Erin Go Bragh!

So, well, the leprechaun trap wasn't what I envisioned, and I suppose that was the point. Jack designed it himself, and with a little help from dad, created a relative masterpiece. Let's wish him luck on this happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here is a piece of 'gold' I "JUST HAD" to take a picture of.
This is the inside of the trap. The hopps bag that John uses to make his beer doubled as a net to Catch that Lucky Charm's eating menace. And of course, there's more gold to be found under the box.

There it is... a ceral box with a Y stick (or free shilleleigh to lure the leprechaun in) spray painted gold-which I think for Jack was the best part. Oh, and check out the air holes so that the imaginary critter can even breathe. That is Jack to a T, providing comfort in confinement. So what if it's not fancy? It's all his own.

Our Special Friends on the Wii

Jack has created several Wii Mii characters. Most of them are bearded ladies with the ability to "mingle". So, if you're doing the Wii fit in our house, chances are a bearded lady will run past you, throw you a hula hoop, or kick a panda bear at your head. And so, I had the following conversation with my son today. Not sure how it started, but at least I know he's learning a bit about how the world works- that being he's not at the center of it.

Jack-"Can I play the Wii?"
Me-"Why, so a bearded lady could run past you?"
Son-"You know mom, Sawyer (his friend at Sunday school) says he knows someone who is a bearded lady. And you know mom, we shouldn't make fun of people who are different from us. God made everyone different and special, we shouldn't make fun of people mom. Even bearded ladies".

Touche' son, touche'.

Because They Can't Live One Without The Other

Naptime. Like twins, only sometimes worse. Best friends.

From Pudding to Princess

I'm pretty sure Maddie's favorite person is daddy. For the girl whose first word was "Chocwate" he will give anything. Especially pudding, if she eats all her deener, which she did like a champ last night.

If you look closely, you can see her little mouse tongue licking the chocolate.

Mmmm...

Pretending to share, but really not about to.

Check out that forearm supination and the complex grasp on the spoon. No OT needed here.

Last week at ballet was mommy watch week, meaning the parents can sit in the room and take pics. Apparently, I was a huge space invader because little miss thang got into a funk and wouldn't participate until I left. Therefore, these photos are taken through the tiny window in the door.

She's practicing for her dance recital in May.

Watching her hula hoop was hilarious. I think you need hips to do it, so skinny minnie didn't do all that well.

She's got the idea down, not the mechanics.

Remember that "mood" I talked about earlier? Yah, this is the one.

Good News!

First things first....

According to my middle child, if you blow raspberries at ducks, it will render them completely unable to drag you into your home naked and make you die. I consider this a very powerful PSA for today.

Secondly...
My goggles and cap have been safely located in the bag that I had put them in during an attempt at organization.

Am I the ONLY person who loses things after I've cleaned them up and put them in their rightful place? Like the time I hung up all the coats in the closets and later was FRANTICALLY searching everywhere (except the closets) for them.

I'm totally a lost cause.

And Thusly I Begin Again

It is officially tri training season. I am officially off drinking (although I won't deny myself a glass of wine now and then) and weaning myself from coffee. I have also begun keeping a food log writing down everything I eat, mostly to make sure I have enough protein and complex carbs, although it's hard to monitor this very well.

I also registered for this Triathlon Expo on the 21st. They're having a brick workout, swimming and biking for 45 min. each, and then a group run. I opted out of the run because of my foot although if it improves by this weekend, I may call and register for it. After the workouts (which begin at 6 a.m. EGADS!), there will be sessions given by a nutritionist for tri-racing specific nutrition, a yoga thingy, and chair massages. I know it all sounds cool, especially since it's free, but lets be honest when we say I am most excited about the chair massages-racing techniques be damned.

I'm hoping to do at least 3 races this season, the most important of course being the Danskin Breast Cancer race, which was moved from July to September this year. I don't know why they did that, given that Chicago weather in September is pretty iffy, but maybe the lake will be warmer than 72 degrees, which wasn't so bad because it made me swim that much faster.

