This Is It

February 28, 2009

our room

they were fighting a few minutes before the picture was taken. but, now they are getting along. playing store. with madi's barbie cash register and max's shopping cart.

let's see,

last week... we ate at IHOP, did good at karate, were rewarded with a sonic ice-cream cone, shopped at home goods, lunched at jason's, ran and walked at the gym, picked up a stomach aching madi from school, got checked by dr. jones and of course, took a few trips to target.

on friday... i took max to the park. saw an old friend from elementary school, catalina, and her three cute girls. max chased after two little girls for at least a half hour. went to the gym. i walked 5, ran 20, walked 5, ran 5, walked 5, ran 10, walked 5, ran 5. minutes, that is. then cooled down for at least 10. went to pick the kids up and madi had one less tooth. one of her friends helped her twist it out.

  

it's a good thing, because that other tooth was already coming in. but, all of a sudden now, madison has a very strong lisp. which goes away when she doesn't think about it.

friday night, mackenzie was invited to jordan's (a boy in her class) birthday party at the athletic arts academy. she got to go ice skating for the first time. i thought she would be hugging the rails for awhile and falling all over the place. it took her about 2 minutes to get the hang of it and she was flying around the place. 

 

she had a blast skating and hanging out with her friends. (and spinning in circles with the boys) i stayed there the entire time. and couldn't wait to get in the car to crank the heater up when the party was over. i was freezing. it took me all night to warm up.

mackenzie now wants to be an ice skater.

the daily knocker

by about the time i'm busy blow drying my hair in the morning. in my bathroom, with the door locked. (because darric's in the shower) there's usually a knock at the door.

sometimes it's max. he's just waking up. i let him in. tell him good morning. he looks at his dad. and goes back out.

sometimes it's the girls asking for the hair brush. which means, they're right on schedule. :)

and sometimes it's 1 of 2 tattle tellers.
"mom, kenzie just put her fingers in her milk and flicked it on me!" (pointing to her arm where two little spots of milk sit)
or
"mom, madi didn't use toothpaste when she brushed her teeth."

him. again.

 
[at jason's deli, slurping up their ice-creams] 

we're in the car and he says   "i can make my naked go in a circle"  you what?   "i can make my naked go in a circle"  how do you do that?   he grabs himself and moves it around in a circle.

i think it's probably time to teach him that that is not called his naked. i don't call it that, i think he just assumes that when i talk about him being naked, that's what i'm talking about.

. . . . . . . . . .

he has a little blue bag that his grandma carter made for him. last night, he was carrying his dog around in it. as i'm looking for something in the fridge, he comes over and shows it to me and says, "this is my man bag".

. . . . . . . . . .

leaving the gym, a little boy comes over and tells max good-bye. max says "that's my brother" no, that's just your friend. "uh, no, that's my brother" ok.

. . . . . . . . . .

if something bad has happened or there's a mess... "he" didn't do it. but, dora the explorer has been known to splash a large amount of water out of the bathtub. and a dinosaur somehow got ahold of a red crayon and colored on top of our dryer. and we have no idea who ate three hershey kisses and left the wrappers just laying on the couch this morning. 

Ten on Tuesday

1. How nice is it that Starbucks has added an extra slit in their straw holes? That's very nice, now my green straw doesn't get all squished.

2. Max has nicknamed the cat... Dukers.

3. While looking around Pier One for curtains, Max tells me, "this place is giving me pimples." He wasn't very happy to be there.

4. Yesterday, I ran for 30 minutes straight. I was so proud of myself. And I didn't even notice that my towel had fallen off and was lying on the floor behind me. When the half hour was up, I walked for an hour, because the final episode of Real Housewives of the OC was on. I had to see it. So I went almost 7 miles. (Thanks Tamra, Gretchen, Jeana, Vicki and that brunette chick who's dumb as a rock)

5. New paint color: Desert Camel

 
It's actually a little bit darker in person.

6. This morning, we celebrated National Pancake Day at IHOP. Max, Quincy and Grandma got the free stack of pancakes. (we made a donation to the Children's Miracle Network) Max had regular syrup and Quincy had the strawberry. Max let Quincy know that he is allergic to strawberries. (This is not a proven fact - he just threw up once after eating a strawberry smoothie, so we thought maybe he was allergic) Jodie and I got the Viva La French Toast, with scrambled eggs and bacon. It's our new tradition. I believe that was the same thing we both got last year when we went.

7. Madi made a mouse. This is what she chose at All Fired Up. Grandma Carter made a penguin.

 

8. Mackenzie is all about writing stories these days. I can usually find one sitting in Wordpad on the computer waiting to be finished. This is how one of them starts out...

as the last bell rang at school, i jumped out of my seet looking forward for the full summer ahead. we planned to go horseback riding. and swimming at my friend jennies house in florida. my birthday was the only unlucky thing. because my birthday was on the first day of fifth grade. no one would know me. not one person would wish me a happy birthday.

