Repetitive

I realize so much of what I post has been posted before. It's one long Groundhog Day here. Let's see... yesterday I swore I would be productive thanks to black tea and boy, I sure was busy all day. And yet nothing to show for it around here. Also, we have had great weather, high 80s yesterday and today, so warm that I had to turn on the a/c, which is at least working. Of course it is painful to turn it on knowing that it is going to snow in 48 hours. Lisa has suggested that this might be my sign to move to Nashville. I think they get some pretty funky weather there too and it seems like a lot more tornado warnings lately. But, she may be right so my apologies to the state of Kansas for having to endure the signs that are being sent to the Keenans, to let them know they should move and be kicking it someplace else. In the meantime, my green tea is ready and I need to get some crap done around here and then take poor Emily to the park.

Easy Culture and Arts

We may not get the biggest shows here in Manhattan but we do get a good variety and it's enough for me. Last Sunday I went to hear Itzhak Perlman, "undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin" with Heather, my music and theatre expert friend. Very impressive and as always I marvel at how dedicated and talented other people are. I feel like I tread water all day and never finish anything and other people accomplish so much and have such obvious talents. I was also impressed by how many people sat there listening for two hours, without talking, without playing on their phones, without sleeping (that I noticed at least). That's pretty rare in society these days. Maybe that's my talent? Am I setting the bar too low?

Today I took Megan with me to see Swan Lake, performed by the Russian National Ballet Theatre. I handed her the program so she could read what it would be about and she already knew. Yes, apparently we own the DVD of Barbie of Swan Lake. I know I've seen parts of it but never really paid attention to the plot so I did need the program notes. I am certain that I've listened to it many times though because the music was very familiar. Heather was out of town but texted me during intermission to point out that they also use the music on Little Einsteins. See how TV can educate our children?

Obviously they get shows of this caliber in big cities all the time, not a big deal there, but I don't think any city can rival how easy it is to access them here. 7 minute drive, splurge on the parking garage for $1.50 an hour, walk one block, get the best seats in the place for much less than elsewhere (according to my expert Heather) and kid tickets are even half price.

I took Megan out for dinner afterwards and it was nice to talk to her about almost teen stuff. The texting with kids in her class has begun so I needed to go over some rules with her. It turns out that she has already learned a lot from the Disney shows they watch. Apparently mess ups with text messages is a common comedy theme. As long as we can keep that hilarity from showing up in our real lives... Hmm, it seems that the TV is doing most the teaching around here. What exactly does keep me busy all day?! I feel like tomorrow is going to need to be productive so I can salvage some pride.

Kids have their own plans

Try as I might, the kids have their own ideas and personalities. I'm not even referring to Emily's refusal to even consider giving up diapers. ("My a baby"is a common excuse.) I'm talking about how Megan decided she loved Patrick's new bedroom and convinced him to move to the guest bedroom in the basement. He is thrilled! Keeps talking about how his friend Jud had a bedroom in his basement. So last night he slept down there alone, no problems. Today Megan packed up some of their treasures to swap out rooms but then didn't actually take them up/down the stairs. I told her we should give it a few more nights before we do all that work. I guess if he wants the basement room then I can paint it for him and make it look nice. Would have rather known this before I bought that bedding for a twin bed and painted that room... not what I would have picked for Megan but she likes it so what do I know.

I also decided to get out for a walk today and thought if I took Patrick with me it would reduce the number of problems for Megan babysitting. Turns out Patrick loved going with me and did the whole two miles around the neighborhood with no problem. Later in the day he was begging to go again. I tried to explain that I don't usually do another work out after I've showered for the day. And I am now trying to explain to the kids that we don't get out more toys after I've picked up for the night before Sean gets home. Emily just told me, "Nou clean up our house, Mommy". We still have some speech problems... nou is you, my is I, and curl is squirrel. Those are her three favorite words I think. We have a lot of squirrels around here...

