 holes of golf to make sure the lesson sinks in no doubt.

Ah, but there is a light at the end of my tunnel... JURY DUTY. If I am mistakenly selected for a trial on Tuesday, then I will get to spend several hundred dollars of my babysitting budget to sit in a courtroom, seething with anger. And for this honor I will get paid $10 the first day and $15 each day after that. And if I don't get picked I may pretend I did and head to the pool by myself. Oh, let people just try and judge me in my cover-up! No one is going to count my stretch marks, thank you very much. Yes, the stretch marks from gaining extreme amounts of weight during those 36 months when I was pregnant. Oh now, giving birth to four babies was really difficult for Sean too, I don't want to downplay all the pain he went through. He was a real trooper! But I digress, this is about Father's Day! Father's Day Weekend! Two whole days of pretending the children don't exist! Best! Gift! Ever! No really, whoop it up, I will be over here with a carafe of wine, remembering Paris, amid the chaos and dramatic fighting.

(As a side note to newer readers who are impressed that I took a trip to Paris with a friend, Sean is no stranger to fun trips away from the family. Why in just the last month of my pregnancy with Emily he went to Pebble Beach, the ND/USC game, and his moonlighting party weekend in Denver. Yes, the doctor allowed him to fly in my last month of pregnancy. When I had three other children at home. Is no one on my side? No one helped big, old, could barely waddle, me. When I went to Paris his parents came to watch the children. And he still took time off work... so he could golf with his Dad. Apparently he went from his mom spoiling him, to me spoiling him. And I suppose he deserves it so I won't be bitter tomorrow. Or on Sunday. And I will try not to be bitter tonight since he is in fact working a moonlighting shift. Yes, best father ever, he never sleeps so they can go to college someday, as long as it's not Boston College.)

The only way I get to see other adults

All hail the pool. Even better when Sean comes to wrangle the kids. It is an enormous amount of work getting them ready and then bathing them when we get home, but it gets me out of the house and I always find another adult to talk to, so I power through.

Female Frustration

Come on ladies, how many of you have been pissed off when your shoes just don't fit right anymore? Emily is learning this lesson young.

Father's Day Prep

Making cards for Father's Day devolved into cutting up his unread golf magazines into teeny tiny pieces. Kept him busy for a while though and I'm sure yet another golf magazine will show up in the mail today to replace it. Now I need to think of something else to keep him busy today during nap time until summer beer time, I mean, pool time... And this, my friends, is why we pay to go to the club with its pool that isn't nearly as fun as the city pools... Also, it's so empty that I have no problem watching 4 kids at once. I almost always save the summer beer for when Sean is there to help though, no need for an intervention just yet.

I should be productive

It is raining and thus the pool, my excuse for not being productive, is not open. Yet. I am holding out hope that it will be nice weather by dinner time, err, I mean later this afternoon which if it runs into dinner time and we have to eat up there, well, so be it. The oven is working again so worse comes to worse, I do have bread to feed the children. They were very crabby for the week when I was unable to bake their bread in the oven. I tried doing it all in the bread machine but it doesn't taste the same, especially not to the sensitive palates of my children. Yes, they will eat a hot dog that has fallen on the ground but not bread if it is slightly drier than they are used to. Pray for me.

Now I did fold my alloted two loads of laundry already today. Impressive, I know. How does one get the opportunity to do so much laundry when the children insist on pajama day every day and swim suits the rest of the time? Oh dear reader, you underestimate my children. There are brief moments in the day when I require the children to get dressed, like if I am forced to take them in public. No matter how short those outings are, they all manage to spill something on their clothes and thus fill my laundry baskets with some love. And every night when we get home from the pool I throw all the pool towels and suits in the wash. And then some mornings I find another load to add to Sean's running clothes, which must not linger.

Ah, the running clothes... Sean is gearing up to train for the Army 10 miler with his family. He found a training schedule that he liked, specifically one that only requires 10 weeks of training. In the meantime he is getting up for easy runs when he feels like it. And when he doesn't feel like it then I get to go for a walk, sometimes without children! I digress. So he has been concerned about getting schooled by his little sister in this race so I asked her what her times are like so he knows what to aim for. She responded that she is planning to run it with Sean and Leo, unless they get back into high school shape which would be too fast for her. Can you get a hernia from laughing? Because I think I did. I finally googled it myself to find her splits and when I told Sean about the 7 minute miles he scoffed and said, yeah, but what distance. Oooooh, the 10 miler she did last fall. Silence.

