It’s 10:30 and the house is silent

Jeff left with the kids to let me sleep in a little more.  Have I ever mentioned the man in a saint sometimes?

 

So, I got up at a leisurely 9:30ish and have sat here in silence.

 

Now usually I play music when I’m at the computer, but right now I’m enjoying the silence.

 

Hear that.

 

That’s the sound of no kids arguing, no kids about to do something horribly dangerous.  No kids being crazy.  It’s silence.

 

Bless the man.  Darn, I just heard the garage my silence is gone.

Things I wonder

How did THREE pairs of scissors end up in my daughter’s bedroom?

How my kids can take 50 pictures like this?

 

How do we use up 4 rolls of tape in a week? (actually that I know, I just have to take a picture to show you.  I’ll give you a hint it involves kids wrapping presents).

 

How my daughter can cover herself in marker but not her paper?

 

Or for that matter how she can sit there for 20 minutes snipping paper into confetti, but can’t sit still long enough to listen to a five minute story?

 

How they can wear a bandage like this for days and think it’s cool?

 

How they can sleep like this?

My neck hurts just looking at it.  But it is cute.

 

How does Princess keep finding markers?  I swear I’ve taken away more markers.

 

Where does my hole punch go?

 

Where do my socks go?  I think I have a laundry gnome.

 

That’s my wonderings for the day.  In theory I’ll have a more useful post up later, but I’m feeling silly.

Movies and memory association

 

Have you ever noticed how much you associate movies with memories?

 

I was thinking about this as we watched Return of the Jedi on Thursday.

 

As I watched it I remembered watching it with the youth group in high school.  And a friend of mine leaned over and wondered if we’d fast forward past Princess Leia swinging across the chasm because you could see her but if you watched it in slow motion.  This of course led to me asking him how he knew this.

 

I also remembered watching all of these movies so often with Sam and Tara.  I thought about watching the final prequel movie just after having the boys and commenting frequently during that movie how she was NOT pregnant with twins, and how much we made fun of it.

 

Then I got to thinking about other movies I associate with things.  I associate Star Trek movies with my family and growing up.  Deep Space 9 with Jeff because we watched the entire series on DVD together when we were first married.  I associate Shrek with him too, and went to see the sequels because they remind me of dating Jeff.  Sadly the sequels have gotten gradually worse and worse…….

 

But, it just got me to musing how much movies can trigger memories, both good and bad.  Do you have any movies that trigger memories for you?

The cost of creativity

You probably can’t tell from looking at this, but that’s my kitchen table pad.  It’s covered in stains from the different projects we’ve done.  Once upon a time this was brand new and sparkling white.  It was so white it blinded you on a bright day.

 

Now, it’s stained.  You can see the remains of blue from our blue bonnet project or some other project we did.  You can see some brown stains that are from a muddy shoe left too long.  You can see the outlines of the papers they painted on.  I smile when I look at this because I see happy memories.

I don’t have the cleanest house, not by a long shot.  Instead what I have is happy kids, who know this is their house too.  We have things we need to work on.  I do need to work on cleaning more, but everytime I do I remember the phrase my Mom had hung in our kitchen growing up “Cleaning your house while your children are growing, is like shoveling your walk while it’s still snowing.”  It’s an exercise in futility. 

Instead, they delight in doing things like this.  It’s a huge mess, and we’ve created a lot of fun with this, but it did take a while to clean up.

Now, I’m not saying I should just leave my house like this disaster area you see here (don’t you like how Batman is trying so hard to wake his sleeping sister).  But, I do need to remember that they are only little for so long, and then they will all grow up, and what will I be left with?  A clean house?  Clean houses are not fun.  So, I need to find a balance, right now we’re tipped a little too far in the direction of messes.  It’s a constant struggle to get it clean and picked up.  Why does every toy have so many little pieces?  And it so quickly looks like a mess, but it’s still good to clean it.  Which is probably the boring stuff I’m going to be doing today, despite, that I’m being called outside by this:

All right, now off to feed my kids, who actually slept past 8 today!

