Tuesday, June 30, 2009

That child is just like me

Sweetness, my oldest daughter, is turning out to be a lot like her mother. I first noticed it this week when my parents (who are also our next door neighbors) had a very laborious project...picking rocks out of their newly laid back yard so that grass could be planted. My Sweetness was out there all day helping. She loved being the "helper" and only required copious amounts of praise in return (also just like her mother). I remember how much I loved being my dad's helper. I remember helping him with the house I grew up in. I helped him stack the woodpile at the side of the house. I helped him build the shed out back. I remember how utterly exhausted I felt after helping, but how much I loved being the one that liked to work with dad.

It is Sweetness' birthday next week. Sweetness has already started hounding me about her presents. She has been trying to guess what store her presents might have come from and is constantly coming up with guesses of what those presents might be. I've already had to move the presents twice because she's almost found them. This is exactly what her mother is like! So excited in advance for the coming festivities and bothering everyone else with her endless questions. I find that it is delightfully fun to find ways to throw her off the scent. She figured out that she's getting something from Toys R Us, but it was actually a gift that I picked up on behalf of my parents. The poor child was so disappointed when I assured her that her father and I did not purchase her present from us at that store. HeeHee.

While I happen to love that my child takes after me in those areas, I'm not blessed with the illusion that being "like me" will make her an easy child to raise. I can be a real pain in the butt and I tend to view myself as always being in the right...something I heard that can be hard to deal with in teenagers. Perhaps that makes God laugh. I know my parents must think it is awfully funny. =)

Monday, June 29, 2009

Bad Boy!!!


The Big Guy has started saying "Bad Boy" whenever someone or something does something that he doesn't like. When his sunglasses won't stay up on his face, he yells "Bad Boy" at them. When his mommy won't let him sit in his sister's car seat, he says "Bad Boy, Mommy, Bad Boy!"

I think one would have to assume by listening to the boy that he must hear "Bad Boy" a lot. He doesn't. I'd love to say that he's never heard it, but I know I've said it a couple of times. I agree in principle that it is best to talk about the bad behavior instead of talking about him, but sometimes there just isn't time for that. When we are in Costco and he has started throwing bluberries at the other shoppers, I don't necessarily have time to explain to him that while his mommy loves him very much and knows that he is a good boy, his behavior is currently not up to par. No, I think I might have whispered "Bad Boy!" to him.

Oh well, I've gotten a lot of practice ignoring people's stares when the Big Guy is throwing a fit...I guess I can ignore their assumptions that my son is verbally assaulted with "Bad Boy" all the time.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Vermin Alert!!!



We've got a few new vermin hanging around the family compound...racoons. I suspect they have been there for years, but this year's cherry crop has brought them out into full view.

I thought raccoons are supposed to be nocturnal animals. These raccoons come to hang out in the cherry tree around noon and can be found until 8 pm. They don't seem the least bit scared of us, coming within 5 - 10 feet of us playing in the yard when they walk over to the tree. This freaks me out, of course, knowing what disease-carrying filthy creatures they are. They do attack the kids' balls that are left in the yard overnight, so I know they can claw the life out of something. Thus, I stand guard with a plastic shovel or sand toy when they walk by. I'm sure I'm a menacing looking creature with my plastic warfare tools.

They do provide hours of entertainment. I keep thinking that they've finally walked onto a branch that will surely not hold their weight, but they have yet to fall off. Hopefully when the cherries are gone they will be too...or at least back to lurking in the bushes where I can't see them.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Love and Respect: Marriage Class 4


I won't try to sum up the contents of this weeks class. Instead of Emerson Eggerichs speaking, his wife (a psychologist I think) spoke about what men and women could practically do to apply some of the love and respect ideas that we've been learning.
(Sorry, I didn't link this to their blog...just thought I'd show their pictures.)

There are three things that I am going to work on. Now on two of these, mind you, my mind is already throwing a little revolt. My heart wants to do what's right, but my mind is full of the "yeah, but what if's". For example, the first item that I am really going to work on is supporting Scott's parenting efforts with the kids even if I don't agree with his current tactic. This is a hard one for me, perhaps for all moms, because mother bear instinct comes out to protect our cubs from anything we perceive to be unfair. "But what if hubby is getting after a kid about something that I usually allow them to do"? Well...what if that happens? It probably will. I could choose to come to my child's defense at the expense of my husband's efforts, or I could let my husband (who loves his children and wants the best for them)give the child a rule they aren't used to and negotiate with him about the fairness. "But what if I think he is speaking too harshly to the kids?" Well, this will probably happen too. My dad spoke more harshly than my mom did and I have no ill feelings about that. I know there are times when hubby thinks I speaks too harshly to the kids too. Teaching myself that there is more value in respecting hubby's heart with regard to parenting his children than whatever value I can add by inserting myself into those parenting moments may be tough, but I think it will be worth the effort.

