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Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Gig Is Up

How is it that I am finding time for 2 posts in one day, you might ask? Well...

a. the girls are at Frankie's
b. Q is napping
c. I am not grocery shopping today (executive decision made to preserve what is left of my sanity)
d. I am not doing laundry today (I say this now, but I know I will cave and throw a load in after Q wakes up)
e. I am just that awesome

While all of the above are true, I am not awesome enough to hide the Christmas presents well. The girls cleaned up their room this morning and then we sent them to work on the spare bedroom. They have begun treating this room as an extension of their room. They apparently decided to play 52 card pick up with the uno deck at some point this week in there and forgot about the pick up part. So, they were sent in there to clean. And then sent back when Chris found more uno cards behind the bed. The problem with this was the fact that I hid half of the zhu zhu pet haul (among other gifts) under said bed. Casey began screaming, "I found the zhu zhu pets! I found the zhu zhu pets!" Over, and over at the top of her lungs! Excitement was in the air! Children were giggling, running in circles and shrieking with delight! Chris looked at me as if to say I was the biggest dumbass on planet Earth. (Which in that moment, I was.) We sent the girls to their room and conferred on what our plan of action was going to be. It was not a problem that they found Christmas gifts....the problem was that they found the Santa gifts. Gifts that we have invested too much money in to give to them from us and buy new Santa gifts. Big sigh. So, we decided to tell them to pretend it never happened. We will not be talking about it. And if they don't follow our directions, Santa might not come at all because Santa doesn't like little girls that can't follow directions and he will put you on the naughty list. Big sigh. We'll deal with it when they come down stairs Christmas morning only to find all of the zhu zhu pet crap that was under the bed in the spare room in October. At that point, I think the Santa gig might be up.

I love Frankie

No, really, I do. :) Q was a complete wild man during the photo shoot today, in short, he was a jerk. Seriously. But Frankie captured things that I didn't even know were going on - the sweetness of my children. Perhaps I should look more closely more often. I had the pleasure of watching her edit and I actually found myself tearing up at one of them. How lame am I??? Then we went to lunch and then she took the girls for a sleepover. Does your photographer* do that for you? If not, perhaps you should look for a new photographer. :) And I'll say it again....I love you, Frankie!










Just in case you want fab photos like these of your family and don't know about Frankie already, you can find more info at www.stylizedportraiture.com ~ tell her that I sent you so that she will love me as much as I love her!

*a photographer that also happens to be my bestie. seriously.

Friday, October 23, 2009

I wish I could burn the calendar

At the end of September I looked at Chris and said, "September really sucked. But, so far, October looks great! The last week is book fair, but other than that, I think everything will be just 'normal' busy - not 'super' busy."

I will never make such a bold statement again. I was foolish in making that statement and now I am getting ready to pay the price. I was really just tempting fate to deal us a "super" busy calendar....and it has.

This week we have....
1. pictures with Frankie tomorrow, grocery shopping, cleaning and laundry
2. Sunday - church and fall festival at my school
3. Monday - Book Fair begins, Cheer Off at 7pm - I have no idea what this is going to be like, so I just keep picturing scenes from "Bring It On"
4. Tuesday - Family Night at Book Fair AND another football game...family night from 5-7, game at 6:30....good luck with that, right????
5. Wednesday - Muffins With Mom at Book Fair, dance class/halloween party for Casey
6. Thursday - Donuts With Dad at Book Fair
7. Friday - closing up book fair, heavy drinking (at home...not book fair!)
8. Saturday - possibly another football game, halloween
9. Sunday - church, party for football team and cheerleaders, children's choir practice

I really wish that I could just burn the calendar. But, the calendar is on my computer and that would be a really expensive temper tantrum. So, I will refrain.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Batteries Exhausted

No new pictures for this post...the screen on my camera is currently flashing "batteries exhausted." But before the exhaustion of the batteries, I got some great pics of Chan enjoying the empty diaper box almost as much as Quinn did. Apparently boxes are good for all ages.

