16!!!

Yes, so it has been a long while since I have posted.  I have my reasons, which I will try to get into soon, but for now I wanted to share some pictures.


Hannah turns SIXTEEN this week.  Isn't that crazy?  The kids and I spent the weekend in Ohio and I gladly snapped some photos to commemorate the occasion.  You know what?  It was REALLY nice to take pictures of a willing subject for a change.

This one is my favorite!

I did manage to get one of all four kids.  They are at least all looking at the camera, which is about the best I can hope for at this point in life.

More from me later...I promise!

Anyone need a snarky 5 year old?

Because I have one that I am quite through with (at least momentarily).

Ross is just being an a** today.  I'm sorry if that offends you, but it is the absolute truth.

We had some friends over for a play date today and pretty much the entire time they were here, Ross was being loud, obnoxious, disobedient and rough.  He was fine both before & after they were here.  He did the same thing to me on Tuesday at the grocery store.  He was fine in the van on the way to the store, but the moment my hands hit the shopping cart handle, he turned into a devil child.  And you know what?  He was awful the entire time we were in the store, but turned into a model child once we were in the van again.  In fact, pretty much any place with an audience serves as an invitation for misbehavior.

This evening he just pushed every limit imaginable and to top it off, he smacked Jeremy across the face.  The source of that conflict was his bike, so that has been packed off to the basement for an indefinite period of time.   And at the very least, he won't be going to soccer on Saturday (and possibly for the rest of the season).  And if I have my way, he will have to pay us back every penny of the fees we payed for him to be on the team.  I hope Ross is ready for some weed pulling.

I need to go blow off some steam on my elliptical and pray that my temper recovers before breakfast.

Yard work!

I love our house, I really do, but lately it has started giving me a stomach ache.  Since the warmer weather has set in, our yard has become a jungle again.  Having grown up in the country with a massive yard, I know it really isn't that big.  But it feels that big right now.

I have slowly, but surely, been working on getting all the beds weeded and cleared of debris (and then putting down a weed stop product to help in the future).  I've still not gotten around to all the beds yet and today I was depressed to realize that the first ones I did need some major attention again.  The sad thing is that the weed stop seems to be helping.

Our house is surrounded by natural areas on three sides -- two are wooded and the third is a lot that was cleared (probably 4 or 5 years ago when our lot was cleared) and is now a grassy, weedy mess.  I feel like our house is surrounded by a patch of light resistant devil's snare (FYI -- a reference to Harry Potter for you non HP fans out there).  Am I ever going to get this place under control?

We have thick patches in the front lawn of creeping charlie (which comes from the mint family), spurge and several other highly invasive weeds.  I have put down some herbicide, but I've also been (vainly) trying to pull as much as possible.  To help with this task, I have taken to paying the kids to help with weeds (I have 3 different buckets, all worth a different amount when full).  Reid is really quite good -- he is both quick and capable of getting just the weeds.  Ross is very thorough, but slow.  Lucy is worth nothing more than a bucket 1/2 full of grass dumped in a flower bed or on the driveway or in the grass (luckily she has a short attention span and spends little time "helping").

It rained here all day today, which is nice because, even though it will make the weeds grow, it gave me a day off from the incessant weed pulling.

Maybe in another 3 or 4 years we will have the yard beaten into submission.  Until then, I am highly considering hired help of the professional kind (and if you know Jeremy & I, then you know we don't usually hire help).

The good news is, however, that the front bed I re-did last summer looks quite nice.  I also managed to clean up a rather large bed by the road.  I really should try to get some pictures...maybe later this week, once the monsoons cease.

Spring Break

So, in spite of the bad end to the DC portion of our spring break trip, we did have a wonderful time while we were there.  DC really is one of my absolute favorite places to visit.  The weather was nice, though not perfect, and we did miss the cherry blossoms this year, but it was still beautiful.

Here are a few shots from DC:

(This was from a cool light exhibit in the Hirshorn museum.  The room really did look that blue))

(Popsicles definitely make tired feet feel better!)

One of the nice things about the time in Ohio, was that I got to catch one of Hannah's track meets.  Now, while I am glad I got to see her run, I must admit that track meets are right at the top of my list of things I never need to do again.  They are BORING and the three little ones couldn't hack the waiting.   