Okay, #2 thing that I am going to improve upon is my respect toward him and our finances. I think I've set myself up as the gatekeeper and head warden with our money. Any big idea that hubby might have to better our family is first judged against the "Does Lisa think we can afford it" test. What if I let hubby dream through some of his ideas for awhile and let him determine if we can afford it or not? He and I are both a bit unsure of this one...perhaps the way we have it is a good checks and balance system with regard to the family coffers. But, I think only good can come from me stepping back a little and not being the first person to bring up the financials. If hubby wants that checks and balance system, he can ask me what I think about the practicality of the finances. Then I'll tell him. =) Besides, it will be a good thing if I willingly place my security in God and my hubby more than my control over the checkbook.

#3 is the one that I feel the most convicted about. Any resistance that my mind can come up with has no leg to stand on. I am going to be a friendlier force in my house. I think that I have the greatest ability in our household to set the tone. I think this one is a little harder to tie directly into the "respect your husband" mantra, but they brought it in through the husband's need to be liked by his wife. I think I often communicate frustration to hubby, like "Oh look, there is your motorcycle helmet AGAIN on my kitchen counter" or "Hey, someone AGAIN was eating string cheese and stuffed the wrapper into the sofa cushion" or "Looks like someone is drinking from the milk carton AGAIN". The trick, I think, is still finding away to request that he not do those things without being a source of negativity. Sarah Eggerichs pointed out that this will be a daily battle, but learning to view your negative comments as wrong instead of seeing yourself through a "look what I have to deal with" mentality is the key. Every day you will find negativity and unfriendliness creeping into your speech and every day you have to decide to be a friendlier person. I want this for my kids as much as for my hubby.

There is one last class. Stay tuned for my final installment of the Love and Respect marriage class next week. I'll post the info about their books and marriage confrence in that post in case anyone is interested. It's been great.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Love and Respect marriage class #3


I have to say that I was dragging my feet a little bit about attending class #3. The first class was an introduction and the 2nd class focused on teaching the men how to meet their wives needs (especially the needs that are most foreign to them). The third class was the ladies turn to hear about meeting their husband's needs. Why was I dragging my feet? I don't know. I enjoyed the first two classes. I think I just didn't want to be lectured about what I should be doing better (espectially on our 14th wedding anniversary). But I already had a sitter organized, so away we went...and it turns out that I enjoyed the class.

I suppose I vainly thought that I already knew what hubby needed from me. I was suprised at how many things that they brought up that I didn't realize were true. The class focused on 6 male needs:
1 -- Hubby needs to be appreciated for his desire to work hard and achieve
2 -- Hubby needs to be appreciated for his desire to protect us and provide for us
3 -- Hubby needs to be appreciated for his desire to be strong and lead his family and make good decisions
4 -- Hubby needs to be appreciated for his desire to analze situations and have wise counsel
5 -- Hubby needs shoulder-to-shoulder friendship from me
6 -- Hubby needs sexual intimacy

It took me awhile (I can be slow) to really focus on two important things. First, he actually needs to be praised for having a heart that wants to do all those things, regardless of whether he does them well or not. I'm supposed to appreciate that my husband is willing to die for me, regardless of whether he is ever put into a position of having to. I'm supposed to appreciate his desire to want to help me find solutions to problems, even if I didn't really ask for his help with something.

The second thing is that he needs to hear more about my appreciation than my love. In how many cards have I expressed my infinite love when he would have gotten more out of a "thanks for working so hard to bring home the bacon" sentiment? Has anyone told the Hallmark company about this?

Here's one thing that I thought was funny about the class. All throughout the hour and a half class, I'm furiously taking notes. I'm underlining important things and even created a special "star" notation for questions I wanted to ask him on the way home. We get nearly to the end of the class and the instructor lets us know that sometimes what the men really need is to not have to discuss everything. Huh? Than why have I been taking copious notes full of questions to ask hubby? Lucky for me, hubby noticed that I was strangely quiet on the way home and invited me to ask him one or two questions.