9. I've started using the calendar on my new phone. I don't really know what else my phone does, but I'm liking the calendar. What I have on there for the rest of this week... a much needed doctor's appointment for me on Thursday. And a Birthday party for Mackenzie to go to on Friday.

10. Right now... I'm really wishing I had a Golden Spoon frozen yogurt. I'm glad that Max is finally settling down, he did not have a nap again today. Darric is resting his aching neck while playing a game of Solitaire on his phone. And Mackenzie is in Madison's room reading her a story. (They're both supposed to read every night for school - Madison thinks this counts) It's 8:08 pm.  

02.15.09

sunday - this morning we went to pick the kids up at g&g carter's. we stopped at the 7-11 for a very unhealthy breakfast. later that afternoon, kenzie and i went to look at some curtains at cost plus. i saw them in the ads, but they weren't as cute in person. so we went down to the newer target (on blue diamond) to check out their curtains. i was in awe when we walked in and i noticed they had a starbucks. two of my favorite things in one place. i didn't find any curtains there either, but we picked up a couple groceries that we needed.

when we got home, the girls played with brianna (from down the street) while i started taping off the kitchen, living room and hallways. that night we ordered papa john's. we haven't had that in a long time.

02.16.09

monday - no school. president's day. i spent the morning cleaning, especially my bathroom. blake came by to get the turtles.

me and the kids met crystal and her little girl at jason's deli for lunch. it was our get together in celebration of my birthday.

we dropped madi off to grandma carter (she had darian and jayce with her) at all fired up. she couldn't wait to use her birthday gift certificate.

we drove out to crystal's house after that. first, we looked through some old pictures of the two of us. the majority of the pictures were of us dressed up in our cutest outfits (or matching shirts) posing in front of a sheet hung up on the closet doors in our bedrooms. i'm thinking jodie probably took some of those. after that, crystal did my hair. just a little trim and some highlights.

it was raining now. we headed over to pick madi up at grandma carter's. and picked up dinner on our way home.

02.17.09

tuesday - went grocery shopping at trader joe's. max scored today. he got a balloon, some stickers and a sucker. he also grabbed a package of gingerbread cookies when we walked past them. (i only had one bite. i usually eat at least half the package. which is not good.)

at 11, we were at max's karate class. he did an awesome job the entire class. and had fun doing it too. he was the highest jumper and the only one that could hop on one foot without losing his balance. we took some milk and lunch over to jodie, quincy and beckam. (right now, jodie has morning/afternoon sickness)

we went to the gym after the girls got out of school. after walking for a half hour, i finally got the nerve up to RUN. i finally ran. and i didn't fall and embarrass myself in front of any LVAC members or staff. my longest stretch was for ten minutes. but it will only get better. (i hope)

that night, i wanted to go hit golf balls with the guys. so all of us (including the kids) went to callaway. it was harder than i thought. and i don't do well with taking instructions from anyone. the kids were arguing, max fell and scraped his knee and then fell asleep. so it wasn't as fun as i thought it could be. oh well.

02.18.09

wednesday - this morning at 7:30, i took all three kids into the school for a meeting with the counselor and madi's teacher. we had to discuss madi's progress. and to see if she still needs any special accommodations. she doesn't, everything is good. her teacher said that sometimes, when they get back from a break, it takes madi a little bit to get warmed up to her. but she's fine around her friends. so... no more 504 for madi. :)

at 10 we met jen at target. a little while later, my mom and jodie met up with us. from there we went over to cafe rio for lunch. sometimes max can behave himself when we eat here. other times, i tell myself... we are never coming out of the house again. whether he's good or not, him and quincy usually end up out of their seats dancing around by the end of our meal.

02.19.09

thursday - dropped the girls off. ran to home depot for more blue tape and paint tray liners. then to sonic for a drink. and then i began to paint. had a quick lunch and kept painting until it was time to pick up the girls. went to gym. ran/walked for 65 min. (5 miles) we had jumbalaya for dinner and darric went to get me and him golden spoon for dessert.

