Toddler Flying

How old should your child be when you take them on an airplane? Well, after this week, my answer is NEVER! The girls are great on airplanes. We love to travel and are experienced in airports, so the girls have been doing it long enough to know the drill. My hubby, wonderful though he may be, really missed the boat with the travel preparations for this last trip.

We had a week long vacation planned out of town and had some last minute issues with the dogs, which meant that our original plan was to travel separately. I was going to take the girls on one day and my husband was going to take the dogs to the boarding place and follow us with KC the next day. Based on this plan, I was in charge of packing for myself and the girls. Easy, peasy, lemon squeazy. Clothes, socks, underwear, hair stuff, bathing suits, jackets, books, crayons and paper. DH was in charge of packing for himself and our son. But because of a problem with the shuttle driver and missing our flight, we ended up all going together.

Now, a pop quiz. If you are traveling on an airplane with a 3 year old, what should you bring with you?
A) toys
B) books
C) snacks
D) all of the above
E) none of the above; it's a short flight

Well, the correct answer, in every universe and plane imaginable, is never, EVER in a million years, E. I just doesn't happen. So what do you think got packed for him? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Apparently the airline magazine and the SkyMall catalog were supposed to hold him over. Well, guess what? That plan didn't work. The flight out there wasn't too bad. But the flight home was a nightmare. Because I held up my end of the bargain for me and the girls, the boys were left to fend for themselves. I had no sympathy for that guy sitting across the aisle from me with the crazy, loud, hysterical little boy who was obviously bored out of his skull.

Air travel is a wonderful thing. But if you haven't done it before, here are my suggestions for a nice and quiet ride. At least three or four books, something along the lines of The Berenstain Bears or Aesop's Fables. A short story that doesn't require critical thinking skills to follow. Small Ziploc baggies filled with healthy snacks, like Goldfish crackers or small chunks of fruit. If you have an iPhone, there are some great apps for kids. (I have a couple, but I didn't pull it out for DH until other passengers started to complain). There a Wheels on the Bus app, a matching game with colors and shapes, and several others. Spend a few bucks on a few good ones. And some small toys. Not the entire collection of matchbox cars and every Barbie doll ever invented, but a few select distractions will go a long way toward a pleasant flight.

Next trip, I'm in charge of the packing.

PS - I've included a link to an article that has some good recommendations for iPhone/iPod Touch apps for kids in the "Favorite Links" to the right.

Breastfeeding Nostalgia

As I slowly start making my way through the piles of boxes in the new place, I am hit with a wave of nostalgia. Relishing all the time I spent when my kids were just the smallest of babies seems; it seems like it was only yesterday that I was bringing my oldest child home from the hospital. I was wearing a hideous striped maternity top and jean shorts. I was young and didn't have the first clue what to do with a baby, but somehow I entered the hospital with a baby bump and left a few days later with a pink bundle. We stopped at Auntie Donna's on the way home so she could admire the newest member of the family. I swear, that was something like 45 minutes ago. Now she's all grown up and I am trying how to figure out how to keep her little forever. Because once you let one of them grow up, you can't stop any of the rest of them from doing it either.

What triggered this trip down memory lane was the discovery of my Pump in Style Advanced Backpack in a box that I thought needed to be unpacked. For 2001, it was the latest in dual pumping technology. It came in a sleek backpack for discretion and two ridiculous looking suction cup type devices that made it possible to pump in half the time. It also came with four bottles with lids, a milk carrying case and handy re-usable ice back to keep my milk chilled until I could get it to a fridge. I didn't have it when I had the first baby; it took me a while to get the hang of breastfeeding and I gave up too soon. But when the second one was born, I was determined not to give up. So I shelled out something like $350 bucks for one of these, purchased new off e-Bay from a reputable dealer in Canada. I went everywhere with that. I had to travel for work and so on long airplane rides, I would dutifully get up every few hours and hook myself up in the lavatory (it also came with a battery pack for when an outlet wasn't available).