We spent most of the week just hanging around at my parent's house.  The kids loved playing on the farm (I've never seen them get so dirty so fast).

On Thursday, after spending most of the day with my sister & Laney, Lucy was up sick during the night.  She was sleeping in a sleeping bag and managed to contain the mess to the sleeping bag, which meant she was absolutely covered in filth. That made a middle of the night bath necessary.  The poor little thing was EXHAUSTED and totally wiped out for a few days.

On Saturday night, after I had dropped Hannah off at her dad's, I walked in the house to find Reid being sick.  We were planning on leaving early on Sunday.  Lovely.  Fortunately, that was the end of it for Reid, but he was extremely lethargic and sleepy on Sunday (not entirely bad for a car ride day).  Of course, the kicker to all of this is that we got Valerie & Laney sick (sorry!).  I feel like a total jerk, but then, how was I to know?

I did get to spend a lot of time with Hannah, which was great.  We even took in the Hunger Games movie, which we both thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.  When did that girl get so grown up?!

A Woman, A Van & Three Kids

Last week was spring break for my kids.  I insisted to Jeremy that he take a few days off to do something fun.  Washington DC is one of our favorite spots to head for a long weekend and we haven't been there since Lucy was itty-bitty, so that is where we headed.

Our plan was to leave immediately after school on Friday, spend the weekend in DC and then I would drive with the kids to Ohio and Jeremy would fly home to work.  It sounded like a good plan.

On Monday morning, while we were sitting and eating breakfast at the hotel, Ross (who had been refusing to eat, but did drink a large glass of milk) projectile vomited all over the table.  Fortunately, the man at the table next to us was very gracious about the whole thing -- he jumped up to retrieve an entire dispenser of napkins for us and attempted to help us out as much as he could (to that kind man:  thank you).  I quickly grabbed Ross and bolted up stairs, leaving Jeremy to deal with the mess and the other two kids.

Now, keep in mind, the plan was to eat breakfast and then put the three kids in the van & drive to Ohio.  I considered staying an extra night, but didn't really want to be in DC with a sick kid without Jeremy either.  We're pretty sure it was food poisoning, because he showed no other signs of illness than vomiting -- no fever, no lethargy, no achiness or any other complaints.  So, I decided to risk it, pilfered a plastic bag from the hotel to give to Ross, in case of further incident, and hit the road.

(Maybe this is where I should mention that when the valet brought our van up and opened the trunk to help us, he pulled off the decorative shield that covers the latch for the door -- the shield that has been repaired too many times to count.  Sigh.)

As I was pulling onto I-270 from I-495 (after only about 15 minutes in the van), Ross loudly vomited into the bag.  Now, this is a very busy area.  Even at 10:00 in the morning it was 4 or 5 lanes of densely packed cars (and you would have to have a death wish to pull over on the side of the road here).  And these were not the kind of exits with gas stations at the end of them...they were busy streets with businesses and no good place to stop.  I told Ross to hold on and I would stop at the first exit with a gas station.

Ten minutes after the puking, Ross started screaming that the bag had a hole and vomit was leaking all over the place.

Fifteen minutes after the puking, I finally came to the first exit with a gas station indicated.  Guess what...there was no gas station.  I drove 2 miles down the road before I got ticked and turned around and went back to the highway.

Twenty minutes after the puking, we came to an exit where we could see the gas station signs...hallelujah!  There were two of them...one a run down looking Marathon, the other a sparkly new 711.  I took the sparkly new one, because I figured the bathrooms would be in better order.  I pulled in to get gas, intending to fill the tank while I was both calming my frazzled nerves and cleaning the gunk up in the backseat.  I went to remove the gas cap and realized that it WOULD NOT COME OFF.  I twisted it and the familiar clicking noise was missing.  I wiggled it.  I started swearing.  I felt tears starting to well up, but the stupid little gas cap won't come off.  That is when I considered sitting down on the cold, dirty ground by the pump and having a good cry.  Could there be any stupider reason to have to call AAA to come rescue you than because your gas cap won't come off?

So, I gave it one more try, pushed just right and it came off.  I filled the van, making a mental note to find an auto parts store before I run out of gas again (though, luckily, I had figured out just the right way to push the cap so that it would open).  My dad was kind enough to take care of replacing the cap for me when we got to their house.