Keenan Style Clean Eating

I've been hearing too much about clean eating lately and I'm not about to give up real baking but I decided that we could use more vegetables around here and fewer tater tots. So tonight I started getting rid of the banned food. Of course I also hate to waste food so some of it we've been eating (tater tots) and some of it I've been tossing. Just threw out the bottle of corn syrup which is of course devil juice but I had used 1/4 cup of it for something I baked a few years ago and then hung on to the rest of it. I checked the date... it expired the week Patrick was born... in 2007. It was probably still usable (!) but clearly I could purge it. I also poured out the old drink mixers that are all corn syrup. I may regret this tomorrow as I wait for Sean to return from his trip and really feel like a margarita. Oh wait, plenty of wine, I'll make it.

So I will be on a quest for healthy recipes that all of us will eat. Mr. Schwans Food is going to be so sad but I will still get plain fish from him and it's not cheap. I switched to ground bison a few weeks ago and the kids didn't notice. I guess I need to wean them off juice boxes in their lunches, that will be painful. They already protested the "healthy" applesauce without added sugar. They aren't going to go along with this quietly... I did have a great new vegetarian meal from Harry's the other night, I highly recommend that all you locals go try it! I wasn't even hungry later, shocking. Okay, it's time to use up the last of the hot fudge sauce, can't throw that out!

Rare burst of productivity

A wee bit of sunshine and warmer temperatures inspired me to finally do a project around here. Patrick's room was painted so cute by the family before us and it happened to totally match the bedding I already had for him so we kept it. However, after years of little boys living in that room it was showing some wear and tear and needed to be repainted. I decided to just do it completely different and finally ordered some bedding that I've wanted for years. I do have a navy/white obsession. I have no less than 10 navy and white striped shirts in my closet...

So here are the before photos of his room in the natural state. He is usually good at keeping his room clean but lately he has just started putting everything in boxes and baskets, not in the places they should actually go, like his drawers. This is my revenge, posting photos of it on the blog for him to see later. I recently saw an episode of Love It or List It on some house channel at the gym and was shocked that the before part of the episode showed their house trashed, beds not even made. Then I realized they did that so the makeover was more dramatic. So here you go, full on dramatic:

 Here it is after one coat, clearly had to do a second one. After an hour of paint fumes I felt I was so good I could go professional style without drop cloths or tape. No spilled paint cans so all is well.

 Here is the after shot. In another angle I could see the same pair of pajamas under the bed that I didn't notice otherwise. Afraid of what else is under the bed... forgot to check.

Not done decorating and will put up some more big boy type wall art but that won't happen tonight... Sean is gone to Denver and I'm losing energy.

Patrick's field trip to K-State

 Sadly this is the best photo from the whole field trip. I didn't want to deal with my big camera and Emily and Patrick and walking all over and the freezing cold, so these are all from my iphone.  The kids got to see how the floor gets put together and then we had to make sure they didn't step in the puddles of varnish.

 Lucky day for the kids when they ran into Collin Klein, doing a little workout before the draft this week. Thankfully none of them yelled out, "there's Johnny Football!". Could have been awkward...

 I'm sure everyone else knows the other big guy who was working out with Collin, feel free to leave me a comment so I'll have it included when I print this out next year. I will say both guys were great sports and from what I have heard, amazing role models. Also, neither of them have been publicly mortified by a fake girlfriend, so there's that too. Well done.

 That tiny speck is Emily who kept wanting to run laps on the field. Frankly, I would be happy to pay someone good money to sneak us in to let her in to run during the cold months because she has energy to burn. Needless to say, I would spend even more money if it would tire Patrick out.

 The blurry weight room where the men's basketball team lifts.

 The men's practice court. Let the record show that the women's practice court was equally nice. This is Patrick's classmate's father who is maybe a trainer there? I'm so scattered in the mornings and at pick up trying to get too many children where they need to go that I only know a few people in the class and thus am out of any loop there might be. Too tired to care and too late to get involved now.

The kids thought this was pretty cool also. They walked across the water treadmill. It is raised all the way up so the pool is underneath here, but when it's down the players can run on it in the water. They also had what I thought was a hot tub but was in fact a cold tub. I'm sure it works for what they need it for but sounds like no fun to me.