02.20.09

friday - sonic and back home to paint. i was moving right along until i stepped off of my step stool onto the paint tray and tipped it over. half of the paint stayed on the plastic, the other half... onto the floor. crap. i don't think that's the word i chose at the time though. i had to bring the carpet cleaner in and try to suck up as much paint as possible. :( i wanted to cry and stop painting. that would have made me feel better. but i didn't. jen came over around ten to help. she brought me a ladder too. at 11 she went and picked up lunch. cafe rio. (of course. she finally got her first free meal.)

at 1:30 i had to leave to get the girls and jen had to get home to get her kids. when we got home, i started painting again. i wanted to be done.

darric got home and went to the gym. around 5:45, we left to head over to UNLV. mackenzie's choir was singing the national anthem at the baseball game. the choir had to be there at 6:30, the game started at 7:00. we were there at about 6:10. which was good. we had time to pick up our tickets, get madi a UNLV t-shirt,(since she was one of the first 50 students there) get some snacks and find some seats. only to move when the game started. we wanted to sit by the rest of the school. mackenzie sat with the choir after they sang. most of those kids were up and screaming while mackenzie sat calmly in her seat. madison left us as soon as she could. she sat next to her teacher and some of her friends. darric, dave, me and max sat together. max fell asleep by the end of the first inning. it was pretty cold out. so we left after the third inning. 

 
 

on our way home, we were behind this guy that first caught our attention when he ran into the curb. and then he was all over the road. we followed him for awhile, only because we happened to be going the same way. i tried to call *dui. but, i guess it doesn't work anymore. it didn't work for me. we picked up el pollo loco, came home and ate. and then i was up on the kitchen counter getting one of the last spots painted. darric finished off the night getting above the other counters where the highest spot is at. and we were done. well, we were done painting. we still had to put the outlet covers back on and pull of the blue tape. which i thought was my favorite part until i started taking it off. i don't have patience for stubborn little slivers of tape. darric screwed the covers on and we went to bed.

02.21.09

saturday - i was up at 6:30 so i would have time to peel off some more tape and move the furniture back to where it goes. i got most of it done before it was time to jump in the shower. darric had a 10:00 tee time and had to be there at 9:30. dani and i took all of the kids to the tennis courts to try and play. and we were told they had leagues coming in at 10:30 (we were there at 10:00). so we played 3 very quick games. i won't say who won all three, but dani did have a good excuse this time. (the kids) :) we left and took our 5 kiddos for a walk. we had gone pretty far and were starting to lose control so we headed back to the house. we watched the first half of HSM III before the guys got back. then we visited for a bit and headed home.

that night i went with my mom and sisters to dinner at claim jumper. the food wasn't really great for any of us, but i think the conversation was good. and even though the dessert (chocolate chip calzone) was cold, burned on the bottom and doughy in the middle, that didn't stop us me from eating it up.

and where do you think we went after that? our favorite hangout... target. i bought a dress for hawaii and we walked around and around some more. it was fun.

02.22.09

sunday - this morning darric left to go mountain biking. and after me and the kids were ready, we headed to trader joe's. kenzie found lemmie the lobster today. we stopped at subway for some $5 footlongs for lunch and starbucks for a drink. we deserved it, we went grocery shopping on the weekend. i hate grocery shopping on the weekend.

the guys got home right after we did with their lunch. and darric shared his new goal. to ride all the way up this tough mile and a half hill.

i finished up the laundry as i finished up reading firefly lane. what a good book. very emotional, but so so good. that night, we had 3 different kinds of trader joe's pizzas to choose from. they were pretty good. we didn't watch AFV, thanks to the awards show. mackenzie watched sober house with me instead. 

our happy hearts day

darric was up early. dave picked him up at 6:15 to go to their 5k. at about 7:00, i noticed darric's wallet on the couch and worried that he wouldn't have the cash to do the race. (luckily, dave had enough)
i showered and cleaned up around the house.

darric and dave returned from their first race and we loaded up everyone and went to the southpoint casino to eat at the buffet. i'm all about the all-you-can-eat and i have been asking darric to go with me to a buffet for awhile now. but i think this will be the last time we go to a buffet for a long time. people cut in front of me in line, the food was blah and i had to watch dave and mackenzie eat crawfish. nasty.

we went to home depot and picked out some paint and got a couple other things for the house. we came home and started to switch madi's stuff into the playroom (again) so they will all have their own rooms. they have a hard time cleaning up when they share. "she got that out" "that's not my stuff" 

darric fixed a few things and later we went to jen and dave's for a nice valentine's dinner. the kids ate heart shaped-homemade pizza and the adults had regular enchiladas and chicken enchiladas. it was very good.

at 6:00, we took the kids over to g&g carter's house. grandma carter had a valentine's party all planned for them. we just dropped them off with their cousins for the night and came home. they played musical hearts, drop the clothespins in the bucket, pin the nose on the heart man and they decorated sugar cookies.

we invited dave over to hang out. we watched not another teen movie and ordered pizza from rosati's. later, jesse came over to visit and we played rock band for a bit. at about 2 am, they left and we went to bed.

the excitement of digital

1. look for the perfect disney character to pair mom up with

2. say "cheese" and snap the picture

3. turn the camera around real fast so mom can see before the picture goes off. laugh with excitement.