What we didn't read this week

So.......  I'm sure you're not at all surprised to learn we didn't really read all that much this week.  Unless you count watching lots of Reading Rainbow episodes on DVD.

Instead Princess got her way and I read to her an insanely large number of Clifford books.  We go through phases of being wildly in love with Clifford and reading his books nonstop.  For a short period of time 6 months ago it seemed like I couldn't find Clifford books fast enough to suit them.

And, here's my confession time.....  Are you ready.

I very briefly considered giving the kids to the first taker on Thursday.  It was one of those days where I swear they were trying to see who could drive Mom craziest.  The whininess.  The crying.  The "Mommy hold me," and that was from the kids who didn't have surgery.  She was much worse.

But, the good news is that after that horrible day on Thursday it was like someone came and switched the horrible kids and gave me mostly pleasant ones.  Aside from major meltdown problems about who was sitting next to me at lunch everyone was good.  And I so needed that after Thursday.

But, I guess it all gets better when you go in to check on the "Sleeping Beauty," and this is what you see.





Isn't that cute?  She's sleeping in our room for the duration of her cast.

Princess is in surgery now, or will be at some point today

At some point today Princess will be going into surgery.  As I write this on Friday, my heart is mostly at peace with this.  The doctor is a good doctor, and it is a fairly routine outpatient surgery.  However, I'm also remembering how her brother did coming out of his surgery last fall.  When he came out of the anesthesia he was violent and ripped out his IV, and was generally mad at the world.  It took almost half an hour before he calmed down.  So, I'm a little worried she might react like that.  I have to admit I do like this picture though, there's something funny about her eating salad bigger than her face.



I'm also a little worried for the next few days after the surgery.  She's going to be in two casts.  She should be able to walk with them, but she's a bit of a klutz normally, I'm worried about with two casts on.  That, and trying to keep her relatively calm for a while because I don't want her running around with casts.  I'm very blessed that my Mom is keeping the boys for the night and during the surgery.

I'm sure I'll be posting later today that the operation was successful, and be sharing a picture of Princess with her pink casts, but right now I'm wool-gathering a little and borrowing trouble.  So, everyone be praying all goes well.

Oh, and my friend with cancer will have had his latest scans yesterday, be praying there's some good news to be had when they get results back.

My downstairs as I cook dinner as seen from Superman's eyes

How's that for a ridiculously complicated title?




So far I'm getting he thinks Batman is super important, both the person and the toy.




I also think he finds random shots interesting.




He linkes to annoy his sister. That's another important thing to do with a camera










This is Princess' stepstool, I just finished putting it together before he got up.






Oops, randomly didn't edit it to the right size, but I've given myself 1 hour to get all of my blog posts for this week done, so I need to keep going. HA! It's not happening, but I'm going to do my best.
And this is with me deleting a bunch of pictures of tile.....





And then I took away the camera, and he cried mightily. This was all in a 5 minute picture taking spree. Seriously, there's another 15 I deleted, and another 20 I didn't even bother to upload.

It's crazy.

Real quick post

I promise I'll get the aquarium up later. I gave up on writing posts at the hotel because the internet connection was so horrid. That's also why I didn't comment super much last week.

So, I saw this on Facebook, and it made me laugh and laugh, so I'm sharing it with you. What a nice subtle way to poke fun at my brother the pastor. Oh wait, saying that made it not so subtle. I really am so proud of him.

Two Dollar Bill

When I was a kid my Great Grandma and Grandpa would send me a $2 bill each year for my birthday. I have kept every single one of them, so I remember them. Well, yesterday my Mom forwarded me this, and it cracked me up.

Everyone should start carrying $2 bills! I am STILL laughing!! I think we need to quit saving our $2 bills and bring them out in public. The younger generation doesn't even know they exist.



STORY:

On my way home from work, I stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. In my billfold are a $50 bill and a $2 bill.





