Congratulations

I took the kids down to my old neighborhood in Virginia this weekend. We went to celebrate the engagement of my good friend Christina and her fiance, Dave.
The party was fun. There were a few people that hung out and played with Ryan, so he had a great time. I got to see some old friends (hi Ryan and Janet!) and even had some adult conversation. While we were in the area I drove by my old schools and our old house. It was kind of strange, but nice to reminisce. While I was there I realized how much I miss VA and the great things about it. We could go to the beach for a day because it was so close, Busch Gardens and Water Country are also fun and very close and the historical places can be cool too. Mostly I think I miss the people. There is just a different type of person in VA. Oh well, I don't see us living there any time in the near future. Plus, I'm beginning to find more people in MD that I can relate to and who I really like and we are near family here. ::sigh:: I will choose to be content...I choose to be content...I choose to be content.
So anyway, Congratulations to Christina and Dave again. Let us know if when you set a date;-)

What a Waste of Time

I just had a Survey company call me and ask me questions about water filters for 15 minutes. After I had answered about 100 questions with Strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree they changed it up on me and switched the answers. Heaven forbid I should say "yes" or "no" to a seemingly yes or no question like "Do you use filtered water?" For the reply would be a very snippy, "Strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree....." So after I've answered these seemingly endless questions about water filters and fruit flavor in water for 15 minutes(at least) I ask how much longer this is going to take because I have things to do. She says it will probably be at least another 10 minutes. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! How many freaking questions can there be about filtered water?! So that was a huge waste of time and I am no longer going to "be nice" to those survey people by going along with their ridiculous surveys. It's really nicer to put us both out of our misery by cutting it off before anyone wastes their time. I can't believe anyone could get through a 30 minute survey about filtered water!!!

Conversation with Ryan

This was a very typical conversation with Ryan that happened to take place in the car on the way home from gymnastics.

Ryan: No stickers on the window, right mommy?
Me: Right.
Ryan: Why?
Me: Because it will leave a mark on the window.
Ryan: Why?
Me: Because it's sticky.
Ryan: Why?
Me: Because it has adhesive on the back.
Ryan: Why?
Me: To make it sticky.
Ryan: Why?
Me: Because people like stickers.
Ryan: Ohhhhhhh. I knew that!

It's almost worth it when he gets to that final "oh" moment.

My Amazing Kidlets

So I've been wanting to write about the new things Lily has been doing for a while. I just never seem to get the chance. She still loves to dance. She's added some moves to her repertoire. She now spins (still only clockwise), "jumps", shakes her hips, sways her shoulders and does a little horse-type gallop around the floor. Adorable! No one has ever seen her dance that hasn't commented on how adorable it is. She will now stay with me for almost all of circle time in gymnastics. She says "uh-oh", "all done" (with a sign), "what's that?" and she make up her own sign for "pick me up please". If you ask her what a cow says she will say, "Moooo". She has all sorts of other "words" that she will say to you over and over in all seriousness until you've acknowledged that she has said something profound. She is quite adorable and so funny. She makes me laugh constantly.
Ryan has also been astonishing me with his abilities lately. This morning Lily pulled all the toilet paper off the roll when I was brushing my teeth. Since we had to get to gymnastics I just let it go and figured I'd change it when I got back. I went to the kitchen to get snacks and Ryan came down to tell me he put the "new toilet paper on the straight thing." I thought he was trying to tell me he changed the toilet paper roll, but I didn't quite believe it- for one thing he is male and for another he is 3 and no one has ever showed him how to do it. He took me upstairs to show me and low and behold there was a brand new roll of toilet paper. I guess he picked it up somewhere because he had done it. I didn't even know he knew where to get the spare rolls. His physical abilities and dexterity are developing monumentally. He can now create multiple things with the brio building sets, do a flip over the bar at gymnastics all by himself and do a forward roll on the beam. He can throw and catch with fairly good accuracy now. He can even zip his own zippers with no help. I think I'm going to start calling him Wonderboy ;-)
I know I'm playing massive catch up on their abilities in this post, but if I don't get it down here I'll never remember. I hope your head stops spinning soon;-)

Because I want to know...

What is your reaction to two people whispering in a group gathered together for social reasons?

There has been some heavy debate going on here about the subject. Any thoughts out there? Any at all?

Happy Birthday Jay!!!

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband and my children's wonderful father. I'm glad I married you...even if you are a geezer now;-) I'm kidding. You know I had to pay you back.

I love you!

File This Under "Small World"

There is this really great building set we got for Zach when he was about Ryan's age. Ryan has recently taken a huge interest in it. The problem is Zach has rediscovered his interest in it and there are not really enough pieces for them both to play together. We thought we had the perfect solution. We would buy more sets and they could share all of them. Unfortunately, Brio has discontinues the line and we could only find two sets on e-bay to buy. One of the sellers happened to be a store in Sumter. I thought that was a funny coincidence since I've never even heard of the place before my parents moved there. Then I pretty much forgot about the coincidence until I opened the package today. In with the packing materials was this playbill...



Sound Familiar?

I opened it up and sure enough there were my parents' names all over the place. I've erased all the last names and circled my parents' names for you. Crazy, huh? Talk about a small world. I sent off to get a toy from a place I'd never heard of that happens to be where my parents live and get a playbill for the play they worked on in the box (two of them actually and they were not crumpled at all).