My family joked that my breast milk was liquid gold, and it was. For the times when I had to pour it down the drain when I couldn't get it in the fridge fast enough, I was crushed. All that had work and effort was lost. But over time, I got smarter and learned how to improvise so my milk would stay cold. I bought freezer bags and extra bottles. I combined sessions (you really aren't supposed to do that, but what the hell) so I wouldn't run out.

I was never one of those people who was terribly comfortable breastfeeding in public. I tried to patronize establishments that offered a mother's room or at least a padded bench. I always covered up. But I felt strongly that this was my baby's meal and I would give it to them wherever I saw fit. I supported women who chose to feed in the mall or on the bus or anywhere else. I boycotted businesses that asked women to cover up. It's our sex obsessed culture that saw breastfeeding as "eeewww". Equating breastfeeding to soft core porn offended me.

I always refused to throw out my pump, long past the time when I knew I would no longer need it. It seemed like I would jinx the good fortune that came with my children. I thought about selling it or giving it away (which you aren't supposed to do either, but if you are faced with the choice of a used pump with some new parts or not breastfeeding at all, then that's an easy decision to make), but I never did. Instead, it's been sitting in a box on the top shelf of my closet, only to be discovered today. So I ponder what happened to the last eight years when I could sit peacefully in my recliner with a Boppy pillow around my waist (a must have!) and a sweet nursing infant.

Time to dig out the photo albums and see what other memories I can dig up. Sigh.....

Moving and other things that suck

This weekend, we have been busy moving. And it sucks. I mean it really, really sucks. It's the worst chore in the world. I would rather spend the entire day folding laundry and scrubbing toilets than have to pack or unpack one more box. Seriously, I would rather dance naked on the doorsteps of each of my new neighbors then have to move again. I may just set up shop here and refuse to leave, even if the Constable has to drag me out, because I will not move again. I say that every time I move, and I have moved four times in the last four years. So I guess we'll see.

Contemplating how much moving sucks led me to think of all the things that fall into the "sucky" category. Here is my list:

• Boredom
• My car running out of gas
• Cold showers
• Winter
• Clogged drains
• Lack of kitchen cabinet space
• Disappearing spoons
• Socks that vanish in the dryer
• Meetings that last more than an hour
• The dog chewing up my sneakers
• Broken cell phones
• Grumpy kids

But on a positive note, the opposite of all those things are pretty cool. I mean, when I find a spoon hidden in the couch cushions or my kids are giggling and having fun, I feel like I have won the lottery! What could be better?

So for now, I will try not to dwell too much on the suckiness of moving and search for socks behind the dryer that might be a match!

I'm jealous of your thighs

OK, maybe not your thighs, but in general, I have a great deal of envy for those women who have beautiful, slender thighs. David Letterman used to do this bit where he would make fun of President Clinton when he was jogging and and they would sing a song they called "Pasty White Thighs" and show clips of him in these skimpy running shorts (sorry for the image) and photoshop a cheeseburger in his hand or something. Anyway, the tops of my thighs touch each other when I stand and rub together when I walk and it's just awful.

I bring this up because I know I need to do something about them, and have been reminded about the importance of taking care of myself. One of my very dear friends learned recently that her husband may have cancer and an old schoolmate is getting her husband through cancer treatments as well. Both are young, vibrant, in shape guys who have a long fight ahead of them and their prognosis is improved by their physical condition. I'm afraid that if some terrible illness were to find me, I might as well thrown in my fat, sweaty towel since I can be described as neither "vibrant" or "in shape".

I wonder if the Thighmaster really works? But I draw the line at the Buttmaster. Some places I just can't go.

And in case you are wondering, I am cooking in the crock pot again today. Today is beef stroganoff and it smells delicious. So after today, I will have made three of the five non-boxed meals I set out to learn.