Sean ordered himself some fancy running GPS watch thing for Father's Day so he can check his pace (btw, got here today, Sean). I'm sure he will do just fine while creating lots of laundry. I am going to have to borrow that watch to check my speed chasing the stroller down the hill though. There are a few houses in the neighborhood that are mighty impressed with my speed I'm sure. Unless they notice me going in slow motion pushing the stroller up that same hill...

Wasting time

I would be doing more blog posts if I wasn't spending endless hours reading someone else's blog. This is a real one, with more than 12 fans (love all 12 of you!!), and I especially recommend the post about improving facebook. I still can't get a link to post so you will have to cut and paste to find this, sorry.

http://snarkyinthesuburbs.com/

Or maybe it will work now, go wild, give it a shot.

Chicken Feeders

This was another activity that kept the kids busy in Michigan: feeding someone else's chickens. My parents save every scrap of food (sound familiar, Heather?) except chicken meat and then take it to feed the chickens and are rewarded with eggs. The kids loved going in the golf cart of course, poor Emily missed out on the whole deal though. Megan is the only one who will eat eggs still, I had hoped that might entice Anna and Patrick to try them. Nope. Patrick is demanding chocolate chips for breakfast this morning and if I thought it would improve his behavior I would give in. He is reaching boarding school levels I tell you. I just told him I might have to call in the old babysitter... who was a bit strict. It worked for a few minutes.

BAAAAA

Emily continues to be obsessed with any sort of small animal... birds, bunnies, squirrels, etc. She screams BAAAA whenever she sees one and will continue to scream BAAAA until we acknowledge this. So precious. My parents have an obviously fake chipmunk hanging around the cottage and we totally freaked Emily out with it. A little too close for comfort apparently. She finally figured it out and then loved holding it. She unfortunately missed it when a mole ran through the sand pile, right between Patrick's feet as he was playing. Wish I had a picture of that face. Still better than a snake...

Digging in the dirt

No one remembers that Peter Gabriel song? Nope, just me. Okay, this was one of the other activities planned by my Dad to tire the children out. He just put piles of sand on the shore instead of spreading it out, figured that the kids would do it while playing around. Of course, what boy could resist that opportunity?

I thought they were just drunk

Our last night at the reunion Sean and I were talking to a guy I kind of knew in college and someone who merely looked familiar. The first guy, Cort, had hooked up with a roommate of mine at some point and then went on to hook up with many, many other girls before he entered the seminary. And then left the seminary and apparently had a pirate themed wedding in Vegas, which I had wrongly assumed was a joke.

So as we are standing there a guy walks up who doesn't have a class year on his name badge which means he isn't an alumni and Cort introduces him as so and so's husband. So the other guy says, "Oh, are you here alone?". The husband gets this look on his face like, you idiot, why would I come to my wife's reunion without her? So to emphasize that I realize your spouse's college reunion is not necessarily a hee-haw good time, I ask him if she just sent him with a list of guys that she had hooked-up with so he could check them out. Lots of laughter which I figured was due to beer consumption. I just learned that the wife, whom I didn't know but a friend does know, did indeed hook-up with Cort. What timing I have.

Second Place

I think it is fair to say that ND is a slightly competitive environment. Lots of big fish coming from small ponds, expecting to remain big fish. At pre-orientation the summer before we even started our freshman year I gave up and decided to just have fun and make friends. I am still that way so if anyone thinks I am competing with them I assure you, I am too tired for that. For example, I didn't buy this house to show off and compete, I bought it because I am obsessed with interior design and houses. You can't even see it from the street, I don't post pictures on facebook, and we rarely invite people over, so clearly I'm not showing off. And I don't walk into someone else's house to judge it and see if it is better than mine. I am actually looking for ideas to copy and I love nothing more than seeing a great house (I get 7 home design magazines each month in case someone doubts this). Hint, hint, invite me over!

And those who act defensive when they find out I have more kids than them... I didn't have 4 to "win". Ha ha, trust me, that is not "winning"!! Can't think of a stupider reason to have lots of kids. We had 4 kids because we (mostly) enjoy them and I am slightly addicted to babies and I don't have some big career... this is it, my career is these kids, may as well dive in.

Along the lines of not being competitive, I do take pride in the accomplishments of my friends, rather than comparing myself to them. My dear friend Amanda just started a new business and you can find her blog about AsterHouse Design on my sidebar. It is really taking off and I am so excited to hear about her projects and get even more help from her, so please check it out, especially if you are local! Also a quick shout-out to Dyan who wouldn't have time to read this anyway, but she just made partner at Deloitte in NYC. She still had time to get us those USC tickets too, much appreciated.

