Life is Nuts

Life is insane, as usual.

My fabulous husband went back to work Monday. Hooray for rejoining the ranks of the employed. On the down side, I am back to being the only adult around during the day. No more leaving the kids home while I go run errands. He also showed the kids the woods and creek behind the house. It is now common to have missing children, only to holler out the back door and wait for three little, very dirty hooligans to come trooping back up from the creek.

Thomas is doing well in school. He loves to read and reads to all of us often. Shocker, the kid needed glasses. One of these days we will get a picture up.

Jerry is Jerry. Less than a year until he is in school and we are all looking forward to the day.

Michael is no longer a baby. He looks so much like Jerry even I get them mixed up sometimes.

I am still teaching music and loving it. I am also doing well with Pampered Chef and loving that too. It is nice to get paid to have fun.

Currently I have two little hooligans in the back yard, still wearing their feety pajamas. Neither one wants to get dressed. I am quite enjoying the hysterical laughter coming through the open door. Love this weather! Wait, kids outside, laughter, this can't be good. Yikes, gotta run!

That Time of Year

It is that time of year. Sorry folks. I am meeting myself coming and going. I have no idea what day it is half the time. The world would come to a screeching halt if I didn't have my calendar. Sleep is elusive. My cell phone is about the only way to catch me, and even then only when we are between points A and B. Between rehearsals and performances, the life of a musician is a bit busy. Add to that the busy life of a mom of 3 boys and things get really interesting.

Thanksgiving was great. Concerts went well. Solos were fun. House is a mess. Meals are interesting and last minute. Hot dogs, cheese roll ups, PB, and cereal are staples of our diet. We live in the mom-mobile. Just a couple more weeks and life slows down. On the bright side, Christmas is done around here. The list was made a while ago, and all is done and waiting now. GO ME!! Now I need to go take out the last batch of mini bread loaves that will be teacher gifts in a few days. Yes, baking at midnight, the way things are right now. My bed misses me.

See you when the musician's busy season is over.

Messiah Ballet

I am so excited about my latest singing opportunity!

Thanksgiving weekend I get to sing Messiah with the Ballet. Could that weekend get any better?

I also have a solo!

If you have never had the chance to see this performance, you are missing out. This is one of the most beautiful performances I have ever seen. How often do you get ballet, beautiful music, and a beautiful and incredible story. The members of the ballet company are incredibly talented and emit such emotion and beauty in their performance. Even the rehearsal touches your heart. Words cannot describe this show, you just have to come see it. When I was in college I had the opportunity to see the Ballet perform Messiah and one of my music teachers was a soloist. Time flew that night. We could have watched it over again. I wanted to go back for the next performance. Even my fabulous husband was touched. I would pick this performance over Nutcracker any day.

Please, come treat your ears, eyes, and your soul to the most moving and breathtaking performances. You will not regret coming!

Contact me for more details (specific date, time, discount offers)

The Good Mom

In my head I have all these ideas of what makes a good mom. Some I learned from my mom, others I came up with from seeing other moms, some from what society says makes a good mom, and others from who knows where.

What makes a good mom, at least in my little head?

• feed the hooligans
• drive them to school
• help with homework
• provide clean clothes
• bake cookies
• do fun crafts and other exciting activities
• make Halloween costumes
• happily teach throughout life
• read scriptures together
• say family prayers
• hot breakfast on the table each day
• cute notes in your lunch box
• make pajamas for Christmas
• play games
• good nutritious dinner on the table
• calm in the face of disasters
• patient in all things
• puts everyone to bed on time with hugs and songs
• has endless ideas to teach and nurture
• makes sure teeth are all brushed and clean
• kids are neat and clean
• teach about the world
• attend all meetings and activities
• be on the PTA
• serve as room mom
• help with field trips
• posts on the blog regularly
• takes a shower each day
• has clean walls, with no sharks on them
• maintains a spotless house
  

My list could go on and on and on. Unfortunately, I seem to be lacking in many of these qualities. However, I don't feel like I am the bad mom either. My kids seem happy. Dirty, but happy. We have fun. We teach and learn from each other every day. They smile, even if they do have fur on their teeth.

What have I learned from being a mom? We are all different and good moms in our own way. Those qualities that may seem to make us a good mom, don't necessarily make it so. We do the best we can with what we have. If I try to be everything I think makes me a good mom, I will never sleep and will not be a good mom. I can't do and be everything all the time. Doing things to say they are done isn't the point. My hooligans don't have a checklist for what makes me a good mom, only I do. The priority is not the stuff or great things, but the time and the quality.

I am far from perfect, but I love my hooligans and I do the best I can for them. Hopefully, in the end, they will think I was a pretty nifty mom. They will remember that I tried to be a good mom. There will be no doubt that they are loved. Wrestling on the floor and eating brownies for lunch are far more important that many of the "important" things in life. My house may not be perfect, but it is a home. And a loving home and family far outweigh being the good mom in my head.