I cleaned the carseat and van carpeting as best as anyone could with wet wipes and then headed in to use the facilities and to try to get Ross in order.  And you know what?  That sparkly, new looking 711 had the DIRTIEST gas stations bathrooms I have seen in years.

We went in the bathroom and found that there was no toilet paper --  NO FREAKING TOILET PAPER!!!  I told Reid to head over to the men's room to get some, but he stood in the middle of the hall with a puzzled look on his face like I was speaking Greek to him, so I walked around and went into the men's room myself (single use type thing, so no I didn't just barge into a room full of men).  If I thought the women's room was bad, I apparently had no clue what real dirt is -- the men's room made me what to douse myself with a can of lysol.

So we headed back to the (slightly less dirty) ladies room, took care of everyone, only to realize the paper towel dispenser doesn't work.  Oh, the paper towels are in there all right -- sitting there mocking me, but they WOULD NOT COME OUT.  Fortunately, there was a roll on a really high shelf that I managed to tip off with my finger and catch.  This was NOT the place to stop with three small kids.

The good news about the 711, however, was that they had gallon sized ziploc bags.  No more leaky puke bags for us, man.

For a while after this, the trip was very uneventful.  Reid can now reach the DVD player to swap movies out, which is so helpful. After 2 hours of movies they all passed out.  I must have drove about 4 hours without stopping, which was a God send.

Lunch at the McDonalds in a small Pennsylvania town would have been okay, if not for the group of 6 or so very loud and obscene old men ranting about politics.  I am sure my kids learned some new words from them and I pray they never repeat them.

I had been planning an alternate route, but decided to follow Bossy (our very old GPS) instead.  BAD IDEA!  She took me THROUGH Pittsburgh and down 13 miles of heavy city surface street traffic and then dumped me out on a freeway in the middle of the city.  I almost tossed her out the window, but decided instead to replace her when I got to Toledo.  I didn't do it...I should have, but I didn't.

In the end, I got there, but it was one of those trips that cures you of any desire for another road trip for a long LONG time.  The week that followed wasn't much better, but I'll tell you about that later (I'll give a hint, though -- there is plenty of puking in the story.)

The Office

I have been trying to update my blog for a week now, but blogger just hasn't been cooperating.  I finally realized I could update to their new editing thingamajig and it seems it will work for me now.  I should say, however, that I hate the new thingamajig.  

After Christmas, we dove into another painting project -- the office.  This one was a nice small and contained space, so it didn't seem like such a chore (though all the other rooms in the house look easy compared to the living room).  The walls were just simply a color that I didn't like -- especially the bottom.  They had a real peach undertone to them in person and I just don't do peach.

So, this is the before (taken at closing, so no furniture):

And this is the after:

What can I say?  It is an office and it is boring.  It is, however, the first thing you see from the foyer, so I want to dress it up a bit.  See that large empty wall in the top picture?  I want to put a picture wall there.  On my to-do list for sometime in the near future is to cut out paper to represent different frame sizes so that I can tape them up and figure out just how many I am going to need (I think we'll turn this into a vacation wall, featuring just vacation and fun pictures).  I also want to look for some arm chairs to set in front of the windows (and maybe some curtains, too).

Aprons!

Well, perhaps just "apron" is more accurate! Last weekend I broke out my much neglected sewing machine and threw together a new apron. Now, if you've ever been to my house, you know that I positively live in my aprons. And I only have a few of them, which means I wash them ALL THE TIME. Well, my favorite apron literally shredded to pieces on me, so I decided to take a stab at making one myself.

Here is what I came up with. And I mostly patterned it after the one that shredded to pieces.

I made a loop of fabric to tie the neck strap on, because I don't like having a big knot at the back of my neck. The knot doesn't lay as flat as I would like, though I do like the functionality of the loop.

And I LOVE the fabric. Picking the fabric out was the best part of the project!

Lucy is begging me to make her one. And I definitely need to make myself several more, though I will probably keep modifying my pattern until I get one that is just right for me. Now to pick the fabric...definitely something with pink this time so I can make Lucy a matching one that she will be pleased with!