Random musings.........

*If I have a hot flash during yoga, does it count as "hot yoga"?
*Why aren't there coupons for liquor stores? (I'd clip those!)
*If you're clipping your toenails and one of them errantly flies over to your husband's side of the bed, are you required to search for it?
*How many mini Milky Way candy bars equal one big one?

These are some of the thoughts I had today (so now you know I clipped my toenails and ate too many Milky Ways!).

After getting two disturbing emails from my sisters, I now feel I have to tread very carefully the next few days. Because bad things happen in threes. And they have already been hit! Monica wrecked her 4-wheeler and tore her ACL and has to have surgery. Marcia did a face plant (literally, her face hit a plant) falling on her front porch and cut her cheek badly. So, now it's me! Yikes. I'm scared.

Today I worked at the school (on my "day off" my nanny job) and it was nice to be back at the old digs, speaking Spanish again. I'm glad I get to keep that up while I enjoy my wonderful new job. I never thought I'd view taking care of a toddler as peaceful but it is definitely my "quiet" time! HA! With four kids (and two of them teenagers) at home, it's really loud. All the time. So, a quiet day with a toddler is a welcome reprieve.

Is it Friday yet???

Today was one of those days........just nonstop and hectic. I started out by waking up at 5:30 a.m. and making four kid lunches and my own lunch. Then, I spent an hour preparing a beef stew for the crock pot (this one did not qualify as "easy" since it required so much prep work!). I needed 1/4 cup of red wine so I had to wake Jeff because: 1. I don't drink wine 2. I can't open wine and 3. The wine is in the "wine cellar" which is the crawl space and I don't go there. Since he was awake anyway, I decided to ask him to make a loaf of bread in the bread machine for dinner. Then, I got all the kids out the door (I had to skip going to the bus stop because I was naked just out of the shower! And I didn't want the neighbors to have to poke their eyes out with a fork after seeing THAT!). I raced to work (late as usual) and worked a few hours before having to take off again to take Hannah to an orthodontist appointment. Since that was going to take 45 minutes, I let Hayley know I would be happy to provide a ride for her and her friends to Starbucks during their "extra long lunch" today. Well, that was a disaster. For one thing, I offered a RIDE, not to buy them all a drink. But that's how it turned out, because my ever tactful (and not always truthful) daughter told her friends I was "taking them to Starbucks" meaning, I guess, treating them. I did not agree, but was informed of the "no money" situation as we pulled into the parking lot. Really lame. And not cool at all. Hayley really needs to learn about not taking advantage of her mom.

So, after dropping off my van full of high-schoolers, I headed back to pick up Hannah and take her back to school. Then, I went back to work. A few hours later, I raced from work to pick Hannah up at school yet again (she stayed after) and on the way there, realized I had no gas! I also had 20 minutes to get gas, pick up all the kids and have everyone delivered to their various lessons by 4. So, since gas was the priority, I stopped and dropped $52 on a tank of gas, and $9 on various junky snacks to keep the natives quiet. I called Hayley and informed her to meet me in front of the house with 2 Advil and be ready to jump in the car. Finally I had all the kids wrangled and we headed to the girls' art class. We made it with five minutes to spare. Then took the freeway to try and make it faster to Arlie's gymnastics. She was ten minutes late.

After dropping her at the curb, Harrison and I headed to Target because we needed dog food. I figured that was the closest place to gymnastics where I could get the brand of dog food we need. Wrong. Now, you may find this unbelievable, but my dog is a vegetarian! Seriously. Just the one dog, Georgette. She is actually allergic to meat. She can only eat salmon or soy based dog foods or she gets skin allergies (I mean, really, what IS that crap? She's a DOG!). So, I was looking for our trusty Beneful. But had to settle for some other brand that was salmon based (with added yogurt for my dog's sensitive digestive system..........spare me!). A quick scan of the clearance racks and we were racing out of Target and back to pick Arlie up - with one minute to spare. Harrison ran in to retrieve her while I circled the parking lot. As soon as I had both kids in the car, we headed to the hairdressers. Now, Harrison had an unfortunate incident with some scissors (ok, I tried to cut his hair) and for all of today was sporting the classic "Dutch Boy" look - blonde, bowl haircut (I did not use a bowl, but I might as well have!). I started with his bangs, but I just couldn't take the shaggy 'do anymore! (See picture in previous post). Thankfully, Marie, who is a hair god icon, fixed his sad hair in just fifteen minutes. That left me 18 minutes to pick up the girls from art class. We made it just in time and I finally had all four kids again as we turned toward home. At least we had that nice dinner awaiting us!