I can now check playing with the hooligans, good dinner, somewhat clean and dressed for church, and blogging off that list, for today. Now to do the dishes. Oh, wait, my fabulous husband took care of that while I edited his paper. Life is good.

It Should Have Been Easy

This should have been easy.

Mission: Go to Wal-mart for leftover Sunday newspapers.

What actually happened:

I called ahead to verify that they had the papers. "Yes, we do. They are usually here all week." Perfect! After a shower and a disaster, more on that one to come, we headed out to the store. Me and all three hooligans. Easy is relative.

Park, head inside. No cart necessary, this will be quick. Kids, hold hands. Stay close.

Grab 2 papers, head to check out. Discover that the papers are today, not Sunday. Check out girl says go get the Sunday papers and we will exchange it. Great. No problem. Slight inconvenience, but easy fix.

No papers. Anywhere. I must be blind, they said they are here.

Go back to customer service, which is falsely called such. More like customer headache. Nope, papers have been gone since Sunday night.

Get refund.

Not quite.

I had left my change there with the papers and the clerk because I was coming right back. Clerk refunds me the price of the papers, but puts my previous change back in her drawer. I tell her I should have $3 returned, not $2.42 that she gave me. She tried for all she was worth to convince me that she was right and it all worked out. "My drawer will be short," she says. I try to recount what happened... I gave you $3, you set the change on the papers I was going to exchange, when I returned you put my change from on top of the papers (which I should have just put in my pocket, but was too set on getting the papers) into the drawer, then you refunded me the cost of the papers. I gave you $3, so I should leave with $3. She got irritated and called to have her drawer counted because she was so sure she was going to have her drawer be short.

As this entire saga goes on, the hooligans are losing it. Sitting still, not gonna happen. Sit on the bench, not gonna happen. Keep your hands to yourself, not gonna happen. Everyone around us getting irritated, so gonna happen.

Stress level, continually rising. Anxiety level, not far behind. Irritation level, on the rise. However, in spite of this, I was very nice and polite to the cashier. I was calm and patient and tried to be as kind and understanding and logical as possible.

Cashier grumbles about annoying people who won't let things go when there is a long line. Manager sends her to go work on another register so manager can count. Manager cuts me off when I try to explain to save time and headaches. Another clerk comes and asks if she can help. Manager says she can't run a register, but she can count this one. New clerk was happy to help. New clerk continues to count register and asks me what the amount is and what happened. "I would have just given you the change. Here you go."

Thank you. On my way out.

No time to run to Target. Wal-mart took 72.8 times longer than it should have. Now I have to find some other window of time to make that trip. And the CVS trip. Please, no kids this time. Wishful thinking.

Moral: Nothing is easy, especially with kids.

Secondary moral: Far too many people are lacking in common sense and simple math skills.

Other Secondary moral: Nobody likes to be wrong, even if it is painfully obvious.

What you should know about me: If I am right, I will fight to prove that I am right. I will not give up just to give up if I am absolutely certain I am right. You will not cheat me out of money when I know I am right. I do not like Wal-mart, but they have great deals that keep me coming back, in spite of my distaste for the store. Tight budget means cheap shopping. The store I went to is one of my least favorite locations, but it was the only one with a working phone number where someone answered. Newer locations tend to have people with more common sense, at least in my experience.

Anybody have Sunday ads they want to donate to my coupon binder? I could really use a couple more Tide coupons for the CVS sale this week.

Duck!

Kid: Michael is about to throw a ball at us.

Mom: Make sure you duck!

Yep, I just qualified myself for the Mom of the Year award. Don't you wish you were as good a mom as I am?

Later....

Kid: OUCH! He made me hit my head on the wall.

Mom: Oh well. When you play rough, you get hurt. Now go play some more.

More wrestling ensues.

Can You Hear Me Smiling?

I went shopping tonight.

I went shopping tonight without kids.

I went shopping tonight without kids and took my time.

I went shopping tonight without kids and took my time and saved BIG TIME!

On the way home I called my fabulous husband to tell him about my escapades. He was less than impressed. Thanks to my great friend and incredible mom for sharing in my excitement. They could hear me smiling over the phone. Why was I smiling so huge that I had to call people and share, you ask?

Kroger has great deals this week. You get 10 items and automatically get $5 off your purchase. You can combine as well, so if you have 20 items you get $10 off. Not only are they great deals, they are name brands like Philadelphia cream cheese, Kraft cheese blocks and slices, Pop Tarts, DiGiorno, Edy's ice cream. Yeah, total score on that alone. Then, go and add some coupons on top. Yeah baby! Kroger is also doubling up to $.50, so double score.