So this all said, the reunion was interesting with some very competitive types there. I didn't hide that we live in Kansas so right away people felt that they beat us and would relax. Sean was surprised that at the class dinner they didn't ask everyone who makes $50,000/year to stand up, then remain standing if you make $100k, then $200k, etc. Last one standing gets some polite applause, like in church for the couple who has been married 67 years. You know some people were really hoping for that.

The only thing Sean was hoping to win was a poker tournament at the casino in Michigan, that my parents kept insisting he go visit so he'd have fun and drive us back to visit again someday. The second night he got second place and some cash to pay for gas all the way home. At $4.29 a gallon that was a huge win! He's competitive where it counts...

A big truck to drive

When I went to Paris, Patrick asked me to bring him home a big truck that he could drive. I think he was remembering that my dad had told him that there is one in Michigan waiting for him to come use. So he was certainly looking forward to our trip out there last week and he was not disappointed. For some reason they couldn't get it to go in reverse so if Patrick did not heed the call to start turning soon enough he would have to get off and lift up the truck to turn it all the way around (notice his tongue sticking out, such concentration). A good work-out so I approved. I have more photos to post about various activities my parents came up with to tire the children out, so stay tuned!

Thursday Ramblings

Just a few stories from the last week or so... There is a truck that was dropping off a kid at an activity with Anna this morning and on the door it said "We rent machine guns". It's obviously for the gun range that is advertised on the back but still, when I first saw that I wondered how many people call to see if they can just rent it for an hour. Just need to run by my office and then I'll be right back!

On Saturday there was no room at the Inn (at Saint Mary's) so we figured we would just get on the road for a couple hours after the class dinner and then find a hotel. The kids all fell asleep so it just got harder and harder to think about stopping and dealing with all the work it would entail to wake them up and drag everything in so we could all sleep for a few hours. Finally at 11:30pm we were desperate and in the middle of rural Illinois, so of course by then there was just a shady Super 8 motel that we had to choose. Sean went to check in and the clerk asked how many nights. Umm, a week? Yeah, that would be great. Hello, we need it for like 6 hours and we will certainly not be using that shower. After finally waking Anna up, which by the way was so hilarious that I was crying from laughing so hard, we all stumble through the luxurious lobby full of random people with children of all ages just hanging out. Who knew the Super 8 lobby was such a party scene?? Ugh, we will plan better next time. We can make the drive to South Bend in one day, 11 hours if we don't stop (everyone in a pull-up!), so we'll see how football season goes. We did get 4 tickets TOGETHER for the USC game, thanks to a friend who bid for us in a silent auction for the NYC ND alumni club. I'm sure they never thought the winner would be from the other Manhattan (not that they know the Kansas one exists, but in theory).

I did brave Target today with all four kids as we needed a birthday gift for a friend. Do you think we left the store with just that gift or did each child also pick something out for themselves? It was raining at the time so I was staring down a long day inside trying to keep them quiet enough for nap time. At least the girls like the DS games that are so lame that they are on clearance and now they are quiet so it was worth it. And it is distracting them from the fact that we scaled back the cable to only networks and we are turning in their DVR in a desperate attempt to break the TV addiction. So now they are complaining bitterly about how unfair it is... we don't have TV or a dog while other families have both. Don't feel too sorry for them... they still have their DS game dogs (ha ha!) and they can watch movies or iCarly DVDs if they do enough chores. I am really enjoying the lack of TV noise though, this is so worth it.

Vintage Baby Toys

Ah yes, thinking of saving your kids' old toys for the grandkids, brilliant idea. Once the big girls found out about the loft filled with old toys we could barely stop them from sneaking up there and bringing it all down, even though the ladder is a bit tricky. So here are the littles enjoying some vintage Fisher Price stuff. I will say that it smelled vintage and I felt that I should bathe them when they were done but at least they were entertained for a bit. The girls were also very intrigued by Stephanie's Holiday Barbie collection and were mad that they couldn't play with them (Mint In Box). Both vowed to never keep a toy in a box like that. They did enjoy playing with a new set of Amish toys which you can see fits right in with the Fisher Price barn and suburban house. Not sure if they are going to introduce the Amish people to Polly Pocket (or maybe the Star Wars figures?) but I think they could come up with some interesting cross-over story lines there (involving weddings no doubt).

For Kitra

Not only did Regis call to remind us about the reunion (a recording of course, but still freaked me out a bit) but we got to listen to him chat up a few old coaches at the football retrospective. 50 year club got the seats on the floor, thus my view was not so awesome and neither is this photo.