Patrick had a great time and was so proud to receive the media guide for the team and the Big 12 champions poster that he expects me to hang up. Umm, maybe inside his closet? I've got a whole decorating plan going on and posters are not part of it. New bedding arrived today, picking out paint tomorrow, ready for his "really big boy" room. Also, I am bored and felt like doing a project so I can feel like I accomplished something. Glad I didn't decide to plant flowers like I normally would have done by this point. Surely this is our last snow, right??

Let's catch up

And see what photos have imported to the photo stream from our iphones...

Well, let's start with snow on April the 23rd. 80 degrees by Sunday but today sure sucks. Poor Patrick, the first child to actually want to go to a sports activity, once again has soccer cancelled. It looks beautiful out with all the snow covered branches and I have the fire going inside, but we're still kind of tired of winter. Also, the furnace died a few days ago and I thought we'd be able to make it until next fall but it's going to be interesting if the temperature drops to 18 like I just heard. Between the upstairs furnace and the fireplace and my never ending baking and cooking, we will survive in the hearth room, just not sure I'd want to hang in the basement. I never want to anyway, this is nothing new. This is why we won't have a basement in the next house we build, hate being down there. We'll have a crawl space for the utilities and a safe room built in our master closet instead. Or we'll take whatever house we can afford someplace with better weather. And whoever buys our house will get a nice new furnace, argh.

Megan took this of Emily. This is her favorite new expression to make. Lots of things shock her.

Here is another one taken by Megan, of Anna before she threw a Goldfish cracker into the office where we were talking to potential builder and architect. They thought it was beyond hilarious. Not embarrassing at all for me. They were tired of waiting and I plan to never take them along for another meeting. When we go to Nashville to discuss options there the kids will be in camps. Have learned my lesson.

Well, here is a nice little photo montage of the girls torturing Patrick. Looks like Megan hasn't figured out that while she thinks it is hilarious to document this, it will get her in trouble later. Better she find out now and also realize that people will always have cameras with them these days and she will never get away with anything. Did the Boston bombers really think they wouldn't show up in many photos and videos?

 We've had too many pajama days lately. Neither Emily nor I were motivated last week, so off schedule with lots of random appointments and I feel like we didn't socialize at all. Not a good week. The house paid the price too, so trashed.

This was the point where I gave up and decided that kids do live here, why fight it? When it warmed up this weekend I forced them outside and they then got bit by something... found one tick and then maybe the rest are chigger bites, not sure. Emily's back is covered. I will spray as soon as the snow melts because I'm sure it wasn't actually cold enough to kill them.

We did finally let the girls try out the hot tub and I'm sure Anna will want to go back in tonight. Megan thought it was much too hot but Anna was ready to stay in and do some laps. Okay, enough random photos for now. The Emily needs some lunch.

Epic Laziness

This weather is killing any motivation I would normally derive from two pots of tea. I could also blame my daytime pajamas, clothes that could also be used for working out if it wasn't me wearing them. Oh but they are so comfortable and other than brief preschool pickup, I haven't seen an adult since 7am. I'm better than Emily who didn't get dressed until 2pm. I have baked a lot this week which isn't a good combo with lack of gym. Maybe next week will be normal. Kids are dismantling the couch... this is normal  unfortunately.

This is not normal though. Wacky hair day last week!

Found some great home listings...

In Hawaii. After a few weeks of living in paradise I think we would go nuts though... in a much smaller house, while home schooling, and trying to keep quiet as there would be no separate area for Sean to work.  I guess we will pass for now and I just won't look out the window at the snow flurries.

Patrick asked what we had going on today and I told him it was soccer game day. He then asked if it was still going to be cold out. Yes. He then announced that he would not be going. Emily chimed in and said she would stay home with Megan this time. We're kind of wimpy about the weather. I don't want Patrick to hate soccer though so I certainly won't force him to go play in arctic conditions. Wait until he has to play in the heat.... in like 2 weeks?

Crazy like last year

Last night all the elements came together for crazy lady. Sean was working, girls had piano, Patrick had soccer, so lots of driving back and forth. It was also freezing out. Somehow I made a real dinner that no one got to eat while it was hot except Sean. And somehow I ended up at the soccer field on my own with Emily who insisted on going until she got there and realized how cold it was. Then she whined and cried and was miserable until I caved in and took her back to the car to warm up. After a few minutes I saw Patrick with several other adults around him, consoling him.... of course. Emily had strapped herself in her car seat so I just left her to run over and attend to Patrick who apparently had quite a collision. There was talk of football greatness, it was that kind of hit. I think we will pass on that. Then I had to run back to the car to check on Emily and I remembered I had a picnic blanket in the back so I wrapped her in it and went back to the field.