The loot... 8 boxes Kraft Mac n Cheese, 2 large Jell-O Pudding, 2 Cream Cheese, 2 Kraft Pepper Jack blocks, 2 Kraft singles, 2 12 count Pop Tart, 2 Nestle chocolate chips, 1 DiGiorno flatbread (Tuscan Chicken, YUM), Edy's Mint Brownie Bites Overload. I also got Tyson boneless, skinless on a good sale and Tostitos chips for my fabulous husband to use with his favorite salsa that I have a stock of, but no chips with which to eat it.

The deals... multiple coupons on cream cheese, cheese, slice cheese, pop tart, chocolate chips, and DiGiorno.

In the ad you could purchase Playtex, Energiser, or Shick items and get $5 off your next purchase. Slight problem... the ad was a misprint and you had to spend $25 on participating products to get the deal. I walked my little self over and returned that Shick I didn't need but bought for $1 to get the coupon.

Grand total... about $25 for everything. SCORE!!!

I also hit it pretty good at Target. Now I get to build my own Coupon Notebook. Digging through my little envelope just didn't cut it tonight. Time to get more put together. Take some time, save some cash. Sounds good to me. And I really like the idea of shopping alone, even if it is when most people are going to bed.

Energetic or Hyperactive?

I am in charge of the children's music at church. For two hours each week, I am the master musician and I work alongside the person in charge of the lesson. I teach songs, gospel principles, and some general music. We have fun. At least we try to. On the months when there is a fifth Sunday we get to do ALL music. It is a fun day, but requires a lot of me and I am wiped by the time I am home.

In order to keep the kids involved and participating, I put on a show. Anyone who has ever been involved in theater knows that you have to do things over the top in order to engage your audience. Kids are not your average audience. My show is not your average show. Kids have the attention span of a gnat, especially if they are less than thrilled about singing.

So what happened August 30?

I had a Dr. Pepper at breakfast. It was there. It was a 2 liter bottle. If I didn't finish it off soon, it would go flat and be nasty. So I had a DP that morning.

I had my activity planned and all ready to go. The kids started coming in and it was time to let the fun begin.

We start with wiggle songs since the kids have been sitting with their parents for an hour already. If we get the wiggles out early, the rest of the time goes much easier. We did our favorite round of who can do Head Shoulders Knees and Toes the fastest, I won again, and finished other announcements and birthdays before it was my turn.

PARTY TIME

I try to make my time fun for the adults as well as the kids. I throw in little funny comments that generally only the adults will catch. I was having fun, playing with the kids, throwing jokes, and making fun of myself. All the normal things, at least as far as I can tell. I looked to the back and commented that the presidency, those fabulously wonderful women in charge, was laughing at me. One of them said they think I had an energy drink before I came in. Nope, no energy drink, just my usual fun and energetic and exciting self. I didn't see anything different.

As part of the activity I taught them how to conduct music. In 4/4 it works well as floor-door-window-ceiling. To make it easier for them, I exaggerate the movements. I realized I was moving my entire body as I did this and said "I could throw in some Happy Gilmore here and say it's all in the hips," to which one of the adults almost fell on the floor laughing. Glad I could entertain you.

Was I being excessively chatty? Was I more energetic than usual? Was I bouncing off the walls? I was just keeping the kids attention and making music fun for them.

The following week I mentioned to one of the adults that I am always energetic and having fun, see? She said that I am, but last week I was nuts. Maybe weeks without DP and then drinking one with breakfast did have an effect on me.

I think I should stay away from energy drinks. Just a thought. Although, that could be interesting, in a very controlled setting.

BTW, spell check will fix all my shortened alphabet issues for me. Problem solved. For now.

Feet

I have no idea why this popped into my head. Okay, I do know, but I have no idea why I am posting about it. You would think I could write about something funny that my kids did, or the latest recipe I tried, or post about the birthday in March, school graduation, summer fun, school starting, funny things the kids say, or something relevant or enlightening in our lives. Instead, I sit and post about feet.

Go figure, I'm weird like that.

Last night at rehearsal I noticed a guy who had really big feet. They just caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Why is it that some people have feet that are unusually large compared the rest of their body, and others have really small feet? Examples, you ask. I am 5' short and I wear a 39 European or 8-ish American. My mother is 5'5" and wears a 6 American and I think a 36 European. Correct me mom, please. My good friend and fellow shoe shopping buddy is 5'6" or so, correct me, and has feet just a touch bigger than my feet. This has recently worked out GREAT for me since I got the shoes she outgrew when her feet grew just enough that her shoes didn't fit. Pregnancy will do that to you. I had smaller feet three kids ago. Thanks for the kicks, I love them all, even if my husband thinks all but one pair are ugly. They are my feet, not his, so he can just get over it. He always does.

