Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 1

We just got done with a many-evented extravaganza: my birthday, a mini vacation, and my sister Lexi's wedding. YAY!  It was all so much fun!  And the best way I can think of to tell all about it is...just to start at the beginning.  Or maybe I'll mix it all together, like I did with my title. Eh? Eh???

July 27: my birthday

Last year, I only got one picture of my birthday, which kind of sucked.  So this year I took lots and lots of pictures.

In the morning, I took all my boys to get their hair cut.  The boys were getting fluffy, and Pete had major beast neck. Look at Troy being all super important:

 Then we went shopping a little.  We needed a few things, plus I picked up a new dress (yay!) and the movie "Chicken Run", which I have always loved.  We also went looking for a new fridge, because ours is fritzing out again.  I think it's time to let it go. *sigh*  Here are two of my cuties, though, being all posh while shopping.

 Then I got a pedicure with my mom.  I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have a picture of that.  But we both got orange toenails for my sister's wedding.  They're so cute!

After that, Pete and I went to the temple and did a session.  I hadn't gone since February, so it was really good to go.  So refreshing!

Then we, my kids, my mom, and my sister and her (then) fiance Chris went out for dinner at Sol Rio.  I LOVE their salsa that they bring out with chips-yummy!  And then we got really yummy food.  I ordered the Burrito Supreme, which I kept telling my kids was as big as my arm.  When they brought it out, I got photographic evidence.  SOOOOO good.

 Here's my mom and Troy.  Troy loves grandmas.

 After dinner, just my little family had dessert.  Instead of cake, I made rice krispie treats.  Which, I really do like cake, but we have two more cakes coming to our house really soon, so I opt for an alternative.

 Then I got to open gifts.  On top of my new dress and movie, my parents had taken me out a few days before and got two other dresses, which were much needed.  My kids all drew pictures of me with a cake. I'm a princess on all their pictures, which is very sweet.  And Pete got me a Slap Chop, which chops up your veggies or whatever else really well and easily. I can't wait to use it!

And here I am with my sweet kids.

My birthday was very nice, and very relaxing.  I am so blessed!

Okay.  Onward.

July 28: campfire night

Pete had been wanting to take the kids out and build a campfire somewhere.  We aren't really the outdoorsy type of people: in fact, we have a total of one sleeping bag.  But I think Pete's inner Boy Scout - or maybe it's his inner pyromaniac - wanted to come out and shine.  So, no sleeping in a tent for us this night, but playing with fire was definitely part of our fun.

We went out to some camp sites just past a ski hill called Kelly Canyon that's not too far from home.

Here's Pete with three future Boy Scouts/pyros:

This was my "cooler" for the night.  Because we did hot dogs and smores, and bought drinks on the way up, I didn't really need anything else.

My cute clan with our drinks:

Ivy and Troy.  Notice Ivy's cheeks-absolutely stuffed with hot dog!

Besides eating and playing with the fire, my kids ran around and whacked down big weeds. And then they threw those in the fire.

We also played Hide and Seek. Mostly I helped the younger two hide while someone did the seeking, though everyone took their turn being the seeker. There were trees and grass and huge rocks to hide behind. It was way fun.

And, of course, there was dirt to play in.  Lots and lots of dirt!

We had a blast, and I'm sure we'll do it again sometime.

Okay, friends, this post is getting long already.  So I'm going to have to make this a two-parter.  So stay tuned for the rest of our birthday/vacation/wedding adventures!

Lazy, According to Jakob

Jakob has a really skewed sense of what lazy is.  Well, maybe it's a skewed sense of what we as adults-that is, his parents, do.

He told his gym teacher one day that he was being lazy at his class, "just like my dad".  Yeah, I think that getting up at 5 a.m. four days a week to go to work, and getting home at 6:30 at night is being TOTALLY lazy. 

Then last night Jake wanted more dinner, so he asked me for some.  I was like, "You can get some more by yourself."  And he gave me this look like, what?  I have to serve myself?  As he was dishing up, he muttered, "I wish I could stay home and do nothing like Mom does."

