Speaking of TV shows

I'm sorta in love with John Besh's new show on TLC, Inedible to Incredible. At first, I thought, hey, my husband could nominate me for that and then I could get John Besh to help me with some cooking, but then I watched it and now I just like it because it makes me feel like I suck at cooking just a little less. My food is seriously ehh, but I've never served pureed vegetables with frozen meatballs and sliced cheese on top.

In other news, it's my birthday. THAT birthday.

One of our family traditions is getting to pick dinner on our birthdays, but since DPY is at rehearsal, I voted for Kid Cuisine for the kids. And I'm having brownies and ice cream.

I just dropped the middle 3 kids off at VBS. I thought they were going to go just tonight because they were invited by a friend (who has already gone with them to one of our church activities), but they looked like they were having/going to have so much fun, I'll probably let them go all week. They wanted SPY to stay too, which would mean 4 nights of no kids....but....I didn't want to lead them on/take advantage. SPY cried when we left, of course. Sigh. (I tried to make up a phonetic for a sigh there, but I couldn't come up with anything besides phhhhh and that felt more like a raspberry than a sigh.)

My birthday has been quite lovely for the most part and uneventful, which is lovely. Breakfast in bed - scrambled eggs and toast with a diet Coke, lounging about, playing on FB, ignoring pretty much everything on my to-do list (except the trash dude and some mail that had to go out today and the bank and the grocery store briefly). Really awesome card from the kids and one of my favorites ever from DPY - one I'll even save, which is a BIG DEAL for me.

I think it's time for a little more lounging before work (and picking up the VBS kids). As HB would say, because she's retro like that, Peace Out.

Summer+ime

and +he living is easi. Unless u're +rieing +o +ipe on mi poor lap+op. +ee, whi, +ab, lef+ shif+, page down, and backspace; all missing or nonfunc+ional.

o+her +han +ha+, +he girls have been going +o +hea+re camps, we've been hi++ing up +he librari, and jus+ chillin' ou+ awai from +he ho+ sun. And ge++ing readi for our grea+ +rek nor+hwes+ward in a li++le less +han a mon+h. 18 dais of driving, hanging ou+ wi+h famili, more driving, hanging ou+ wi+h friends and famili, Pioneer Dai in SLC or Logan, more famili in Logan, +hen home again, home again, jiggi+i jig via Carlsbad Caverns (from hubbi's bucke+ lis+, if he had one).

+he smalle+ one is asking me how do I spell "boi +oi" which he apparen+li learned from +oi S+ori?

+iping +his is wai more annoi-ing +han fun.

In the interim

Things that have gone on since December:
*not much.
*school is going fine and it's almost done for this semester. Two more tests, two more assignments and maybe 2 more at home tests that are really more like quizzes but the teacher in that class is so far behind that I doubt she'll get both ready and posted before the end of the semester.
*we've been making plans to visit family far and wide this summer, but I said it out loud and jinxed it, so that's probably not really going to happen. Really.
*my sister found out that she's having another boy and my sister-in-law found out that she's having another girl. How convenient for both of them, though I doubt that my sister has much left from the last one since he's almost 8-1/2.
*my youngest/last baby is potty-trained. It happened in a day and not because I wanted it to. I wasn't ready, but he wouldn't leave his diaper on anymore so I said, fine then. I think this is probably the last of my gifts-from-God-because-you-had-this-kid-even-though-you-were-so-totally-done-at-4-kids because mostly being potty-trained just means that he runs around naked anytime he can get away with it and at least I don't have to worry too much about him making messes while he's doing it, but I do have to worry that he's going to just whip out his junk wherever we might be. Today he was jumping on the trampoline and had to go, so he dropped them and peed through one of the holes in the mat. His sister says he made it straight through the hole without getting any on the mat, which is great for his aim - not that it matters since he's too short to reach standing up yet - but isn't exactly what I was concerned about. I guess the bright spot is that he night trained the same time, which is a great big miracle. Seriously.
*my oldest is starring in her first play. It opens tonight. I'm not there because I have to work AND we couldn't afford a babysitter this week so I might as well work. I'm going tomorrow night and Daddy is getting her the appropriate opening night flowers tonight.
*My inlaws are moving to Logan, Utah. Kind of ironic (at least in the Alanis way and I don't care enough to figure out if it's true irony) since we moved here from Logan to be near them. Ha.
*That middle one over there is turning 8 in May so we will have parties and baptism and a visit from my parents.
*I'm spring cleaning in preparation for the above which includes Kilzing and painting my cabinets. I'm debating between using the color I bought back in December and heading out to the Lowe's to find the color I really want.
*I am, in general, feeling much better lately - less tired, less stressed out, less blah. This probably means that something is about to hit the fan. See, I'm still pessimistic at least.
*I am also, in general, having a lot of dejavu. Someone once told me that this means that something big is going to happen in your life and though I know that I've had other periods heavy on dejavu, I can't remember if they preceded big events so that's no help at all. I've also been randomly remembering things, events, etc. from the fairly distant past (not childhood or anything crazy like that - those are still mostly gone except the ones from pictures), which is extremely weird since my mind has been a deep, dark hole on all that kind of stuff for a long time. Curiouser and curiouser.
*I just realized that I'm like 3 episodes behind on Project Runway and so that's what I'm going to do tonight - fold clothes, veg and watch a bunch of Project Runway. Awesome.
*We took family pictures on Easter and there are several pictures of the children that I don't hate, two that I love, and even one of ALL OF US that I kind of love too, which is pretty cool, 'specially since we were using a tripod.
*And that's all the news from here.