Fall Break has been upon us. I was out last Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Chris and the girls were out Thursday, today and Monday. We had big plans for the girls to spend the weekend at mom's, but on Wed Chan was diagnosed with the dreaded step throat. (Lucky for the pediatrician that she didn't tell us that it was just allergies again.) So, she stayed home and Casey went to Mom's without her. We are all going out there to spend the day on Sunday to pick her up. This is the longest that the girls have ever been away from each other and it is strange (for me at least). They talked for half an hour on the phone today. Casey admitted to me that she is missing sister. Chandler will be having her own special weekend at Meme's over the Thanksgiving break.

I am still hopeful that Chris will be able to paint our bedroom this weekend. It was on his calendar to do today, but, somehow I never took the paint out of my trunk and carried it to work with me today. :( Once the transformation is made I'll post new pics, so long as the exhausted batteries have been replaced.

The next two weeks make me want to vomit. (Just thought I would share that.) We're back to cheerleading next week (it seems it will never end!), dance class, a leadership meeting at work, a full weekend complete with a fall festival at my school, then the much anticipated book fair. Which is when the media center hosts a family night, muffins with mom and donuts with dad...all in one week. Awesome. Chandler will also be competing in her fist "Cheer Off" that week. As her mother and the team coach, I am *thrilled*. All that I can picture in my mind for this is Bring It On. God help me.

The girls informed me the other afternoon when we went to pick Q up from the sitters that he had been a "happy pants" that morning. This is different from when I call him a "pissy pants" during his cranky moods. Perhaps I should consider using a different phrase around the other children.

I read one of the greatest books ever this week (along with one of the worst books ever - more on that later)! My dear friend Melinda told me to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - she said it was wonderful and that I would love it. I cannot tell you how many times I had picked up this book at the store and pondered on whether or not I should buy it. I was hesitant because of the epistolary format, so I never bought it. But, following her recommendation, I dove in. By page 23, I was laughing out loud and by page 87 I noticed that I was reading much slower than usual because I was so in love with the characters that I never wanted the book to end. I loved it! And, I will be highly recommending it to others.

The worst book was book 4 in the Blue Bloods series. Ugh. It has been about a year since I read book 3 and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. I hate series where the author spends half the book reminding you what happened in previous books, but I really, really needed more reminding in this one. I think that I am done with this series...whether the series is done or not.

Now, I have moved on to Her Fearful Symmetry...the new one by Audrey Niffenegger. I love, love, love the Time Traveler's Wife, so I have high hopes for this one. Such as, I hope that it does not disappoint me.

I am sure that there are a thousand more things that I could/should/would share if I could remember/had more time/did not already feel that this post was much too long, so I am going to leave it at this.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

In the Box



Quinn had big fun this weekend...in and outside of the box. Yes, the toy of choice this weekend was an empty diaper box. Such fun! And I can only imagine what his reaction would be to something like a refrigerator box. Perhaps he will find out at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas...I think that I am well on my way to securing enough zhu zhu pet items to make for a large enough set up for Christmas morning. We found some at the Toys R Us in Athens. Other than that though, it is amazing to me how grown up the girls are becoming. They actually asked for giftcards this year.

I had a difficult weekend, myself. I had this terrible feeling of crisis. Inner turmoil. I couldn't verbalize it (which I am still struggling with) and I couldn't figure out how to fix it (still not a clue). So instead, I spent the afternoon leisurely walking around TJ Max and Steinmart (you know, places that are a disaster to go to with children) with Frankie (who is NOT a disaster to go to those places with), and wishing that I had the style of the Mormons that I love out in Utah. It is true. CJane and Nie, even though I only read their blogs (along with a billion other people in the world), I love them and I covet their style. Much like my Molly. She is amazing at the finding of things. In my world, if Target doesn't have it, then I am not meant to own it. Sad, but very nearly bordering on being a true statement. I always think someday when I don't spend a trillion dollars a month on childcare, feeding children, clothing children and providing extracurricular activities for children, I will have the spare change to bulk up my vintage globe collection, have beautiful furniture mixed from flea markets, antique shops, ikea and pottery barn, or have a whole slew of fabulous beaded necklaces and artsy earrings. But then I feel that that is who I want to be now so that my children will recognize me then. Kind of like how, as a child, my mother and I lived a whole entire summer on hotdogs, creamete salad and sun tea, and now she is an out of this world chef - sauteed purple cabbage with goat cheese, warm potato salad with avocados, to die for brussel sprouts with lemon juice (I have to stop, my stomach is growling)...But seriously, I did not grow up eating this food and it took me awhile to recognize this woman slaving away in the kitchen as my mother. I want for my children to always know this eclectic side of me that is dying to be free. But, sadly, in order for them to know this woman, they would also have to know canned vegetables and spam. So, I think that my priorities are in the appropriate order. Big sigh. Someday I will own really fantastic pieces of awesomeness in my house, kickass jewelry, amazing shoes, and a desk that was not purchased from the good people at Target. Someday.

