School's Out For Summer!!!

Today I was dabbling on facebook and ran across the link that will show you friend suggestions for all of the people you went to high school with. (Go KHS!) Me, being the big dork, clicks on the link. And then I realize that I can't even remember 95% of the people that I graduated with. I was just that cool. You know, in the band and swim team.

I do remember one rather important person from high school though - my hubby!

I was honestly shocked about how few people I could remember. We had a close knit group of friends that we still stay in touch with, for the most part. That part is because I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people, even when I try really, really hard. That's a post for another day though.

Even today I'm not the best at getting to know people. I'm better at it, for sure. Mostly because I have to be for work. I can find something to talk about with most anyone - an upside to having too many hobbies! Maybe I was just really bad at making friends, or too shy as a kid, or too judgy. Who knows. Instead, I think I should take a glass is half full perspective. I mean, I have some really, really good friends out of the deal and a cute family.

So screw em! Who needs high school???

The Case of the Missing Lunches

This morning I woke up to a quiet house. In my world, that's a rarity, a luxury, and most days, not the typical scenario.

The hubby had already left for work, which didn't actually leave the house quiet while he was getting ready, but after he left, there were a couple moments of peace. He was off on his bike (yay - one more success for you environmentalists out there!).

Matthew was hanging out playing Wii, which is near our room, but we've trained him to turn the sound OFF!, not down, but OFF!.

Lily and Garrett were asleep (so cute!) together in Lily's room with both dogs.

I couldn't believe it when everyone got up, dressed and we were out of the house on time!!! It was a glorious morning so far.

Things then went downhill from there.

Case 1: I tried to walk out of daycare, with Garrett in my arms. Hello!!! He's supposed to stay there all day. The daycare provider was a bit confused. I was too, for a couple of seconds until I realized what I was doing.

Case 2: We made it (without incident, I must add) to the Corbin Art Center - more about their fantasticness later - with the big kids, and, we were early. Woot! Then, we go to get out of the car.

Me: "Kids, hop out of the car & grab your lunches."

Kids: blank stare. Translated to: We forgot our lunches.

So, the debate.

Do I drive home to get their lunches? That would mean that I would be at least an hour late to work. Nevermind the fact that I'd have to drive a good 17ish miles out of my way in each direction. Read: more gas, bad for the environment. (Yeah, we think that way, we're nerds.)

Or, do I just get them food in town and take it to them during their lunch?

I opted for the latter, because I didn't want to spend my morning in the car. So, the hubby and I got to be heroes by bringing the kids McDonald's food at their daycamp. Point for the Rents!!

Now, here's my concern with this. Will the kids decide that it would be better to "forget" their lunch so they can have restaurant food for lunch instead? Hopefully this doesn't become a trend. Although I did get a soda out of the deal. Not too shabby, I suppose.

Step Away From the Phone...

It has come to my attention in recent days that I may be officially addicted to my iPhone. Now, I don't want to concern anyone, but I am currently going through withdrawal.

My phone broke. Not like the screen broke and I can't see the whole thing, but actual broken. Like won't turn on or connect with my computer anymore. So why do I care? I do have a temporary replacement (which is a good thing, by the way).

I care because the severity of my said addiction is coming to light. I have to haul out my laptop to check google reader & facebook. Who knew this was SOOO much work? I don't have access to my bookmarks (oh, glorious bookmarks, what will I do without you??? - these cannot be restored because I didn't sync them with iTunes. Crap.). I have to actually find things to occupy my time that do not involve learning new ways to cook or hearing about other people's kids (nevermind that I've never met the majority of these people - it's real, man!). I can't get my contacts to text or call people that I don't have their numbers memorized. Mostly because I'm too lazy to sync the new fake phone with iTunes because it's not worth the effort since I'll just have to do it again in a few days.

So, I've managed to send my phone off for repairs. Hopefully they'll just send me a new one and I'll have it by the weekend (or Friday, my birthday!!!Yay!). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I've managed to fold 8 loads of laundry, clean our living room and kitchen and make a batch of cupcakes (complete with frosting!). And, I do have some actual, interesting posts to put up. And it may actually happen since I can't spend every waking minute on my phone.

Here's to a productive week, but seriously, a girl needs some down time too!!!