That made me laugh.  I replied, "Jake, do you want to hear what I did today?  It definitely wasn't "nothing"."

He looked at me with "impress me" in his eyes.  I began.

"First, I got up, so I could get you up, made you a lunch, and got some breakfast for you.  I got you out the door so you could catch the bus and get to school on time.

"Then I got breakfast for the other three kids, and got myself ready for the day.  I started some laundry, and folded three other loads from yesterday's laundry, and put it all away.  Later in the day, I folded two more loads and put that away as well.

"I cleaned out the fridge, and dumped the old food.  I rinsed dishes, loaded the dishwasher, and after it was done running I put all the dishes away.

"I took out the garbage, which includes getting garbage from 6 cans, and also changing out the cat litter box.  After the garbage man came, I brought the garbage can back in.

"I finished writing down the music for one of our roadshow songs. (Meaning, I had to come up with accompaniment for one of the songs, so it's like I was composing a bit.  I did about 2/3s of it yesterday.  And this was not an easy task for me.) 

"I swept the kitchen floor so my students wouldn't get grossed out looking at it.  I also cleaned some pee off the bathroom floor.  (Totally gross, I know, but that's how it is with three little boys who don't have the greatest aim.)

"I got lunch for myself and three kids, and listened to a tantrum from Ivy (for about 30 seconds, then I sent her to her room) because she didn't want what I got for her for lunch.  I got Brock ready and out the door for his school. 

"I taught four piano lessons today.

"I did have a slight break, because usually on Tuesdays I go and help in Brock's kindergarten class, but today they were doing something special so his teacher told me not to come.  Instead, I finished the craft pages you kids had started earlier in the week.  (It's mosaics with little sticky foam squares.  Like paint-by-number but with squares.  It was fun, and because it's for 6-year-olds, about at my crafting level.  This owl one is one that Jakob did on Saturday; it's one of the small ones.  I did three big ones.)

"During piano lessons, Troy, Brock, and Ivy came in from playing outside, COVERED in mud.  I had to strip Ivy down, and then sent her downstairs to wait to get cleaned up until after I was done teaching.  That means another load of laundry, with three coats in it that I had cleaned only a week before, bringing my washed loads total for the day to three, and my folded loads for the day to six.  (And then she fell asleep, with mud on her face and in her hair.  I'm the best mom ever!)

"I also checked your homework, listened to you read, made four beds, including yours, and made dinner.  I also answered your questions you had while practicing piano.

"In a half hour, I get to go over to the church, and play a musical number for a lady that's singing at New Beginnings.  (I don't know if I mentioned on here that I got released from Young Women's.  Being at New Beginnings last night made me really miss my calling and those girls.)  I also get to come home and get everyone ready for bed, and do more dishes from dinner.

"So, if you want to switch me for the day, my "nothing" for your day of schoolwork, I'd be happy to, any day of the week."

Silence, with eyes very wide, from Jakob's side of the table.  Maybe he'll rethink his definition of lazy.

Memory Monday: Changing Room Surprise

During one summer while I was in college, I worked at JCPenney.  My manager was awesome, but the customers were awful.  They were always wanting discounts on everything.  "There's this tiny little snag in the fabric by the hem at the bottom of the pants; can I get this for 80% off?"  Seriously.  Or, they'd place the item on the clearance rack, then come up to buy it and say, "But I found it on the clearance rack!"  And I'd be like, but it's not marked down, and there's the rack that has 30 of the same item for the price that the tag says.  Good times.

I worked in womens, and juniors, and petites.  For some reason, I got stuck in the juniors department on a Saturday afternoon all by myself, and I hadn't been working there all that long.  It should go without saying that that's a really busy department at that time.  Maybe there was someone else, but everyone would take 2 hour lunch breaks when we were only allotted a half hour (they would clock back in and just hang out eating-it seriously ticked me off-and yes, I know that's time card fraud or whatever it's called).  Or, there was one girl that would wander off and go up in the attic area.  (Yes, there was an attic area.  I have no idea how to get up there anymore-I think up some random back stairs.)

