Sunday, May 09, 2010

Like Sands through the Hourglass

With today being Mother's Day, I thought it only apropos to give you a little peek into the life of a stay-at-home-mom. Or at least the life of THIS stay-at-home-mom. So, here you go. Let me take you on a tour of just what it is that I do all day long every day...

Monday
  • It's allergy season! And since the supermuppet's asthma tends to be allergy-induced, we started off the morning with a breathing treatment made possible thanks to my finally picking up her prescription last Saturday morning after WEEKS of being out of albuterol. She had been kind of wheezy for a week or so but it wasn't until last Sunday night that she started up with a pretty persistent cough that was still there in the morning.
  • With Jane's morning nap over we headed over to the library where I had to limit the number of books the girls checked out to 10 apiece to make it easier on me to keep track of. The outing was so successful and the girls so abnormally well-behaved while looking for books that I rewarded them by checking out a new stack of DVDs to keep them entertained for the week. In retrospect they probably watch too much television. Don't judge.
  • In the 20 or so minutes it took to drive home from the library, get lunch eaten, drop Grace off at preschool, and get back home, Sophie's cough went from bad to worse. In a literally non-stop coughing spurt that was not really abated with another breathing treatment, I gave the doctor's office a call to see what they suggested. Hearing Sophie's freaking out, coughing, and wheezing in the background the nurse told me I should probably get her to the emergency room.

  • In short -- we spent the whole afternoon at the hospital where she got 2 more breathing treatments and a steroid dose; Jane missed her nap and struggled to get out of my arms to crawl around on the floor almost the whole time we were there; Scott left work early to pick up the kids from school for me; and finally we traded off kids so that I could get home and get dinner going while he stayed with Sophie until she was able to come home.
  • Dinner never really happened because upon leaving the hospital I realized that we were below empty on the gas tank and I would have to fill up before going home. The slight detour took long enough that by the time I got home and realized I still needed to feed the baby, too, it was just easier to declare Monday cereal night much to Ethan's dismay.
  • Scott got home, the kids got put in bed, and then I got to go and get my hair did. Hahaha. Seriously, though, I was very happy that Sophie's issues were under control in time for me to make it to my hair appointment. I was even happier after it was all over that for the first time probably EVER I am 100% happy with my hair -- 100% happy with the color, 100% happy with the cut (which I am still growing out, thank you Tami and Emily for your input :), and I am 100% happy that my hair works both curly and straight.
Tuesday
  • Sophie's coughing is much better although still slightly present along with a little bit of wheezing, so the nebulizing must continue.
  • I dropped the girls off at the sitter in the morning so that I could get to my chiropractor appointment across town. (Easily the most relaxing and enjoyable 30 minutes of my week! Not to mention my back has been feeling AWESOME since I started going a couple of weeks ago.)
  • I managed to make it to the YMCA in the afternoon where the doctor gave the go-ahead for me to ease back into running this week. Of course, the irony was that although my back is feeling better, my foot and shins started hurting after just a few minutes of running. I guess I'll just need to ease a little bit more slowly.
  • After school Ethan informed me that his "simple costume" for his class play is due next Wednesday for their dress rehearsal. A melt-down then ensued when I told him I had no idea what he was talking about after he insisted that he gave me the paper with the information on it. I'm sure another fit will occur when my definition of a simple costume does not meet his definition of a simple costume.
  • His melt-down was temporarily halted when I agreed to a science experiment that Ethan has been begging to do for the last few days. I think they are doing something like this at school, but I don't think he has all the facts quite straight. According to Ethan putting an egg in vinegar for a week will turn it into a bouncy ball. Or hatch into a chicken. He's not quite sure. Hahahaha. I humored him and even stretched the experiment to include not just one type of vinegar, but three -- balsamic, white, and rice. I'll let you know what happens. Hahaha.