The First Sewing Project...

Our daughter Lily decided today that she wanted to sew. Not just a beanbag, or something small, but an outfit for her doll. She has an American Girl doll that she desperately wants to sew clothing for, but I haven't had a chance to get to the fabric store to purchase a pattern. So today we embarked on a real sewing project. A jacket. For her.

She was really excited, until I started copying the pattern onto pattern paper. She kept asking why we had to do that part. I explained to her that the pattern went up to size 14, so we could reuse the pattern. While this kept her entertained for a while, she was interested until we turned on the lastest episode of Phineas and Ferb that she hadn't seen.

So now, she's sitting on the couch watching TV while the fabric is in the washer. Good thing I forgot to wash it!

I'll be sure to include future posts of her progress. :)

Half Marathon Sort Of Update

So, a while ago I posted that I was training for a half marathon. Well, while that's still technically true, it's not actually happening so much in real life. So, I'm posting again for motivation (and to stop talking about it in real life. I know, it's completely self-serving. I'm sure it won't be a problem for the one person that reads this blog.

The reason for the training delay, besides lack of time, is mostly due to the fact that at the beginning of October, I was having breathing issues. I thought it was a cold so I took some time off. Then I went back to running, pretty hard for two weeks. I couldn't even run 2 miles at the beginning of the two weeks, and by the end I couldn't even make it a mile. So I took another 2 weeks off (lucky timing). Then, I tried running again one afternoon and couldn't get 4 blocks down the road before I was gasping for air and seeing shooting stars, so I decided it was time to call a doctor.

Finally I went to the esteemed doctor and he said that I have exercise induced asthma. Yay! The relief is that I have medicine and can take it to run again. The bad news is that I've had a cold since November 19th and I can hardly walk up a flight of stairs without having a coughing fit. Argh! So, since I'm finally feeling well enough to type a post, I hope I'm better soon enough to start running again. Maybe Friday (although we might go skiing this weekend, who knows...).

I've decided that I'm going to take it easy through December and start up again in January with the half marathon training. I feel like I'm a bit behind, because "everyone else is doing it", but I think it will be good to take it easy for a while then hit it hard. Hopefully December will give me time to get back up to where I was before the asthma incident. We'll see, I'll keep you posted!

Dinner Win!

Last night I made the yummiest side dish for dinner. It was so yummy that all of the kids loved it! I was shocked because OMG it is actually good for you! I am going to call it Bulghur, Garbanzo and Orange Salad.

Here's the recipe(My husband :

Bulghur, Garbanzo, Orange Salad

2 cans garbanzo beans (14 oz)
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 cups dried bulghur
2 lemons
1 can mandarin oranges

So, you drain the garbanzo beans and put them into a pan on medium heat. Stir them around for a bit and add the cumin and red pepper. Once the garbanzo beans start to look dry, add 4 cups water. Turn the heat up to high. Once the water is boiling, add the bulghur. This will need to cook for about 15 minutes, or until the bulghur is tender, but not overdone (i.e. mushy). When the water starts to be absorbed, turn the heat down to medium. Stir this a lot!

In a separate bowl, drain the juice from the mandarin oranges and add the juice from the two lemons (if you're feeling like it, also zest the lemons, but I was too lazy). Then add salt & pepper to taste. You'll probably need quite a bit since the bulghur seems to suck up the flavor.

Once the bulghur is almost done, add the lemon juice mixture. Let it cook for a bit longer until the juice is absorbed. Pull off the heat, add the mandarin oranges and serve!

Yum!

Knitting. Yes, Really.

So internet, I know you thought I was kidding about knitting. But, I was not! See! I'm making some socks for my dad for Christmas and 1) they are actually turning out like they should and 2) they're not making me want to scratch my eyes out. Well, that's not entirely true. Since it was a new pattern and a new method of knitting socks (for me at least), I was almost driven insane by the cast on and beginning of the magic loop method. But, alas, I am (daresay) a pro now! I cruise right along knitting those things, and it's fun, not like the evil double point socks where the little dinky 6 inch toothpicks go flying every two seconds. No, the needles stay put and don't make me want to scream!

This is a picture of the socks. See, I'm really far along. Ha! This is like 5 hours of knitting. Kind of sad huh? I think I need to pick up the pace, or maybe learn to pick, instead of throw. (Knitters, you know what I mean).