I think we have 1 or 2 class sessions left. Stay tuned for next week's installment of "Love & Respect...Could you have a better marriage?"

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Feelin' all bummed out

We pulled the Big Guy out of swim lessons today. I feel so emotional about it. It seems like the right decision, but definitely not a happy decision. The Big Guy has been crying through his lessons for 3 months now. The last couple of weeks (when mommy has sat out in the parking lot during lessons) have been particularly brutal.

I remain committed that my kids will learn to swim and I remain a fan of the lessons I have the kids in...but I just think that the Big Guy would benefit from a break. Part of the frustration of knowing what to do is because we don't feel confident that we know why he is screaming. We don't think he is scared, as there are no tears running down his face when he cries AND he likes to jump off the diving board. It may be mommy-separation anxiety, but that doesn't explain why he cried when I was still in the pool. It seems like he is just mad that he is being made to go (not unlike the way he is also screaming about going to Bible class).

Several people have expressed strong opinions (including the instructors) that pulling him out of lessons just teaches him that he'll win if he cries about something for long enough. When I called to cancel his lessons today, the guy on the phone indicated that he'll never learn to swim if I pull him out. That makes me feel awful, but I just don't believe that it is true. Is it really the end of the world if I give all of us a break for a few months and try again in the fall or the spring?

Not to mention that the lessons are darn expensive. I've already spent over $500 for lessons that the Big Guy has wasted. I don't want to keep throwing good money after bad.

So, the decision is made and I need to just let whatever emotions I have about the situation go...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Penny wise & Dollar foolish

Penny wise & Dollar foolish...that's a saying right? Generally it means that you find some way to save money in the short run, but you take it in the shorts in the long run (heh heh...laughing at my own joke).

That's what I did. It may not cost me any dollars in the future, but it is sure to cause some headaches. I took the girls to Target to buy new underwear. I was going to try to wait until August to buy them new underwear as part of their school clothes, but I felt bad about my size 5 daughter wearing size 4 panties all summer. Anyway, we are at Target and, of course, the girls want to pick out the panties with the cutest designs. They are all about the same price, so I let them pick out the ones they wanted. Then I wandered into the next aisle and found that there were some clearance panties stuffed back there. We are talking $2 bucks for panties instead of $8 bucks. I sweet talked the girls into getting the cheap panties instead (by bribing them with new jammies with the savings). Of course, there was only one design that was on the clearance rack. So my girls each have 10 new pairs of panties that are identical to her sisters. Can you imagine the headache I've just caused myself?

* The girls won't bother to try to tell them apart, so they'll start wearing each others panties.
* I won't be able to tell at a glance who left their panties on the floor...and if I'm going to bend down to check the tag, I might as well pick them up myself.
* Hubby won't be able to tell them apart when he tries to put the laundry away (Okay, who am I kidding? No one, right? This would never happen anyway.)

So yeah for me; I saved $12 bucks and caused myself a ton of headaches. And, the jammies I promised the girls ended up costing me $20, so it actually cost me $8 more. I'm a genius.

Monday, June 15, 2009

There ought to be a rule

There ought to be a rule that kids can't ask for things that aren't even close to being agreed to.

The other day a friend of mine posed the question "Are three kids really harder than two?". My friend is already pregnant with her third child, so I didn't feel the need to respond to her question. Of course it is harder, but why scare you now? Sometimes it is crazy hard, but it is crazy good too.

What I think is hard is the amount of words coming at you at all times. Endless questions, endless "can I...", endless requests, endless noise. It is hard to quanitify what makes this so tough, but it is enough to make me run screaming from the room (frequently) and prompts someone to say "kids, you need to give your mom a minute."

If there could only be a successful rule that says they can't ask for things that aren't even a slight possibility. No more having to say "no candy" when they ask at 9 am. No more having to say "no slip-n-slide" when it is 59 degrees outside. No more saying "I already said I DON'T KNOW WHY".

I estimate that cutting out the questions that shouldn't have been asked in the first place would reduce the amount of talking aimed at mom by 7%. While that isn't a large percentage, I think it would reduce the overall word total I hear every day by 234,982 words.

