Milestones

1. Vivian finally went to kindergarten. At first glance, it's seen as a relief. Upon further inspection, I have discovered that my life is a little bit boring without that kid around. The fun part has been figuring out who I am without a kid stuck to my side. And by fun, I mean not fun. 
2. Patricia got her learner's permit, and I got more gray hairs. Seriously. I'm not even joking. This is not an exaggeration. I have more gray hairs. Everywhere. Even in places that I never thought would get gray hairs. Yeah. THERE. Although, I am pretty sure those ones have nothing to do with my 16 year old daughter. 
3. Trystan is taller than me. He weighs more than me too. And he has a manly voice. Where did my sweet little boy go?
4. Mimi's isn't much of a milestone, rather a brag. That girl is the most empathetic person I know. She is the kid who plays with the unpopular kids who have no one to play with at recess. She is the one who takes time to help the kid who can't read well to find a book in the school library that he is interested in. I see this every time I go to her school. Her teachers tell me whenever they get a chance. Most importantly, Mimi lets me know. At least once a week. Hey- It's a good thing to know what you're good at. 
5. Mel retired after 20 years in the Army. And now for the brag: In November, he had a retirement ceremony where I got to hear about all of the amazing things he has done over the past six years in his job. That was cool. I learned some things I didn't know before. What the best part for me was standing in the receiving line  and getting to talk to all of the people who he had touched, both professionally and personally. I have always known how great he is. To learn that I'm not the only person to feel that way about him was priceless. I'm looking forward to the next chapter in our lives. 
6. Isn't it ironic that I saved myself for last? I got my first REAL brazilian wax. Remember this? Or part deux? Or part the third? It took just over two years for me to muster the courage to get it professionally done. It took 45 minutes. It hurt. My pussy was out of commission for two days. I'm going back on Wednesday for maintenance. (god help me)

Did you have any milestones in your life? If so, I hope it wasn't as painful as mine. 

a picture

Pretty picture of the Washington Monument from the White House. The pictures Trystan took didn't turn out well because:

1. He's 10.
2. He had a disposable camera.
3. He's 10.

Wow! Two entries in a row. It's a record or something. I have to rest now. Take care.

too much for one post

I have so much to blog about, it's crazy. So, I am going to break it up into chunks. I'll blog the big events from the past two weeks over the next couple of days. It's crazy. We had a ton of things happen all at the same time, and I got overwhelmed and boycotted blogging. That's why I am going to ease into things.

On Saturday, September 6th, we planned to have a crazy triple carnival party. Since three of our kids were born within a month of each other, we decided to have a cool outside party for all of them and their friends. We planned a dunk tank, balloon darts, ping pong ball toss, matching floating duckies, ring toss, guess the candy in the jar, potato sack races, and tug-o-war. That's what we planned for 9/6/08. Hurricane Hannah had different plans. She rained out our party on Saturday. Call it what you may, but our ox was stuck in a hurricane. So, we decided to have the party on Sunday. As you all will see, it was worth the wait because the weather was totally fantastic.

Balloon darts

Mimi beating someone at the races

Some of the neighborhood moms decided to race against each other. Check out Misty on the far left.Yeah, I won!!! Sorry about the butt shot. See where Misty is? I don't think she moved. I think she just turned around. Totally fun. Totally. We sang happy birthday to each kid. Trystan turned ten on August 18th. I am not going to list 10 great things about him or list 10 reasons why I am glad he's my son. I'll save the list making for tomorrow's post.

Then it was Vivian's turn. She turned 3 on September 8th. Guess what else is signifigant about that day?

And last but not least is Patricia. She's not 13 yet. Her big day is on Friday the 19th.
I didn't really get a good count of how many kids were at the party. We had mostly neighborhood kids. Patricia invited a couple of people from her school, and we had a mysterious family from church who shall remain anonymous. (I'll only out myself and my family for breaking the sabbath.)

Here's the Tug-o-War line. I wasn't pulling. I was the judge. See Suzan? She was the ready, set, go! person. (whatever that's called) Yeah, the two loudest mouths at the place.

We gave out tickets to the kids and they used them to 'buy' goodies from the store. Patricia, Mel and I had a blast at Five Below shopping for that stuff. I am so thankful to all my great neighbors and friends for helping run the stations, serving food, running the store, and cleaning up. They helped make this the best party ever!

That's what you get!

Kids are so crazy. They have to be told not to do things millions of times, and they still do it. Not only that, but when they do the thing they were told not to do, and get hurt, they have the nerve to want our hugs and comfort. Well, what I really want to tell them is, "THAT'S what you get!" For example:

