kirstencan

First World Problems

Well, last week started out with me catching the stomach bug (it was inevitable) and our little car dying.  Then our computer got it's desperately needed reinstall, and everything is weird now.

Aaron calls these First World Problems.  So true.  But still, they are inconvenient, aren't they?

The week ended with a trip to the local amusement park (that I have carefully avoided for the past 11 years) for me and the girl for her first (and probably last) dance competition.  We were mean and left the boys and Aaron at home.

I've done fine at Legoland and Seaworld, but every ride here made me sick.  And most of the rides are very 'spinny' so I was really selective about which ones I rode.

Also I'm apparently more afraid of heights than I thought I was. Who knew! Granted, this is the hugest ferris wheel I've ever seen and they have spinners on them so they can spin like teacups.   I wasn't too hapy, but don't ask the girl for details on that, please.

It wasn't the worst day ever, even just sitting around waiting most of time.  The weather was nice (after the morning being cloudy and in the 40's - we brought the girl's winter coat to put on over her costume while she was warming up - those poor girls were freezing), but I'm sure everyone thought I was no fun at all!

Thank goodness the girl had a friend to go with, because  I only rode about 4 rides and pretty much regretted all of them.  I don't know if it was having an iffy stomach this week or what, but holy cow, I don't even want to look at these pictures.  I was so sick.

The "good" news is that one of her team's dances got a 1st place award and qualifies for 'Nationals'.  Which is next Saturday.  At the same place.

Goody.

Celebratory French Toast

Today we met a family goal and wanted to celebrate.

A small private party was in order.

We decorated a little, and the kids built lego candle holders for their candles.

The thing is, we wanted to go out to eat or something tonight, but the boys are in the post-stomach-bug-sensitive-tummy-stage, as they've been sick this week. 

What can they eat that's festive that the non-sick people will also think is yummy?

Aaron came up with the solution:  french toast with sprinkles.  The best idea.  Simple, yet festive.

I do make a mess when I cook - I just do.

None of my photos of the end result look appetizing, but they turned out great. I just shook some sprinkles onto the wet-side of the bread as it was cooking.   Easy.   We'll definitely do this again.  Celebratory French Toast.

Family parties are fun.  I love hanging out with my goofy people.

We ended the evening with a family movie night.  We finally rented Hugo, and I must say it's one of the few cases where the film is better than the book.  (And Asa is going to be Ender!  I approve!).

What an afternoon.

The day went fine.

Until this afternoon, when the girl mozied out of the bathroom to tell me very non-urgently that the toilet was overflowing.

Again.  Stupid toilet.

And so I had to clean it up, while snapping at the girl for not doing anything about it herself in the meantime and not getting me faster.  And then feeling bad for snapping.  I feel like I'm doing that a lot lately, especially at her.

I left the wet towels on the floor (thankfully it was really just water, but still... toilet water) because I can't get any on my clothes, we have the blue and gold banquet tonight for cub scouts and I have nothing to wear besides what I have on.

A few minutes later, in the middle of fixing the girl's hair for dance, there was a frantic knock on the door, a couple of neighborhood boys to tell me that Thomas had hurt someone.

ARGH.

Go get him, try to make him understand what a bad choice he made, send him back to the neighbor's to apologize.  Stress about the situation.  Then hustle everyone in the van to drive to dance.

On the way home Monkey says he feels really sick.  He has a headache, could be from that, or getting carsick, but I'm thinking he just doesn't want dinner at the banquet tonight.  Picky.

Now I have very little time (10 minutes?) to decompress before said banquet.

And there are still wet towels on my floor.

"Today was a difficult day, tomorrow will be better." - Mr. Slinger (Kevin Henkes)

Right?  RIGHT?

Lately :: photo dump

Sunrises on snowy mornings are so gorgeous around here.  I wish I could capture them better (remember this one?  even better).

We have a new tradition:  When you finish a workbook, you get to take a Victory Lap!  We're nerds.

Legos.  Always.

I tried Hot Crash Potatoes (I always want to call them Hot CRACK potatoes - and they're that good) one night and had leftovers for lunch the next day.  Yum.

Trying to finish up reading last conference's talks before the next one.  And I still love my Nook - Aaron got me the reading light for my birthday!

Another shot with the quilt my MIL made me for Christmas.  I'm still in love with it.  And I had forgotten to bring up a pillowcase for me when I brought up the clean sheets - so I snagged the only one I could find upstairs - a Santa one.  Whatever.

Making me happy:  this little corner.  A bubble painting by my sister, and a temple painting gifted to me this Christmas from my other sister. 

The red head had to research and make a poster about an animal for cub scouts.  Lumpy liked the end result.

Book 2!  His sister is charging him a penny a day in late fees since it's taken him more than a week.  UMM... he's six, and too scared to read it in the dark before bed, so.... that's just wrong.