  • Tuesday is Scout Night and Scott got home from work with barely enough time to eat dinner much less help me get the kids down, so that festivity was left to me.
  • Sophie is continuing to have MAJOR bedtime/sleeping issues, and is awake till almost 11 o'clock almost every night regardless of how tired she is or whether or not she took a nap that day. This has put her in a permanently grumpy mood.
Wednesday
  • Janie Boo started sporting a bit of a cold and decided to start waking up in the night again. She was up at 11:30 the night before, and then again at 4 AM and 6 AM for good. Not fun.
  • Hit up the YMCA after school and still managed to whip up dinner when we got home. Not too shabby.
  • Once the kiddies were in bed I decided that mopping the floor was WAY past due. I debated doing a before and after shot but decided against it because even I was embarrassed with how filthy it was. Even with the steam mop it took over an hour and I went through 3 different mopping pads.
Thursday
  • Went to the Y in the morning.
  • After dropping Grace off at school, I made Sophie take a nap because she was in such a terrible mood. Of course, she was still in a terrible mood when I woke her up to go pick up the kids so that kind of back-fired. She threw such a fit about coming down the stairs and eating a snack before we left that we were a good 10 minutes late picking up the kids which was more than a bit frustrating -- especially knowing that we only had so much time to get ready before it was time to take Grace to ballet.
  • Both Grace and Ethan came home with Mother's Day creations. Grace looked so cute standing there holding her present when I went to pick her up outside her classroom. She was so excited and proud of her creation that it just made my heart melt. Ethan was so funny, too, when he was explaining what I could do with his present -- along with a little letter about all he's thankful for with regards to me, he also had a little paper teacup that contained a real tea packet that the teacher gave to each of the kids. The way he described it -- I think he said something along the lines of "you put it in a cup and add some hot water and then it's a delicious thing for you to enjoy" -- made me laugh so hard and I felt so bad when I had to inform him that we don't drink tea but thank you so much anyway.

Grace's present -- a flower to plant in our garden.

  • We got home, ate snacks, got Grace changed, dropped Grace off at ballet, picked up her ballet teacher's 2 boys, and then went to the park where we enjoyed a beautiful afternoon outing while waiting for the lesson to be over.
  • Sophie once again stayed up until almost 11.
Friday
  • Another early morning for me as I was awoken at about 5 to the sound of Sophie's whimpering voice that she needed to go potty. In my blind and sleepy early morning stupor I stumbled into my bathroom past some shadows on the ground by the door which I thought was Sophie, and called for her to hurry up and get in there so I could help her. After a couple more seconds of me calling for her and wondering what the hold up was, I heard this pitiful, muffled little voice saying "open the door!" Apparently Scott had shut our bedroom door when he came up to bed the night before, and Sophie was stuck outside and not IN the bedroom like I thought. Hahahaha. One of these days I'm really going to get Lasik's.
  • Thankfully Sophie went right back to sleep after that, but unfortunately for me, the Sugar Pop was up for good a little after 6.
  • Ethan was also up bright and early to prep for his field trip that day. After checking the weather for him 500 times, I finally convinced him that it wasn't supposed to rain and he was able to dress appropriately. After packing his lunch all by himself -- with everything being "disposable" so that they could just chuck it at the farm -- he was almost ready to go. With it being the end of Teacher Appreciation Week, he had taken it upon himself to write his teacher a letter and I let him take a rose from our backyard to go along with it.


