Things that make me go Hmm

I wonder.


I wonder at the wisdom of an ice cream truck blaring the tune of La Cucaracha. I mean, what are they advertising? {more of my ice-cream truck grievances here}



I wonder if this means #3 is ready for a real bed:




I wonder if I was dreaming or were my children actually playing nicely with each other:




I wonder if this is a sign of things to come:




I wonder if these boots were made for walking (or sitting untouched in a closet for 15 years):




I wonder if I'll ever be ready to do this again:

*Sorry. I know you'll never be able to look at the me same again.

A Serious Question For Your Consideration

I consider myself quintessentially mediocre. I've read enough and listened enough to have an opinion on several subjects, but I'm not an expert. I have a few casual hobbies and interests but no real talents. (Don't start thinking of a sympathetic comment to write. I'm totally cool with this.) But there is one area where I've always thought of myself as gifted: finding lost things. I'm good at retracing steps, remembering details and logically deducing the location of the lost thing to the most likely places. When the item is found my self esteem inches upwards and I mentally chalk up another victory.

And since we are on such intimate terms on this blog I'll divulge the source of my finding powers: God. Like clockwork, I say a quick prayer for guidance then I get a new idea of where to look. Every time. Like Paul said, there are many spiritual gifts. Some people have great faith, some charity and some can speak in tongues. I can find things.

So last Friday while Spouse and I were in our front yard weeding, I noticed through our screen door that #3 was playing with my set of keys. A few hours later when I tried to find them, they were gone. Lost. But I had no doubt, no fear. Just confidence that the Lord would lead me to the keys. As usual, I mentally petitioned the Lord for help and went about finding the keys.

{On my key chain I keep our mail key. Which is illegal to copy and if lost you pay to have your mail box re-keyed. Times are tough, friends. $100 goes a long way these days. And now you understand my motivation for finding my lost keys.}

After a little while, and no luck yet. I began to doubt. Its never taken this long. Why doesn't the Lord just hurry up and give me my keys back? But I couldn't give up that easily, not after the many, many times I had found the thing I was looking for.

A day passed. Still looking. Just waiting for the light bulb in my head to switch on. Why are you testing me, Lord?!? Is this supposed to teach me patience?

Several more days passed. By now every drawer, every cupboard had been emptied out and searched. Under beds, behind furniture, under cushions, searched. Under stove, behind frig, behind washer, dryer....dust bunnies from every possible corner dislodged and still nothing. There is no end to the possibilities where a curious 22 month old could leave something! At this point we were praying as a family for our lost keys. I'd even offered a Webkinz reward to whichever child made the discovery.

I guess I'm going to have to find a new spiritual gift.

Last night as Spouse and I were about to turn in he said, "I think I'll wake up early tomorrow and go through our trash before it gets picked up." Bless his heart.

7:00 am found Spouse rummaging through repulsive bags of week old raw chicken trimmings, soiled diapers and foul smelling milk cartons. The sacrifice was not in vain, because after only a few minutes he triumphantly entered the house holding the lost keys over his head. (For a moment he attempted to capitalize on his victory by claiming having found the keys entitled him to certain compensations.)

They were found! I don't know what I was more relieved about, having found the lost keys, or knowing that the Lord hadn't let me down.

So my question is: Can I claim any credit for the finding of these keys? Because this is really what matters.

Spring Break (part two)

Our Spring Break finished up with a bang. Maybe more of a ping than a bang. We were all pretty worn out by Sunday night. Brother Brig and fiance left early Sunday morning. #1 and #2 lamented their departure all day, complaining of boredom and the injustices of not living nearer to family.

Brother Brig was really good at engaging the kids and entertaining them. #1 kept begging for more "russlehousing."

Brig's fiance indulged #1 nearly everyday by participating in some 6-year-old pastime; paper dolls, American Girl dolls, wii games.

The zoo! We tried something new and brought the kid's bikes. I learned that #2 doesn't know how to use his brakes. Every hill was the same thing. He would get going really fast and steer himself into something, like a bush or a fence or the pavement, to stop himself.