I also realized today that it might really be time to clean the old house, since I could hardly find a clean place to take this picture. So, I guess that will be my weekend project.

I have a couple other projects in the works, but one is from "Santa", so I hesitate to post it here. See, I really am an elf! The other one, I cannot find my size 13 needles so I cannot actually start it.

Also, this weekend, Lily and I are going to work on her Halloween costume. She is a medieval princess. Of course, her dress is going to be bright teal and pink satin, which of course they had in the middle ages. But, it will be cute. She's going to help me so she can earn part of a patch for girl scouts. Really, I'm just going to see how much of it she will do herself so I can do nothing. Or fold laundry, which in my world is practically nothing.

So Internet, have a great night!

Half Marathon, say what???

So, I never thought I would be a runner. There's all of this huffing and puffing, and going in circles, or going nowhere on the treadmill. But this winter, I took up cross country skiing. This is a miracle in itself, but that's for another post. Anyway, as the season was winding down, and when I could no longer xc ski around the neighborhood, I decided running was the best way to wear our puppy out.

It worked great. I would take her for a run, she would pass out, life was good. Then, I started to like running. Not just tolerate, but really, really like to run. So, after reading a few too many Runner's World magazines while driving on our trip to Orcas Island in May, I decided I could run a half marathon.

Since then I've been running in fits & spurts, but now, I've decided, I am serious. There's a friend at work that is also training to run a half marathon, and I decided if she could do it, I can do it. Now, she's super thin, can run forever on the treadmill,you know, all things that would make a great candidate to run a half marathon. Me, on the other hand. I can run 2.25 miles, and I'm excited about it. I run it in an 11:30 minute mile. Speedy, huh? But, I've decided I can do it.

So, I made a training plan. I found a couple online, but I'm completely paranoid about injuring myself, so I decided they were too ambitious. So, I am going to increase my mileage by 10% each week for the next 20 weeks. By then, I should be able to run 13.8 miles at a stretch, and it will be a fabulous Christmas present. Gift to me? A 13.1 mile run on Christmas Day, assuming the roads are clear, of course. How far is that? Well, it's further than driving to my office, by more than a full mile.

I can do it, it's just 10.85 miles away...

What I should be doing

I have a list of things to do, a long list I might add. In fact, I've gone completely off the deep end and have decided to knit gifts for a LOT of people this Christmas. I know, it's only July, but knitting takes a long time! There's the laundry, the dishes, picking up dog poop (everyone's favorite, I'm sure), feeding my children, the list goes on and on and on and on and on, you get the idea.

Instead, I have been perusing the internet for the last hour. An hour! Of sitting and doing nothing but staring at a computer screen. At first I was outside, but then G wanted to watch Iron Giant (be proud, we've graduated from Car Guy). Sitting and checking my internet, blogging, which as you can see, I apparently don't have too much time for.

So, I am going to commit. I will do the things on my to do list, and blog about them. I will tend the garden - where the plants are being dwarfed by the weeds that I CANNOT pay my son to pull. And believe me, I've tried. There is knitting, and sewing, and cooking. I will blog and take pictures and everything. You will all be so proud. So, keep checking in, it will get more interesting I'm sure.

Of course, there are always stories about my children...

Spoiled Milk

So, the past couple of days have been interesting. It stared when my husband S, had breakfast yesterday morning. It started out just like every other day with s and is convinced hredded wheat and milk. Well, then everything went sour. Ha! So, the milk was spoiled, and yet he ate it anyway. And now he's sick. Now, he did notice that it tasted funny, but he thought it was the shredded wheat, or something.

So, then my son, M had some cereal, and milk. Yay.

Then, S starts to get a tummy ache and blames it on the milk. I just assumed that he was joking around. Well, it turns out that he wasn't. He whined and whined and went to be early. I went running with L and Queue.

I awoke this morning to a son that was puking away in the loo. Ewww! So, I cleaned him up and put him back to bed. Then, he was puking some more. More yay... Well, h started feeling better, but he still hasn't eaten a real meal yet.

Didn't I say the other day that there's never a dull moment at our house? Case in point...