Cooking minus the boxed helper

I am coming a long way on my goal to lean to cook five meals that don't come with a box containing the instructions. My mom got me hooked on this website called allrecipes. I can search for meals about a thousand different ways and save the recipes I like in my own personal recipe box. There are also reviews of most of the recipes and people can leave comments about what they changed that made it better. (No, I don't work for allrecipes. I just love the site.) I have tried several from the site and my favorites are the slow cooker/crock pot recipes. Since I am a working mom and I leave my house between 7 and 8 pm and don't get home until after 5, the crock pot really saves me. Here is what I have tried so far:

1) Tuna and macaroni casserole - this one is easy. Cook a box of mac and cheese and add a can of tuna, some milk, a can of cream of mushroom soup (the recipe called for cream of celery but I prefer the mushroom) and sprinkle some shredded cheese and parsley on top. Cook in a baking dish for 20 minutes on 350 and it's done!

2) French dip sandwiches - I cooked a roast in the crock pot for about 6 hours with a can of beef broth, condensed onion soup mix and about a half a bottle of heavy beer (again, I took liberties. Instead of using a whole bottle I only used about a half). Then I served it up on french rolls and used the juice for Au jous dip. Another hit!

3) Beef brisket - I've actually done this one before. I wasn't sure the kids would like it but they did. They raved about how good it was. This was also super easy. Put a 3 lb. beef brisket (not a corned beef brisket) in the crock pot. To make the sauce, mix two bottles of chili sauce, a packet of dry onion soup mix and a small spoonful of chopped garlic (or use 2 tsp. of garlic powder). Mix it all together and pour over the brisket. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. This is perfect for the long days when I have to leave early.

Next up is brown sugar meatloaf, which sounds really good. I don't really like meatloaf, but this got rave reviews. I wish I had pictures of what I have made so far so you could see my progress. I have brisket in the crock pot right now so I'll try to get a photo of it before I serve it.

Another good cooking tip I have learned is to wait until the grocery store puts meat on sale then stock up on as much as they will let me buy. Then I just separate it into the size I will need and put in baggies in the freezer.

I am making good progress toward my goals. First, I went out and purchased a quality LSAT prep book and am slowly making my way through it. I am having lots of trouble with the logic games, but I think I have nailed down a strategy for solving them. Take this one, for example:

Each of seven travelers—Norris, Oribe, Paulsen, Rosen, Semonelli, Tan, and Underwood—will be assigned to exactly one of nine airplane seats. The seats are numbered from 1 through 9 and arranged in rows as follows:

Front row: 1 2 3
Middle row: 4 5 6
Last row: 7 8 9

Only seats in the same row as each other are immediately beside each other. Seat assignments must meet the following conditions:
Oribe’s seat is in the last row.
Paulsen’s seat is immediately beside Rosen’s seat and also
immediately beside an unassigned seat.
Rosen’s seat is in the row immediately behind the row in which Norris’ seat is located.

Neither Semonelli nor Underwood is seated immediately beside Norris.

1. Which one of the following is a pair of travelers who could be assigned to seats 2 and 8, respectively?
(A) Norris, Semonelli
(B) Oribe, Underwood
(C) Paulsen, Oribe
(D) Rosen, Semonelli
(E) Underwood, Tan

As you can see, I have to draw the same puzzle for each of the five questions that accompany this mind bending exercise. I started by assuming that the questions were not independent of each other and quickly discovered that was all wrong. Then I tried to use the same drawing for each question and found that didn't work either. So now I am working on getting through the questions no matter how much time it takes and expecting to get better at these with practice.

