Random Stuff I Post on Facebook

I have to confess, I took awhile to really "get" facebook. I had my group of online friends, my blog, absolutely NO interest in MySpace, so I just wasn't sure. Plus, when I finally signed up, and tried to get into it I still didn't understand the hoopla. But, awhile later I tried again and it was magic! I think it probably coincided with several of my other friends getting into the mix and made it so much fun. So, these days while I barely have a second to breathe, much less blog I do often find myself posting silly, pointless stuff on Facebook.

So, here I will share with you my random stuff I post on facebook 10 most recent posts... Because I am avoiding chores, mostly. Starting with the most recent...

1. Making Kale Chips-- wondering if my kids will actually eat them. :) 18 minutes ago

(The verdict -- they all declared them yummy, but too spicy and ate exactly one. MY verdict. Delicious! And super easy/healthy. Yay)

2.You know you have kids when you find quarters in the refrigerator... 14 hours ago

3. I've had a hard time getting back to running after vacation. Yes, it's been three weeks since we've been back. I WILL run tomorrow. Ask me!! Tuesday at 10:08 PM

(I did! Only 2 miles but I did go)

4. Watching WipeOut with the family. It's kind of scary how much my kids love this show. Tuesday at 8:56 PM

(Although based on comments they aren't the only ones.)

5. Mmmm Guacamole salad! Awesome summer dinner. (Monday at 6:44 pm)

(This is the sort of post that I almost delete because clearly NO ONE cares about my guac & lettuce consumption... and then I get comments... because my friends love guac as much as I do.)

6. Off to the pool. Messy house will wait a few more hours I suppose. Monday at 2:34 pm

(It did... plus some :))

7. Overheard: Mark to Zack: Do you think I went to school for all these years for NOTHING. Hehe. Monday at 1:35 pm

(My cousin commented and asked if I had a notebook to record all of these funny things in. I don't... but I do have... this blog. Realizing that comment was probably the spark for this blog post.)

8. I really dislike asking for favors. July 18 at 1:43 pm.

(I really really do. But I did it and it was fine. My friends don't mind watching my kids but I sure don't like asking them to.)

9. I guess no beach today since one of my buddies has a fever. July 16 at 7:12 am

(and then another brother got it, then another. Ben escaped. Luckily it was a 24 hour type of virus. We still need to get to the beach!)

10. Calgon!!!! July 15 at 7:59 pm

(You know, I feel this way quite often at 7:59 pm... )

So, there you have it. My apologies if you are my friend on facebook and this is all repetive. Since it's absolutely riveting and all.

Summer Blogging

It seems every time I make a plan it gets derailed. I planned to keep us so busy this week that the time would fly, and boys would sleep great and Kevin would be back before I knew it. The first few days were right on track. Sunday we went on a long hike. Longer than intended actually, due to me forgetting that when boys say "noooo we aren't tired, let's keep going!" it could still be a matter of mere minutes before they are tiiiiiired, and need to be back right noooooow. They all survived though and they were calm in the evening and slept... okay. I ended up with two of them in my bed but that's not all that abnormal when Kevin is out of town. The next day I had a doctor appointment and in the afternoon we went to the pool. Some friends were with us and we had pizza delivered to the pool. It was lovely. Then I took a rest day. Because we all needed it after two very active days. On Wednesday, Zack was under the weather, so we cancelled our plans and stayed home again. Then yesterday it rained. We were all set to escape the house today & go to the beach, but today Mark has a fever. So we are home again and I'm stir crazy. I'm not good at actually staying home. Generally speaking, I need to be out of the house for at least a few hours on any given day. It doesn't have to be anything exciting, but the park, or the pool, or Target. I just need to get out. Kevin gets back this evening and I am so excited to see him!