What's Harder?

What's harder than having your kids puke all over you and cleaning up after them for 5 days?

anyone, anyone?

Okay I'll tell you...

It's making sure your famished kids get enough to eat when the sight/smell of food makes you want to hurl. Oh and the faint lingering smell of the aforementioned pukefest in the couch that also makes you want to hurl.

Hello Simon

Welcome to the world little Simon. I'm so sad that this is the second time my best friend has given birth and the second time I can not visit because of my own kiddies:-( I can't wait to see you when you get home and we are all better! Congrats Erin, Tom and Ben. Ryan is so excited that you are a big brother now too, Ben. He can't wait to share big brother stories with you.

Happy birthday, Simon!!!

Wonderful World of Racing

Jay and Ben are back from their racing adventure. I've heard a lot of "awesome", "so cool", "so fast" and "bvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
ch[shifting motion] bvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv" tossed around in conversation since their return. Turning 30 and graduating college are once in a lifetime things. I think this was a memorable celebration for each of them.

Don't they look cute in their little blue racing suits?!

Racing

Jay is in Atlanta right now with his brother, Ben. They had some brother time last night and today they are learning to drive race cars. He should be driving right this very moment. I hope he is. He has been worried all week about the weather because if the track is wet they can't race. I checked the weather and it doesn't look like it's raining though the humidity is like 80%. I can't wait to find out how it was. If you know my husband you know how much he LOVES cars. The chance to drive a car as fast as he can is so exciting for him I can't even tell you. He did lots of research about what track he wanted to drive. Apparently he will be able to get up the most speed on the track in Atlanta because it has long straightaways. I wish I could have seen him race, but him getting to experience it with his brother is the next best thing. I don't think the kids would have lasted for 4 hours watching him go around a track. I know Ben and Jay will relive this a hundred times together and it will be an experience neither one will soon forget. This is all crazy and jumbled...congratulations if you made it through. Sorry I don't even have time to re-read it because I am watching the kiddies all by myself today.

More fun with Bullets

*Every night Ryan says, "I need to do mouthwash water with my dipsy cup."
Heehee. He has been trying to be like his big brother, who does a floride mouthwash, ever since I got some dixie cups to make it easier.

*Lily's new favorite thing to do is climb up on Ryan's stool, get into the bathroom sink and turn on the water. Who knew a little shorty baby could use a stool with 2 little steps to get up on a bathroom counter top?! I guess for a baby who loves climbing and loves water this seems like the perfect activity.

*Before you go shaking your head in disgust at my inability to keep my daughter out of trouble/danger you should know that it is the rule to keep the bathroom door closed. There are times that we don't remember and Lily is a pro at seizing an opportunity. Just as she does if we leave a chair slightly away from the table. She never misses an opportunity to climb on something high. She is also fast, very fast and stealthy.

*The lilacs are in bloom. They don't seem as fragrant as years past. They still smell good, but it's not as strong or as far away from the bush.

*Ryan got out his NASCAR underwear this morning and told me they are his favorite. I didn't know that. he is wearing them today in honor of daddy going to racing school. Yep, that's right. Jay's birthday present is racing school.

*Did I tell you there is a cardinal that is in love with our car? Yeah, it always lands on our mirrors and then pecks at himself in the mirror. There are several spots on our car that are all scratched up. I find this very annoying.

*Construction has still not started on our addition. I find this very annoying as well.

*Jay got me a new vacuum. It is much better than the old one. It was practically full of fuzz that I'm thinking was from the top of the carpet. I don't know if it's good for the carpet to vacuum part of it up, but I'm sure that means it got more dirt than the old one too. The best thing about the new vacuum is the easy sump dirt container. You push a button on the top and the bottom pops open. No more getting all dirty shaking the bin upside down into a trash bag and then pulling out the filter and tapping that clean. It's also a very pretty blue:-)

*Lily is on another antibiotic for the never ending stream of ear infections. We are going to make an appointment with an ENT specialist.

*Did you know there is an Armed Forces Day? No, well it's May 19. Don't forget to support our troops at home and abroad. Make it personal...Do something nice for a man or woman who defends your country this month!

Deep Breath In...and phooooooooooooooooo

Gosh it feels like that's the first time I've gotten to stop and breath in a week! The phrase "Be careful what you wish for" leaps to mind. Remember when I was distraught over my utter failure of a start to being a consultant? Well, this month I have 4 events planned. I will grant you that one is not a business thing at all, but a family get together where I won't even do a presentation and one is self hosted, but I'm going to be really busy. Busy is good sometimes. I hope I can handle it and still be a good mommy. I feel like I've already been obsessing too much making sure I'm not missing anything. I think when I have actual stuff to do and I'm not worrying as much I'll actually do better. I hope anyway. I feel like once I get going I will be able to settle into a groove. Once I've done everything a few times and I feel confident in what I'm doing I'll be able to relax a little bit. Right now stressed doesn't begin to describe how I'm feeling. Hmm...just writing that makes me feel better. I think that the fact that all three kids are asleep right now helps too;-) I'm gonna go enjoy watching some dancing on TV and eat some chocolate now.