New format?

Not sure if I will keep the new look for more than a day, but I had to do something after so many days of no posting. I've been busy in a good way, not the bad way which involves sick kids and husband out of town. I have gotten out to talk with adults and I've been to the new donut shop many times. Good weather, new sitters, donuts.... almost making up for last weekend. Sean is working a lot this weekend and then gone the next, so whining will return, no worries! In the meantime, here is a shot of Emily who sometimes sneaks up and gives herself a nap in someone else's bed. We have been skipping nap since school started and mostly it works out...

I don't look any older

Nope, no gray hair here, sorry to disappoint. I keep finding random dark strands though, leading me to wonder if it's true you look more and more like your spouse as you get older. This is not good since back when we were dating someone asked if we were siblings. Umm...

Anyway, my husband/brother is off to Denver this weekend for the annual teleradiology hermit interaction activities so if anyone out in that area saw some pasty white guys squinting into the sun at a park doing (I kid you not) some team building field day games, that was them. I assume tonight at the dinner they will practice making eye contact with other humans and perhaps some face to face conversations. I was invited of course but the hefty cost of a babysitter outweighed the laughing I would do while watching/mocking such activities.

I could have brought the dear children along but as Patrick immediately pointed out when he heard Daddy was going to Colorado, that was where he got sick. He claims to have thrown up but to throw up you'd have to eat or drink something, which he adamantly refused to do. Wow, I had forgotten how awesome that trip was and how if anyone needs to lose a quick 5 pounds before a big event, just dial up some altitude sickness. Score one for skiing at Wintergreen, VA over Christmas... not high enough for the altitude sickness and perhaps not be high enough for snow by then, but that's fine with me, the non-skier. I will take having an appetite over skiing 3 times a day. Wait, 5 times a day.

Anyway, back to my awesome non-birthday, I did give Sean my blessing to go on this trip but if he hadn't arranged for flowers to be delivered today there would have been some serious online shopping done. Yes, just like when he goes to Vegas for a conference to get CME credits. What? You can get CME credits in the comfort of your home? What. And did you know that your credit card company will call and ask why there are charges in Vegas, Kansas AND a lot of online purchases? Hmm. They must have put a note in our file because we don't get those calls anymore.

I did manage to gain back those altitude sickness pounds today at least. Sweet Caroline sent sticky buns from William Sonoma, then we had to support the local donut shop, and then got enough take-out food to get us through lunch and dinner. Somehow it was still so much cheaper than taking 4 kids to the grocery store. It is so ridiculous what I end up buying with those beggars, next time I will get a photo and post it. I only give in because it's crap I won't eat at least. I do have the Schwans man on board with my hoax about how he only sells ice cream treats in the summer. He's a good sport because he'd rather sell me expensive steaks. Yes, dear husband/brother... more steak awaits, in case there was any doubt who is the most spoiled around here. (No one needs to leave a comment about my trip to Paris. That was literally months ago.)

Park Tips

Something I thought of at the park today, when I spent too much time near a young mom and her awkwardly flirty new boyfriend.... if you are going to get a tattoo, you know forever, go ahead and splurge on a professional one. Even free is too much to pay to have something so tacky on your visible body part. It's going to cost a lot more than free to have it removed too. I think my reader demographic already knows this though...

We will survive

I have now resorted to texting random people about babysitting and some of them are interested! So now we can resume dinner without children once a week and I will have a few more hours to myself during the day. I do have the littles both in "school" one morning a week, Patrick goes another morning as well, but it's never enough time to get everything done. Last week was the first time for that and I only had time for coffee with friends, a workout with a friend and then lunch with a friend. Notice a lack of grocery shopping? Sean sure did.

But, at lunch while I was yelling for someone to come give a choking gal the heimlich, Tiffany went ahead and just did it herself and saved a life. I might add that no one responded at all, most people didn't even look over and the only person to acknowledge what happened was the manager after it was all over with. The other employees didn't even look concerned, nor did the table of businessmen right next to us. It wasn't crowded, clearly I was yelling at them to help. Nope, way to go, guys! Meanwhile in Utah a group of people lifted a burning car off a motorcyclist when they could have been blown up... just saying. Good thing I convinced Tiffany to go to lunch, huh?! End rant.

