Weekend Rambling

I got the great idea to take all the grandkids picture for my mom for Mother's Day.  Why go to a studio?  I'm a decent photographer; I'll just do it myself!  My niece was grouchy.  She told me so.  Son #2 was silly and kept making faces.  Baby Girl was distracted and wouldn't look at the camera.  Son #1 actually wasn't too bad but Big Sis looked bored.  Not one picture came out great of everyone.  This is the best we got.

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Baby Girl is eating me out of house and home with peanut butter on Town House crackers.  The key here is that She's Eating!

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Now that I'm much less busy, my house is much messier.  How does that work?  1+1 does not always = 2, I guess.

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Yesterday, the kids had Muffins for Mom at school.  They think it's totally awesome.  I was just proud to look around the room and consider myself one of the nicer looking moms there.  (No, I'm not vain.  I just got dressed and did my hair this morning.)  It was interesting to see a drop-dead gorgeous girl I graduated with who is now chubby and very old looking.  I really hope I'm not that old looking.

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I know I talked about it in my very last post but I am so excited for our trip to Las Vegas!  Hubby wanted me to reserve our room under the name "Nick Papagiorgio." 

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K from Two Adults, One Brown Baby just asked her readers to submit random questions they would like her to answer.  I thought that would be fun.  What would you like to know about me?  I'll try to answer them in an upcoming post. 

Crystal Anniversary

I'm too young to have been married 15 years already!  Well, actually, I kind of am.  I was only 19 when I married, just a couple weeks from my 20th birthday.  It was a cold, rainy day in May - the best day of my life.  Afterward, we went to Disney World where people didn't believe we were old enough to be honeymooners.

We decided to do 15 years big.  Fewer people are achieving 15 years of marriage, especially at my age.  So yesterday, I spent the entire day trying to plan a trip for us to celebrate.  Since it was less than 14 days until departure, that feat was not easy.  I absolutely despise travel planning!  I am so freakishly meticulous about searching every place possible to find the very best deal.  That's why it took all stinkin' day long!

Finally, I gave in and realized I would not likely find anything better on jim-bobs-travel.com.  I booked a trip- Viva Las Vegas, baby!  A friend of Hubby's asked, "Why the @#*! are you going to Vegas?  You don't drink, party, or gamble!"  True.  The answer: because we want to.  We've never been there and we want to experience it once in our lifetimes without the kids.  It was cheaper than flying to New York, Chicago, or many destinations closer to us.  I am totally excited and can't wait!  We've had nothing but cold rain here lately and I am pumped to experience 85 sunny degrees!

So that is why there was no post yesterday.

Hubby thinks we should renew our vows with Elvis.  I think not.  I hope to share lots of pics upon my return!

Better Late than Never

I know all the hype has been over for a few days now, but here is an oh-so-sweet picture of the kids and me enjoying the Royal Wedding together.  (Yes, we are in our pajamas.)  Big Sis looked forward to it all day.  She couldn't wait to put on her favorite princess dress.  She nearly passed out when I gave her a fancy hat to wear.  She ran upstairs to change into another dress that matched better.  I found her an old pair of my Easter gloves from when I was little (I save way too much).  Which brought me to a full-length pair of satin gloves I wore in a friend's wedding.  The only other hats I had were cute hats I wear regularly. 

Then Son #2 asked what boys wear to fancy English weddings.  "Top hats," I replied.  "Do we have any?" he asked.  "Actually, there's one in the garage!"  He retrieved the way too big plastic hat and filled it with newspaper to help it stay on his head.  (I know he wouldn't have done these things had his older brother been home for the event.) 

We picked out our tea cups but Big Sis didn't want hot tea.  Instead, she enjoyed iced tea in a fancy goblet.  (In the pic, I'm trying to stick out my pinkie, but that was actually kind of difficult.  I almost spilled my hot tea.)  The memories made were priceless!