I figure that with a $2 bill, I can get something to eat and not have to

worry about anyone getting irritated at me for trying to break a $50 bill.



Me: 'Hi, I'd like one seven-layer burrito please, to go.'



Server: 'That'll be $1.04. Eat in?'



Me: 'No, it's to go.' At this point, I open my billfold and hand him the $2 bill. He looks at it kind of funny.



Server: 'Uh, hang on a sec, I'll be right back.'



He goes to talk to his manager, who is still within my earshot. The following conversation occurs between the two of them:



Server: 'Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?'


Manager : 'No. A what?'



Server: 'A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me..'



Manager: 'Ask for something else. There's no such thing as a $2 bill.'


Server: 'Yeah, thought so.' He comes back to me and says, 'We don't take these. Do you have anything else?'



Me : 'Just this fifty. You don't take $2 bills? Why?'



Server: 'I don't know.'



Me: 'See here where it says legal tender?'



Server: 'Yeah.'



Me: 'So, why won't you take it?'



Server: 'Well, hang on a sec.'



He goes back to his manager, who has been watching me like I'm a shoplifter, and says to

him, 'He says I have to take it..'



Manager: 'Doesn't he have anything else?'



Server: 'Yeah, a fifty. I'll get it and you can open the safe and get change



Manager: 'I'm not opening the safe with him in here.'



Server: 'What should I do?'


Manager: 'Tell him to come back later when he has real money.'



Server : 'I can't tell him that! You tell him.'



Manager: 'Just tell him.'



Server: 'No way! This is weird. I'm going in back.



The manager approaches me and says, 'I'm sorry, but we don't take big bills this time of night.'



Me: 'It's only seven o'clock! Well then, here's a two dollar bill.'



Manager: 'We don't take those, either.'



Me: 'Why not?'



Manager: 'I think you know why.'



Me: 'No really, tell me why.'



Manager : 'Please leave before I call mall security.'



Me: 'Excuse me?'



Manager: 'Please leave before I call mall security.'



Me: 'What on earth for?'



Manager: 'Please, sir.'



Me: 'Uh, go ahead, call them.'



Manager: 'Would you please just leave?'



Me: 'No.'



Manager: 'Fine -- have it your way then.'



Me: 'Hey, that's Burger King, isn't it?'



At this point, he backs away from me and calls mall security on the phone around the corner.



I have two people staring at me from the dining area, and I begin laughing out loud, just for effect. A few minutes later this 45-year-oldish guy comes in.



Guard: 'Yeah, Mike, what's up?'



Manager (whispering): 'This guy is trying to give me some
(pause) funny money..'



Guard: 'No kidding! What?'



Manager: 'Get this. A two dollar bill.'



Guard (incredulous): 'Why would a guy fake a two dollar bill?'



Manager: 'I don't know. He's kinda weird. He says the only other thing he has is a fifty.'



Guard: 'Oh, so the fifty's fake!'



Manager: 'No, the two dollar bill is.'



Guard: 'Why would he fake a two dollar bill?'



Manager : 'I don't know! Can you talk to him, and get him out of here?'



Guard: 'Yeah.'



Security Guard walks over to me and......



Guard: 'Mike here tells me you have some fake bills you're trying to use.'



Me: 'Uh, no.'



Guard: 'Lemme see 'em.'



Me: 'Why?'



Guard: 'Do you want me to get the cops in here?'



At this point I am ready to say, ' Sure, please!' but I want to eat, so I say , 'I'm just trying to buy a burrito and pay for it with this two dollar bill.



I put the bill up near his face, and he flinches like I'm taking a swing at him.. He takes the bill, turns it over a few times in his hands, and he says, 'Hey, Mike, what's wrong with this bill?'



Manager: 'It's fake.'



Guard: 'It doesn't look fake to me.'



Manager: 'But it's a two dollar bill.'



Guard: 'Yeah? '



Manager: 'Well, there's no such thing, is there?'



The security guard and I both look at him like he's an idiot, and it dawns on the guy that he has no clue and is an idiot ...