We did get our old sitter back for the weekend so I went to my first K-State football game. In the past Sean has gone with friends or taken the children. First off, funnel cakes?! Already so much better than an ND game. And we could stand up for the good parts and no one got pissed off? Interesting concept, talking to you old alums.... Also, the music situation is like comparing the boring traditional old style music mass to the contemporary mass where you can't even get a seat. No jumbo-tron at ND and no music other than the band. ND clearly feels that this is just about pure football, no need to spice it up, which may have been true in the past but now our specialty is making it really awesome for our opponents. We like to hand each team their best game of the year. Last minute wins, so exciting for them! Of course ND has plenty of traditions.... like the announcement from the Indiana State Police reminding everyone to not drink and drive, always with a painful pun that everyone laughs at. Yes, like a joke during the homily at mass..... you'd never laugh at it outside of mass... Ah, comments only an alum can make, one who is so very, very bitter that tuition/room and board are already over $50k. Need to talk up some other schools to the kids. Funnel cakes at the football game are helping...

No circus toys!

Someone was not pleased about not getting a $22 spinning toy from the circus as we were leaving. I'm sure if we had gotten it, by this time a week later it would be broken or lost. I don't need more junky toys to pick up around here....

Burned Out

Turns out that it wasn't just the hot weather making us crabby. No, I think it is the children. I may need to put them in many activities so that they are never home to trash the house or fight with each other. Apparently having one night away last month reminded us that we don't have to constantly be surrounded by screaming and spitting so now it is even more annoying. Also, it is hard to be OCD about the condition of your kitchen when there are children living in the house. Don't even get me started on the yard, which at one point was quite lovely. Patrick now digs holes in random places and Anna rips leaves off bushes. One of them trampled down a whole area of plants and while other people might blame that on some deer but I am quite certain it was children. My outside OCD involves picking up all sorts of brightly colored plastic toys and hiding them in a toy bin, only to have them removed seconds later by Patrick. Now I only do it at night when he is not only in bed, but asleep. I realize it could be much worse... there are families who have more than 4 kids and frankly, I don't know how they function. Some of them have more than one destructo boy too! I suppose in 17 years I will be able to clean the house and have it remain that way for days at a time... in the meantime I may have to adopt Sean's tolerance for clutter.

Circus Pain

My muscles felt really sore after watching the circus, thought I would share...

Secret Identities

Patrick loves the presents from the "red haired one" and umm, "the other one"? Thanks Bridget and Caroline! Patrick insisted on wearing Buzz to Target and the grocery store today but I talked him down to just the wings. He seemed rather annoyed when people would comment on this fact. How dare they notice?

Stop singing to me!

Patrick got a bit shy at his birthday "party" and hid under the table while we sang to him. I would like to point out the fabulous cake that I spent literally minutes preparing. He asked for an ice cream cake and wanted M&M's on it so I poured some on after swinging by Freddie's to pick one up. We're not really into all the effort that is required for a real party with an actual theme and fancy cake and everything coordinating right down to the thoughtfully filled goodie bags. We need to keep expectations low around here because if you go over the top every year what do you think is going to happen when it's time to host a wedding, let alone 3? Let's not forget MTV for their role in screwing parents over everywhere with outrageous sweet 16 parties, aka the mini-wedding without a groom. Yes, we are grooming our children to ask for a destination wedding. Patrick's "destination" birthday was the circus in KC on Sunday. Photos to follow...

FOUR

I have been assured that age 4 is a turning point for boys and we have informed Patrick of this for weeks now. Whenever he threw one of his little fits we would remind him that he had only X number of days until he could never do that again. Well, he is waking up age four in the morning and I have high hopes. Not as high as his though as he expects cake for breakfast. Hmm, without a cake in the house this might pose a problem. I was planning on an ice cream cake to go with dinner and there isn't room to store it in the freezer right now. Anyway, here are some old photos I found of him. I didn't have the good camera until he was 6 months old so no newborn shots on this computer. They all look so young and innocent, no sass at all...

Who has time?

I had a cart full of diapers, kid gear, cleaning supplies and other such excitement at Target last night and had to laugh when I handed over my driver's license so I could get my sinus meds. Do I look like I have time to cook meth?? I barely cook dinner. Along those same lines, I killed every plant I bought this summer so clearly we are not growing pot here either. I'm not saying the income wouldn't be nice, but how much can you spend at Target anyway?

Long days?

Everyone else has long days because they are so busy. We are the opposite. The girls still have no interest in any sports or hobbies except piano which is now on Saturday mornings. So this means after they get out of school at 3 we literally have nothing else planned for the rest of the day, besides me insisting they go outside because this is that very small window of perfect weather between summer and winter. Some might call this "fall" or "autumn" but that implies that it is an actual season and will last 3 months. Har. Don't we wish.