I was really looking forward to an adult beverage when I got home but we were tragically out of fixings for my favorites so I had to settle for three fun size Milky Way's and a glass of milk. Ah well.......my eyes are heavy.............g'night!

The Blue Train!

Here we are at the BHS game on Friday night! Wow, they really get into the spirit here about their football. Kids dress up in team colors, paint their faces and the students spend the whole game standing in the student section, cheering on the team. We had the unfortunate experience of getting stuck in the student section, thus having to stand and cheer along with the high school students the entire game. The younger kids spend most of their time running around with their friends and visiting the concession stand! It's a fun, hometown activity. And the fact that we won was a bonus! 19-0. Go Cougs!

Clammer Time!

Jeff, Harrison and Arlie spent most of the weekend clamming and camping at Grayland State Park. Jeff had a BIG test on Saturday morning, which culminated two years of studying. After four stressful hours, he knew he'd need a break, so decided to take advantage of clamming "season" and go overnight. So, they headed off yesterday afternoon and had a blast digging at night with thousands of other clammers. They got their limit (45 clams) and Jeff is now steaming them open in preparation for clam chowder later. Yum! Harrison and Arlie were delighted to find part of their fort from spring break still on the beach and made a new fort in a big hole they found nearby. The evening awarded a beautiful sunset and the weather was perfect. Not a bad way to spend an October evening on the Washington Coast!

Girls' Weekend!

Well, sort of a girls' weekend. Since Jeff took the younger ones clamming and camping overnight, the girls and I had a girls' weekend. We went shopping to Target and the mall, had dinner at Billy McHale's and went to see "The Secret Life of Bees" (very good, but read the book, too!). This morning we went to Starbucks and Jamba Juice in our pajamas! And I said something funny that made the girls laugh until Jamba Juice came out their noses (must have been pretty funny!). We came back home, put up a few Halloween decorations, then watched "Don't Mess With the Zohan" at home (stupid funny). Then, I escaped to a Pampered Chef party while they watched a couple of other movies. Now, the house is a disaster zone, the girls are still in their jammies, Jeff and the kids got home with wet, sandy clothes and lots of clams, and we're heading into dinner time. Hayley and I have a photography class tonight, too - I got free photography classes with my camera and finally had time to take them. Our first one was last night, and tonight is Digital 2 and then we have an Organize, Print and Share class, then a break for December. After that, we learn all the fancy stuff! Which is good because I have this little attachment that I have NO IDEA what it's function is, but I sometimes put it on when I see other photographers using theirs! Hopefully I will learn it's usefulness in my future classes!

The 40-Year-Old Nanny

I have a new job! After waiting forever to get hired again by the school I've been subbing at, I was perusing Craig's List and stumbled upon a nanny/babysitting job that had the perfect days and hours I was looking for. The pay was better than I've been getting at the school district and the family was so nice and laid-back, and it turns out they are moving in Dec. right up the street from me! As it is, they live 15 minutes away, so it was convenient already. The job is relatively easy - provide child care for the 19 month old while mom takes the 3 1/2 year old to various therapies (she is developmentally delayed and has vision problems due to an injury at birth). On Fridays, I have both girls for a few hours while the mom gets her errands done, etc. They are both adorable, sweet little girls, really easy to care for and the parents are genuinely nice and accomodating. They were willing to work around appointments I had previously scheduled and are very flexible. So, it seemed to be a perfect fit! Ironically, the day after I started this job, the school called me for an interview. But I will make more money working 15 hours a week at the nanny job than I would working 20 hours a week at the school. It's a no-brainer! And we can really use the paycheck. Plus, I forgot how fun it is to be with little kids, reading board books, singing along to nursery rhymes and how sweet they are when they're tired and ready for a nap! It's my baby fix. I never thought I'd get back into child care in this venue (thinking I'd just keep working at the school district) but it's a welcome change. My days and hours are more set and there's no annoying phone calls at all hours for potential sub jobs. So, we'll see how it works out! I'm happy because I get to go to yoga on my days off, plus have a couple of days during the week to just do everything I need to do around here. Although I did put the baby's diaper on backward the first time. It's been a few years............