So, we were supposed to go through the dressing rooms every 1/2 hour, just to clear all the clothes out.  But I got stuck at the register, and had a line for at least an hour.  Seriously, no stop whatsoever.  I think I had a line because they couldn't find anyone else in any of the other areas of the store.  Everyone must have been gone eating.  In the attic.

I finally had a break in the flow, and knew my dressing rooms were long overdue for some merchandise removal.  I started in, and I was pulling armloads out of each dressing room.  There are...4 or 5ish rooms.  I got to one of the last rooms, and it smelled really funky.  I just figured, whatever, let me get these clothes out and back to the racks.  I picked up a dress that was crumpled up on the ground, only to find...brace yourself...a humongous poop pile. 

It was green.  And not really solid, if you get my drift.

I immediately put the dress back down onto the offending pile.  I went to the next department over, and politely asked my co-worker what to do.  She couldn't believe that that had happened.  Then I called my manager.

I kept thinking, who would do that?  Even if you didn't want to confess, why put clothing on top of it?  I hadn't noticed anyone leaving all suspicious-like.  It just blew my mind.

Anyway, my manager came over, and she was the one that ended up cleaning up the poop mess.  Poor lady.  Although, I have to admit, if she had told me to clean it up, I would have quit on the spot.

None of the other workers had ever had that happen to them, and some of those ladies had been there for years and years.  I was the lucky one.  Needless to say, I didn't stay at that job for all that long.

You wanna know the sad thing?  Even though someone pooped a lot of poop in my dressing room, that's not even the worst job that I've ever had.  But it definitely made it memorable.

Bandits

It was not a good week for cakes in our house. This is what happened to Brock's cake (thankfully, the day after his birthday). The same culprits that got the last cake, Butch Cassidy (Ivy) and the Sundance Kid (Troy), were responsible for this cake's untimely end.


And why is Ivy Butch Cassidy, you may ask? Well, before/after/during the Great Cake Mash-up, the two partners in crime also got ahold of our hair clippers.



Um, and there's three of those bald spots on Ivy, and one on Troy. (See it? A few inches above her ear? Right where hair is supposed to be growing?) Troy insists that Ivy did it all herself. And yes, I believe him. If he's willing to just stand there while Ivy puts mascara all over him, then why wouldn't he just let her shave his head?

We're lucky enough to have bought some clippers that charge, so you don't have to plug them in. Convenient, huh? And they just happened to be in a drawer that Ivy never opens. Oh, and she also used the scissors to do a few choice chops, like right on top of her head.

Even though she's been our only child to style her own hair with cutting equipment, I'm glad she didn't, like, shave her eyeball or something. And I've been able to do an old man comb-over to cover the spots enough. And eventually it will grow in, and because I've learned my lesson the clippers are oh-so very high, on an unclimbable shelf. So we're safe from any other hair mishaps. I hope.

I cringe to think of the day that Ivy can open doors, though. Not that her fellow outlaw wouldn't help her out with that. Grr.

Decisions, Decisions

I didn't know which blessed event I wanted to post under "most recent mess":

The mangled cake?


The permanent marker on the back door? (Which I did remove with rubbing alcohol. Oh, it took off the marker, but it also took off some paint as well. Neat.)


Or maybe the broken Spider-man 3 DVD?


Yep. I just could not decide.

Mask of Mascara

Troy came downstairs on Tuesday. "Um, Mom? Um, Ivy, um..."

WHAT was all over his face? I quickly figured it out.

My mascara.

I asked, "Troy, why did you get into my makeup?"
Troy's reply: "But, it wasn't me, it was Ivy!"

This is what I found:

(Forgive my lousy picture; I didn't realize that there was a fingerprint on my lens. Though I should know better by now-there's always a fingerprint on my lens.)

Ivy would make a good warrior. She's even the one that decorated Troy. Oh, and my toilet lid.