Some people are destined to have big feet. Maybe not destined, but you know early on that they will have flippers. Case in point, my shoe shopping buddy again. Love you, mean it. Her little boy is a few months younger than my oldest. As long as I have known that child, he has had flippers. He could put Michael Phelps to shame once he gets older, you know, in 14 years or so. We laugh about the kid's feet. It's his dad's fault. Dad had flippers too. Again, it works great for us since we get the hand-me-downs. Thanks guys, you saved our bacon again. Even her little baby girl had flippers in the ultrasound, but she seems to be growing into hers, so there is hope. Skinny feet look longer anyway.

Feet are weird too. Toes grow at odd angles. Maybe that is from all the pointy toe shoes. Cute shoes are worth it. At least until you try to wear cute sandals and then you are stuck with weird toes in cute shoes. Stick to the cute toe smashers or sandals, I guess. We need to find a solution to this problem. Really, this is a problem.

I can't stand naked toes. On girls, that is. This has made me nuts for as long as I can remember being aware of it. If you plan to wear sandals, please paint your toenails ladies. Please use a dark color, not a super light color that makes you look like you have a foot disease. Barely pastel pink does not work. Dark wine red, so totally works on toes. French pedicure, might as well be naked. Nice on fingers, not on toes. Even worse than naked toes is half-naked toes. When you are missing half or most of the polish, just take off what's left. I must admit that I prefer naked toes to half-naked toes. Sadly, I must admit guilt on both counts. I wore sandals the other day and scraped off what was left of a previous nail color on the toes that were visible. Yep, I cheated. I am ashamed. I must right my wrong. At least I admit my mistake. Please forgive me. It won't happen again. Until I forget on my way out the door and don't see the disaster on my feet until I am in the middle of the outside world. I prefer to not pick at my toes or nail polish when out in public. Don't you agree?

How else are feet weird, you ask? I shall enlighten you. They get super stinky. Did you know this? If you didn't, you must be living under a rock. Or you have no smell like my dad did. Really, he couldn't smell. My mom made him take care of all the stinky diapers. He used to walk in the house and say "Dinner smells good." Silly Daddy.

I have a horrible story about my brother's shoes when he was a kid. Long story short, his favorite dinosaur hi-top shoes had to live out on the deck. Cute shoes, really. The appendage that gets so stinky is also the one we love to have massaged and rubbed and pampered. Pedicure anyone? And yet, as much as we love that attention to our extremities, we laugh and jerk around when someone unexpectedly touches them. My grandfather used to run his finger from your heel to toe if you had your feet where he could reach. Fun memories. I miss him. I miss him making my jump out of my skin when he did that.

Summary: feet do not always match the person they are attached to; please keep your toes painted; feet are stinky; we love some foot love; all those nerve endings make for some super sensitive tootsies when it comes to tickles.

I am now going to prop up my disproportionately large feet, give myself a pedicure, and hide my feet from my husband how now likes to make me jump. And then I will put on some rockin' shoes to show off my fancy toes, even if my husband thinks the shoes are ugly.

That is all for now.

Nice Night

Tonight was wonderful around here. We were able to go to the temple this evening, which we are now able to do the first Saturday of the month. Hooray, we are finally regulars! We are so glad they decided to try adding this time to the schedule since it works perfect for our insane life. Our sitters are great, and tonight we had three. I can only imagine the fun the kids had with so many fun people around this evening. Thanks guys!

I am a bit of a control freak. I know, you had no idea. It makes me nuts when I don't know where I am going or what we are doing. Change plans on me and I might just blow a gasket. I just don't deal too well with things like this. Not to say I don't like surprises, but when I am expecting one thing, I get thrown for a loop with the change.

My fabulous husband is well aware of my control freakishness. He very much enjoys exploiting it. On the way home we were moving along on cruise control. Um, that was our exit. I know, he says. Then we pass the next exit option. What is going on? He just smiles and keeps throwing out possibilities that aren't really possibilities. No, dear, we aren't getting gas since BJ's closed at 9 and that was 30 minutes ago.

Not until we are almost pulling in front of Cold Stone do I figure out what he has up his sleeve. My fabulous husband surprised me with Cold Stone ice cream on the way home. You can bet I had a coupon too. He even let me get a waffle cone bowl. So yummy. Yup, he knows what makes me happy.

I think I just might keep him. He's pretty good to me.

You're On

Alright Tiffany, may I call you Tiffany? You're on!

Remember that coupon lady/site I blogged about yesterday? Well, she's got my attention again. She offered up a challenge, and I love a good challenge. I especially love a challenge that I can win. Even better, a challenge that is good for me. Ms. Tiffany wants to be healthier. Me too. She needs to be held accountable for working on it. Me too. She is holding herself accountable by blogging about her progress weekly. And, she wants her readers to do the same. Misery loves company, perhaps?