Jeff's hunting woes!

So, I only have five minutes to post before I head to yoga, but I decided to post a little something on Jeff's misadventures yesterday while hunting! He headed out (alone, save for Shade) and decided to go to a different hunting spot than usual because the usual one was crowded. (Mistake number 1 - always let someone know where you'll be). When he arrived at the new hunting spot, he found a bridge he needed to cross to get to the fields. This bridge inexplicably had several feet of it missing from both sides (the planks were missing), thus making it impassable. So, Jeff, being the avid hunting man (insert manly grunts here) that he is, waded into the water and tried to cross the marsh. Halfway across, he sank up to his knees in mud and muck! Always the true-blue hunter, he managed to throw his gun up on the bridge (Mistake number 2 - save YOURSELF, not the gun!). Finally, after managing to cross the marsh (remember, poor Shade had to fend for himself on this adventure and was slogged in muck up to his haunches at this point), he headed for an area where he might start hunting. No dice. Two other hunters were already there. So, Jeff decided to head to another area he knew. However, upon reaching the end of the trail, he was faced with a creek and no means to cross it. You guessed it, he waded in. (Mistake number 3 - never enter a body of water until you're sure of it's depth). Suddenly he sank to his chest and was forced to grab reeds and weeds from the shore to pull himself out. After recovering from that harrowing adventure, he tried to find the trail. No luck. He bushwhacked through 100 yards of nearly impassable woods, scratching his face and hands, and moving his now nearly 400 lb. body (remember, he was wearing hunting pants and was wet and covered with mud) through this mess. Panicking now, he tried to make a phone call to let me know he might be "late" (meaning he planned to keep going and find his way even if it became dark! Mistake number 4 - never be in the woods after dark!). Lo and behold, his cell phone had succumed to the effects of being submerged and was no longer serviceable. Now, he was on his own, no one knew where he was and he was wet, cold and exhausted (Mistake number 5 - always take food and water, and a light source, with you, in case you are lost in the woods overnight). Finally, he decided to make his way back, found a county road and had to hike a mile, cold and wet, back to his car. Needless to say, he was totally spent when he arrived home, sank into a warm bath (drawn by his perfect hunting wife - hey, I had no birds to cook up, I had to do something!), and downed a glass (or more?) of wine. All that and no birds. I don't get it. I just don't. Mistake number 6 - thinking hunting is "fun". Huh?