• Vivian likes to jump down the stairs. Yes. Jump. I don't get it. She just barely learned to walk downstairs, and now she wants to jump? So, every time I see her jumping down the stairs, I tell her, "Please don't jump. Hold on to the railing to be safe." So, you'd think that by now, she would know not to jump. Right? This morning, I heard her jumping, and before I could remind her not to, she fell and smashed her little face into the gate at the bottom of the stairs. So, once I determined that there wasn't any blood or broken bones, I had to resist the tremendous urge to tell her, "Now, THAT'S what you GET for jumping down the stairs!"
• Like Patricia, I was the oldest sibling. I had two younger brothers. Every so often I would be a nice sister and let them play in my room with me. She does the same thing. Inevitably her siblings end up getting into her stuff, acting like morons, and refusing to get out when she asks them to. So, after she comes to me totally frustrated and ready to kill her younger siblings, I tell her the same thing that my mother told me, "Sometimes that's what you get for being nice. One day they will appreciate it."
• Trystan can't seem to get it through his thick head that he isn't supposed to rough-house with the dog, Weber. Weber is 70 pounds of bone and muscle. Mostly muscle. He is a big, slobbery boxer. And he loves to play. When he rough houses with Trystan, he likes to jump and grab with his mouth. That's how dogs play. I don't care if he plays that way with other dogs, but he is not allowed to play that way with people. Trystan can't seem to get that through his head. He loves to wrestle and grab at the dog. Weber is all too eager to wrestle and grab back. Can you guess where this story is going? Weber almost always gets carried away and grabs Trystan's sock and rips it. Or he'll grab at his shoes and bite them off. He can't always tell when Trystan is done playing. So, Trystan ends up getting frustrated, hurt, or mad. I never miss the opportunity to tell him, "THAT'S what you get for playing innapropriately with the dog."

I have many other instances like this. I guess it does make me sound like a 'Miss Know-it-all'. But, I do. Well, about most things that have to do with my kids. And if they would just listen to me in the first place, I could save them from unnecessary pain and frustration. They will thank me one day. Yeah, right. "THAT'S what I get."

Let the Games Begin!!

Mimi and Trystan had ball games this morning. Mimi did a great job! She scored the first and last points of the game. That girl is such an athlete. She ran like crazy. Talk about hustle! She was so excited to play today and it really showed.

Trystan plays baseball this season. He scored two runs this morning. He really enjoys baseball. He said the cool thing about his team is that they don't have a lot of players, so everyone on the team gets lots of chances to play. I have pictures of Trystan, but they won't load. Bummer. I'll keep trying.


Speaking of Trystan, remember my ranting a couple of posts ago? I mentioned that both he and Patricia had big projects due. Trystan's was a science fair project. The title was 'Human Weight Changes'. He wanted to know if people weigh differently in the morning versus at night. If you get a chance, ask him to tell you what he found out. Oh yeah, he won third place. This is the second year in a row that he placed third out of all of his grade. He's already planning on what he's going to do for next year so he can take first place. Another cool thing is that all of the winners from the fourth grade came from his class. Isn't that cool? He really has a great teacher.


Patricia's history project was AWESOME!!! Of course, I don't have a picture to show you. (I suck!) A group of people, I don't know if they were students or professors, from the Naval Academy came to her school to judge the proects. She got first place!!! She was so proud of her accomplishment.


I am so proud of my kids. What makes me feel good is that these ideas came from them. Mel and I just bought the materials. They really did all the work.

The Countdown

Everyone in my house is counting down the days until our Hawaii trip. The kids are all so excited about getting to spend a week with their friends. SLEEPING OVER!!!

Mimi and her 'sister', Isabel are the most excited. If we didn't have a general rule against sleepovers in my family, I know without a doubt that those two would have sleepovers every week. That's why I am so glad that Suzan agreed to let her stay while we are on vacation. But, she didn't only agree to take Mimi, she also is keeping Vivian. Isn't she great??

Trystan is spending the week with his other 'brother', Chase. I know they have already planned to stay up way too late playing video games. I am so thankful that Misty is letting Trystan stay with them. She is a great next door neighbor and friend.

And Patricia gets to go to Kylee's house! They have been friends since they were 2 years old. The cool thing about her going to Kylee's house is that she is missing a week from school to stay with Kylee. Well, I guess she's not really missing school since she's homeschooled. Brie has agreed to boss her around and make her do all her work just like I would. Truth be told, she'll probably do a better job than I normally do. She's so organized.

You know what's the weirdest thing about all of it? Each one of my friends who have taken on this task are doing it without husbands. All of their husbands are going to be out of town the whole time my kids are at their houses. Do I have great friends or what?

Oh yeah, and I'm counting down too. I think I've been mostly packed since Saturday night. I'm just a little excited. YA THINK?

When the husband's away...

...the kids eat junk food for dinner.

I mean, what's my motivation to cook? Ok, maybe healthy kids-but besides that? The great thing about cooking dinner when Mel is home is that he cleans up. Or at least his presence in the home motivates me to clean up. But when it's only the kids and I, there's no motivation to do much of anything least of all dishes. They don't care that the sink is piled high with dirty dishes and cups. I think they make a sport of seeing who can pile dishes the highest. What's that game...Topple?

What's more, they don't even eat what I cook. Patricia does because she likes lots of different foods, and she will even eat something that she doesn't like just to be nice. But the other three!?!? Forget it! In her cute little elf voice Vivian says,"I don't like this dinner mommy. It's not very good." Mimi whines,"Do I have to eat the broccoli? tortellini? chicken?" And Trystan just pushes his food around his plate and sneaks away from the table while I am busy yelling at Vivian for throwing her food to the dog.

So that's why I just feed them junk food for dinner. Because they'll eat it. And I can serve it on paper plates. And they don't need forks. And I don't have to wash pots and pans. I usually eat a giant salad and if I tell them that they can't have any, they they'll want some too. So at least they are getting something green.

I know it's taking the easy route, but it helps them not miss their dad while he's away. Mel's gone for the week, and we've planned at least two dinners out. Oh, and I have also planned to make cookies and cupcakes. We still have to eat breakfast, you know.