  • After much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from SOPHIE, the girls managed to get their room cleaned so that they'd be able to go to the barbecue that night and have their dates the next day.
  • After another chiropractor appointment, I jetted over to the Target across the street to pick up some popsicles for the dessert I said we'd bring to the barbecue. Seeing as to how the temperature was 86 degrees that day I figured it was a pretty good choice!
  • Some friends from BYU's MBA program invited us and a few other BYU P&G families over to a park near their house for a little BBQ and get together. There were 15 kids between the 4 families and my children were in HEAVEN. Hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, popsicles for dessert, plenty of friends to play with, and PERFECT warm and breezy weather -- what more can you ask for? A fun time was had by all, and the only downfall was that we didn't get home until 9:30 and even though Sophie was tired -- you guessed it, she still wouldn't fall asleep till after 11!
Saturday
  • Saturday was JAM-PACKED. Here we go. I went to the dentist to get a couple of crowns put on. And since this situation involves me and my teeth, OF COURSE nothing goes right. In what should have only taken 20 or 30 minutes, I ended up being there for an hour and in the end only got permanent crown attached because the other crown had some of the porcelain chip off in the process of seating it, so the temporary one went back on, and I get to go back next week for the new permanent one to be put on. Yippee!
  • I managed to make it to my Weight Watchers meeting (although I was a little bit late thanks to the dentist) and I even lost some weight despite my barbecuing it up the night before. Go me.
  • I convinced Scott that the best Mother's Day present he could give me would be to go with me to the Y and keep me company while I got my work out on. He gamely obliged and after checking the kiddies in to the child care, he accompanied me to the gym and jumped on the elliptical machine next to me and helped to make the 30 minutes go by MUCH faster than if I would have been there alone.
  • After starting to eat a bagel for lunch I discovered that my temporary crown was loose. Me and my teeth, I tell ya. I called the dentist, jetted back over, and after several attempts to re-cement it, the assistant decided it would be better to just make a new one. Yep.
  • The afternoon was taken up mostly by Ethan throwing a fit that we told him he couldn't go play Putt-Putt for his date. Apparently he couldn't think of anything else to do and nothing we suggested would suffice.







Sophie likes to throw fits, too.


And yes. This is what she picked out to wear. And what she wore out in public. And in case you're wondering that is not a dress but a shirt.

  • Grace wanted ice cream from the Dairy Corner for her date, and even though the temperature had dropped 30 degrees overnight, Scott still obliged and took her out in her coat and hat (along with stowaway Sophie) and they ate their ice cream and slushies on the tables outside the joint in 5o degree weather. Hahahaha. He should have brought the camera.




  • Ethan was finally appeased by a "date" with me making the pizza for dinner. What a kid. After dinner was over it was early bedtime for Saturday night, and I was out the door on my way to the mall to find something to wear to church for Mother's Day that would fit me. I was successful.
And Sunday
  • Here we are at the end of the week. I'm pretty sure I've earned my tiara this week, what do you think? Hahaha. And even though the baby woke up at 7, Scott brought her to me to feed, and then took all the kids downstairs and I was able to go back to sleep. Now THAT'S a Mother's Day gift! I literally didn't step out of bed until 9 and it was sublime. :)
  • The kids brought me breakfast in bed (my All-Bran cereal, in case you're wondering), and Grace handed me a little junk she had made into an ornament. After eating I took my time and spent a leisurely morning showering and getting ready for church.

Grace's present. (Side-note -- when the kids came in I asked Ethan how my hair looked, and without missing a beat he said "perfect.")


And here I am all cleaned up.

  • I wish I could say that the kids behaved perfectly in church as part of their Mother's Day gift for me, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, here. They are just kids. Rather spirited kids. With poor volume control. Especially Sophie. Hahaha. Oh well, overall it was a lovely day and FATHOMS above last year's disaster.

Grace's Mother's Day gift she made in her primary class. Adorable right? Hahahaha.
  • And for the record, Sophie was so over-tired tonight at bedtime that she fell asleep before 7 o'clock. Of course, I was sitting right on her bed with a bottle of sassy spray next to me, but hey -- desperate times call for desperate measures...
So, there you have it. Are you tired? I sure am. Hahahaha. I hope all the mothers out there get their due respect and recognition today, and to my own mama -- well, I love you and think you're the best! Being a mom is hard but oh-so-worth-it. When I look at their cute little sleeping selves every night before I go to bed I think I'm just about the luckiest person alive.


(Oh how I love this little face)

The End.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Sponk!

This is going to be a random stream of conscious post here. It's been too long since I've blogged and even though it's getting late, I'm self-imposing a deadline for getting something posted TONIGHT. Come along for the ride as I unload my brain with a month's worth of information, anecdotes, and observations.

The past couple of weeks have been consumed mainly with "spring cleaning" and "trying to get the house organized." The impetus for such was manifold. First off, the house needs it. Secondly, there is a chance that we might be moving next month and I thought a purging before packing was in order. And finally the inspiration was given a kick in the pants when I attended a Stake Relief Society Women's Conference a few Saturday's ago and the last class I hit up was entitled "Organize to Your Heart's Content." For those of you who know me, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that I am not an overly organized or on-top-of-it kind of person and that I am also a bit of an extremist. The result? I get on a big kick of getting things organized and trying to create "routines" and "schedules" and "staying on top of things" until things begin to slide and then it all falls to pieces. It's pretty much all or nothing.