Meanwhile the other parents were calm and collected, having nice conversations, observing their children... and I was stressed and overwhelmed and cursing Emily for not staying home with the girls. She eventually rolled up in the blanket and laid on the ground until it was over. Patrick sobbed the whole way home because he was so cold once he stopped running. Good times all around. I can see why other people like putting their children in sports though. It looks lovely when your child is having fun and getting exercise and you can talk to other adults. Maybe someday I will understand. Hard to believe that before long it will be so hot that we won't even remember what this cold weather feels like. If Hawaii didn't involve homeschooling it would be looking pretty promising right about now.

Be helpers

I found this quote to be quite reassuring today during the aftermath of the tragedy in Boston:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.” — Mister Rogers

There have been too many tragedies lately and since we don't have live television in the house, the children have been mostly shielded from the endless coverage. As I've said before, they are still afraid of the evils that don't exist, like ghosts in our basement, and I'm not ready to introduce them to the ones that do. I try to teach them to be helpers instead and I try to set a good example. It takes so little to be giving and generous and yet there are adults who still don't understand. It is easy to think that you are good person when such evil people get excessive press and attention. The bar for behavior gets set rather low unfortunately.

People wonder what they can do to help when they are so far from these tragedies. We can start by helping the people around us... the ones who ask and the ones who don't ask. And if you are asked, don't negate the good work you do by finding a way to sneak in a comment about how much of an inconvenience it was for you, especially to the person you are helping. You may have helped physically but you have added guilt to them emotionally. It costs nothing to keep your mouth shut. We can also work to be more generous with our time and our money. Everyone talks about the small acts they witness, like in the coffee drive thru line. It costs so little to spread goodwill that way. It costs so little to be generous, even in situations where you feel you shouldn't have to pay, where you feel someone owes you. How little it would cost you to set a good example for everyone. I think generous acts are contagious and inspiring. Sometimes pride blinds us from seeing that though and at what cost to our souls? What cost to our society? You never know what crosses people are carrying around with them and how being kind could change their path. Post Secret has shared many secrets from people who have been saved by unexpected kindness. We need more unexpected kindness and this is a good week to start.

Cleaning out the car

Or is it a Batmobile? Found a Batman costume in the back seat, I guess someone needs to be able to fight crime even when we're on the go. No time to get back to the Batcave to change. I should clarify that this is Patrick's costume, not Sean's. All Sean keeps in his car is a large supply of cloth napkins that the girls bring along to finish up breakfast some mornings. Love pulling those out with the remains of breakfast after a few weeks. Any yet somehow it's my car that smells the worst?? Maybe I will break down and vacuum it today. Nah, muddy week ahead, no point.

Tax Day Pranks?

I am so tempted to take our tax info to one of those strip mall tax places who claim to have never met a tax return they couldn't do. I want to see their faces, then the tears. Of course at this point they'd be filing an extension for us and giving us the phone book to go find a real accountant. That's what wrong with this country though, too many rules and loopholes and what... the alternative minimum tax? That's a cruel joke. Oh sure, follow all the crazy, specific rules, get your number and then find out that what is pretty much a flat tax in the parallel system is going to be in effect for you, so never mind about that other number. Get out the checkbook and start crying. Why didn't we set up a sham corporation so we could deduct everything "legally"?!

I'm actually in favor of the flat tax, apologies to the accounting industry. Let's stop this nonsense that lets too many people scam their way out of paying their fair share. I'm sure the IRS thinks we finally wised up and hired our friend's tax lawyer/advisor/scammer and thus they put our refund on 11 week hold (2 weeks to go). What they are really doing during those 11 weeks is figuring out who to fire because they were expecting us to bankroll four federal employees this year but I think we're down to three. Once they get time to look the numbers over I expect a sympathy letter after they figure out how much the deployment cost us-- and then them. And then give us our fat, fat check so we can pay our quarterlies.