Mom Magnet

I've noticed that my kids tend to gravitate closer and closer to me as the night wears on. Sort of that "getting ready for bed" routine in which they shower, brush teeth, start to settle down, and then look for me to give it all some closure. Except in the rare instances when I go to bed first. Like tonight - I just lay down on the bed waiting for the kids to finish doing something in my bathroom (shower, use all my makeup, destroy my sink area) and eventually they all ended up in my bed, reading their journals. When they were little, I got this fabulous idea to keep a regular journal of the daily ups and downs of their lives. Well, if you think that actually happened, you don't have kids! Because in between actually LIVING those ups and downs, no mother really has time to write about them. But I tried. And succeeded in some ways. Like, I have a very detailed chronology of my pregnancy with Harrison but after he was born, I skipped to 3 months, then a few more months and at one point, I skipped three whole years of writing! Same for the girls, as I usually write in all their journals on the same day. Three years? What the hell was I doing for three years that I didn't have time to write about their days? Their cute little sayings? When Arlie came into our lives, she came up with some pretty funny sayings of her own, so I got a journal for her too. While it's not full of details about her early days, we are trying to make up for lost time by recording the sometimes hysterical things she says. And once in a while, I find time to update a little about their lives. I'm hoping this give them an insight into how they were at different ages. It's actually an education for me too (reading about Hayley at age four is like reading about her now! Some things don't change and you really see how ingrained a person's personality is. At four, I was writing about Hayley's "take charge" ways and at 15 she's still a take charge girl). So, I really treasure these books and more than that, the memories of the kids hanging out on our bed, reading and laughing hysterically at their books. To that end, I leave you with some memorable quotes:
"Daddy, I will walk on your back for you. But first I will walk on Mommy's back because no one rubs mommy's back. It won't take long because Mommy is so short." - Hayley, age 4
"Why do they call it a restaurant? I mean, people rest there, but what is a 'raunt'?" - Hayley, age 5
"I'm a Cancer, Hannah is a Leo, and Harrison is a.......cappucino!" - Hayley, age 9
"Thank you, God, for shirts and daddy and trees and me. Amen." - Hannah, age 2
"Mommy, you have monkey tree hair." - Hannah, age 3
Hannah: "I'm bored." Mom: "I really hate it when you say that! You are lucky to be alive!" Hannah: "I said I was BORED, not DEAD!" - age 4
Arlie: "I want to ride my red truck" Dad: "It's not charged." Arlie: "Well, get off your a** and charge it!" - age 2
"He was smiling cheek to eye" - Arlie, age 9, describing her cousin, DJ
Scene - Jeff in the kitchen, eating spare ribs, sauce all over his face and hands. Enter Arlie "So, dad, how's that Weight Watchers working out for you?" - age 10
Scene - Harrison on the bed by mommy, pushing on her stomach. When asked what he was doing he replied "trying to push all the air out so you won't have a big tummy but it doesn't seem to be working!" - age 3
"Mommy, what's God's middle name?" - Harrison, age 3
"I am the king. I rule this house" - Harrison, age 4

What's in my pantry?

So, last week I stepped in to the pantry and something smelled - weird! I'm not sure how to describe the smell, but it was definitely "off" and I was certain a culprit lurked in there somewhere. Jeff claimed he couldn't smell it (typical male) and insisted it was my imagination. But I knew otherwise. Which led to cleaning the pantry this weekend. Which led to a bag of potatoes that had gone way past that sprouty stage where they start to spring green things out of their leathery skins. In fact, I am not sure exactly what stage these potatoes were in, but when Jeff removed the offending bag, hundreds of little fruit-fly things escaped and attached themselves to the walls and ceiling of the pantry. As you might imagine, I FREAKED! We sucked them up the vacuum and kept at it until we could see no more. Then, we gutted and organized the contents of the pantry, washed all the shelves, floor and walls and put everything back in. Now, my pantry is SO organized and nice. I know it will last about one more day and then the kids will be back to trash it. To reward ourselves, we went out to eat at The Rock, a local pizza and beer joint. We ordered "Fire and Rain" their "buffalo-style pizza". This pizza was the hottest thing I have ever eaten! The buffalo sauce was toxic, it actually made my lips and tongue go numb with the fire! The "rain" of course, was your choice of drink. Jeff wisely chose beer. I ordered a "Miami Ice". I watched the bartender make it and it seemed like he was a bit heavy-handed on the liquor. Well, let's just say he was! I have never been so "impaired" on one drink! It was all I could do to get home and into bed, where I lay while the room spun around me. I glanced at the clock and realized it was only 8:30! God, is this what it's come to? I'm a 40 year old lightweight who gets knocked on her ass by one drink and has to go to bed by 8:30? Pathetic.