ABC

In a desperate attempt to find new things to blog about, I shamelessly went back to some of my friend's blogs for some of their better stuff. So, Amanda, I have pilfered from you today for the "ABC's of me"

A - Attached or single: Attached, married for nine amazing years!
B - Best friend: My best female friends are Amanda and Marcia. My hubby is a great best friend; I can tell him anything.
C - Cake or pie: Ooohhh, tough choice. But I think cake probably wins this one. It seriously might depend on my mood, though.
D - Day of choice: I like Saturdays, because I usually don't have to work and my husband is home with me..
E - Essential item: Before I lost it, it was my Palm. Now I guess it's my cell phone.
F - Favorite color: Green
G - Gummy bears or worms: Another tough choice. I think it's equal.
H - Hometown: Born in Idaho, raised in Salt Lake, 10 years in Vegas. I miss Vegas the most, though.
I - Indulgence(s): Getting a pedicure and massage.
J - January or July: Definitely July. I can't handle the cold. January is depressing.
K - Kids: Three (see right for info).
L - Life is incomplete without: Husband and good friends, the kind you can call when you need to cry.
M - Marriage date: June 24, 2000
N - Number of siblings: Seven
O - Oranges or apples: Apples, if they are crispy and sweet.
P - Phobias or fears: I am afraid of all kinds of bugs, spiders, snakes and scorpions. I am also afraid of dying in a fire or drowning. Because of this, I am also generally afraid to fly, but it's getting a little better.
Q - Quotes: Margaret Thatcher said, "I'm not lucky, I deserved it." You go girl!
R - Reason to smile: My kids can always make me laugh.
S - Season of choice: Depends on where I am - In Arizona, it's spring and fall. Vegas is spring only. Salt Lake is summer.
T - Tag three friends: The only other person whose blog I follow is who I stole this from, so I don't think I will. But thanks.
U - Unknown fact about me: I'm pretty much an open book. There's nothing interesting there.
V - Very favorite store: Target for stuff and CJ Banks for clothes.
W - Worst habit: Overeating.
X - X-ray or ultrasound: I guess it's an ultrasound, since I remember the ultrasounds for all of my kids. There are some bad memory ultrasounds in there too, but I'm not sure how one would prefer to be x-rayed.
Y - Your favorite food: Anything chocolate. Chicken crispers from Chili's.
Z - Zodiac sign: Scorpio.

Goals

They say that you are more likely to achieve your goals if you write them out and track them. To that end, I have some goals to share. Some are for the next few weeks, some will take longer to complete. Hold me accountable and ask about my progress. Here goes....

#1 Take the December Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). I was going to do this a while ago, but I sort of fell off the wagon. A friend of mine at work who is an attorney reminded me that I am wasting my smarts and talent. She also reminded me that I hired her as a temporary employee in an entry level department and she is now one of our general counsel. She was already a lawyer when I hired her, she just needed her foot in the door. So I went out and bought a good prep book and plan to make it my new accessory.

#2 Clean my oven. Can I say I have achieved this goal if I hire someone to do it for me?

#3 Learn to cook at leas five things that don't come with a boxed "helper". I can't handle all the grease in my diet.

#4 Lose 75 pounds. This will take some time, but I have to get motivated. I bought a Weight Watchers magazine while I was at the bookstore and if I like it, I'll get a subscription.

All the places I've been

I travel a lot for work. Usually at least once a month, and sometime I visit as many as four or five different locations in a given month. I figured out a way to put up one of those cool maps with the pushpins (see below). I thought I would share all the places I have been in the last 18 months and a little tidbit about them:

• Washington, DC - what a great city. I wish I had more time to explore and maybe take the Segway tour.
• Charlotte, NC - Great weather and very green.
• Miami, FL - I never even saw the beach and interesting, Cuban inspired food.
• Los Angeles, CA - I was there from 8 pm to 8 am.
• Salt Lake City, UT - Nice people.
• Atlanta, GA - The Chick-Fil-A dwarf houses crack me up and they have a server to bring your nuggets and waffle fries.
• San Francisco, CA - cold and smells like fish.
• Austin, TX - Surprisingly modern and I ate at an excellent steak house.
• Spokane, WA - that is one small airport!
• Philadelphia, NJ - Everything looks wooded and rural, but it's really not.
• Las Vegas, NV - No, I did not gamble or hang out on the Strip. Besides work, I had dinner with some friends.
• Ft. Lauderdale - another one of those places where I didn't see the beach.
• Baltimore, MD - they have lots of crabs there.
• Jacksonville, FL - the people there have a southern accent, which I didn't expect. But if I had paid attention to the map, Jacksonville borders South Carolina.
• San Diego, CA - I used to live there. If it wasn't so crowded and expensive, I would go back.
• Detroit, MI - COLD, COLD, COLD.
• Orange County, CA - home to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. One one trip, I went there, and didn't go on the other.
• Phoenix, AZ - HOT, HOT, HOT!
• Atlantic City, NJ - Hmmmm, I think the jokes about New Jersey might be true.
• Ontario, CA - It's like they are trying too hard to be LA but not be LA.