Today's + & -

+  Crazy Life is over!  I survived my two huge events of the past month.  I am so ready for life to return back to  normal!
-  I am exhausted and totally worn out from said craziness.
+  Last night's banquet went swimmingly well.  The 200 women in attendance seemed to have a good time and gave me rave reviews.
-  I had to depend on people to watch my kids while I set up, practiced, and hosted the banquet.  Hubby was pretty frustrated with me when I got home.  The 4 kids just did him in.

+  Our theme was Cowboys and Indians.  My group of 15 teenage girls dressed in costume.  I was the Sheriff and looked pretty fancy in my costume too.  But I now have cowboy hats all over my house and I don't know whose they are.
-  Due to how busy I was, I didn't take one picture!  Isn't that horrible?
+  I do, however, have some video and will share a short clip with you.  Now you can see what I do.  I wrote a comedy play, which was basically a musical.  I borrow familiar tunes and write my own words.  Here's one of my favorite songs from the evening.

+  My potted grass turned out lovely and made perfect centerpieces.  We played a hot potato game in the middle of the program to give away the centerpieces to one person at each table.

-  I had to unload a minivan packed full of junk to our storage space in the pouring rain today.

+  I didn't have to cook supper today!  My sweet aunt is cooking for me tonight.

-  Hubby won't make it home in time for dinner. 

+  He felt very guilty for being mean to me last night and apologized sincerely.  I will probably get a foot rub and possibly flowers out of it tonight!  :)

Well, that's my life for right now.  Hope yours is going well.

Rookie Parenting

I was watching a close friend who recently became a parent for the second time.  Five years ago, she was one of those Super Moms.  Her life revolved around her daughter.  The baby only had breast milk for six months, then organic baby food.  Cheerios were not introduced until around a year of age.  The second time around, things are much different.  Her son was crawling around on the floor on Easter (she would have never let her daughter crawl...there might be germs, lint, stairs 50 feet away).  He picked up a chocolate egg and began gnawing on it, foil and all.  His mom simply sighed that she had messy hands to clean up and allowed him to proceed. 

It made me start thinking about how differently I do things with #4.  The other day, she colored on the wall.  All I did was shrug.  Several walls in our house (and the entire inside door of the van) are colored on.  So why bother scrubbing until the paint comes off?  We'll just call it artistic expression.

This same friend of mine just enrolled her daughter in Kindergarten for next year.  I commented that our daughters might be on the same bus.  "Oh no," she replied.  "I will be driving her myself."  Oh yeah...I remember those days.  I was appauled at the thought of my first child riding on a smelly, hot bus with delinquent children throwing leftover bologna sandwiches and teaching him swear words.  But now, I have three in school.  I can't imagine parking a block away and traipsing through the snow to wait in the long parent line at the door of the school.  When they walk in our
front door after school, I'm surprised it's already over.

Other things I did as a rookie parent:

• Name brand diapers-  I paid an extra couple dollars per box for things that are used to catch my child's excrement.
• White clothing-  Now as a parent of 4, I refuse to buy any articles of clothing that are white.  I much prefer dirt-colored things.
• Pediatrician calls- I used to call the doctor for every sniffle, sneeze, or bump on the head.  Now, I give the child a little TLC, a kiss on the boo boo, and send them on their way.
• Educational TV- My first son rarely watched TV.  When he did, it was PBS or some other educational program.  The television stays on for a good part of the day while Baby Girl plays.  Sometimes it's the only way I can get stuff done.
• Nighttime checks- When Son #1 went five hours or more without waking up to eat, I would sneak into his room to make sure he was still breathing.  When #4 was a newborn, I was guilty of saying, "If she's not living now, she'll still be not living in the morning.  I might as well get my rest."  (I know, that's horrible!)
• No sugar- My first child didn't have a taste of sugar until his first bite of cake at his birthday party.  He still turned out to be a picky eater.  So now, I allow Baby Girl to eat pretty much whatever she actually will eat.  She is the youngest of four picky eaters.  No matter what I do, no kid of mine will ever eat well.
• Expensive toys- For his first Christmas, I spent a fortune on toys for my first kid.  He had every educational toy there was.  All of the toys were neatly organized in colored bins and on shelves and contained all the pieces.  Baby Girl's toys consist of a basket full of things like tupperware, empty chapstick tubes, puzzle pieces, random kitchen utensils she's pulled out of drawers, missing pieces to other toys, and shoes. 
• Professional pictures every 3 months- Back then, I could whip out a stack of pictures documenting every month of his life.  Now, I can only whip out my cell phone to show you a picture of what she looked like 6 months ago when she colored all over her tummy.  Son #2 had to take a family picture into school.  I searched the house and couldn't find anything printed that would work.  I have millions of digital images, but nothing that was printed.  I considered sending him in with my laptop.
• Fighting battles- As a first time mom, I didn't know how to choose my battles.  I thought I had to win every fight.  But now, I realize I have to let the unimportant things slide.  For example, right now Baby Girl is wearing a bathing suit instead of underwear.  Why?  Because she wants to.  Is it really worth the energy???