Merry Christmas!!!

Posted

Curse you Blogger

I know, I should have saved it before messing with it, but now my sidebar stuff is stuck at the bottom. Not that you need it, but if you do, that's where it is.

How I made another mom's day

I realized last night that I would have some free time after I dropped off several kids at rehearsal, so I made plans to head to WM to pick up the last of the supplies for Halloween. Em ended up not going to rehearsal because her throat was hurting a little, which should have canceled the trip, but since we were running low on Motrin and we were out of lemonade, I decided I'd better head on anyway. The remaining 3 kids were excited, as always, about going to the store, though J was particularly hyper and tired, which should have canceled the trip, but I figured he'd chill out once we got out of the confinement of the car. I pulled into a perfect parking spot - in the middle, right next to a cart return - and started getting the kids out of the car. The older 2 were waiting next to the car (hands touching the door per the rules) while I started unfastening SPY from his seat. I was working on the second buckle when Em grabbed J's hat and put it on. He started to chase her into the parking lot and I grabbed both of them by the shoulders. J melted into the kind of tantrum that FINALLY canceled the trip. I announced that there was nothing I needed tonight badly enough to deal with this crap (I didn't use the word crap, probably) and we were going home. All 3 kids started begging and making promises they didn't intend to keep. Well, they probably intended to keep them, but it was obvious to the trained eye that there was no way in blue Hades that they could have actually lasted more than 2 minutes (about the point when we walk past the crane games in the front of the store) before they lost it again and worse. Tantrums in the parking lot are great fun, but nothing is better than a full-blown overtired tantrum during rush hour in the middle of the entrance to one of 2 grocery stores in a town where everybody knows your name. So, I chucked them in the car, fastened their seatbelts myself, got in the driver's seat and locked the doors. I sat there ignoring the wailing and pleading for a good 5 minutes until they settled down and I was sure they weren't going to jettison themselves from the van. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot, they were relatively calm again.
Except that there was something that I needed - the lemonade for Em's sore throat. So, as I drove through town debating the problem, McD's came into view. Woohoo, I was saved!! I could drive through and get lemonade without leaving the van!!
Now, obviously by this point I was delusional and not in my right mind. Just driving by a McD's without stopping would have generated more gnashing of teeth, but to actually get into the drivethrough line and wait to order something that was NOT a Happy Meal... Yep, it set J off into one of the most energetic, voluminous, imaginative tantrums he's ever thrown. Thrown is an appropriate description too. He wailed, he flung his body around in his booster seat, tears flowed. Out of habit, I rolled down the window as I came around the curve to the order speaker, but there was another minivan already there. I quickly rolled up the window, but we still heard her ordering her Happy Meals (2 boys and a girl). I could tell that she heard the commotion, because she paused and looked back for a second mid-order. She finished and pulled forward and I was forced to roll down the window to place my order for a single large lemonade. J hit the peak of his fit as I pulled forward when he realized I really wasn't ordering any Happy Meals. I met her glance in her side mirror and just smiled and she smiled knowingly back. Now, I've been the other mom before, so I know what she was thinking. Her kids probably got extra hugs last night thanks to J. J did too.

SPY is in his own kind of trouble today. SE decided to take his guitar to school with him today. It's been sitting in the living room on its stand for months. As he picked it up, it made a strange rattling noise. Not a little rattling noise. He emptied it out onto the floor.
The pile contained:
a pick
about 5 Q-tips
2 rocks - one small, one I'm not sure how SPY got it in past the strings
1 seashell
about 25 Cheerios
8 crayons (a whole pack)
a comb - the kind with the long tail
a sock
3 pencils
a 5x7 piece of notebook paper
2 animal crackers
and a proof of insurance card.
ETA after I finished picking junk up off the floor:
An Article of Faith pass along card
a scrap of orange construction paper
a used band-aid
and the tie end of a popped balloon.
I'm kind of surprised that it rattled at all when he shook it.