Longing for a Dull Moment

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a dull moment. I was talking with our nanny yesterday, and jokingly said that we never have a dull moment around here. She agreed - every day is something new.

The lastest not dull moments involve lice. Yes, you read correctly, lice. Creepy, crawly, egg laying, multiplying, disgusting little lice.

M had lice a couple of years ago. We bought him a new snowboarding helmet, and we're pretty sure the little buggers were hiding in there. Anyhow, they were everywhere, it involved a lot of combing. I thought that it was terrible, because his hair was pretty long (for a boy, you know).

Well, it's gotten even more exciting... In addition to M's new case of lice, L now has lice. Her hair is thick, and down to the middle of her back - almost to her waist. AAAAHHHHH! The washing, and combing, and using tweezers to get little teeny tiny nits that will not come off with the comb. Speaking of combs, who designs these things? The ones that come with the treatment are terrible, so when M had lice, I bought a different set, which works better, but still doesn't get the teeny tiny nits. So I use tweezers instead. It's quite laborious. Quality time with the kids though, right???

So, today I stayed home from work to wash and comb my children's hair and do lice laundry. I am now excellent at both. Great skills. :-) Hopefully you never, ever have to deal with lice. It is terrible!

Car Guy

Car Guy, who is Car Guy, you ask??? Lightning McQueen - according to Disney. To G, it's just Car Guy. He is the bain of my existence. While I love Disney, and I do love the movie Cars, I cannot take it anymore. G has figured out that watching Cars is the best thing EVER, and we watch it everytime we watch TV. When someone wants to watch something else, G screams, and throws a fit and bellows "No!!! Car!!! Guy!!!".

It's been an obsession since the middle of May, and at first it was a great distraction. I could, for example, take a shower and dry my hair and put on makeup - UNINTERRUPTED!!! Or, I could cook dinner, without holding a toddler. What bliss! But now, the little one has become more demanding. I must sit next to him and WATCH Car Guy. I can, for short durations, sneak off to do something else, like go to the bathroom, or get a binky, or get Master G a snack. But, he comes to find me if I take too long and states simply "Mom, Car Guy." Okay, I say, and we wander downstairs to watch Car Guy. If I try to sing along to the songs, he puts his hand on my mouth and shushes me. So I tried lip syncing to see what he would do, and that was also unacceptable. We may need to work a bit on a certain someone getting his way.

So, G now has Car Guy underpants (newly purchased as incentive to actually use the toilet), Car Guy cups, and Car Guy pull ups. But, he also has Toy Story pull ups. Now, some nights I can put those on him, as long as he doesn't notice. But, if he does notice, he demands we switch to Car Guy. And the sucker that I am, I make the switch.

This weekend, we were able to venture out of the box and watch - you won't believe it - The Incredibles. (We are a family of Disney freaks, I tell you.) He actually watched about half of it before demanding to watch Car Guy. And now, we are watching Toy Story, but only because he knows those are the guys on his pull ups, and he finally conceded. We're 20 minutes in, and no mention of Car Guy yet...

Dogs, Dogs...

The last few days have been crazy. I'm not sure why, but crazy... After the painting was done, we (and by we, I mean S), worked on the closet in our bedroom. He did lots of demo, but then my sister (A) and her friend (K), came into town. I convinced Scott to go boating instead of working on the house. Now, considering that we've been working on our basement remodel, I'm not sure that redirecting a motivated husband was the best idea, but boating was super fun. We managed to flip a three person tube over multiple times. My leg still hurts from hitting the water. Sadly, there is no bruise as proof that it actually hurts, but it does.

Monday and Tuesday were relatively uneventful, but Scott did work on the closet. Progress... We had lights in the closet and the sconces up on our bedroom walls by Tuesday night. Woo hoo!

Then, Wednesday, I was a little overzealous. My horseback riding instructor's birthday was on Tuesday, and since our regularly scheduled lesson is Wednesday, I made cupcakes. I might, have a teeny, tiny obsession with cupcakes. They are the most adorable, perfect packages of cake and FROSTING (this is the entire reason I eat cupcakes) that they are just the right thing for a celebration. They were Snickerdoodle Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's website. And, they were delicious. Little bites of bliss, I say!!! (Here's a link to the recipe, hopefully I'm allowed to do that and not violate too many copyrights: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/snickerdoodle-cupcakes?lnc=98d20356c0041210VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&backto=true&backtourl=/our-best-cupcakes?lnc=98d20356c0041210VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=slideshow_food_our-best-cupcakes&contentid=ff6442b4fa881210VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD#slide_7 ).