4. find the picture again, so mom can see close up, how she looks with tigger.

02.08.09

it was sunday. no tennis for us girls. the courts were still wet. so we went for a long walk instead. we got lost, for a second. then we came back towards the clubhouse, it was getting really cold, so we stopped for a warm drink. coffee for dani and hot chocolate for me. the guys were golfing.

we picked up robertos for lunch on our way home. darric fixed the dryer. he did a little switcheroo with the old one that was out in the garage. it works pretty good. we had jason's deli for dinner after darric went to the gym.

02.09.09

i can't remember what i did on monday.

02.10.09

it's madison's birthday!! max and i went to jodie's house to watch her, jennifer and my mom make some vday marshmallow treats. then we had to leave for max's karate class. he was all excited to go until we got inside and the teacher had her handicap son with her. max was kind of scared of him, so it took a little while for him to get warmed up. the second half of class, he did an awesome job. we went back to jodie's house and had lunch, then went and picked up the girls. kenzie had a dentist appointment, so we headed straight there after school. (she just had to get a cleaning) we made another appointment, including madison this time. she was so excited, she shrieked when i told the lady to add her. when darric got home from work, we went to red robin for madi's birthday dinner.

02.11.09

tonight i got to celebrate my birthday a bit more. i met mandi and millisa out at bj's for dinner and good conversation. the pizza was really good, but the chocolate chunk pizookie was even better. oh yum. thanks again girls for a fun night out.

02.12.09

first thing this morning, we went to an assembly. mackenzie had a little speaking part on abe lincoln. she did very good.

after... max and i ran a few errands. first to our target, where i ran into carla. her son was getting braces on so she came to do a little shopping. she said she knew i would be there. ;) i bought the book firefly lane (millisa picked this time) and looked for some valentine plates for mackenzie's class. they only had one package of ten left. i bought it. then we ran out to costco to pick up some prints for teacher gifts. then over to the other target. max was asleep, so i had to carry him in... look for 2 more packages of plates and try to keep my shirt pulled down over my stomach. luckily, they had the plates and i bought a couple extras just in case. after the girls got home that afternoon and did their homework, they got their valentines ready.

   
   

madi wrote out the names, punched out a couple valentines and i ended up doing the rest. kenzie did all of hers. and added frowns on the boys valentines. when i told her that wasn't very nice, she went back through them and drew smiley faces too. i wrapped some digital printouts around a couple candy bars and another one around a sucker for the teachers. it wasn't as cute as i was hoping. but that's what i get for waiting until the last minute.

 
that night, i left the family again to go to camie and her sister's pampered chef party. (i forget how much the freeway sucks at 5:30 pm)it's been at least a year since i've seen camie, so it was nice to go and just catch up on things. i ordered a few items and booked a party too (there is a pineapple wedger slicer thing in the new catalog that i believe i have to have). so don't be all surprised if you get an invitation in the mail soon. ;)

02.13.09

we had another assembly this morning. madison's class was singing 2 songs and she also got an award. YAY madi!!

 

after getting a starbucks treat for me and the little guy, we came home. i cleaned, max watched madagascar II. the day seemed to go by quickly. before we knew it, we were eating lunch (vegetable lasagna for me, pb&j sandwich and banana for him). we left for madi's vday party at about 12:30. we were early. madi's teacher was out sick. there were three of us moms there to help. the kids made these big paper frogs that their valentines went in to. after they were all passed out, they got to make an ice-cream sundae. second graders really like to pile on the goodies. ugh.

   

max had a friend while he was there (one of the little girls he plays with sometimes while we wait after school). madison thought it was pretty cool that her and her friend brought the same valentines in.

   
we stayed until the school bell rang and then we went over to kenzie's class. today they got to bring board games in to play with. mackenzie brought in mall madness. her class had muffins, cookies, fruit, pretzels and exchanged valentines too.

max and i left the girls at the school for their last "healthy snacks" class. we ran over to sonic to take advantage of happy hour and before we got there, he was asleep. it was nice to sit and wait for the girls in quiet. i read and enjoyed my route 44 diet coke (and a chocolate chip cookie too). the girls came home and went through their valentines. that night we had spaghetti for dinner when darric and dave got back from hitting balls. then the kids got settled in the living room and i turned on madagascar II for them. it was an early to bed kind of night.

February 11, 2009

girl's school

me and max. on the playground. waiting for the girls to get out of school. it was a little chilly so he wanted to be held. he looks up and says "hey, it's us"