Walking on a spiderweb. Leave a message and I'll call you back. And it's all your fault, I screeyeeyeen my phone calls..... honk if you're a 90's girl! (or guy)

After getting hot and sweaty at the zoo we stopped at an old ice-cream parlor for a cool treat.

Estrella Mountain Park. This hike was perfect for my little ones, .06 miles. Any temptation we had to extend the hike was tempered by warning signs of an Africanized Bee colony.

Saturday morning soccer game. Brother Brig and his photographer of a fiance. I wish I'd had some of her pictures for this post.

This is how we keep our kids corralled during the soccer game. #1 had to get in on this picture. She is such a poser lately.

Saturday night #1 lost her 2nd tooth. She says she wants to keep the tooth and isn't willing to risk putting it under her pillow. I guess she wasn't too impressed with the tooth fairy's first gift of a mere 4 quarters.

So long Spring Break..... until next year.

Spring Break (part one)

Since we couldn't go to Mexico, like we had planned, due to all the violence along the border and because we never really had planned to go to Mexico, we've been having a whole bunch of local fun for our family's first spring break. My brother and his fiance, enjoying their own spring break, are here helping to take some of the entertaining pressure off of me. Anything is fun with Brother Brig around.

Monday: AZ Science Center

Here is #1 bummed that she lost a mind game to me. Check this out: so these electrodes are supposed to pick up a certain brain wave that indicates stress. The person who is the most relaxed during the game wins. And I won. What the?


I want to borrow this bed of nails for time outs. But I'll make my kids sit on it instead of comfortably distributing the weight around by lying down.


Brother Brig testing his strength because it's soooooooo hard to lift #3 off the ground. Sheesh, what a wimp.


Tuesday: Downtown Excursion with fun on the Metro Light Rail, and Museum of Art (free on Tuesdays!)

#2 practicing his spiffy new "smile for the camera" face. Check out that dimple!

At the train stop.

#1 with fresh excitement. 15 minutes later she was asking how much longer we had before we could get off. The answer was, "way too long."

#1 and #2 in the miniatures room. I didn't get many pictures at the museum because #1 injured herself in a fun-house like nightmare. Ooops! I mean in one of those abstract light instillation pieces. The room was completely blacked out with little fiber optic lights fading in and out. All the walls were mirrored and angled so it was pretty much impossible to find our way out. After what seemed like an eternity I started to call for help. From the blackness I hear the usher say, "The exist is over there." Super helpful. If I could see the exit I wouldn't be asking for help out! But just then, poor #1, fooled by the illusions in the mirrors, thinking she has found our way out yells, "Here it is Mom!" and runs full speed into one of the walls. Her nose exploded like a bloody grenade. We were quickly escorted out and sadly the museum was much more concerned about their bloodied exhibit than they were about helping me push my stroller or carry my screaming 6 year old, while dragging my four year old to the nearest bathroom.


Stay tuned for Spring Break (part two).


What are you doing for Spring Break?

A Perfect Saturday

Growing up my family went backpacking and hiking for family vacations. Spouse would have written that "vacations" because his idea of a vacation is doing as little as possible.

Sitting here tonight I feel like I might have experienced The Perfect Saturday. For me The Perfect Saturday includes a long run, hours in the sun at #1's fist soccer game, children playing freely while Spouse weeds the yard and I detail the house. The perfect Saturday must include the satisfaction of a well stocked pantry and a full (clean) frig. It also includes #1 and me in the kitchen making strawberry jam while Spouse mows the lawn and #2 rides his bike on the back patio. The Perfect Saturday winds down with the kids eating cereal for dinner because I don't HAVE to cook every night, right? It's only perfect if I still haven't showered as I write this post and if my legs are so exhausted they feel like jelly under me. The Perfect Saturday will end with me falling into bed, very soon; scriptures sliding off my chest before I finish one verse. This is satisfaction to me.