Today we headed out in the a.m. to have breakfast at Denny's and then head to the gun range to shoot shotguns (can you say "redneck"?). After we downed a Grand Slam and a Skillet, we arrived only to find a bunch of old men and their guns and a full parking lot! Damn. No way was I going to attempt to shoot a 20 gauge shotgun in the company of these men. I was hoping for a quiet day where I could make a fool of myself in semi-privacy. So, I opted out while Jeff just couldn't resist having a round of shooting clay pigeons. I don't remember what it was called - skeet or trap or something like that. All I know is they all lined up, and one by one yelled "pull" and attempted to shoot hunter-orange clay disks (please, hunter-orange? When have you ever seen a hunter-orange bird?). Jeff missed a few, but mostly he hit his targets and came away happy. He asked "what do you want to do now?" and I delivered the most dreaded response - "let's go to the craft show". Now, most men will tell you they'd rather poke a hot fork in their eye than go to a craft show, but I figured I just sat around and watched a bunch of guys shoot guns, the least he could do was accompany me to the craft show for an hour. So, off we went. Of course, we "breezed" through the booths (Jeff speed) and then wandered around some shops for a while. Then, Jeff bought me a huge bouquet of flowers and we headed home........where I kept working on finalizing the pantry. Now, I'm matching lids and containers and cleaning off the counters which were covered with crap just last night. If I could just find someplace to store Jeff's bazillion cookbooks..........

How Big is a Bite?

As many of you know, my husband cooks. That alone is reason enough to stay with him forever, but of course, there are many other reasons why I love him. And he cooks wonderfully delicious meals, whipped up in record time and presented with a bit of flair. Definitely something I am not nearly as accomplished at. I can cook, but my fare is decidedly midwestern in origin - casseroles, crock pot, comfort food and lots of baking! So, having Jeff cook opens me up to new flavors, and dishes I might not ever have tried. And more than that, I appreciate the simple gesture of having a meal put in front of me that I didn't have to cook. Just that one task off my plate makes my life so much easier. So, I am truly grateful. That being said, I have to complain about one thing!! (Hey, it's my job to nag!). The difference in my cooking and Jeff's is that I cut everything up into basically 1 inch pieces and he barely cuts up anything at all. Last night, while eating my salad, I said "how am I supposed to fit this in my mouth?" For one thing, the "salad" consisted of HUGE pieces of romaine lettuce (big enough to choke a horse) and slices of tomato - slices, not dices. So, everything required additional cutting before consuming. And I don't know about you, but I like things cut up so I don't have to do any more work while eating. I even cut up my steak into toddler-sized bites before I start eating so I can just enjoy shoveling food into my mouth and skip all the knife work during the meal. Jeff just laughed at my dilemma and I said "how can a bite-sized girl make it in this world with a big chunk man?" to which he laughed and said "you have to blog about that". So I am! But seriously, maybe it stems from years of cutting food for toddlers and preschoolers but somehow I never left that stage. I even cut baby carrots in half! My salads consist of everything fitting into a 1x2 sized bite. (No, I don't measure it, I'm not that insane!). But I enjoy being able to eat something that doesn't fill up my whole mouth, choking me as it goes down. Jeff has actually deferred to me on this point occasionally. Like last night, our roasted red potatoes fit into my specified portion size. But he threw out his rebel side with the salad. Even his bites are huge. If he asks for a bite of my toffee almond bar from Starbucks, I'm hesitant, knowing it will come back half eaten. I remember growing up my mom and dad always took what I deemed "huge" bites. I hated it when they asked for a bite of my food, because it would come back with a shark-sized chomp. What's wrong with little bites? I don't know about you, but I prefer to see people eat without their cheeks bulging. So, I guess this becomes one of those compromises. I will continue to dice up carrots and potatoes, and slice apples paper-thin. And Jeff will throw a whole side of beef in the pot and call it dinner. Perhaps is harkens back to a time when we used our hands and tore meat from the bone. It's primal and manly. But they invented knives and forks for a reason and I'm happy with that. Now, I'll just be off eating my cookie. Which will take me 12 bites. Jeff eats his in two.