We are all busy, goodness knows I don't even want to see her schedule. It must be color-coded and down the the 20 second interval in order to keep up with everything she has going on. We can all come up with excuses, no matter how bad they are. My latest is "the gym closed so I don't have child care or the chance to take a shower afterwards anymore." Sounds good to me, but also a bit pathetic.

Here we go. I'm still not sure what I am going to do. Even pushing the hooligans in the stroller is doing something. However, you get to bother me about it and keep me going. Tiffany challenged us for 12 weeks. I can do this. My last race was in February, so it's been a while. Even if I don't register and run another race soon, I have my nifty spifty watch that times me.

Enough excuses. I'm going to win this challenge. I can do this. LET'S GO!

NOT so impressive

Here I was, basking in the impressiveness of myself as stated by good friends, when karma or something like it came and bit me in the rear. Shall we begin the tale?

I am not a morning person. Don't test this statement, just take it as truth. If you are a testing kind of person, I suggest you do research by contacting those who experience me in the mornings, rather than testing me. Family and friends have plenty of horror stories to share, I am sure. However, as much as I am not a morning person, I am a devoted and caring wife. Need proof? I get up every stinkin' morning, sometimes before the sun is up, even when it is cold or snowing or raining, even after kids were up sick all night, and make lunch and breakfast for my fabulous, hard-working husband. Yes, I am that nice.

I can't quite remember how the conversation started the other night, but it eventually came around to meals over the last few days. Tyler has had some issues getting out the door this week, including a dead battery on his work truck. Usually he is the one who puts all the goodies together on his bacon, egg, and cheese English muffin. Obviously, the truck battery took some time, so I put the sandwich together. Sort of. I forgot the top. OOPS. Turns out he discovered the missing sandwich top when he unwrapped his breakfast as he was about to pull out of the driveway. He says he almost called me to bring the top out, but decided it might be better to just leave me alone. This was probably a smart choice, seeing as I might have just stood at the door and chucked it at him, or maybe just told him in a not so nice way to come in and get it himself if he really wanted it. Yeah, best to just leave that one alone. "Thanks for breakfast, dear. Can't wait to see if breakfast is topless again tomorrow."

Not only did I mess up his breakfast, the day before I forgot to put granola bars in his lunch box. Drinks, check; sandwich, check; water, check; ice packs, check; brownies, check. On the day of the missing muffin top he was sure there would also be missing chewy sweetness, but I at least got that part right.

I had also made brownies this week. Yummy and chewy. I like the insides, he likes the outsides. We make a great brownie eating team. When Tyler got home from work the other day, though, he saw something he wasn't expecting. I had cut around the pan, leaving all the edges for him. What does he see? Half a pan of brownies, sort of, with a ring around them and part of the insides gone. Should have taken a picture of the pan and his face... that was a bit humorous too.

Needless to say, we got a serious laugh out of it all. I cried I laughed so hard. Not only was the entire situation funny, but my wonderful husband didn't plan on telling me about my mistakes with his breakfast and lunch. He must like me or something. Oh well, at least I tried. It's the thought that counts, right? And there were brownies to make it all better.

Impressive!

I have lots of friends, but only a small handful that fall into the category of "I can call you at 4am to bail me out of jail, clean me up, and then ask you to give me one of your kidneys." I hold these people very close to my heart. Unfortunately, most of them are too far away to bail me out. Lucky for me, one is moving back down this way. *happy dance* (now the rest of you can start making moving plans, now, right now, please) Even better, we got to meet for lunch... with all the hooligans too, well, all but Thomas who was in school. Have I ever mentioned that I love Cracker Barrel? We laughed at the menu's "low car" offerings. Sure, the 1/2 pound bacon cheeseburger is low carb, so it must be health?!?! Whatever. You don't go to Cracker Barrel to eat low carb, dimwit.

My dear friend has a new baby that I have been itching to get hold of. She is a teeny tiny little 3 months and weighs maybe 10 pounds. I was holding her and having a grand time. Then food came. Jerry had pancakes. While holding her, I spread the butter, cut the yummy goodness, and opened and poured the syrup. Michael was on my other side, and I kept reaching into the diaper bag for granola bars and lots of fruit snacks to feed him. Oh yeah, and keep retrieving the little golf tees from the game on the table that Michael kept launching all over. Still holding the sweet little baby girl. Then my phone rang. "Hey Tyler, whatcha need?" I think I was eating some here and there too.

Both my friend and her husband looked over at me and kept offering to take the little girl. I told them I was fine and for them to enjoy eating their food without having to take care of her for a few minutes. The husband looked at his wife and said "How does she do that?" to which she replied "She's been through 3 kids already. She's had practice at this." He just sort of looked at me and said something along the lines of "impressive."