Spouse, if you ever read this, I know you are rolling your eyes right now. My Perfect Saturday = Spouse's Saturday From Hell. Spouse's perfect Saturday would go something like this: sleep in. Sleep in so late it's time for lunch. Go out to lunch. Lay on the couch watching an old western or some boring science show, with me snuggled under his arm only getting restless when it's time to refill our popcorn and Diet Cokes. Doze. Rouse in time to get dressed for dinner which would of course be Mexican take out. Stay up late eating treats and watching movies. Don't ask what the kids have been doing all this time. In Spouse's fantasy the children disappear on Saturdays.

What is your Perfect Saturday?

Whew!

What kind of friend am I? I drop an opinionated hot-topic bomb on you and then leave for two weeks? There are good excuses my friends. Good excuses.

Excuse #1 Visitors!

Excuse #2 More Visitors!

My brother and his family from New Mexico came to spend Valentines/President's Day weekend. The cousins were thrilled to be with each other; so thrilled they couldn't sleep at night. Spouse and my brother stayed up to the wee hours of the morning discussing important things like guns and freedoms and stuff. My SIL pulled through for me and helped out at our primary activity on Saturday morning. Spouse and I did our best to convince them to move closer to us. After a morning at the zoo, they left for home around noon on Monday.

#1 and cousin - static heads

It wasn't like this all the time. #2 and his cousin were great playmates.

My good brother and my good Spouse still solving the world's problems.

Lunch break at the zoo.

SIL, brother and their little baby, outside the monkey village - at the zoo, people, not my house.

Quick change of bedding, bathroom cleaning and a trip to the grocery store and we were ready for our next guests, Spouse's parents, who arrived Tuesday afternoon. As usual they came bearing gifts, hugs and happy times for us. Grandma J tirelessly read to, played with and indulged my children with grandmotherly attention. Grandpa J treated us to movies, boat-rides, and many meals out (something we don't do much of anymore). They left us with full hearts, an extra 5 pounds for me, and a closet full of pressed shirts for Spouse.

#3 and her Grandpa at the Tempe Beach Park

#2, #3 and patient Grandma playing Sequence For Kids.

Spouse's dad is a real guitar player, so he caught onto Guitar Hero quite naturally. Spouse's mom is trying not to get sick from the rolling notes on the screen. I can relate.

#3 rockin' out on the drums

#1, with her Grandma at Mimi's for breakfast.

Now it's back to reality and the responsibilities I seemed to forget while our visitors were here. That is unless I can entice any more visitors our way...... (hint. hint).

An all boys party

Several months ago Spouse informed me that #2's 4th birthday party was going to be with all boys. Spouse made baseball card invitations with #2's face superimposed over Kurt Wariner's body. He painted lines on our grass and set up a football goal standard. There was going to be nothing girly about this party.

And so 8 little boys came to our house yesterday to play soccer, baseball, football; break open a baseball pinata; and wrestle each other WWF style in our bounce house. I naively had planned fun little games involving the sports equipment. But 4 year old boys have no attention span, and resist being directed when they're interested in other things. After a while I just gave up and let them play. If I hadn't already been convinced, yesterday proved again how different girls and boys are.

For example, at a little girl's party the girls socialize and pretty much stick together as a group. They say please and thank you. They like organized games and can sit still for a number of minutes. However, little girls are fixated on order and fairness and who gets to sit where and by whom. And ultimately, someone's feelings get hurt and there are tears.

Compare that to a little boys party where the boys are happy to play by themselves and aren't very interested in what the others are doing. When there is a disagreement, the stronger one just rips whatever he wants from the little one and it's over. They aren't interested in rules and winning games. They just want to do what they want to do. Cleaniless and good manners are just things someone tells them to do and which they usually ignore.

You mothers of all girls may be smugly relieved you don't have to deal with the unknown - the masculine side of life - things like your almost four year old son exiting the bathroom in just his briefs with half of his privates squished out of one side saying "hey mom, look at this!" But little do you know how much you are missing of a boy's uncomplicated affection and easiness to please.

I think we could have thrown rocks at a wall for an hour and #2 would have been equally pleased with his party - providing there was cake and balloons of course. Next year I'll be wiser. Happy Birthday #2!