So, it turns out that my burrito was free, and he threw in a small drink and some of those cinnamon thingies, too.



Made me want to get a whole stack of two dollar bills just to see what happens when I try to buy stuff. If I got the right group of people, I could probably end up in jail. You get free food there, too.



I can so see this happenning, and I think I would be the one insisting they took it just because I am that stubborn.

What keeps me from cleaning

A good bubble bath


A good book


Goofing off on the computer


The latest project on my sewing machine (that's not the current one, but I didn't want to search for the photo).

Sigh, I hate cleaning. But, it's getting closer, slowly, very slowly. It'd stay a lot cleaner if I didn't have 3 kids, just saying. A lot of the mess is theirs. Okay, not really.

Napping

Napping really is coming out every 30 seconds to ask Mom, "Is it time to wake up yet?"

Isn't it?

One last thing today

Read this link.

Who else here has had someone ask what do you do all day? And then kept from snapping at them with a sarcastic answer.

Being judged

So, the boys got booster seats, and we decided as a celebration to go to the park. The kids were dressed much as you see them now. Princess had a shirt on with a pinafor over it, no pants. Superman had on jammies and Batman had on some assortment of clothing. We got there and I remembered no one had shoes on. "Oh well," I thought, "it's just a quick trip and who really cares."

Also at the park was another mom with her little girl, she had walked there pulling her daughter in the wagon. As her daughter played she talked to her and ran around after her and narrated the entire time what was going on. My plan had been: I'm going to sit on the bench and let the kids run around for a few minutes while I read this article I've wanted to read.

Well, we hadn't been there but 1 minute when Wendy fell and needed me, so I put my magazine in my pocket ran over, and picked her up. I could feel the dirty looks the other Mom was giving me, and almost feel her thoughts "she's not paying enough attention, her kids are not dressed properly, and they are loud."

The rest of the time at the park was a horrible comedy of errors. Superman wanted to be pushed, and I started to push him, but didn't realize he wasn't sitting properly in the big boy swing. As he swung up to the top of his arc, he fell out of the swing and cried loudly because of the wind being knocked out of him. Then he desperately needed to go potty so I had to search for that, finally letting him go in a secluded corner, because there was no open potty for him to use. I noticed Princess' diaper was swaying as she walked because it was that wet from splashing in water. Of course I didn't notice until we were there, and there was no place to change her, nor did I have the diapers handy. I think Princess got into a fight with Batman...... I left the park feeling like I must be the worst Mommy ever. I know it's not true, but it was one of those days where nothing was going right.
Sigh.

But, going back to that other Mom there. as I said I felt incredibly judged by her because there were several dirty looks I got for the way everything was going on. I felt like going up to her and saying, "When you've walked a mile in my shoes then you can judge, but for right now you have 1 child, and she's not even 2. Mine are independent enough I can let them be for a few minutes."

I also have to stop and think however, how many times have I been the one judging the other mom at the park.

I know there have been several timse where I've seen a Mom disciplining her child, and I've thought, "give the child a break, he's just a kid." I've also stepped in some times where I thought a child wasn't playing well with others. In both those instances maybe I should have handled it differently, I don't know. Mainly I was trying to think through it all

Tenacity

I went to the park the other day with a friend, and we were walking around, when she asked me if there was a bird on my stroller. From across the park all we could see was movement, so we assumed bird. We got closer and there was this squirrel fooling around with my cooler. Inside the part of the cooler he was trying to get to was about half a loaf of bread. The squirrel vandalized my cooler and chewed through the zipper. I don't know if he had more time if he could have figured out how to get the bread. But, he didn't. Now, I need a cooler.

I tell this story, because I was thinking about it the other day. This squirrel showed a lot of tenacity, and squirrels in general do. They work hard to get the food they need, and I was wondering if I show the same tenacity they do. I have a tendency to get distracted by the latest shiny thing and not work on what I need to do. Perhaps I should print this picture and hang it up somewhere I can see it to remind myself to keep on working.