And I am not exaggerating.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Love and Respect marriage class #2

So, if week one's class was about "without love she'll act disrespecfully and without respect he'll act unloving", then week two's class topic is "with love she'll act respectfully and with respect he'll act loving". Dr. Eggerich spent most of the class talking about how different our needs are and how different our instincts are based on gender. That's just how God made us.

He gave a lot of examples of how men behave when they hang out with other men. It was enlightening to see that the same behavior that fails so spectacularly (like walking out of an argument) with women is actually quite successful in a man to man relationship. His point was that the behavior is not in itself offensive or wrong, it is just different than what women need.

Then he talked about how women behave with their girlfriends. The endlessly tangential and detailed conversations may be mind-numbing to men, but we women thrive on them. There were 3 aspects to our conversing needs, according to Eggerichs:

1 -- We (women) converse to release our emotions (by sharing our thoughts with others, it releases our burdens)
2 -- We converse to understand (by talking through how we think and feel, we can often figure out how we think and feel)
3 -- We converse to build connections (sharing our thoughts & stories with others builds a repore with others)

One of the things the class stressed to the men is that women do have a need to resolve conflict. We aren't good with just moving past a fight without trying to understand what caused it and how we can do better next time. While the men legitimately don't have that same need, they can "live with their wives in an understand way" by facilitating our need to talk through things.

I thought the class had a lot to say to the men this time...offering detailed ways that they could meet their wives needs for conversation & intimacy.

I'll leave you with 2 thoughts from the class that I liked:
* Just because you feel offended doesn't mean that your spouse was being offensive
* Choose to appreciate the good 80% and let the other 20% go. You'll be happier if you see your spouse the way they behave during the 80% instead of the 20%.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

icky, skuzzy, gross

So far this summer, I'm setting an all new low regarding my appearance when I leave the house. Twice this week, I have simply swapped my under-things for fresh ones and continued to wear whatever pajama-esque item I was sleeping in out for the morning.

If that isn't pathetic enough, I've got a little bumpy rash or breakout that is running from one eye well, across my nose, into the other eye well. I have no idea what might be causing it, but the safest solution seems to be to forgo makeup until I figure it out.

I look like a mug-shot version of myself.

Lucky for me, the sun is actually out in Seattle so it is okay to walk around with sunglasses, effectively masking my scary face. That doesn't fix my attire, though. Maybe this post will shame me into putting more care into my appearance. Yeah...doesn't seem likely, does it?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

A small short post

No, not a post that has a few number of words (although it likely will), a post about how my shorts are too small. Really, people, it is slow news day.

I bought these shorts because I thought the backside was cute. I knew they were snug but I thought they'd be fine. Of course, I forgot the cardinal rule of trying things on...you have to sit in them. I sit down and my thighs bulge out the leg holes, my belly pops over the top and we're not even discussing what happens in other regions. Oy.



I think these better go into the "someday" box before I split a seam. Good thing I bought them cheap!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Anniversary Weekend 09

Hold on to your hats, my friends, this could be a long one…


If you know me well, and most of you do, you know that I’m a planner. On June 17th, hubby and I will celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. Natch, he and I are working on our vacation plans for next year in celebration of our 15th! My mom offered to watch the kids for the weekend for this anniversary, so hubby and I are off on a quick weekend away with only a couple of weeks of planning. How spontaneous of us (hey, you should take what you can get…we don’t get more spontaneous than that)!

As you may surmise from my earlier post about $$$, hubby and I had very different ideas of what we wanted to do on our vacation and how much that should cost. We essentially ended up doing what I thought we should, spending a lovely weekend up at his dad’s cabin in the mountains. I think paying for the airline tickets for next years trip to Maui made that decision easier for hubby.

Of course, our kids are still sick, at least Sweetness and the Big Guy are. The Friday morning of our departure was a stressful one. The Big Guy threw up in his crib at sometime during the night and continued to sleep there, so we started the day by giving him a bath and changing out his linens (and airing out his room – Phew!). I made the mistake of dressing myself for the weekend away first thing in the morning, so I was a tad unhappy when the Big Guy puked again all over my outfit. Both my incredibly giving mom and baby sister said they were okay with us leaving them with sick kids and agreed to watch the kids at my house (where the kids could vomit in a place that felt secure to them I assume. I would never accuse my mom of not wanting the vomit in her house). I spent the morning hours on Friday frantically cleaning my house so I could leave it in a state that wouldn’t be gross. By 12:30 we were ready to go. The Big Guy was throwing a fit because he sensed the imminent departure of his mommy and Sweetness took that exact moment to puke all over the bathroom floor, rug, and toilet so by the time I cleaned that up I was very ready to go.