One benefit to never getting around to setting up a sham corporation for Sean's moonlighting is that his income shows up as small business income which Kansas isn't taxing in 2013. Almost makes up for all the problems they caused us in the past. Sean tore up the quarterly payment check in a small but dignified ceremony this weekend. That will change when he goes full time as we just learned he will get "wages" and "benefits". Whoa! No self employment tax? Multiple kinds of insurance? Already signed up. 15 months. And then we will have a small but dignified ceremony where I get rid of all army gear in my house. Sean can't wait to turn in all the now outdated but never worn stuff that they made him sign out years ago before he went to fire at the range one day. That was brilliant.... and great use of my tax dollars. Sigh.

The night out we needed

After a long winter of hibernation and lots of moonlighting, we were ready for a fun night out and we got it. It was a surprise theme dinner at a friend's house with lots of fun new people for us to meet. I laughed so hard I may have pulled a muscle at one point. I won't reveal what the theme was because I think it might be fun for us to try and put it on too. If anyone not local wants to know just email me for details (would be fun for the lake crowd I think). Anyway, we are ready for warmer weather so we can enjoy this backyard and have friends over! Nice and sunny today, no wind in our backyard and yes, Sean is working. Kids have a party later today to go to so that's a good distraction. Hopefully one of these nice days Sean will get to golf instead of work. Yes, I put that in writing. However, I do have editing control...

Now that would have been a great article to read

I just pulled up an article on Forbes that I thought was titled, "Billionaire Scores Victory in Battle Against Counterfeit Trophy Wives". Wow, what is a counterfeit trophy wife?? I was so intrigued. Sigh, it's counterfeit trophy WINE.  I am in favor of stocking my wine fridge for drinking but I think spending $29,500 for one bottle of wine as an investment is a sign that you have too much money. This could go off on a whole other rant but then I'd never post it, just like I never posted the one about how I think we need a flat tax because there are too many cheaters and how those who dodge deployments without a valid profile should be ashamed of themselves. Instead I will leave you wondering as to what the advantages of having a counterfeit trophy wife would be...

Now for my scattered comments and thoughts

Okay, we've all seen the pictures and obligatory holiday posts, we can move on. Let's talk about Emily. We have evolved (devolved?) to using complisults. Origin: the show Community, where Jeff tells a nurse to go away and do twice the work of a doctor for half the pay, to which she replies, "thank you?" and Brita explains that it's a complisult, a combination of a compliment and an insult. So whenever Emily does something like writes her name, her favorite hobby due to our praise and amazement, we have started mentioning that it's odd that someone who can do that also still wears pull ups. Emily's attitude towards potty training is that she did it a few times, why does she have to keep doing it? This is annoying to me of course but I keep hoping this means she will suddenly change her mind one day and will just do it on her own, thereby skipping the "accident on my furniture" phase. I think her love of jumping on my furniture, along with Patrick, has ripped a hole in the seam on a couch cushion. Not pleased. I do not enjoy this phase either. Ready to be outside burning energy.

Ah yes, winter has returned for a few days, a complete shock. Just to be clear, I didn't want a tornado yesterday either. I had just cleaned the bathrooms, this is no time for my house to be blown away. Kind of like when someone almost crashes into my car I am extra annoyed if I just washed it. Hello, that would have been a wasted $10. Anyway, in complete seriousness, I had just moved the snow shovel and salt to the back of the garage and put winter coats in storage when I sent Emily outside to play and noticed it was cooling down. So, the surprise return of winter is my fault. Dusting of snow tonight? We'll see... Better than rain when you're in the hot tub at least. That is my favorite purchase this year and about the price of 2 ski trips, so I've won all around. I don't plan on ever skiing so for me I can have my equivalent of a ski trip in my own backyard now (and I do the chemicals so I know it's clean, unlike a rental's hot tub). Maybe some year the kids will make it to ski school but they're still asking for Disney too. Add it to the list.