And I immediately went out and bought new mascara. Because eewww.

If At First Karma Doesn't Succeed...

So. Trying to do some good in the world today. I went to Jakob's school to help the Kindergartners with their skills books. (A skills book is a little booklet the teachers made; each page has a different thing that they may learn during the school year. The kids pass the pages off at home, then pass them off at school.) My kids were being totally crazy while we were there, which isn't all that surprising. For instance, Troy set up a smaller chair in front of a bigger chair, climbed onto the bigger one, and jumped over the smaller one onto the ground. Nice.

But. While we were there, Jakob read "Green Eggs and Ham" to his class. Upside down, so that the kids could see the pictures. With no help. Such a smartie pants.

Decided to go to the store. I always end up picking the line behind the person that takes about a hundred years. This time, the lady in front of me had expired credit cards, so she was digging around in her purse for cash, and was about 50 cents short. I happened to have a couple of quarters on me (which never happens), and so I gave that to her. And actually, she had a Walmart gift card with a couple of bucks on it that she found after she was out of line, and gave that to me. Which means I actually was ahead in the karma situation there.

Continuing down the road, trying to be a good person. I stop to let someone pull out, as there was a huge line at the stoplight.

Get home, get the kids out, open the back to get the groceries out. And my peanut butter and spaghetti sauce roll out of the van. The peanut butter, not a big deal, but the spaghetti sauce shattered, and splattered. Kind of like this:

Awesome. My question is why isn't spaghetti sauce in a plastic container? Other things that used to be glass are now plastic-baby bottles, Tang jar... Anyway, I just hope the bad spaghetti sauce karma will end there, that hopefully I got all the glass shards so that my kids won't cut their cute little feet when they go out to play in the crazy wind. But if I think about it, it's like I didn't even buy it in the first place, because of that gift card from that lady. So maybe it was a good karma day, after all.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

First of all, I just have to say that I love the phrase "Constant Vigilance!" Mad-Eye Moody says it in the Harry Potter books, when he's showing them the Unforgivable Curses. If only he had had a megaphone to say it with. It reminds me of that movie, "The Bachelor", with Chris O'Donnell in it, where his grandpa carried a megaphone around and would say stuff in it.

*krrk* PROCREATE! *krrk*

So, yeah. This week has been a little hard. On Tuesday everyone was grumpy, but not all at once. So one child would be happy, then the next would be crying or what have you. And then there are the messes. *sigh*

I don't know how many times I've seen Ivy sport the Goth look:

I know Jakob keeps his markers picked up. But somehow she finds one, and kablam! Marker mouth. Tuesday after her nap I got her out of the crib, and she had spit up on her blanket and sheet. The reason: she had been munching on pencil shavings.

Last night I was made aware of this little ditty:

It's a Darth Vader laptop, but notice anything missing? Um, yeah, ALL the keys got pulled off. I don't know who, or when, but suddenly they were flying through the air. I had to put them all back on. (By the way, do you know how hard it is to figure out where the keys go without looking at a keyboard? I wonder who came up with the keyboard, and why they didn't just do it alphabetically.)

Then there was this lovely thing. Now, it's not like I'm off, like, primping for the prom or something when all this happens. This one I was downstairs paying some bills:

Apparently Troy wanted to make something. And he must have wanted it REALLY garlic-y, because the entire bottle of minced garlic was poured everywhere. He had also gotten the hand mixer out, complete with the beaters. Oh, and the day before, he had put an Etch-a-Sketch and a paper in the microwave. Thank heavens he didn't turn it on!

Troy also did this one:

My children are so presumptuous. This was Wednesday, when Troy got out the sherbet and started eating it. Hey, he was willing to share-he also got out three bowls and three spoons, most likely for his brothers and himself, though straight out of the carton was good enough for him. (I'm getting awful flash-forwards of my kids in college.)

Oh, and on Tuesday Jakob took a picture over to Ila that he drew, and Brock went with him, and they completely made themselves at home at Arin's house. I was down doing laundry and heard the door open and shut, but just assumed they went out to play. Presumptuous children.