Hubby and I headed into town first, intending to have lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and make a quick stop at the mall before heading out of town. We both realized that we were not feeling hungry (perhaps a little paranoid that we were going to get sick too) and decided to grab a snack at the mall instead of going out to eat. We ended up going inside the Harry and David store, where apparently we got our appetites back. We bought 2 bags of Moose Munch trail mix, a box of Mondo malt balls, a chicken pot pie and a trio of tortettes from the refrigerator in the back of the store, some crackers, and a coffee chiller mix. That should make a nice dinner when we arrived at our destination!

It was a beautiful drive up to the cabin (okay, our family calls hubby’s dad’s place a “cabin” but it is really a condo on a golf course…not exactly roughing it). We got settled in a bit before dinner and played some cards out on the balcony. After dinner, we took a ride into the nearest town (a gas station, hardware store, and mini-grocery store make up the town) and grabbed some ice cream before heading out on a walk.

Saturday morning we woke up to neither an alarm clock nor our children and enjoyed our Harry & David coffee mix and some bagels. Then we headed out to do some horseback riding. For the most part, we had a delightful time horseback riding. It was great to get up amongst the trees, enjoying the views and chatting with our guide Mitch. Hubby had a nice gentle Pintabian horse named Belle. I had an Appaloosa horse named Tootie that instantly knew that I wasn’t an authority figure. Mitch had a good laugh at my relatively frequent yelps when Tootie decided to jump, or trip over a tree branch, or walk off the trail for a tasty snack of flowers nearby. Mitch wasn’t laughing quite so hard when he realized that I was honestly terrified and beginning to tear up when Tootie wouldn’t quit hovering near the side of a cliff. Mitch tried to distract me by talking about cheese (cheese?) until Tootie meandered back to safer ground. After returning to the corral, back on the ground, I was glad to have gone riding. The fear-thing wasn’t my favorite, but I would rather go through some fear and be able to enjoy a new activity than to stay home and not be able to go.

We head back to the cabin to hang out for a bit. Hubby’s stomach was bothering him (a chronic problem for him) so I took a relaxing shower and a nap. Hubby and I watched Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe on TV, several episodes, and then drove into town for some dinner. We ate at a great little Mexican cantina. I had the skirt steak and grilled onions, which I LOVE, but Mexican might not have been the best choice for both hubby and I. We hightailed it back to the cabin for the safety and security of the bathroom. And there we stayed…for the rest of the evening and alternately through the night. Ahh, such togetherness. Ahh, such romance.

The next morning, our original plan of a tasty breakfast at a local hotel no longer seemed like a good idea. Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe was again on TV, so we nursed our weak stomachs and sore backsides (from the horseback riding, people! Don’t be gross) by sitting on the couch and not eating breakfast. Then back home for us.

Now for the annoying part. At the end of every vacation, I always tally up what we spent.

Auntie Anne’s: $6.66 Hubby’s mall snack, pretzel and lemonade
World Wraps: $3.09 My mall snack, chicken taco and water
Harry & David: $50.92 Pot pie, crackers & dip, snack mixes, coffee mix, malt balls
Grocery Store: $10.00 Soda, cream cheese, milk, bagels
Local mini-grocery: $10.00 3 coloring books for the kids, 2 ice cream snacks for us
Horseback riding: $108
Mexican cantina: $50.00 dinner
Total: $238.67

Oh, and I gave my sister $30 to take the kids to the movies, so that brings us up to $268.67.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

As promised, my thoughts on the Love and Respect marraige seminar

Hubby and I attended the first of 4 classes in a marriage seminar called Love and Respect. The main gist of the material is that women primarily need unconditional love and men primarily need unconditional respect. That doesn’t mean that women don’t need respect and men don’t need love, but what we need the most from each other is different. They’ve done studies at the University of Washington that have shown that to be true, but I don’t really need a university study to tell me that. The Bible, the highest authority in my life, says it too:

Eph 5:33 So each husband should love his wife as much as he loves himself, and each wife should respect her husband.