For now I have my immediate goals at hand...like, finding my goggles and swim cap. Totally missed my workout this a.m. because Tuesday is a swim day and my gear is nowhere to be found.

Focusing on the important things....that's me.

If You Give a Dad A Muffin- By Me

If you give a dad a muffin,
He will eat it
Oblivious to anything else going on around him.

And then he'll ask the Mom for more.

The end.

If You Give a Mom a Muffin...

I got this in an e-mail from a friend, and it is sooo sooo true...

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger").
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two year old's diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are...If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

by Kathy Fictorie

Kid Projects

Seriously when I look at this (which is a lacing project brought home from school, and incidentally he didn't do too badly), I think he looks like such a baby in that picture. Over the course of a year it's easy to forget how much the kids change.

Drum roll please.....How cool is this?? I asked Jack if his teacher helped and he answered that she told him when to push space. Not bad for a five year old. Borderline genius I'd say.

On another note, we have to build Jack a leprechaun trap for school. I informed John of this and his answer was "Well, how big are elementary school leprechauns?" Meaning, how involved is this project? Too bad about my mom, because something like this my father would excel at.

Anyone ever build a leprechaun trap? Did it work? Can you give me ideas?

THANKS!

Girls Weekend, 2009

This past weekend, as aforementioned, I abandonded my mother in need and my family and headed out to meet up with 13 of my oldest friends. And by oldest friends, I mean that most of us went to Kindergarten together. We did Brownies, Indian Princesses, Girl Scouts, choir, dancing with Marla, Gymnastics, Swim Team, boys, parents, puberty, and growing up together.

Some of us hadn't seen each other in years. It maybe should have been weird, and my friend Kim and I talked about it, because what made it weird was that it wasn't weird. We got our drink on, played Apples To Apples, looked at old yearbooks, watched videos of the junior high talent show and singing the National Anthem at a Cubs game. We danced to old school music (oohhh Baby YOU, You got what I NEEEYED!), and We talked, we caught up, and we laughed harder than we've laughed together in a long time.

I took over 300 pictures, and since I can't post them all, here are the highlights.


This is me and Jennie. For some reason we thought headbanging was a good idea.

Jennie's mom and My mom were Girl Scout leaders together. Jennie coupled with her sister Katie are two of the funniest people I've ever known and I have them to thank for my abs hurting today. Jennie and I grew up together, really. Our sisters hung out and our brothers were best buds. We had us some good times. Doesn't she have the most beautiful smile?

This is me with Lisa. My first bff ever, and I can't even begin to write what we have been through together-it'd take too long, but you can imagine what your first bff ever means and that is the world. I CAN say her wedding was one of my favorite weddings I've ever been to, it was so beautiful. Lisa is one of the most genuinely kindest people on the planet and she is a beautiful person inside and out. I'm so glad she came this weekend!

This is just what happens when I have no kids to deal with. Let it all hang out and have fun!

We're hoping to do it again next year...maybe head to Arizona to visit Kim, since it's considerably warmer there in February than it is in Chicago!

Ahhh...now it's back to the grind this week, but that's okay. I'm refreshed and ready!

If It Wasn't So Funny, It Would Be So. NOT. Funny

Okay, so before I get angry comments about what an awful person I am, I'm going to preface this entire story with the information that even the VICTIM in this scenario finds bits and pieces funny. That being said.....

Friday morning I was taking the kids from Maddie's ballet class to open gym and I get a call from John who fielded a call from my dad, something cryptic about my mom falling at work and going to the hospital.

Frantically I call dad and got the gist of the story being mom was watering her plants high up on her filing cabinet, the chair rolled and she fell, he'll call me with more later.

So, like you, I'm assuming my mom was standing on a chair, watering plants and she fell. Fabulous.

Fastforward a few hours. Mom has a Dx of a broken tailbone (OW!) and a broken ankle-even though my dad keeps trying to tell us her foot is broken (I'm pretty sure they argued about it at some point, but she's the one in the cast with an appt. for an orthopod, not him).