So spoiled

Definitely did not have these for sale in LaFortune back in the day... and perhaps that is a good thing.

Football game?

Patrick was quite confused as to why we were going to ND but not going to a football game, not that he has ever gone before. Here he is all suited up... slept like this all night. Sean and I did make it in the stadium where they were having fantasy camp so those people (question: who goes to those things and how many docs were standing by to help?) were "playing" in a game. We totally could have tricked him into thinking it was a real game, because clearly his mom deserves a sideline pass and his dad deserves to sit in the gold seats. Go Irish!

Ageless

This is for Monica in particular... JJ and Barb are ROTC friends who, like Sean, haven't aged. And then it's Nora and Pete, also looking the same with the addition of Kevin, ROTC and class president- and assistant b-ball coach for Ohio, whom I would have recognized but Sean did not, leading to some embarrassment. And then there were a lot of people that we either never knew or just were not recognizing (and this was before the beer tent even opened). A lot of guys missing hair and gaining weight but for the most part the ladies represented well (obviously why they showed up... also, hard not to look better than you did in 1996 with oversized sweatshirts and Doc Marten's, just saying).

Anyway, we had a great couple days at the reunion, just missing a few of our peeps. Out of the 10 Lewis chicks that I lived with over the years, only Nora showed up. Everyone will be coming for the 20, fair warning. We had Emily in tow on Friday which really demonstrated why it's best to not have children when you are in college. Cramp in our style, geez. I had to leave her outside the beer tent just to get a drink, come on. She wouldn't eat, was so fussy and hot and whiny. I barely got to see Regis and Lou thanks to her yelling (we ended up locked in a hot stairway with an elderly man at one point, I feared that might not end well) but I also skipped our class mass and the all-class mass due to her and instead spent more time in the tent. Soooo, not entirely bad. The class mass was on Friday and we had all intentions of going but the longer we sat there with some non-communion wine, the less motivation we had to stand up and leave. And as Sean pointed out, it was on Friday so it didn't even count. Ah, that's a rule follower for you.

So on Saturday we followed the advice of one of the football coaches (not Lou, Faust I think) who said that his parents taught him that it's good to give but it's also good to receive. It makes the giver feel good. He applied that lesson to taking a 1st class seat on an airplane after being recognized in his 3rd week as football coach... meanwhile, Father Hesburgh had been university president for 30 years and he was still sitting in coach class (and called him back to chat!). Since Andrea had generously offered us any babysitting we needed while in town, I thought I would take her up on it and salvage the weekend. So she had Patrick and Emily for 12 hours on Saturday... while Ryan had softball games, unbeknownst to me. Sorry Andrea! What a trooper, 5 kids under 6. The big girls went to the children's program on campus for both days and had a blast. Money well spent.

Anyway, Saturday was much more fun for us and we actually made it to one of the seminars, umm, the wine tasting one. And let it known that I actually enjoyed the lecture about wine law prior to it. Sean may have slept a little, which is why he went to med school, not law school. I have a lot of wine law trivia to share at wine club now, so everyone may want to avoid me, especially after the 3rd pour. Fascinating, I tell you! Over and over!

But back to the reunion, in general people seemed more mature but there were a couple of snots there, feel free to contact me directly for names. I assure you they were not pleased to see my jewelry. Trumped by the dining hall girl, too bad rich daddy's girls. Hey, if you want the nice version, why are you reading my blog?! Sometimes this is what reunion boils down to. I also got a lot of comments about my camera which really surprised me since everyone in Manhattan seems to have the same one. I guess that is a perk to living someplace cheap, you have more fun money. No one seemed to believe that we are happy in Kansas or at least that clearly was not the answer they expected. What's not to love about no traffic and cheap living? Extreme heat, extreme cold, and tornados? Okay, you got me there, but we are certainly happy to be home. It was amazing being back on campus and seeing how much nicer it is now (slight bitterness) but the jury is still out on how many games we will drive to this fall. It got to be a bit long with the kids yet I don't think flying would be that much easier. Hopefully they will be better in 5 years so we can at least make it back for reunion!

Sean's old bike

He left it at ND 15 years ago at graduation and it's still there. Kidding of course as this was found outside Dillon Hall and everyone knows I never would have dated a guy from there. Nevertheless we got a kick out of how these rusted old beat up bikes stayed chained to campus for many years. (I will do real blog posts soon, just taking a quick break from laundry).

Home Team

23 posts to follow but for now we are home and half the kids are in bed. Here is Sean's favorite moment no doubt... emerging from the tunnel into ND Stadium. And now back to reality...