Same kid, different... stripes.  Also on his face.  Also had a ribbon tied around his waist for a tail.  He is very inspired by Calvin.

Cutting up fabric donated by a quilt shop for the little girls at church to make pillowcases this weekend.  Luckily my mom helped did most of it - thanks, mom!  I was afraid I'd mess up the measurements.  That sounds like me, anyway. ;)

What's up with you?

Snippets of last week

Last week was fun, but busy.  Aaron had the week off, so we got some things done and also had a couple fun outings with the kids.  Unfortunately, my memory card died or something so I only had my little camera to document.

Anyway, here's just a couple snippets of our week.

I broke out my fun cookie cutters for some neighborhood birthdays (and a needed 'get well' - and now I wish I'd frozen some of those to keep on hand).

We finished up a couple of Colonial projects, including writing with a quill pen!

(I can't believe that's how Jane Austen and Charles Dickens wrote their (long) novels!)

We spent a morning at our new Natural History Museum.  It was pretty fab, but PACKED with field trip groups.  We're kinda anti-crowd... but it was still cool.

Drove from the museum to the zoo  - where it started snowing so we had the place to ourselves!  Almost literally!  Kinda awesome. 

Luckily the (real) elephant was out, otherwise there would have been tears.

Just a few years ago we couldn't have done two 'field trips' in one day!  And we couldn't have stayed so long at either place.  My kids' ages ROCK.

Not pictured: 

More subbing for the basketball coach (The girls finished undefeated!  On to region - again!).

A couple trips to the park with dad.

Several chemistry experiments with dad.

A couple of times eating out.

All the everday chauffeuring/appointments/activities/playdates.

'The Secret Life of Arietty' - it was wonderful.  Also inspiring - for a possible easter dress for the girl and Halloween costume (Mom?).  All of the kids loved this movie!

Anyway this week ... will be Crazy.  But I'm going to make Aaron give me one of his memory cards, so I'll feel... not in camera withdrawal!  Also because I have a couple of projects to show you!  Back soon.

All signs point to go

Here's my calendar for February (with my cute niece - she makes me smile).

Notice something?

There is one day (tomorrow!) that is empty.  I've kinda been eyeing that space out of the corner of my eye and waiting for something to appear there... nope!

It is my ONLY day with nothing scheduled!  I know it looks like I have Sundays free, but I stopped writing on them because church responsibilities/choir are always there. 

But tomorrow - I'm free!  Have a great weekend!

Snow Morning

Not a snow DAY.  Just the morning.

But the kiddos were thrilled to wake to snow.

Not quite enough to hit the sledding hill (boo) but enough to warrant delaying all things school to dig, explore and play.  We've had so little snow this year, this might have been the most we've gotten so far.

The red-head kept saying he wanted to go inside, so I made him go for a walk with me (and his brother).  We walked to the grassy area nearby and trudged a 'Fox and Geese' game path (what do you call that?) and played for a bit.

Also, he can get most of his snow stuff on by himself, but it took us 15 minutes together to get those gloves on.  I was not about to let him go in yet!

When will it be summer?  is the question he asks a lot - mostly while putting on long-sleeves, socks, sneakers and pants.  Today also gloves, boots, hat, etc.

He likes shorts and crocs.

We waved to all the kids trudging off to school while we shoveled.  When they got home from school, the snow was gone.

So, the groundhog said six more weeks of winter, huh?  We'll take it!  We've got to use our new sled at least once!

Kinda Random

Monkey was sick last week.  Oh, yeah, I told you. 

Well, it wasn't a 12 or 24 hr bug as I had expected.  In fact it took a whole week to kick this weird virus.  Not fun.  My little monkey usually doesn't sit still much, but he spent most of the week on his Couch Bed, and feverish:

Poor buddy.  Thank goodness for:

                    Convenient dr's offices.

                    Downloading free demos for the PS3.

                    Netflix.

                    Awesome Nana-made quilts to snuggle in.

It was a long week.  And I'm afraid he got used to the excellent service (begging him to eat ice cream for lunch and as many video games as he could handle) and this week he wasn't in the mood to be back to normal.  As in, he'd write  'No Skool' on our whiteboard. 

He doesn't see the irony.

 

In other news, this cool girl posted about camelcamelcamel, and I tried it out this week.  It's a price checker on Amazon.   Good stuff if you shop ahead/shop amazon frequently, both of which I do.  Just today I got an email saying that this thing I was looking at ($70 usually) was down to $50 today.   I also looked up this snap circuit set I was thinking of getting someone for their birthday, and by checking the camel site, I found that it is at a rock bottom price right now.  Excellent.  This is a great resource.