So, of course I ask mom what she needs, what happened, etc. And then I get the real story. She wasn't on a chair, she was on her TIP TOES and stepped back, and the chair behind her rolled, and ohmygodjenny it justhappened soooo fast! And then, "Well, I'm not STUPID, why would I stand on a chair?" Uhhhh...you know what ma, you should just tell people you were. It's a better story than, "Well, I was just standing there and well, I don't know what happened." Things happen fast in car accidents, not plant watering incidents.

Now, this is the funny part, but really only funny if you know my mom well. She is not very graceful. In fact, after she got her Wii fit, she called me shouting after a balance test, "How does this thing know Jenny?!!! HOW DOES IT KNOW I TRIP AND FALL WHEN WALKING??? How DOES IT KNOOOOWWW??"

So, while I'm NOT laughing that my mom is in A LOT of pain, I'm laughing at the circumstances, because this stuff only happens to her or in slapstick comedy movies. How do you fall and break your tailbone when you were just standing still?

My sister, to her credit has done a good job of heading down to help mom. I had a busy girls gone wild weekend, so John (God love him) voluntarily took the kids down to visit her, and even went so far as to have the kids pick out a balloon and card for her. He even remembered not to get her flowers because she is allergic. What a great guy! I myself was going to bring her dinner tonight but after I woke up from my morning nap (I'll explain in another post, really), mom told me not to come. She even told my sister not to come, so we'll be for sure seeing her in the next week and helping where we can.

For now, just send her good thoughts, and maybe a phone call. She'll be parked on the couch all week,I'm sure!

I Got Curtains!

It's hard to tell with the sunshine, but they are so totally awesome. They are olive green and wrinkly pattern. They are also grommet topped which are sweet.
Covering the massive window that leads out to our deck. It almost looks like a movie screen, and I love how much privacy we now have.

Don't you love them too?

Just For Fun

We write numbers.

We play dinosaur.

Rawr.

What Exactly, Do I Do All Day?

To those not in the know, staying at home and being 'just a mom' is more than a full time job. I get very upset when working parents act like I'm not doing much but watching Oprah and the View and not much else. I often hear, "You try doing what I do...blah de blah de blah".

How about YOU try doing what I do? Not that I'm playing tit for tat, but here's what my job consisted of doing yesterday...and I'm not even going to get a stimulus bonus to prove that it was worthwhile.

All Before I took Jack to school at 12:30 I had:

*Fed 3 kids breakfast.
*Gotten 3 kids ready for the day, dressed, teeth brushed, etc.
*done 3 loads of laundry (washed, dried, put away)
*taken Nate to preschool
*Sat in on an impromptu preschool meeting
*swum exactly 1 mile
*picked Nate up from school
*taken Nate to speech therapy
*fed Jack and Maddie lunch
*picked Nate up from speech therapy
*taken Jack to school.

My afternoon then consisted of:
*Feeding Nate lunch
*reading pre-naptime stories
*put kids in bed for nap
*clean kitchen
*eat lunch (read also, first meal of the day at 2 p.m. because that's when I had time).
*start crock-pot chicken for dinner
*deal with bout of stomach flu
*sweep floors
*More stomach flu
*wash windows
*More stomach flu
*wake up Nate and Maddie in order to get Jack from school
*Pick up Jack and market day order simultaneously
*More stomach flu
*change Nate's sheets, since he wet the bed during Nap
*feed children dinner while silently begging God for John to get home so I can lie down
*Weigh myself on the Wii-which incidentally thinks I need to lose another SEVEN POUNDS!!!
*dress kids after bath
*Read to Maddie
*Read to Jack
*CRASH!!!!


Somewhere in all this autopilot running, I'm educating my children, instilling morals, teaching them respect, and dealing with school papers, homework, gathering things to get into backpacks, etc. etc. I'm glad I'm at home raising my own kids. Nobody can take any credit for how awesome they are, but it gets tiring. And maybe it's the fact that I am not feeling the greatest, but I am tired. And I'm VERY tired of people thinking that because I'm home I'm not working. Because when I used to work Saturdays, that was the easiest day of my week. I took care of myself, got myself out the door, listened to my music on the car ride in, and crazy of all craziness, I was able to form a coherent thought in my head without someone needing, demanding, needing, wanting, demanding, needing.