Yup, that's me... Ms. Impressive... I can hold a baby, fix and cut a pancake, find and open and serve fruit snacks, fetch falling and flying objects, talk on the phone, keep kids relatively happy, carry on a conversation with two other adults and two other children, and eat my own food.

Thanks for lunch and the company, guys. Can't wait to do it again!

Photo Tag

Here you go Kory. You tagged me and I am actually doing it. The rules are:
1. Go to your pictures
2. Go to the 6th file folder
3. Select the 6th picture
4. Blog about it
5. Tag 6 peopleHere's the story behind the picture.
Tyler went to the beach with my family for our annual trip. While there he proposed and we were engaged. I am wrapped up in a blanket because I was cold, as usual. I have no idea who took this picture, but it is a fun one to have. We have many happy and fun memories of the Slingshot, our beach house (ok, not ours, but we like to claim it), and look forward to many more.

Tag: Erin, Stephanie, Kristen Holmes, Cousin Beth, Aunt Jean, Kristen (any other Kristen will do), and anybody else who wants to play along. I like this one, and it is easy.

Krispy Kreme Challenge

So I am a little slow on getting this up here, oh well. The details don't change, just the reference to "yesterday." This took place on Feb 7, 2009. I originally sent out an email, but didn't send it to everybody, so here is my story for all the world to read.

Yesterday I did my first race of the year. So, it ended up not being so much a race and more of an event. I woke up sick with a nasty head and chest cold, but went to run anyway (I am not about to pay the entry fee then not show up). By the time I got there I was breathing somewhat normal again. As I was waiting at the start line, I ran into some friends and we laughed about all the costumes and crazy people at the race, about 5200 people running in all. There was Superman, The Flash, Santa Claus with a gigantic cowboy hat, lots of donuts with sprinkles, KK coffee cup pair, Duncan Donut and KK coffee cup pair, Richard Simmons, Elvis, Waldo and his buddy Waldo, and a giant gorilla. We can’t forget the crew that was shirtless (or tank topped) and painted “Do It For the Kids” and the other crew painted with the name of some ESPN sportscaster. Yes, the event was so big it was covered by ESPN. There was also a National Guardsman in fatigues, boots, and a 60lb pack. One guy had a broken leg, so he wore a life jacket and rode in a shopping cart; he was the designated eater he said.

Anyway, back to my race. We headed the 2 miles to Krispy Kreme. Right from the start we headed downhill, and as I reached the start I could see the massive swath of people on their way up the other side of the hill. This was not going to be easy, especially on the way back I couldn’t help but think. Once I got to KK, I had to wait almost 10 minutes to get my donuts. Again, that many people can really slow things down. I ate 3 donuts, that was enough. A guy near me told me to cram them all together like a donut sandwich and I could eat more and faster. Um, no thanks, I’m good slowly eating my little 3. There were several people that didn’t do so hot at holding their donuts, but we will just move on from them. Let’s just say I hope the fire department comes by to hose down the parking lot. (Later on the news we saw a reporter at the scene, very obviously after all the racers had cleared. Gross, but it was much worse earlier.) The trip back was more of a jog here and there than it was a run or race. Most people walked the way back. Let me just tell you about the trip back. There were a few hills. OK, there were a lot of hills. Long and slow hills at that. Even my more serious racer friends said the hills on the way back were rough, and add to that the donut weight and the hills were even worse. Today, my legs are definitely feeling those hills. And we just won’t talk about my time. Donuts in the middle of a race really kill your time. On the bright side, I was in the middle of a pack the entire time. I passed some and plenty passed me. My overall time, including food and the delay of getting to the start, was 1:22:28. My run time, based on my watch (my rockin’ new ironman watch that tracks laps and overall runs) was 58:45. Yeah, crappy time, oh well. I had the cards way stacked against me this time.

In the end, I did the race. I made it the 2 miles there, ate a few, and made it 2 miles back, and I kept it all down. The odds of me doing it again are pretty slim. I ran it once, and I can now say I have done it. The whole thing was fun, especially to see everybody there and having such a good time. On to the next race now. Crystal Coast on Feb 28, I will be doing the 5K. I will be sure to keep everybody posted on my new running habit. Thanks for all the encouragement and support!

If you want, go to www.newsobserver.com and check out the photos from the race. My picture is in there, #64. There was a girl riding on a guy’s shoulders and I happened to be next to them when the picture was taken. That’s me, Runner 2009! No, really, my entry number was 2009 for this one. Cool, huh?

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/multi/first-look-the-krispy-kreme-challenge

I can't post the photo here because the newspaper owns the photo. Sorry, if you want to see it, you have to go find it.

Life in Motion

Michael started crawling tonight. He finally progressed from moving a hand or knee to actual motion. After a couple little tries, he made it half way across the room. Great. As if my life wasn't crazy before, now I have three mobile boys. Maybe I should build a track in my back yard.