Bear in mind that some of these places I have been to more than once and I still have a full schedule ahead of me. Next up are Seattle, Oakland, Raleigh, Orlando and Europe!

View Where my work sends me in a larger map

Visitors, the fridge and the Wii

This is a holiday weekend and for the first time in a long time, we have friends (not family) coming to visit us. These are very good friends and we miss them a lot. Since they were headed in this general direction to visit their family, they came another two hours out of their way so they could spend the night with us. Because of this visit, I really wanted my house to be in pretty nice shape.

If you know me at all, you know that I have a tendency to be lazy (which is why there hasn't been a blog post in a loooong time). So, of course, I put off my cleaning until the last possible minute and held some expectation that my husband would do some of it while I was at work (that's another post). We were expecting them to come on Thursday sometime after dinner. I got off work early and came home to find it was clean on the surface but there was a lot that still needed to be done. I didn't want our good friends to see some of the fruits of my laziness. At the top of that list was the fridge. It was absolutely disgusting. Right after I cleaned it the last time, which wasn't that long ago, my son spilled the baking soda all over the bottom shelf and it just never got cleaned up. Add that to the natural spills, drips and bits and pieces that seem to find their way into the bottom of the fridge when kids get into it, and you have one big mess. Why I don't seem to care that my mother or sister see the inside of my very gross fridge is beyond me, but they've known me to be a slob all my life. But I digress....

I wish I had a "before" picture to show you. In addition to the baking soda, there was some spilled milk under the vegetable drawer that had become kinda crusty, bits of cheese in the bottom of the cheese drawer, a whole bunch of ring stains from the bottom of jars and bottles and so forth. I had to completely disassemble the entire interior of the fridge to get it all. It took gallons of hot, soapy water, almost an entire roll of paper towels and a couple of magic erasers to get it all cleaned up and looking pretty. After about an hour, here is the finished product....... TA DA!

I think it looks fabulous! I also need to go shopping.

The other thing that we did this weekend was put up our Wii. It was a gift from my husband for our 9th anniversary, which we celebrated last week. And since it has been in a closet all this time, we decided now would be a good time to finally get it together. But pulling out the entertainment center to get it hooked up sent us knee deep into another intensive clean up project. One of those long neglected areas of my house includes behind the television set, which sits in the middle of an oak entertainment unit. There was so much dust back there that we could see our footprints in it (I know, eeeeewwwwww!). So we rolled up our sleeves for the second time in two days and pulled out all the shelving, cleaned up all the excess crap that had accumulated on the top brought out the vacuum. Over all, I would say it was easier than the fridge but equally gross. Again, no before picture, but here is the wall unit with all the stuff organized, neatly dusted and the Wii all set up with the cords neatly hidden out of view.

If this is what it takes to get me moving, the friends, come on over. I'd love to have you. And my house will be cleaner for it!

Three Weeks in a Row

Ok, I have been to church three weeks in a row. I didn't go yesterday becuase I fell asleep when my husband came home, but it's a holiday weekend so probably a lot of people didn't go. I've been going to St. Anne's, which the parish in which I am registered. I was going to try to and look for a new church, but for now I'm happy with this one.

Drinks, Anyone?