So apparently, I need to learn a lesson in "CONSTANT VIGILANCE", because my doing crazy things like the bills or the laundry only gets me in trouble. I guess I should be staring them down, watching their every move. Or maybe I should install hidden cameras everywhere that feed to a device that I keep with me at all times. Oooh, then I could also install a megaphone system, too.

*krrk* I HAVE CONSTANT VIGILANCE! PUT THE SCISSORS DOWN NOW! *krrk*

Going Green

I'm not really sure what was in Brock's shoe...


...and I'm SO glad Crayola markers are non-toxic!

Broken

I love my boys. Really, I do. Which is probably why they're still alive right now.

Just kidding. Well, not about the love thing....

Okay, let me start over. Lately we've had a lot of things break. Some of it has been the kids' fault, some of it is just the nature of "stuff". But it always seems to happen all at once. I already mentioned our car's woes. But now our other car has joined in, with an almost flat tire, a broken seat belt, and the glove compartment refuses to shut. Fixed the tire, but the other stuff not so much.

My boys have discovered a new hang-out: under the kitchen sink. And they've taken the phrase "hang-out" literally, and probably hung on the sponge-holder thing, which now refuses to close all the way.


Here's my sad Charlie Brown Christmas tree. See the ribbons clumped? And the anti-ornamented spot at the bottom? That's why the tree came down the day after Christmas, my friends.


Plus, I didn't want any more ornaments to meet the same demise as these two did:

The snowflake on the left my mom attempted to tape back together. The star on the right was one of my favorites, and Memo chewed the arms off. (Although I think I liked it more when I thought it was wood; I then discovered it was styrofoam. But still.)

Our doorknob on the back door broke, so we were sporting this fine, white trash, duct tape look for a while. The front door deadbolt broke the day after. Luckily I'm somewhat of a handywoman (cough! hack! -sorry, give me a minute to collect myself after the laughing hysterics stop), and they've both been fixed. (In my case, "fixed".)


We can't even keep cookies unbroken around here.


Other stuff in the broken category: a picture frame for Pete's diploma, the door on our entertainment center, Pete's headset to the computer, crayons-always, a few of the kids' books that I put on the bookshelf (silly me, thinking books belonged on a bookshelf), a couple of drill bits from my attempt at hanging a shelf in our garage (handy, remember?), half of our toys because it's apparently the cool thing to hit toys with other toys...the list goes on and on.

But...things not broken: three little boys' chicken necks. Yet. (Just kidding. Kind of.)

Ultra Tan Man

Getting into mischief can make one so sleepy.



Are you trying to figure out what's on his clothes and hands?



And what got spread all over my bathroom?



Why, it's sunless tanner, of course! My sister got some in a package of sorts, and she gave it to me. And Troy found it and decided his toy bear was looking a little pale.



In case you're wondering, baby wipes work wonders.

I'm thinking of investing in a leash or chain of sorts for him. Just a 10-foot long rope that keeps him in my range at all times. Honestly, I don't ever know whether to laugh, or cry, or be angry. Usually I just end up in shock. Then I take a picture of it, and blog about it so you can thank your lucky stars you aren't cleaning up the messes that I am on an almost daily basis. You're welcome. (Also, when he grows up and has a kid that gets into everything, I can pull out the evidence and say, "Serves you right!")

Buried Treasure

I decided to vacuum out my couch today.

Here's what I found:

tons of unidentifiable food
Spiderman cell phone
two pink and one elephant ears for Mr. Potato Head
several crumpled coloring pages
a quarter (I'm rich!)
many many cars of various shapes and sizes
magnets
a barrette
a purple dinosaur (not Barney)
airplane
lots of wrappers
a coin to our cash register toy
two Spiderman figurines
heaps of color crayons
socks
a wooden spoon
a toothbrush belonging to no one in my family

What a treasure trove of goodies! Well, and junk. And my vacuum is completely full of crumbs. But my couch is free of debris for at least the next two minutes before my kids lose something else in there. Hurray!