Much like life derails my plans, my best attempts at blogging keep getting thwarted. When I heard the Silicon Valley Moms Blogs were to be no more, taking out the extra little nudge I had to write something read-worthy (at least I what I hoped to be!) every few weeks, I decided to work a little harder on this blog. I lasted about a week, posting more regularly and then I disappeared again. Granted, it's summer, my husband has been out of town since Sunday and my brain is kind of shot. Summer blogging is hard, because I try to keep the kids busy and while ideally I'd blog in great detail (with pictures) about all the fun stuff we're doing, the reality is by the time we get done with all that I am spent. Also, the chaos, while mostly fun, leaves me unable to think in complete sentences, much less compose a coherent post. That's a tall order on a good day. So instead, I'll take what I can get, quit making grand plans, and blog when I get around to it. Readability optional. When school starts I'll be a little more ambitious.

Notable (to me at least)

The last weeks of school are killing me. I am done with homework, and drop offs and pickups and more drop offs and pick ups. I long for the freedom of summer and unstructured fun. The reality of this is going to be so much more difficult than the dream, but for now... I long for summer. I know, I'm crazy!

For today I just want to note some random observations I've made of late... just some boring stuff to most... but to me it is the joy that keeps me running. Fun boy stuff!

Zack ran in from the patio yesterday and said "HEY mom!! I saw the neighbor WOMing the lawn!" Not all that notable. He transposed the M and the W from Mowing. NOTABLE that when Eric was the same age (ish) he made the same mistake. Interesting to me, that when Eric was almost 5, Zack was actually about 18 months old. No one has said that any time recently. It was a blast from the past. *Just a note, Eric also used to say WOP the floor. I wonder why.

Ben ran down the road today again. Thankfully this time he was clothed. The Schwann's guy was here and he just took off. And I chased after him barefoot. I've been running (though not fast) for exercise, but barefoot I was no match for my speedy little guy. When he does that it's a mixture of total irritation and the total hilarity of me trying to catch him with no success. Finally I managed a serious enough voice that he stopped and came to me. Thankfully!

Today I was on Facebook and clicked a link to a Glee video of the cast doing "Can't Touch This" in the library. I don't watch Glee (although it looks awesome!) but it was a funny little video. At some point Eric came up behind me and said "Mommy, that doesn't look like appropriate library behavior." It was literally all I could do not to laugh. I didn't, because clearly my boy is quite serious. I agreed with him, what else could I do?

Mark continues to challenge and amaze me. The more I do, the more he wants and is dissatisfied. But when we aren't struggling, and he isn't grumbling, he can be the sweetest most thoughtful boy of all. Such opposing actions, and I just want to tell him (and do) that I love him no matter what, he doesn't have to be "cool" for me, and that even though he's the second born he's every bit as important as his older brother. That just because he's not the baby doesn't make him any less important to me. I can tell him, I just wish I could make him KNOW that.

This post is scattered, I know. I'll blame the coming full moon. Because I've learned to blame many things on that. I never really believed in the whole full moon causing strange behavior in humans thing before. I do now though. Mostly because every time my kids behavior gets really out of whack I discover that it will soon be the Full Moon. (What are they, werewolves?) I looked, and the full moon is Thursday. So if anyone you know is acting totally crazy, that is why. You're welcome.

Random Rants

The 5 (or earlier) AM wakeups are starting to get to me and I think I'm cranky. Things are bothering me. Or maybe it's not just me, because what is bothering me is actually disturbing.

First of all, when I went to school yesterday it was on modified lockdown because of multiple calls to 911 on election day in which the caller was threatening teachers. That's all the info I had, but there were police at the school and all the classrooms were locked. Who on earth threatens elementary school teachers? Oh and the calls were made from a pay as you go type phone so they couldn't be traced. Poor teachers. Luckily, I guess the issue was resolved. But I have so many questions that I'm sure won't be answered. Who did this? Why? Was it a prank? Someone who had a beef about the election? Just some random psycho who gets his thrills scaring the crap out of people? Or someone who truly intended harm to someone? I hope not the last.