Jerry is talking. No longer is he doing his weird talk in the back of his throat thing, he is talking. He also has to say everything twice. Instead of "hot," he says "hot, hot." Same with cold, milk, and his many other words. In a matter of about 6 weeks, he went from saying about 5 words to saying ten times that. Many words he still signs as he says them, which is cute and impressive.

Thomas just finished the opera. Throughout the rehearsals and performances, he ran to the car and ran to his place when it was time. No fear, just pure joy and excitement that was infectious. There will be an entire post on the opera later. As we left today, he asked when we will come back. I seem to have a feeling that we will be spending many more hours in the car and at rehearsals in the future.

I am trying to keep up with myself. Recently I told my good friend that I am turning into her. She is so nice and never says no and always volunteers for everything. As a result, "she meets herself coming and going," as my mom says. When I told her I was becoming her, she told me to stop and turn away from the dark side. We both just laughed and I know she loves doing it and those around her are grateful for all she does. Now, as my kids are starting school and providing me with more opportunities to be involved, my time is becoming full with volunteering and the inability to say no. If you can't find me in the future, chances are I can't either, so just keep trying.

A New Post is in Order

Life around here.... in a word, normal. Here is a quick rundown to get you all up to date on life around the Holmes Home.

• Thomas is in an opera
• Michael is trying to crawl
• Jerry is still into everything
• Thomas and Jerry painted my house, including the couch and carpet and themselves with cake decorating color gels (black, red, brown, and other dark colors)
• Thomas digs hole in wall
• Jerry gets stuck on window sill (and I leave him there with his arm stuck through the blinds as an "I told you so")
• Thomas was accepted into East Wake Academy, a charter school around here
• Jerry flooded the kitchen and counters and cabinets
• Aunt Amanda graduated from Meredith, hooray for another Meredith grad
  
• Uncle Bradford graduated from NCSU, we are secretly cheering on the inside
  
• Michael has a tooth
• We all went to Cleveland for cousin Nate's baptism, Uncle Doug's dental school graduation, and Uncle Doug's promotion to Captain in the USAF (Wahoo and huge congrats to both of them, we are all so proud we could pop)
• Thomas and Michael threw up in the car, after Jerry threw up on the carpet earlier in the day, and after Jerry had an exploded diaper in his bed, including on Teddy Bear
  
• Jerry took nose dives across the pavement and ended up with a nasty elbow, twice, once for each elbow on two different occasions
  
• Jerry threw the power source for my keyboard and broke Thomas's toe, and gave him a nasty toenail to boot
• Jerry fell out of bed at the hotel and got rug burns on his head
• Jerry fell out of bed at home and got a big bruise and bump on his head
• Tyler is doing very well at his job and has several clients who request him by name for service calls, even if the job is 3 hours away
• Rachel is keeping everything going while putting together a recital for my students

There ya have it. We're all just plugging along one day at a time. Gee, when I put it that way, life sounds pretty boring. Oh well, I guess I will just have to come up with a way to spice things up in the future. Sorry to bore you with our simple, average lives.

Shameless plug: Come see my piano and voice students do a recital. June 16, 7:00 at the Meredith concert hall in the music building. Call for more info.

The Insanity of Our House

I have been a bit slow in the posting lately. Not only am I not telling stories of our misadventures, but I am also getting a backlog of tags. So, quick update. Life around here is nuts, to say the least. WE have 3 boys who destroy together and love together. They also throw fits and get sick together. We tend to share everything around here, even those that are less than desirable for sharing. Jerry is having ear issues again, Michael is growing and developing a cute personality, and Thomas got accepted to the Academy we applied to and starts school July 28. Tyler is working lots doing his electrical work, and doing a fine job for himself and the company. Rachel is working lots. The latest and greatest on that front is being the accompanist for a musical. Oh yeah, and throw in teaching and a wedding and that keeps me busy. I now have an office, although not the most conventional office space. My office comes with heat, air, radio, and three carseats in the back. Life should slow down for a week, then pick back up, then slow down again until the fall. I say that now, but we all know that is not likely to stay the case.

So there you have it. The last month or so in a paragraph. That will have to do for now, a grumpy baby calls....

Dinner Disasters

We trade Sunday dinner back and forth with my mom. We get a nice dinner each week, and only have to cook and clean up half the time. It is a great system, and we look forward to our dinners. Unfortunately, I have bad luck lately. I know how to cook, and I can pull off a decent mean, thank you very much. I did Thanksgiving and Christmas all by myself (mostly) and they were great. Apparently, I used up all my allotted "good dinner" stars on those meals.