 

I designed my...13th? Shutterfly photo book.  When they give me a free book deal or a great coupon code, I take it.  So far I've done 6 photo 'yearbooks' which we give to the grandparents for Christmas.  I've been trying to order extra copies of those when they go on sale, so that someday the kids will all have their own set.  I've done a cousin book, two books for Monkey, one Legoland one for Thomas, a mini beach book and now 3 big beach books.  I think that's 14, actually.  I love those books and my kids go through them all the time.

 

Hopefully we actually get some snow this weekend - it's been a ridiculously mild winter.  Unfortunately it's the weekend that Aaron has to take some scouts on a Klondike campout.  Well, they'll Be Prepared.  I just worry about the roads.

Have a great weekend!

 

Don't get cocky.

So I was reading a blog post by a friend of mine about a Less Than Ideal awful trip to the grocery store with her four young kids in tow.  Aw, poor Lindsay, that sounds not fun at all.  I counted my blessings.  Going to the store used to be THE WORST THING for us.  Awful.  Taking both boys anywhere was horrible when they were younger.  Poor Thomas would have sensory issues + motion sickness from the cart.  Let him out of the cart and he'd run away or lay down and not get up.  In the cart again, he'd hit his brother.  Plus grab anything he could reach.  Not. Fun.

Either Aaron or I did the grocery shopping solo for years.

Anyway, back to counting my blessings.   I don't have to take the kids to the store anymore!  It has changed my life to have a responsible babysitter in our family.   Often, I ask if anyone wants to come to the store with me to keep me company because they're FUN at the store now.   Monkey usually wants to come because he thinks there'll be samples, like the free cookies at the bakery.  He LOVES Costco. ;)  I can even take all of them if we're out and about and they STAY WITH ME.  And are perfect angels compared to a few years ago.

I'm glad that we're done with that outing=craziness part of our life.

So, after reading Lindsay's post, I headed to the store (mind you, the same store) to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy and do some grocery shopping.  Monkey came with and got his cookie.  I had most of the shopping done.

And then he threw up.  All over the floor.  And then into his coat, because I had to try and catch it in something.  It was the really smelly kind.  ICK.  AND he had insisted on wearing his crocs instead of his sneakers and so he slipped in it and got his pants all messy.  EW.

Poor buddy.  It was embarassing and smelly and messy and he felt miserable.  But I had TWO things left on my list and that prescription to pick up and we were right near all of that so (after notifying an employee) I hurried through it (I'm not mean, it took five minutes, I swear).

Now he's in a steamy shower and his coat is in the washer and I'm chuckling to myself.

Don't get cocky.  Kids are completely unpredictable no matter what age they are.  Apparently I needed to be taken down a notch or two.

No photos this post.  I'm sure you're grateful.

Growing up and staying little

This girl child is now taller than her grandma (not me - yet!) but looks a bit like an overgrown child.  She is in the very last size of children's clothes but still needs the waist cinched (what size does that equal in juniors?!).  I'm trying to ignore that she'll need new pants very soon - they're starting to look slightly flood-ish.

She hates makeup.  Eye makeup, specifically.  On the one hand, thank goodness, and boy, her eyelashes are long enough without it, but on the other hand, putting stage makeup on her is a huge pain.  Last weekend was her dance recital and I bought her a liquid eyeliner and taught her how to do it herself (this is her third performance this semester and I'm tired of fighting her on it).  We started earlier so we didn't have to rush.  Much better than the stressful fight it usually is as we're trying to get out the door.  She did well (makeup and performance).

Oh, and performed on pointe for the first time (on the right).  Beautiful.

I watch the teeny girls rehearsing and remember watching her dance when she was teeny - wasn't that yesterday?  Her chubby legs stuffed into tights. No chub left.

She is asking for a Lego set for Christmas.  I had other plans, but then I realized that she was asking for a toy - and who knows how long that will last!  Time enough to get her the other thing later.  Birthday?   And remember our Santa dilemma last year?  We're on the same page now, but she does NOT want to talk about it.  Okay.

She is helpful and has started babysitting.  This has changed my life.  No joke.  Other people have asked her to sit as well, since they know she's responsible and home during the day when no one else is (and we can be flexible).  She loves this because she likes to play with kids of all ages.  She doesn't just 'watch' them, she'll set up a big tea party or something.

She is old enough to stay up and watch shows with us after the boys go to bed.  Her current faves are Malcom in the Middle and the new Sherlock series (we are all a bit impatient for new episodes of that!).

She kept asking when we'd get out the Little People Nativity, and said that was her favorite Christmas decoration.  Really?  Isn't that a toddler toy? But you know what?  We bought that when she was two, so it's a huge part of her Christmas memories, I realized.  Pip brought it out yesterday.

I keep thinking about her lately becuase we're in such a funny spot right now - but really it's a good place to be.