The most lasting piece of advice that I took away from this organization class was that everything you own needs a home. If it doesn't have a home it will always be dragging somewhere in the way and true order can never be achieved. Or something along those lines. This really made sense to me and like I said -- I came away motivated and inspired to try and get my house in order. MANY, many, MANY bins and baskets have been bought to give all of the things we own a home of their own. And even though the house STILL doesn't feel 100% done, we are slowly but surely making progress. So far several giant garbage bags have been filled with stuff that I have promised the kids we'll have a yard sale for, and several more bags have been filled with trash to throw away. I must say -- purging has never felt so good.

The contents of my closet strewn about our room -- the lady teaching the class was very right when she said that it will look worse before it will look better.




The kids are (as always) on another level. Sophie and Ethan are my twin freak-out children lately. They literally freak-out about everything all day long. Or at least it seems that way. Sophie's meltdowns tend to occur periodically through-out the day whereas Ethan's have been hitting with ferocity right around dinner time each night. And they're usually provoked by chores. He has an over-ripe sense of justice and apparently everything in his young life is just unfair. I'm trying to work with both of them on coping mechanisms for life, but so far I would say it's not working. Grace has been surprisingly helpful and grown-up lately (which I have probably just jinxed by typing it out) and Jane is my heart's blood. Hahahaha.

On a more light-hearted note, we've checked out a number of movies from the library lately that have been major hits with the kids. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the old school version) was Ethan's favorite and he was excited to find out that it is actually based on a book. We have since checked THAT out and he's actually about half way through it. Or so he says. Technically he's been reading it by himself each night at bedtime, but I KNOW there is no way he can read every single word without help. He must be getting the gist of the story though because he's been able to tell me all about what he's read so far.

The girls' favorite movie HANDS DOWN was Pippi Longstocking. Please tell me that you have seen this flick. It was made in like 1963 in Sweden or maybe Germany and the actor's voices are dubbed in English and it is fantastical. I actually remember watching it when I was a little girl and loving it and being Pippi for Halloween one year as a result. To say it struck a chord with Grace would be an understatement. Both girls were completely and utterly mesmerized by it. Riveted even. I can't even tell you how many times they watched it over the course of the week, but I was glad when it was finally time to bring it back -- although I do have to say that the funniest thing they've aped from the movie is the word "SPONK!" It's basically a nonsensical word that Pippi makes up and which Sophie has now taken to randomly yelling out at all times and in all places. Just kidding -- it's not quite that often, but it is hilarious nonetheless (Also hilarious? Sophie's declaration after watching one episode of a season 1 "Full House" that Uncle Jesse is "awesome." Should I be concerned that her taste in men will run towards the black-leather-wearing-biker-poser-wannabe types? Hahahaha. Hahaha.)

Grace was also excited to learn that Pippi was a book first, and we've checked that one out as well now. The other two movies that the kids liked were The Secret Garden and A Little Princess (the newer version -- not the Shirley Temple one).

The kids have all embraced our Spring Cleaning with various levels of enthusiasm. Ethan has probably jumped on board the most and took it upon himself to "organize" his room yesterday -- right down to putting labels on all of his bins (or "beens" as he spelled it. Hahaha. I had to get a closeup of his "miscellaneous bin" because the spelling was so hilarious.) Grace and Sophie have been helpful in fits and starts, and the video snippet I've captured below manages to catch them all working together at the same time on cleaning up the basement so that we could organize all the toys. Ethan took it upon himself to bring his radio down and with the music blaring they got to work. I have no idea what station it was on, but it went from playing Van Halen straight to Beyonce. And the funny part? Thanks to my siblings, they totally knew what song it was -- as soon as it started Ethan started screaming "It's all the single ladies!" and the three began jumping up and down and cleaning in earnest as they sang along (make sure you get a glimpse of Grace's tail as she's bouncing around).