Dinner for Jerry's birthday was, well, a disaster. Besides him being sick, nothing came out right. The biscuits were over cooked, the grits were dry and gritty, the hash brown burned to the bottom of the pan, and I forgot to cook the bacon. Tyler rescued us with scrambled eggs. Jerry was too sick for cake, so that sat out for several days. By the time we got to it, it was dry and not what a red velvet cake should be. Even the frosting messed up, and I decorate cakes for cryin' out loud.

This past week, disaster knocked on the door again. Aunt Susan Jane was coming to join in the fun and I was looking forward to a nice dinner. I planned turkey breast, stuffing, gravy, corn, and brownies for dessert. The turkey didn't thaw, so I called to push dinner back a little while. The stuffing was fine, or so I heard. The gravy was too salty (packaged gravy that came with the turkey, so that one isn't my fault). The corn was fine. The turkey cooked 1/3 of the way, in 2 hours, mind you. Turkey went back in the oven and Tyler saved us with pancakes. Pancakes, stuffing, gravy, and corn. What a Sunday dinner. Oh yeah, and since the turkey went back in the oven, the brownies didn't happen. When we were eating leftovers the other night, part of the turkey STILL wasn't cooked all the way, after 3 hours of cooking.

It seems my kitchen is cursed. Let's cross our fingers that the birthday cake for this weekend turns out right.

First ER trip (I am sure there are more to come)

I was playing with Jerry while fixing dinner. I was holding his hands and "jumping" him as I cooked. We had been running around and playing and just having fun. In my brain I know this was not a good idea, but forgot in the moment. Next thing we know he is crying and holding his arm. When we tried to touch it he would wail. Tyler asked him what hurt and he kept pointing at his elbow. We tried to get him to eat dinner, but he wouldn't pick up his fork. Instead, he used his right hand for everything (he seems to be left-handed). Call the pediatrician. She says go to urgent care or the ER, it sound like nurse maid's elbow. I have now earned the Brittney Spears mommy award, again.

We found an urgent care that took his insurance and headed out. Jerry, Michael, and Mommy made our way inside, only to find out they need prior authorization to see us. Great, off to the hospital. After parking across the street, the ER lot was full, I managed to lug a car seat with a baby and push a stroller across the street and up the hill and into the ER. Of course, the place was hopping. Usually Wednesday nights are slow, but since we were there this was not the case.

Eventually Jerry started playing around and acting like nothing was wrong. Could it just be the motrin kicking in? After a forever wait to get registered, then another wait to see the nurse, another to get back to see the doctor, and of course waiting to see the doctor, we figured things out. A couple of the nurses said he must have popped his own arm back into place. The doctor could see nothing wrong. Jerry had full rang of motion in his wrist, elbow, and shoulder. He asked if Jerry had taken any falls during the day. I just sort of laughed. He doesn't know my kid. I told him no falls other than climbing on a box trying to get cake and then falling down and cutting his tongue with his teeth. He obviously has no clue what kind of child this is (thank goodness). As we were getting ready to go, Jerry tripped and smashed his head on Michael's car seat. The doctor said he wanted to check him to make sure we didn't have any busted lips or heads, before we walked out the door.Finally, after 5 hours, we headed home.

As I was trying to get back out the door and down the hill and across the street to the car, a security officer stopped and asked if we needed help. We all piled in his car and he drove us over to the car. Not only did he give us a ride, he didn't leave until all were safely buckled and I had started the car. A little thing, yes, but a big deal to me.

Although the entire ordeal was a headache and long and tiring, I was still able to see my blessings. My child hadn't stuck a plastic toy in his ear and refused to say what it was. I didn't have to press charges against the dad/boyfriend that brought my kid in with a shattered jaw. My child wasn't screaming or throwing up. My kids behaved and were quiet and flirted with anyone they could. My kids have insurance to pay for things like this. I can speak English, and I am married to my kids father, and all my kids have the same father. We have a pediatric hospital close to the house. I had a home to go to, with a warm bed and heat.

Once we got home Jerry easily went to bed. Michael, on the other hand, did not. He wanted to play since he woke up as I was taking him out of his car seat. I think it was around 2 before I really got to sleep, then Michael was up again at 4:30. Tyler thought I was just getting home, so thank goodness he got some sleep and didn't hear all the racket when we came in.

You think I would start having good luck now. After a long night like that, I deserve something easy. Of course not. When I went to slice the cheese for Tyler's sandwich, I discovered that the brand new brick I just cut open was moldy. Yippie skippie, I get to go return it today. I did get to go back to sleep for a while. Thomas got up to watch TV and I crashed again until Tyler called. Then I buried myself back in the blankets for another couple hours when Jerry and Michael woke me up. As I was getting ready to make breakfast, bowls of cereal, I rinsed dishes to load the dishwasher and run it. I reached to turn on the disposal, no go. Great, now my garbage disposal is broken. The day has to get better from here, right?

Great, now Jerry is wrapping computer chords around his neck. Why do my kids do this?