I suppose I could prioritze and not do some of the things I'm doing, but what EXACTLY should I cut out?

Speech therapy is 3 days a week, and very necessary.
School is NOT OPTIONAL, so 2 mornings and 5 afternoons a week I am shuttling the kids there and back.
Exercise for me is also NOT OPTIONAL. I don't think it's too unfair for me to be physcially fit and mentally stable, and exercise helps with both.

Anything else we do for fun I almost feel obligated to do, because we are always running to the have-to's, like speech and school. The boys have asked to play soccer and t-ball. I can't really say no since they will learn a lot, skills, teamwork, etc. And that hasn't even started yet.....

And really, what would/should I change about all this.

Probably not a darned thing. I think for the most part I'm an a-okay mom. Maybe not the coolest mom (reading these Star Wars books to Jack at night is like reading Russian, I just don't get it), but the kids are thriving.

Right?

In The Tub

Conversation replay, with all 3 kiddos in my fun tub.....

Nate: Mom! Madilynn is a girl. She has a JINIS! (He likes to remind us randomly, every so often).

Me: Yes, she is.

Nate: I not have jinis. I a boy. Boys have PENIS.

Me: Yes.

Jack: Well, Nate, the hard part is trying to figure out girls. They have 2 holes. Which one is for poop? Which one is the pee hole?

Nate: I don know.

Me thinking: Cripes, how did I get here? "Hey guys, look at mermaid Barbie swimming!"

Ever see those Johnson and Johnson commercials "Having a baby changes everything". Yes, yes it does. Like, your vocabulary (jinis), your ability to lie (Santa et al), and your ability to think on the fly (see above.) Their health teachers are gonna love me in 5th grade.

That's all I know.

And You Thought Facebook Was Addicting?

Thanks Keri for showing me the way....

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

It's a Cinderella Story

I cannot think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day than with my niece Brooke and Maddie at the Princess party at Brooke's church. The girls both HAD to be Cinderella. They did crafts, and got their hair, make-up and nails done. We also had lunch, and the 'real' princess read a story. Too too cute.

This says it all, no?

All the Princesses, big and small.

Checking out the results.

Hair-do, it also came complete with a little hair bling.

Brooke's turn.

Pretty Nails.

Checking on Maddie. They had to always be aware of what the other girl was doing. They are really funny together.





Not liking the nail drying spray.

Getting pretty puple polish.

No, it's not Angela from "The Office", but the "real" princess. Maddie was a bit hesitant, I think she was expecting someone a little more grand, the real Cinderella perhaps?

Make-up.

Not a fan of the glitter application after the make-up.

Lipstick, and lovely.

Look at all that make-up. What a pretty girl!

What a GREAT way to show someone you love them! We had a lot of fun. Can't wait til next year!

Stupid Broken Foot

Pay no attention to the fact that I'm in DIRE need of a pedicure....

Yesterday my foot hurt like hell. It didn't stop me from working out, though I kept it easy on the elliptical. I found it odd when my foot would go numb, and then my knees hurt. I knew I'd see Andrea the Super PT from work today when I took Nate in for speech and she confirmed my foot is in fact, broken, right between where my 2nd and 3rd toe are (and the tape crosses in the middle).

She said I could have done anything to get the stress fracture...even stepping down a stair the wrong way, since I sincerely CANNOT recall what I've done in the past 2 days that would have broken my foot. Fantastic.

So, she kinesiotaped it for me, and with some tylenol to boot it already feels a bit better. She told me she saved me a lot of money in a useless x-ray and a dr. bill that would amount to a dr. doing nothing for me, except maybe pointing me in the direction of a physical therapist. Yay!

The good news is there is no restrictions on my activites, which means I can still run, but I need to ice my foot when I'm done and/or at the end of every day. I can handle that...I can handle anything for 6 weeks, right?