The kids have had some other requests lately. Yesterday Patrick asked me in all seriousness why we didn't have more boys in the family. I joke about him being outnumbered by girls all the time but I think it just finally sunk in. I asked if he wanted a brother and he nodded and teared up. Well, we tried, you got Emily. She plays everything he wants and does what he tells her to do, just like a brother. I may have to plan more boy play dates I guess. Everyone is feeling more social with spring here (except for these few bitter days) and we are even getting invited to parties where we don't have to buy anything. Crazy, I know. I got distracted being social at the gym today and then only had 7 minutes to shower and get ready for lunch with a friend. Well worth it but my hair paid the price. So I may as well hit the hot tub and shower again.

Today is the day last year when Sean landed in Djibouti, so he doesn't seem to mind the cold rain/sleet. Better than extreme heat. I texted him that I was making fancy dinner and he wrote back to say he couldn't tell if I was being sarcastic. I guess I do joke about fancy dinner a lot and it usually means Schwan's food. Tonight I made Barefoot Contessa's filet of beef bourguignon, kind of like a fancy beef stew. Everyone mostly ate it which was good because I used up a whole box of Schwans filets and half a bottle of wine someone gave us... afraid to look it up and see how much it cost. Hate to cook with a good one but not worth going out in this cold with the kids to buy a different one.

Tomorrow is Mommy and Emily day which Emily gets so excited for. I was flattered until she told me it was because she gets to watch My Little Pony. Yes, so I can get stuff done I give in and let her watch that.... I should find something fun to do with her tomorrow. She suggested strawberry shopping. Maybe the wine store too.

Easter weekend 2013

 Thankfully we had a spell of nice weather while everyone was here visiting for Easter weekend. So we got to enjoy the backyard even though it's in bad post-winter shape. Nothing a dump truck full of mulch won't fix... Anyway, here is Grandma Marjie, fresh from Texas.

 Sean, during a break from working. That's some good pale radiologist skin there. He will never wrinkle.

 Nana, on her way from Virginia to Colorado for skiing with Bridget and Leo.

 Grandpa Paul, also from the beaches of Port Aransas.

 Thumbs up as usual

 Anna looking pensive, no doubt she had asked us if she could go watch TV and when we said no, she then was waiting a few minutes to ask us again, hoping we forgot our original answer.

 Patrick without his helmet. I keep finding it down in the ditch.

 Pops and a thumbs up Patrick

Megan's Easter basket was hidden up high, took her hours to find it.

 Maybe a little annoyed that it was so hard to find. Maybe she should put her glasses on next year.

 Oh well, this was fun.... for the grandparents. Grandma Marjie and Grandpa Paul bought those cascarones eggs from Texas, to smash on the kids' heads and spray confetti all over them... and the patio and then my house as it got dragged inside.... I think maybe I got it all cleaned up now, the rain and potential tornado would totally help get the last of it.

 Patrick and Emily got it good.

 Here Anna is on the egg hunt. This year we only did coins in the eggs, no more finding eggs filled with melted candy and ants the rest of the summer...

 Hmm, on the rock wall in church clothes.... only on Easter.

 She loved her $20 dress from Target. I refuse to spend much on children's clothes that they stain or outgrow quickly.

 Pops smoked a ham for us and it was fabulous. I was planning to smoke a couple turkey breasts too but they were still frozen. I did them a few days later and had sandwiches for many meals. I think the kids are over that.

This year was a departure from most Easters as we are usually alone and just go to the club for brunch. I barely remember last year but I'm sure it sucked with Sean freshly deployed. So this was a nice change!

Okay, finally back on normal schedule

Between all the guests and Sean being over employed, I have been out of sorts for a bit. I downloaded the photos and will start this way.

Hoping this was the last snow storm. Anna made the snowman and Patrick shoveled the basketball court so he could ride his bike. Now that it is muggy out with threats of tornados today it is hard to believe we had such a harsh winter.

 The bunny ears that Patrick used to freak Sean out. Sean said this is fine because he can see his face. This is his new smile, showing off the gap in his teeth. Nice.

 Same smile, at the school Easter egg hunt.

After 21 years Sean was finally reunited with his varsity jacket. Trying to think of the perfect occasion for him to wear this out of the house...

Easter weekend photos up next. Emily meltdown time first. "My want Little Pony".