Of course, just because I’ve read that verse a few thousand times doesn’t mean that I’m doing it well. The speaker’s name for this series is Emerson Eggerichs and he was talking about how accepted it is in our society that people need unconditional love. You don’t see many Oprah talk shows where people argue whether love should be conditional or unconditional. However, you start talking about men needing unconditional respect and you’ll get some backlash. “Respect is earned” is the primary thought. The idea that men need respect for who they are, not what they do, is an idea that needs some attention.

Eggerichs also commented that our society more negatively views male behavior in comparison to female behavior. Women tend to cry when they experience negative emotions, men tend to get angry. So, when a man and a woman have an argument and the woman starts to cry and the man walks away angry…who do we think the “bad” person is? Obviously the man with the “anger issue”.

Here is the main image they wanted to leave each person with after class 1:


Each person was asked to consider their spouses whenever they experience negative emotions in a discussion. We are supposed to say something like “Are you feeling dis-respected by me? because I’m feeling unloved by you and I’m wondering why.” Of course, hubby and I are turning this into a joke. Every time he farts, I ask “are you feeling disrespected by me? because I’m feeling unloved by you”…at which point he tries to show me his love in some vulgar fashion. It makes us laugh. Not that we aren’t taking the class seriously. We are and I can already see things that I need to work on and do differently, but the comic relief is helpful.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Apparently I'm a leather and chaps kinda girl

Well I did something today I haven't done in 10+ years...I hopped on the back of a motorcycle. I haven't spent any real time on a motorcycle since I was a kid, when I used to love to ride on long trips with my dad. Of course, dad rode a Gold Wing and hubby rides a Kawasaki KLR 650. On Dad's GoldWing, I used to take naps on the back during rides. You are so secure back there, with the back rest, sometimes arm rests, and a person in front of you to lean on. On hubby's KLR, you lean back and your butt hits the pavement.

With the kids sick, I hadn't thought I would be able to go with hubby to our first class in the Love and Respect marriage seminar. At the last moment, my dad offered to stay with the kids and I was able to jump on the bike before hubby drove out of the driveway. Such a last minute departure saved me from mentally agonizing over riding again, but it also left me a bit mentally unprepared. I spent the first 10 minutes of the ride frightened and thinking about what would happen if the kids lost both their parents in a motorcycle accident. I thought about my will and wondered if my parents would know where to find it. I thought about Suze Orman and her advice that a Living Trust is only helpful if you actually fund it by changing all your beneficiary information to include the trust...which I haven't done. I thought about my ankles. When I learned that I could go, I quickly donned jeans, a leather jacket, and tennis shoes...but my ankles were bare. I know it is true that falling off the bike would lead to much more damaging injuries than road rash, but it was what would happen when my bare ankles hit the pavement that was fixated in my mind. After about 10 minutes, we stopped going downhill, stopped going over speedbumps, stopped going on dirt roads, and were able to hit the open highway. That's when I started enjoying the ride.

I enjoyed the beautiful ride from that point on. The scents that wafted over us were amazing. The flower scents, the cow scents, the river scent, and the trees. When I drive in a car, I spend most of my time looking forward. On the back of a motorcycle, you really can't see past the big ole helmet in front of you...so you look to the side. I noticed orchards for the first time in yards that I've driven by a million times. I got to watch the kids playing little league baseball. I got to watch the people floating down the river on inner tubes.

We arrived to our class safely (I'll blog about the class in my next post) and I found myself looking forward to the ride back. The sky all the way home was a lovely shade of rosey pink -- like a pretty white zinfindel. Right at the horizon, there was a burst of yellow, making it look like there could have been a fire somewhere behind the tree line.

Oh, I learned something else too...when the wind picks up and you hit a dust storm, the headlight on the bike makes it look like there are little fire sparks coming at you. Fear not, there was no fire. =)

(Sunset picture borrowed from hickerphoto.com)

I want to be a sundress-kinda girl

Since it has been an amazing 90 degrees lately, I want to wear a sundress. I've never pulled off the sundress look well. I either feel like my chest is hanging out, or my chest is showing through, or I end up lpoking too dressed-up. Oh, and then there's the "maybe she's pregnant again" look when I wear the empire waist-line ones. This is the look I want with a pair of barely-there flat sandals:


I like this look too, but it doesn't have that same carefree comfy look the other one does:


Somebody better remind me quickly that I'm out of my June clothing budget, because I'm about to head to Target. Maybe I can sneak this into the anniversary weekend vacation budget!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

It's 4:14 AM and I'm blogging


All three kids are sick. Yes, all three vomiting on the same day. Lucky me. All day I've been doing laundry: washing sheets, pillow cases, mattress pads, pajamas, towels and the occasional unfortunate stuffed animal. I've scrubbed down walls and stain treated carpets and upholstry.