The cupcakes were a hit, and my family was excited because they actually got some. Usually I make yummy snacks and cart them off to work, much to the dismay of my daughter. And, I found out that G (our two year old), can say cupcake. It sounds like "stuck", but it is cupcake, and be damned if you tell him that he can't have one. The screaming ensues and there is stomping and hitting. It's not pretty... Sadly, I failed to take a picture of the cupcakes, along with Ed, the horse I ride. I haven't quite figured out the picture taking part of blogging yet.

Thursday I took our puppy, Queue out for a run. We went two miles, which I figured would just get her more excited, but she was tired afterwards. It was great! Usually after a 4 mile bike ride, she takes a 20 minute nap and is ready to go again. But on Thurs, she just came home and passed out on the couch. Yay!!!

Tonight, we had a puppy play date with a friend at work. She is watching another co-worker's dog while she is on vacation and the puppy seems to have developed a taste for books, asthma medicine (I think just getting into the package of meds, not actually ingesting any), and pretty much everything else that he's not supposed to. So, we got the puppies together in hopes that it would wear Jake out. I'll get the full report on Monday, but here's hoping. Oh - and Queue only escaped once from the office property (there was an employee still in the office that didn't realize the dogs were out there and opened the gate). It gave me quite a scare.

So here's hoping this weekend is relaxing, although I have quite a list of activities planned - repainting a mirror, cleaning house, finishing all of the weeding in the flowerbeds, grocery shopping... This is not sounding like the most relaxing of weekends. Maybe the next one...

Painting

Yay! The painting is done!!!

Since we had a long weekend due to the 4th of July holiday, I convinced Scott we should repaint the main living area of the upstairs of our house. Boy was it a job. The main area consists of the living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway. Also, I thought we should paint the stairway that leads to the basement. Well, that part didn't get done (all of the way, it is primed...). But, the great news is that we got everything else done. Woohoo!!!

We got the paint a year ago, yes, you read correctly - a YEAR ago! There was a guy at work that knew a friend that was opening a paint shop. For an entire weekend, he could give away as much paint as he could mix. The good news is that we got about 15 gallons of paint, enough for all of the rooms upstairs and our bedroom downstairs. The bad news is that the paint is terrible (this might be an understatement) to use. So, instead of just priming and painting one coat, we got to prime and paint two coats. In the 100 degree heat, with limited air conditioning. (We have a window unit, but it just can't keep up when it's that hot out). So, it was quite a job. The good news now is that it's done and looks great. Below is a pic:

Now for some decorating... Finally...

The Beginning

Well, I've thought many times that I should start a blog. Not because I'm extraordinarily interesting, but because it's a good place to document our crazy life. For example, as I type this, our youngest son, G, is attempting to convince me that I should let him play in our boat - by himself and is trying is hardest to figure out how to climb inside. Our dogs are barking and playing chase along the fenceline with our neighbor's dog, and will not stop. But, such is life.

Anyway, originally, I was going to start dogski. Dogski was intended to be about just that - skiing with dogs. I'll pick it back up this winter, with fun posts, stories and pics, but for now it will lie dormant. There is also another reason - we lost one of our puppies in January - the height of skiing season. I just didn't have the heart to write about it, so it sat...

Then, I am such a procrastinator, I just couldn't find a good time to start just a generic blog, like this one. Every week there was an excuse - not good enough material, not enough time, better things to do (the dishes and laundry are still waiting for me...). So I decided that July 1 would be the day. Then, I almost forgot to post! Hah! That would have knocked me back another month. Good thing for random thoughts (something I am excellent at). Ironically, in the last few weeks, we've had quite an interesting time of it. The awning blew off of our travel trailer during a freak windstorm, our children thought they would make the rope swing on our trailer harder to climb, so they cut the bottom of the ropes. Yes, our crazy expensive Rainbow playset. S & I could not believe it. It took a while to calm down from that one.

So hopefully the funny children stories will abound and the material for the blog will be easy to find. We'll see!