I'm not really a drinker. I've been known to have an occasional cocktail, but it happens about twice a year. My husband isn't one either. Most of my friends don't drink a lot. I suppose it's just the way I was raised. I don't have any personal or religious objection to drinking. For heaven's sake, the college I went to had an on site program for alcoholic priests. So it's not church, but just the way I was raised. My parent's don't drink and we never had alcohol in my house when I was growing up. So it was natural to me that when I had kids, I would follow the same path. It took a while to convince my husband that I was serious, but he eventually believed I was and came around.

We don't go to parties where alcohol is served and I think it's inappropriate for adults to drink in front of their underage children, ESPECIALLY if they will be driving afterward. Talk about sending a mixed message. If your kids see you down a couple of beers at dinner then pile everyone in the SUV to drive home, then when you start spouting off about not drinking an driving, they'll think you are the world's biggest hypocrite. Which brings me to my point...

I'm pretty picky about with whom my children associate. As a result, they don't have a lot of friends. They know a lot of kids at school, but I feel like I need to know the parents really well before I will let my kids play at someone else's house. So I am at a Girl Scout event last week and am introduced to another mom. Our girls are both in scouts and in the same class at school. The kids really want to have a play date. And as I am listening to this woman, I am kind of shocked. She is telling me about how her 3 year old son has fallen in their pool three times this year and how her kids clean up all the beer cans around their backyard. Then the dad comes up and tells me how much he hates the scorpions in his yard and that his buddies all come over to drink and they get out a black light and kill the scorpions with the empty beer cans. And I am thinking, "Seriously? Is this really ok with most people?"

I think I am pretty reasonable. I limit tv to shows I approve of. And I don't approve of Hannah Montana, SpongeBob, etc. Internet is monitored and my oldest daughter has e-mail (though I have the password and she can only write to people in her address book). I have allowed one sleepover. Fun stuff is contingent upon clean rooms and completing chores, but I have no objection to birthday parties and roller skating and such. So is it really unreasonable to want their friends parents to have some standards? Am I of touch? Should I lighten up?

In all honesty, most of the non-drinking, no smoking, my kind of standards people in this neighborhood have been mostly unfriendly towards us. So what's a mom to do? I can either let me kids play in someone else's unsupervised pool and drink leftover beer or they can turn into home dwelling hermits with no social skills (like me). Any advice?

I Did It!

I promised two or three weeks ago that I was going to start going to church again and I did. I even went to the church where I have been going and took the girls with me. It's not really the same experience with the kids having to remind them not to play around on the kneeler or talk to each other, but as time goes on, I think it will get easier for them to pay attention and learn what church is about. I took them to the children's mass at St. Anne's and I even dug out my collection envelope and wrote out a check.

Nothing heavy duty to report, but I did go and I plan on going again next week. Next I have to find out about religious education for next year, what we used to call CCD or catechism. I'm making progress!

No Good Excuses

Happy Easter everyone! It's a beautiful day outside and I am enjoying this weekend with family and friends who are celebrating with us. As I reflect on the Easter holiday, I'm reminded of what I should have been doing for the last 40 days and beyond, but haven't been. And for no apparent good reason. I have lots of excuses, but since none of them are any good, I won't make you listen to the bad ones.

As a Catholic, Easter holds a lot of meaning. I admit I haven't put in the time and effort required to properly honor the significance of Jesus' resurrection. I know what Easter means, but in watching the kids search for their baskets and beg us to hide Easter eggs, I am struck by what I should be doing but am not. For example, I did not make any sacrifice for Lent. Normally, this would be me forgoing chocolate or fast food or buying things I don't need. I haven't done it in a while. But I also haven't been going to church, saying the rosary (I'm not sure I even remember how), teaching my kids to say the "Hail Mary" or "Act of Contrition". Even just writing about it makes it seem like a huge undertaking. My kids haven't had any regular exposure to church or prayer or sacrifice. I don't even know where to start.