What are you supposed to do with the pillows? 5 pillows now have become soiled during this round of sickness. All soiled to the point that I think they need to be thrown away. I hate to send 5 pillows to the landfill. What a bulky waste! But what else do you do with them? Thank goodness that pillows are relatively cheap to replace. Oh, I know the nice ones are $20 each, but my kiddos like the flat ones and those are $5 each.

Sweetness, my eldest daughter, was the last to fall ill. She came to my bedside at 3:30 this morning to tell me she'd thrown up in her bed. She is at least composed enough to hang out by herself in the bathroom while I clean up the mess. She even washed the flecks out of her own hair...I'm so proud!

The Big Guy had been horrible all day, so I was almost glad when he threw up in his crib at 8 pm. Better to have a sick little boy than to have a that boy be a crying mess all day and have to wonder if that is just his personality.

Spunky Girl started us off on Saturday night by ralphing all over her bed and then again last night. She'd probably be better by now if I could just get her to stick to the BRAT diet and rest...but acts like she is fine during the days and bugs me to go do stuff. I know the slip n' slide was a poor choice, but at least it got the kid out of my hair for a few minutes.

I wonder if I should try to go back to bed now. I tried sleeping at 3:45, after getting the last round into the washer, but hubby is snoring and I can't fall back asleep. Hubby is snoring because he exhausted himself fishing all day and caught NOTHING. Why would you fish from 5:45am till 10pm if you were catching nothing? Doesn't sound fun to me, but I don't begrudge him his time away or his time to sleep off the fatigue afterwards. The guy never gets time away to go play, so I'm glad that worked out for him. I'm even more glad he'll be home tomorrow (which is actually today) to help with the sick kids!

More things I'm grateful for:
* that the kids are sick now instead of in 3 days when Hubby and I are supposed to leave for a kid-free anniversary inspired weekend
* that I have a washer and dryer in my house and that I have enough spare sheets to swap on clean ones while the dirty ones are washing
* that I can call my mom in an "emergency" to hang out with the little guy in the tub while I get his crib ready for another round
* that I can turn off all the alarm clocks in the house and let the household wake up on their own

...and with that, I'm going to go try to sleep again. Nighty night.

Monday, June 1, 2009

June 1st


Anyone else notice it this morning? I don't know if it is just because it was June 1st or whether it is simply a Monday morning...or whether it is because it is Monday, June 1st the first day of Spunky Girl's summer vacation...but today feels like a "let's get a plan" kinda day.

I want to get my month organized. I want to know when I'll be celebrating Father's Day with my dad, hubby's dad, and hubby himself. I want to know what I'm going to do with my freetime (which is hardly free, but I simply mean the time that I'm no longer spending going to preschool and back). Really, I want a plan in place for the summer. I want to know the time slot I'll be getting for the kids summer swim schedule.

I've got a few plans floating around for the summer. I know I'll have marriage classes to attend for the next 4 Thursday nights: The Love and Respect series (I've heard it is good). I know I've got park playdates with Spunky Girl's friends on Thursdays at 11 am. I'm hoping to get a women's Bible class started at my church on Friday mornings in the summer. I'm thrilled to have a mother's helper one day a week, but that won't start until July. Really...that is the beginning of a summer plan. I think I need to sprinkle in a few vacations and a lot of date nights and I'll feel ready to go.

I think it will be an awesome summer. I can't wait for bbq's, beaches, and summer clothes. Speaking of summer clothes, it is once again the beginning of a new month and I've already spent my June clothing allowance. I ran into a sidewalk vendor selling jewelry and had to have this daisy necklace...and then a friend bought some clothes that she eventually decided against and sold them to me at 1/2 off (rather than returning them to the store...how could I refuse?).
I love the white top, but I'm not sure I'm keeping the white pants. I'm afraid I'll always be tugging at the back of the white pants to keep my back end appropriately covered...and that can be annoying. They may end up on ebay. Besides, do I really need a pair of jeans with the brand name of Rich and Skinny? Seems like false advertising to me!

Wow. That is a dorky pose. Well, I'll leave you with that ridicuous image. Happy Monday people.