Friday, October 9, 2009

The Things My Children Say

While describing to me how cold her classroom is, Casey had this to say...

Casey: It is freezing like ice cubes in my classroom, Mama. Really. It is. It is so cold that my friend Alexis's blood vines are blue.
Me: Her what?
Casey: Blood vines. They were actually blue.

***************************
Me: We're going over to DoeDoe and PopPop's tonight for dinner.
Chan: For DoeDoe's birthday?
Me: Yep.
Casey: We should definitely make her a giant card.
Chan: Let's get her something. What should we get her?
Me: I don't think we're going shopping before we go there.
Chan: Not something big. Maybe like a new lunchbox.
Casey: You know, she is a nurse. Maybe we should get her some new nurse things.
Chan: Like what?
Casey: Like maybe a doctor thing.
Me: Ok, again, we're not going shopping before we go there.
***much whispering in the backseat***
Me: Girls we're leaving in a little bit, I don't think you'll have time to do something that is too involved.
Casey: It's ok, Mama, we've got it under control. Cause when two little girls have big dreams, amazing things happen.

Oh, crap. We're in trouble now!

Monday, October 5, 2009

My One Success


This was my one success of the weekend. I made my stepmother's very famous pistachio cake. Seriously. I made a cake. And then I sold it. The UMW was having a bake sale at church, so I made this super delicious cake and someone actually bought it. I think they either a. didn't know that I made it or b. don't know about my last cooking fiasco. Either way, truly, my one success of the weekend.


This is a picture of Quinn's latest success. He knows where his head is...and he will show you that he knows this on command. Yes, it is very awesome. This is also his pose when he drops something and when you say something to him that he doesn't like. I think he is a genius.



The girls each cashed in $20 daddy dollars and invited a friend over to spend the night Friday night. By Saturday night, I needed my own spend the night party...preferably in an insane asylum. Chandler's friend decided that she wanted to go home when it was bedtime (10:30pm) and her mom came and got her. Chan then proceeded to have a melt down...until a little after midnight. I slept with her in the spare bedroom. It is not very comfortable to sleep with a very long legged seven year old that lays horizontal in the bed. I awoke at 5am to a very loud and disturbing noise. Casey and her friend were up and decided now was a good time to play Lincoln Logs. So they dumped the ginormous bucket of them out on to the floor to begin building their very important structure. Did I mention that this was at 5am???? I told them to go back to sleep. They didn't. Slightly after 5 Q woke up. (Gee, I wonder why??) I gave him a sippy cup, rocked him back to sleep and went back in to tell the girls AGAIN to go back to bed. It was now 5:30am. At 6am there was much giggling and squealing. I went in to tell them to keep it down. At 6:30am there was screaming. I went in to beg them for the love of God and all that is holy to please be quiet. At 6:45am, Casey came in our bedroom to announce, "Mama, we're hungry." Of course you're hungry, you've been up since damn 5am in the morning! At this point, I politely asked Chris to get up with the hungry children. He made breakfast and then came back to bed until Q officially woke up, 45 min later. The little friend went home at 11am and the children and I all took naps after lunch. We desperately needed naps to get us through the rest of the day, which included a 4:30 b-day party at Chuck E. Cheese. Sunday, Chris took the children to Sunday school, I did a 28 minute supermarket sweep and then met my family for the church service. We stayed for fellowship dinner and the bake sale. Chris took the children home while I stayed for book club. I got home around 3pm and Chris made a fabulous dinner. I got 4 loads of laundry done and then Q refused to go to bed. I finished a Jane Green book and went to bed.

It is Monday and I am still celebrating my one success of the weekend...that damn cake!