I wasn't ever a person who could quote the scriptures and I'm not sure that's who I want to be. But I guess before I can even decide that, I need to start by finding a parish that is right for me and my family. So goal one: find a church. I might try a few different ones to see how it feels and then start taking the kids. Eventually, I want them all to attend Catholic schools. So starting off by attending Catholic church would be a good idea. First up on my list is St. Bridget's in Mesa. Each week, as I attend a service, I'll post a link to the church and write about my experience there. I probably won't be courted like President Obama is, but I'll approach my search with the same care and consideration.

More on this topic next Sunday!

Fear or Loathing?

I have just returned from a whirlwind tour of St. George Utah. It's a beautiful little town, practically encircled with gorgeous red mountains, kind of like what you would see near Hawaiian volcanoes. But it's also a small town. You can drive from one end to the other in about 10 minutes. It branches off into some other, even smaller towns. But it has sort of a homey feel two it. Only two hours from Las Vegas and four hours from SLC. Kind of tucked in the middle and largely forgotten. If you know me well, then you know what I was doing there. And now I can't decide if I really want to do it. So my question is: Am I feeling this way because I'm afraid of this great unknown or do I really not want to do it? How do I tell the difference?

There are clear pros and cons. But is it really as simple and making a list? Does the longer list "win"? I have to figure it out pretty quick, too. No time to hem and haw. Couple of days, tops. I heard someone say something the other day that I probably have heard before, but it clicked with me when he said it. He said, "Make a decision, then make the decision work for you". Something like that. Basically, once I have decided one way way or the other, then I have to do everything I can to make it a success. So, here's another question. Am I doing everything I can to make things work right now?

AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I hate feeling this way! Any insight is appreciated.

An Excellent Investment

I have made a discovery. It's beyond my comprehension how this happened, but looking back, I can totally understand it. You know how when you go...well, practically anywhere, and there's a water cooler with little paper cups? I don't know why, but whenever I see one of those, I am compelled to take a drink. Even if I'm not particularly thirsty, I always have a little water. Maybe a sip of cold water just always sounds good. But I always do it. My kids always do it too. Which brings me to my discovery.....

TA-DA! My very own water cooler! I actually didn't really get the idea until I went to a friend's house and she had one. I had never really thought that people actually have these in their homes before. Although if I had been paying attention, it would have made sense. There are water trucks all over the place. But my friend had gotten it as a gift and she loved it.

I found it on sale at Target and I got two of the five gallon jugs to go on top of it. I pay $1 for five gallons! The cheapest bottled water I had ever found was about 75 cents a gallon, and this is only a buck for five gallons. It lasts about a week, but here is the kicker: my kids drink so much more water now. They used to be really resistant to water, but not anymore. At first, it was the novelty of having the thing there. They wanted to push the button to fill up their cups and drink it really fast so they could push the button again (the 3 year old in particular). But now it's more like habit and they just naturally head for the water cooler. Totally amazing! For the record, I drink more water too!

The Blog is Back, Baby

I've been offline for a while, thanks to a keystroke capture virus on my computer. But after sending it to my brother in Montana and deciding it was beyond saving, I am once again electronically connected to the rest of the world.

I'm not going to write very much now, but I just want to remind everyone to make sure their virus protection and spyware subscriptions are up to date (I actually had very graphic porn icons on my desktop that would not go away as a result of this stupid virus). And back your iTunes. It was a pain in the rear to get all my music back.

Ta-ta for now.

Beyond exhausted

I don't know how people do it. I just can't keep up anymore. My kids aren't babies, they sleep through the night and can feed themselves, for the most part are potty trained, they talk, walk and will play in the backyard when the weather is nice. So they don't need a lot of my undivided attention, like a new baby would. Oh, I know they need my attention as their mom, but that's not really what I mean. I don't have to be standing in the same room with them watching their every move. If I need to go to the bathroom, they are ok for two minutes. They mostly get along with each other and overall are well behaved, curious little creatures that light up my life. But I am so tired.