Ethan's bins.


"miscellaneous bin"



Ethan even organized his closet into church shirts, polo shirts, long-sleeve shirts and T-shirts.



In other news Grace had her first field trip this past week to a farm. Let's just say it was right up her alley. I have no idea where she gets her love of animals, but it's not from me. Her favorite part was feeding a bottle to a baby goat, and they got to see all other kinds of animals, too. When I picked her up at school it seemed as if every other preschooler in her class had a parent come along with them. When I asked Grace if she wished I could have come, too, her response broke my heart for just a split second when she answered with a quick "No." However, my heart was quickly mended and then melted when I asked her why and her response was "because it would be too difficult with the baby." How cute is that? Out of all the kids I get the sense that she "gets it" the most as far as all it entails to be a mother to all these young children. Not that she's a perfect, model child -- because let's face it there is plenty of evidence against that -- but I think she notices more than the others all that is involved in taking care of a baby.


Getting off the bus.



This weekend resulted in the butchering of everyone's hair except for Grace's. I guess I was just on a roll! It started with Jane's (what was I thinking???) and ended with Ethan's today. Technically, I guess Scott's hair was spared and he looks quite presentable. All the others, however... Well, let's just say that I like to think the difference between a bad haircut and a better one is about a week. Grace was the lucky one who I actually took to Great Clips a couple of Saturdays ago to clean up the scraggly mess of her hair. With Jane I was just trying to even up some of the stray dark hairs that hadn't fallen out with the rest of her baby hair and even though she is still adorable and precious beyond belief to me -- she just doesn't look like JANE now that her signature dark hair is all gone. :( Sophie has been begging to get her hair cut ever since Grace had hers done, and Ethan has been adding the need for a haircut to his long list of other tragedies during his nightly meltdowns over the last couple of days. And while his isn't really all that bad, I feel like I kind of cut the front "bangs" area of his hair a bit too short. Unfortunately, I have no visuals of Ethan's or Scott's hair for you and I'm sure you're all devastated, but I'll let you be the judge of the girls.

{Mini-tangent: Before we leave the subject of haircuts, here is your chance to weigh-in -- I'm getting my hair done tomorrow night and I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with the cut. Should I keep trying to grow it out [think my college-era 'do] or should I just cut it shorter again in keeping with my more recent style of "mom haircut" proportions?}



Before
(please notice the heart buttons she made me sew onto this T-shirt -- she brought a bunch home from preschool one day and wanted me to sew them onto all her shirts.)


After --
it actually looks much cuter and more groomed than this in person (although we still have the continual problem of her hair being almost always in her face.)



Before


After --
it really just looks butchered.


Just tonight --
it looked slightly better today after I used the curling iron on it for church.


Before


After --
she just looks so different to me!






Also happening this weekend? Our 8th Anniversary -- we are a true success story! And even though we both felt like we were super lame for having no big plans for the celebration, we nonetheless enjoyed our dinner out at The Cheesecake Factory sans children.



Well, I guess we're wrapping things up now. This next month will probably be a bit of a whirlwind. If we do end up moving it will be a quick turn-around. The position Scott applied for with the company would have a start date of June 16th and we won't find out if he's gotten it or not until May 12th. I guess it's a good thing that I sub-consciously thrive on chaos. Hahahaha.

Before I close here's a quick video of my precious little lamb who is now 8 months old! Her gift to me? She started saying "mama." Of course I recognize she's just vocalizing strings of sounds. BUT, I really think she just might be making the connection that "mama" means ME!





And finally here's a funny picture from Ethan. Last Sunday I was reading a message called "Feed my Sheep" to the kids from the Friend magazine. I told the kids to draw a picture as I was reading to represent what the message was about. Here was Ethan's representation.


The funniest thing about it was that he first drew a literal sheep (and then scratched it out) but still didn't quite catch the drift of the figurative meaning of feeding the Savior's sheep -- even though I tried my best to explain as I was reading what the scripture meant. Here is a close-up so you can see what I mean.


[person on the left: "I'm hungry"
person on the right: "Here's some pears"]



Hahahahaha. Until next time, folks.