So during the days I take the littles to the parks just so we can get out of the house and perhaps make new friends who also have free time during the day. Seems that everyone I know has some sort of job now or their kids are on opposite school schedules so it's rare that I can arrange to meet someone. Invariably the people at the park are unable to make eye contact because they are on their phone the whole time so this hasn't been working out either. So different from the days when the girls were little, back before nonstop texting and internet on the smart phones.

And yes, I have a phone that can do that stuff but I'm not sure how to do the internet (Emily found that function during mass once, before I learned to leave the phone in the car and Emily in the nursery) and I have nothing worth texting to anyone most days. It is still a primitive phone though and as someone pointed out recently, they hadn't seen a nextel connect (sp?) in years. I do sometimes push that button for direct connect by accident but it doesn't work because who would I need to be direct connected to?? Sean doesn't mind text messages during the day but I feel that me buzzing into his procedure room might be a problem. "Whatz uuuuuuuuuup?! Oh, you're sticking a needle in someone's boob, sorry to interrupt."

Several people have told me that they are having trouble posting comments, sorry I am no help. I'm sure many people will want to comment on this whiny post to tell me to shut up because they wish they had time to sit at the park all day. Well, call in sick to work and come join me because I am bored!

It's September?

Somehow we got the girls back to school and now Patrick is getting ready to start on Thursday. He is in the wrong class, so much older than most since he turns 4 on Friday, but it was the only way to get him and Emily at school on the same day. Selfish of me yes, but then again they just play and color and get in trouble for throwing rocks, not that academic yet. And not as selfish as someone who wouldn't switch CDO days so Emily could go on Wednesday and Patrick could go to the MWF class. Don't think I won't be checking out the cars in the parking lot on Wednesdays to see who that was. I know there has got to be someone who just has one child and nothing else going on all week but they thought having a break in the middle of the week would be ideal merely because it is the middle of the week. Karma will come through for me... some Wednesday snow days might be appropriate. Ha ha, no refunds!

Perhaps I haven't been posting as often because I have been in a mood more appropriate to those who live in very hot violent regions of the world, perhaps because Kansas has been one of those regions for oh, 3 months? See, I don't exaggerate, I could have said 7 months and lost all credibility, but I said 3 and I assure you, 3 is still too many and I refuse to look at the stats about how many days were over 100 degrees because it will make me angry (okay, 27). I've been taking notes, lots of crabby people around town, but thank you, sweet baby Jesus laying in a manger, the heat has broken now and I am just regular sinus headache crabby. So nice to get a workout in the morning and not get tired just from the heat. No I just got tired from getting lost on Sunday and going twice as far as intended and then on Monday my friend lost her key so we did the route twice. Accidentally in shape, that's my plan.

Oh and this is the table from the box. I had mentioned my recent furniture purchases to various friends but apparently forgot to tell Sean. Surprise! I know what interests him and what doesn't and for the past few months it was only football. Now that football season is over for ND, he will care about furniture again. Or not.

Boxed in

We finally got a table for the entryway and it came in an enormous box, delivered by a guy who I feared would have a heart attack if I let him bring it up the stairs. So we unpacked it outside and I tricked a friend into helping me get it in the house. Then the kids started playing in the box, which works just like a playpen. So far they haven't realized this. Somehow a bunch of paper was shredded in there and it has been colored all over, which then lead to Emily coloring on the real walls of course. Not sure what the next stage for the box is but I don't think the recycling guy is going to be thrilled to see that one on the curb.

So Innocent

The littles were quiet for too long the other day when I was doing laundry so I went searching for them. For once they were being sweet and innocent, both of them. Emily loves getting into the big kid beds but we don't have room to get her one yet. Hope she doesn't mind being a "baby" until the big girls want to move to the basement bedroom. Umm, probably 3 more years...

Kiss me I'm Irish

While we are still optimistic about the season we are listening to our Irish music and dressing the kids up. May only last a few hours, need to enjoy it.

My sweet girls

Poor Patrick will do anything to fit in. He really needs a surrogate older brother to help him navigate a world of pink. There is one boy he idolizes and I totally take advantage and embellish stories to get him to do things. The latest is if he wants to grow into a "super giant" like he thinks this boy is, then he will have to eat vegetables like the super giant. Pretty much anything I want him to do I tell him this boy does. As soon as we get out of the heat advisory season I will be talking about how other boys play outside for hours and hours, leaving their mother in peace and the house non-destroyed.