This bothers me too. People just dropping their kids off and giving up on them. I can't even imagine how much it would screw a (probably already troubled) teen off to have mom or dad go dump them at the nearest hospital. It looks like Nebraska is making an attempt to rewrite the Safe Haven Law for infants only. (Just to be clear, I do agree that the Safe Haven Law is a good thing for babies. I'm all for keeping newborns out of trash cans.)

Oh and we have a lovely popup spyware virus-y thing on our computer. Norton isn't finding it, but seriously, UGH. It's annoying and it's slowing down my computer. I found instructions for removing said spyware virus-y thing but it's like reading Greek so I'm waiting for my hubby to have time to do it. In the mean time let's just hope my computer doesn't crash because then I might be in a REALLY bad mood!

And I have a headache. And did I mention that the kids were up before 5 again? Yea, I'm cranky. Enough with the ranting though, everyone have a great day!

A Non Post

I know there is stuff I want to write about from the weekend but the words just aren't flowing from the fingertips like they normally do. My thoughts are kind of jumbled and anything I wrote would probably make no sense anyway (so, basically same as usual, right?)

Since I am having so much trouble, rather than continue to ramble and try to fight my way through some semblance of a blog post, I will leave you with something cute that Mark said yesterday.

In the van he quietly says "Mommy, guess who I love? She has a pink shirt, and a skirt with flowers." I said "Is it me?" And he said "MOM I'm NOT finished yet." So I shut my mouth and let him continue. I had my arm up resting my hand on the back of Kevin's headrest and Mark went on "... and she has a long skinny arm and a diamond ring." Not that my arm is actually skinny, but it made my whole day.

So, next time I'm frustrated about Mark and his shenanigans, maybe it will help me to remember that he LOVES his mommy!

Something That Doesn't Even Mention Kids

Do you ever drive down the road and see a shoe? When you see it, lonely in the middle of the road, do you ever think "How in the world does one lose a single shoe?" I do. All the time. I (because I'm a little odd) sit and wonder were you walking across the street and one fell off and you just didn't notice? Did it fall out of an open car door as you were speeding down the road? Maybe it was on your front porch and a stray dog came and made off with it and thought the highway looked like a good new home. I just can't figure it out. I'm sure there is some perfectly logical and sensible reason for this. But even the one that makes the most sense (fell out of the car) makes me say HOW?

All this said. I've lost my shoe. My very cute and beautiful and most favorite even though it's not a sandal and generally all my favorite shoes are sandals. That one. It's gone. One. And I'm back to howintheworlddoesaperson (ahem, me) loseashoe????

We came home from vacation and I unpacked it all except a little pile in my bedroom that sat there until yesterday. I kept thinking that maybe my cute little shoe would be in that pile and all would be well. I was wrong. We didn't leave it anywhere either because the Baileys already sent all the junk we left and I'm pretty sure I wore them at their house.

So, anyway, this is my goodbye to my beloved shoe. It is very sad and I am hoping that although I've already cleaned out the van, that maybe it is somewhere in there under a seat or something. It is my last hope. Otherwise I will just have to grieve this loss somehow. I'll pull through. Maybe some shoe shopping therapy is in order!

Some Random Thoughts

Before we headed out for the free movie today, I wanted to post some random stuff. None of it ties together at all, but here it is.



Yesterday morning, I woke up and Mark and Zack were the only ones up. Mark wanted to play on the patio and I said "heck yea!" I checked on them a few minutes later and there was PEE on my patio. I asked "WHAT is this?" And Mark said "I just had to pee really bad!" I know this is a pretty common boy thing to do, but it's a first for us. Pee goes in the potty people! Is it really that hard?



Zack sees a paper with letters on it or a book and says "I read it" and then says "A... B... C..." today he saw a paper with words and a picture of an eagle. He says "A...B...C... bird!" Funny stuff!



Mark Complains about pretty much everything.



Ben, who I haven't posted a picture of lately, is getting tooooooo big. He's my sweet, busy boy and those cheeks sure are kissable!

We are off to our free movie and I'm leaving with this thought... Is a movie still free if it costs the mom her sanity? I guess we'll find out.