Saved!

Arin is my hero. Being the amazing woman she is, she saw my sad mess and offered her cool Bissell carpet cleaning machine. I used it last night, and you should have seen what it pulled out of the carpet! I used it again today to see if it would get any more kool-aid out, and lo and behold:

It's a little bit darker right now because it's still damp, and I think it may stay slightly pink since I didn't use said fabulous machine as soon as it happened. But my carpet is saved from a life of continuous blushing.

I'd like to thank all you Becky Home-Ec-eys, too, with your suggestions on how to clean up after little boys. You all came to my rescue with the carpet and the cabinet. Rubbing alcohol totally worked on getting the permanent marker off of my cabinet (thanks, Heidi)! The things you learn...

I've decided, though, that I've gots ta get me one of these:

Thanks a million billion trillion, Arin!
But I think the next house we move to will be all plastic, so I can just hose off the walls, floors, etc.

why Why WHY???

I told you: every second. Betcha thought I was joking.

I promise I watch my kids.

I wish more flavors of Kool-aid came in the "invisible" variety. (The flavors that are invisible my kids don't like. Go figure.)

Yes, we've tried a fridge lock, which lasted all of 24 hours.

We also have a downstairs doorknob cover. All the boys can open the door regardless.

I've been wanting to clean my carpets anyway...

*sigh*

Every Second, Part 2

Troy has such a sweet, innocent face. You'd think just looking at him that he would be a perfect little angel, only playing with the things he's supposed to.

But, I'm his mom. So I know differently. I'm glad that he used the permanent marker on the inside of the cabinet door only, and the wash off marker on the outside.


And here's a video of our Houdini, performing his newest stunt of climbing out of the crib. We'll be investing in a big boy bed sometime this week.

I'M NOT MOM!

ouI tend to lose myself in the title of "mom". As a mom, you don't really get sick days or vacation days, per se. I love my job, I love my kids; but honestly, a little break from them once in a while is needed. They're so dang cute, but can be so emotionally draining. You give so much to these little beings and don't give to yourself nearly as much as you should to keep yourself going, to keep yourself you.

I needed "me" time, and my birthday lent the perfect excuse to plan such an excursion. I called a few friends that are also moms, and they were more than happy to join in on my "I'm not mom!" day away.

We started out at my mom's house. My sister Lex joined us in the morning. We giggled like little girls over YouTube videos like this one and this one. We pigged out on pizza, then put in a movie and didn't really watch it because we were talking too much.

Here's Kar with the remotes. My parents' TV system is like performing surgery-it's so complicated!


Here's creative Arin, who brought stuff to make hair bows, who should totally make them for profit:


Here's April, who decided to veg out like me and talk:


We then caught a matinee show of "Mama Mia!" Very cheesy, but very cute. Pierce Brosnan really shouldn't sing, but Meryl Streep did awesome. Oh, and her short friend on the movie is Ron Weasley's mom from the Harry Potter movies.

We then ate at Winger's-yum yum! It's so nice to not have to share food with kids, and ask for booster seats and high chairs. And I got free dessert because it was my birthday.



Because we're all bloggers, we were all taking pictures except for Arin, who forgot her camera. Lo and behold, though, she had remembered it, but discovered the fact after the night was over:


It was very fun, and very relaxing. Of course, my day wouldn't be complete without coming home to find this:


Yeah, that would be Troy. And Desitin. And it wasn't just on him; it was on the curtains, and the door knob, and the chair, and the carpet, and Pete's hat, and the diaper bag, and the windows. When he saw me inspecting the mess, he said, "Ah, man!" He's totally earned his title of "Mr. Mischief" tenfold. But you know what? I wasn't even mad. Not even when I also found this:


Yep, unwrapped cubes of butter. We bought a fridge lock. We'll see how long it lasts, though, before the vultures (boys) learn to get it undone.

I'm definitely having a "I'm not mom!" day again!