Not the kind of tired you experience as a new mom. Maybe there is some sense of newness and excitement that comes with a newborn. I mean the kind of tired that makes it agony to get out of bed and the kind of tired that makes one think caffeine should come in an IV drip. Everything I do is exhausting. I would nap if I could. I would take a vacation to an exotic island and sleep on the beach. But I can't, because just thinking about how I would get there makes me tired.

I love my job. It's my dream job, one I worked hard for. I want to keep it. I sometimes will stay an hour or so past quitting time, and I'm on call every third week. But I don't work eighty hour weeks or go without any sleep. So why am I so tired? My life isn't drastically different than it was a year ago. In fact, my kids are a little older, my job is a little bit easier and I have a little more time. But I have a lot less energy. I creak and ache like an old lady. It's ironic that I am often told I would feel better if I would exercise more, but you have to be not tired to even start the exercise. What a dilemma. Maybe it's my thyroid or my blood or a tumor growing somewhere un-noticed. I feel like I should be expecting my own version of dead-Denny to come and "be here for me".

There is a special place in heaven for single moms. I don't know how they do it. And for my husband, since he picks up all my slack and lets me sleep late on Saturday mornings. Maybe I'll call a doctor. This can't be normal.

Nighty-night!

Love the cookies, hate the soliciting

I want to be a good mom. I really do. I wake up every morning and think about what I can do to be a good mom. I want my kids to have the best of everything. I would go into debt up to my eyeballs and sell my kidneys to make sure my kids have every experience and opportunity they deserve. But, at this time year I start wonder if I should draw a line somewhere.

How many boxes of Girl Scout cookies should I buy to prove I am good mom? I LOVE the cookies. I will eat almost every flavor and eat a lot of them. I think the Girl Scouts are a worthy cause for my daughters. But I am very wary of allowing my girls to sell cookies door to door, even when I am with them. It's uncomfortable. I usually hit up a few of my co-workers, but I hate doing that. My daughter wants to sell 165 boxes of cookies and I can't buy that many boxes. At four bucks a box, that's $660. I guess I could take it out of my tax return. But I don't really need 165 boxes of cookies.

So what's the answer? I don't know, but I know I'll be buying and eating more cookies than I need. Maybe a lack of sleep from being out of town for so long has warped my ability to think reasonably. I have a week to figure out how to get people to buy 155 boxes of cookies. I'll buy 10, but the rest is up to the actual Girl Scout!

The vegetable dilemma

My kids are constant snackers. They would eat all day, every day, if I would let them. They do like a fair number of healthy snacks, like cheese sticks and yogurt. But they never seem to be full. So I am trying to find ways to fill them up in the hopes that they won't be so hungry all the time. Vegetables, in particular, are supposed to be bulky and fill you up.

Challenge 1: I am not a creative cook. I cannot make little pizzas on Ritz crackers with kiwis and strawberries. That just takes waaaaayyyy too much patience.

Challenge 2: I am an extremely picky eater, which means I have bred three extremely picky eaters in my likeness. I haven't exposed my kids to things I don't like, and that's a pretty lengthy list. So it totally amazes me that one of my girls likes to eat salad (if you know me, you've heard my explanation about trying to find a way to like lettuce). My son pretends to like carrot sticks, but what he really likes is licking off the ranch dressing and then dipping it in again. Our diet is very limited because of my poor example.

Challenge 3: We are having a hard time identifying what exactly constitutes a vegetable. I was always under the impression that if it has seeds, then it's fruit. So tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers are not vegetables. One of my friends recently told me that corn isn't a vegetable either, it's a grain. I don't know if that's true, but it makes sense. I asked each of my girls to name their favorite vegetable so I could buy it at the store. I figured that if one of them was eating a vegetable at every meal, that was a start. KB promptly named her favorite as green beans. KA couldn't come up with one, but she did remind me that green beans have seeds.

I give up.