Almost Like Spring

The weather has been fabulous the past few days, so we've been outside playing, and I've been tinkering with my rocking camera. Check out some of the delights caught on virtual film.

Yes, that is Nate riding his motorcycle into a snowbank. At least he has his helmet on.
Here is Nate doing something he shouldn't be doing, because although I was standing there watching, I never gave him permission to cross.

And then he got stuck. Serves him right for not listening to his mother, who by the way just kept taking photos instead of offering to help.

She LOVES her scooter. She LOVES wearing her helmet. She LOVES pink and purple!

With the helmet on she looks less Fraggle like. She actually enjoys posing for me!

Nate VS. Snow.

As you can see, Nate lost. Even the Dr. last week at a sick appt. I had for Jack had to ask what happened. He totally understood when I said, "Well, Nate decided to battle the snow mountain by sledding into the cul-de-sac (ie: street, ie: PAVEMENT). Nate lost."

Road rash. How sweet is this?

Happy nonetheless.

Out of Context

Taken out of context, Nate yelling : "YES! I have a big rocket" is hilarious. Add in he was talking about his Mario Kart vehicle...still funny.

Jack is proof to me that there is a God in heaven who believes in Karma-he's like me reincarnate. Nate is proof there is a God who has a sense of humor. Wallpaper in general is proof of Satan's mission to destroy the world, one overly flowery bathroom at a time.

To end the weekend, I'll prove my point on Nate with a chuckle. Fridays are my worknights. It is also a sacred pizza, Batman/Starwars, and popcorn night with Daddy. Nate was on punishment this week, so in order to earn it all, John made him clean up. "Stop making messes Nate" is a drone heard at any given time in the house. He's a dumper, always has been.

So now, daddy is pounding into his head that if you make a mess you must clean it up. Yesterday, Nate was bored.

N-"Wish I could play toys."
Daddy-"So go play toys".
N-"Well, why don't you take them out."
D-"Why would I do that?"
N-"Then you cwean up the mess!".

Hmmmm ....pretty smart thinking for a three year old my sister says. Me, I'm not so impressed. Nate's path always lies in the direction of least possible effort required from him, so this just made sense.

And God is sitting up there laughing.

Bodies

Thursday I was wandering the grocery store aimlessly, seeing as I didn't have any kids with me, and found myself in the magazine aisle. There was an article in one of the exercise mags..."New Workout for EVERY body shape!!!"

Great, I thought. I could use some new ideas. And so, I turned to the article. Incidentally (and ironically) body shapes are described in terms of food...fruits to be exact. For example:

If you are a banana, your body looks like this:

Long and lean, thin, but with no muscle mass. Doesn't really describe me. I'm tall, but I have muscle. I'm not mushy, except in my front butt, which will never go away, thanks to babies.

Moving on, if you are a pear shaped person, you look like this:

Apparently, if you are a pear, you have a small head and a big ga-dunka dunk

Now, if you are apple-icious, you look like this:

You have no body shape whatsoever. Apparently you look like a blood filled tick with little arms and legs sticking out of your overly round body.

I am not a banana, I am definitely not a pear, since I don't have hips or a booty to speak of, and I'm certainly not an apple. So, what kind of food best describes me? What food do YOU look like. I'd love to hear it.

Maybe, I'm like an ear of corn, and the little nib lets represent my muscles, the protective husk masking my true inner sweet goodness....Maybe I'm a peanut, body weight distributed equally, but that would imply a tiny waist which I don't have...

Sigh...I guess I'll have to think on it for a while.

Welcome Lucy!

My cousin Carey had a baby girl last week on Groundhog's day (best thing to happen that day since the stupid rodent saw his shadow and predicted a looooonger winter).

Welcome Lucy Flora, 8 + healthy pounds and a truly pretty baby. I'd post photos to share, but I have a rule that unless I have explicit parental okay, I don't put anyone elses kids on the net.

Just take it from me, she's adorable...and surprisingly enough I can see her grandma in her!

Congrats Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Bob!