What have you learned throughout your years of parenting?

The Joy of Life

Playing with Baby Girl, I suddenly started singing Ladybug Picnic to her, from the old school days of Sesame Street.  It gave me the itch to look up the song, since I couldn't remember all the words.  From that point, we started watching classic Sesame Street clips together.  We jammed to C is for Cookie and waltzed together to Oscar's I Love Trash.  She wanted nothing to do with Ernie's Rubber Ducky.  Either she's prejudiced against orange people or she was embarrassed by the sight of him in the bathtub.  I'm not sure on that one.

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I got a letter from the school saying that Son #2 was accepted into the gifted program based on his recent test scores!  He scored 99% on the math test!  (I'm not sure if I could do that well on a 4th grade math test!)  This was a shock to both my husband and me.  You would have to know this kid. 

At one point of his life, we were sure that he had a learning disability.  I even wondered about more serious problems.  He was a late talker.  He didn't communicate well until much later than his peers.  He screamed a lot and got frustrated when you couldn't understand him.  He didn't listen, didn't follow directions, and was so difficult to manage.  Well, we thought, our first son is the smart one and #2 will just always struggle.  Boy, were we wrong! 

One day, he just decided to turn it off.  He became the most polite, well behaved, and calmest child you've ever seen.  It was hard to believe he was the same person!  So to hear that he's gifted...it just blows my mind!  Going through those things with him gave me patience to deal with Baby Girl's difficultness.  She has a lot of the same tendencies as him.  I already see her growing out of it and becoming more like her brother.  These are the things in life that make parenting such a joy!

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Son #1 left for his first hunting trip last night.  No one in our family has ever been a hunter.  My aunt married a man who hunts a lot and always said he wanted to take my sons hunting.  I fought it for a while but reluctantly gave in.  I trust this man more than I trust myself.  He and my aunt are so good to my children.  They never had children of their own so have adopted mine as their own children/grandchildren.  We had the talk about how it's not OK to hunt animals solely for the fun of it.  It's a way of providing food and we will use what we take.  I am not a fan of wild game.  I kind of hope he doesn't get into this because the thought of plucking turkeys and cooking up venison does not suit me well.  I'm sure he'll have a good time though. 

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Big Sis has been raising money for Jumprope For Heart at school.  It was so sweet to hear her talk about how the little kids in the hospital are sick in their hearts and need our money to get better.  I thought she was going to tear up at one point.  But then she admitted that she really wants the water bottle prize for collecting money.  An almost selfless act...

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My May 2nd banquet is almost here!  I'm so anxious to be done with the craziness associated with this time of year!  I think I'm prepared.  The restless nights with a racing mind keeping me up are nearly over!

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The Mailbox Kids have gotten bored and moved on!  Either that or they're terrified of my six foot, 200 lb. + bald neighbor who came out and yelled at them.  I do have a couple good videos of them messing with my mailbox, in case I ever need it.

Royal Hype

Are you caught up in all the hype over the Royal Wedding?  Did you wake up early this morning to catch the live footage (assuming you live on this side of the world)?

I'm not a fanatic, yet I'm very interested in watching the wedding.  I haven't caught it yet but it's recorded waiting to be viewed at a proper hour.  I wish I had a group of friends coming over tonight, wearing large brimmed hats, to watch the event of the year together.  I would brew some Earl Grey tea and make scones.  Maybe I would try to duplicate one of the appetizers rumored to be served at the wedding reception.  But alas, I have no such friends who wish to spend their Friday evening donning a silly hat.  Maybe Hubby....never mind, I won't even finish that sentence.

I was far too young to have been involved in the frenzy associated with the last Royal Wedding.  But I seem to remember people talking about it's significance.  My own daughter is 6 1/2, possibly old enough to enjoy this storybook wedding.  She truly believes she is a real princess so she might actually take an interest after all.  Boy, would she sure love to have been a flower girl in that wedding!

So, if you're watching, have a fabulous time.  And if you're celebrating with a proper tea party, please share!  (Or better yet, invite me!  I'll bring my own teacup!)

I Goofed

I really wish I wouldn't have messed with the design of my blog.  I don't like it and now I'm stuck.  I just wanted something colorful for Spring.  I've spent way too much time on this and it doesn't make me happy.  I cannot figure out how to make the header centered.  I don't know why...it was centered before!  And it's way too big.  But making it smaller makes it look awkwardly uncentered, which is worse.  Things like that eat at me until I become so frustrated that I get in a bad mood.

So that's my post for today.  I'm grumpy, I'm frustrated, and I am mad at technology.  I think I'll go to blog with a plain white background with black text.  Would you still read it?

Sleeping, Waking Up, Being Lazy

I love it when I come to bed and Hubby is talking in his sleep.  Most of the time, he just mumbles or whispers and I can't understand him.  But occasionally, he'll be so into it that I can have a conversation with him.  Last night was such a night.

When he first begins speaking, sometimes I wonder if he's faking it and trying to get a rise out of me.  That's how clear it was last night.  He typically is quite mean, however.  As I got into bed, it sounded like he asked me to do something.  Immediately after that sentence, he sarcastically said,
"Well, I guess not then, stupid!" 
I snickered and asked, "What?  What do you want me to do?"
"Psh!" he sighed sarcastically.
He was mad about something.  "This is ridiculous!"
More quiet laughing from me.  "Why are you mad?"
"I've been here all day!"
"Really?"
He was quiet for a while while I asked a series of questions trying to get him to talk again.  Finally, he answered, "There's a line going from here to there, dummy!"
That one got me laughing out loud, which woke him up.
"What are you doing?"  he wondered.
"Carrying on conversations with you in your sleep!  Why are you so mean to me when you're sleep talking?"
He was not happy I was making fun of him and told me so.

I rubbed his back as he drifted happily to sleep again.  In what seemed like ten minutes later, my alarm went off and woke me from my peaceful slumber.  Another day begins.

The days are beginning earlier presently.  My kids have to make up a few of the snow days that exceeded the limit.  Instead of making them go extra days at the end of the school year, they added half hour increments to each day.  So now school begins at 7:30.  That is really early.  Trying to get kids in bed at 8:30 at night is so difficult, especially when their dad doesn't get home from work until after 6:30.  It seems like we eat, clean up, and go to bed. 

I'm anxious for lazy summer nights when we can enjoy spending time together as a family.  It seems like the entire streets stands in their yards, doing nothing but talking to one another until the mosquitoes come out.  Those are my favorite kind of nights.  The kids come in late with dirty hands and feet, smelling like outside.  No one is in a hurry, no one is yelling for children to get in bed.  It will be here soon!

A Colorful Post

We finally got a long enough break from the rain for me to get outside with my camera.  As I was taking my last shot, it began sprinkling.  So I timed it perfectly.  I had mud on my toes when I was done, which was pure bliss.  The smells outside are so fresh and clean...I'm so happy Spring is here in all its glory!

Here are some of the beautiful sights around my home.



She is totally in her pajamas with messy hair...but still precious!