This Is It

i'm there

i am at that stage in my life.
that stage when
certain songs come on the radio
and my kids give me that strange look.
songs from the 80's and 90's.
old(er) songs.
and i try to convince them
that really, they are good songs.

the other day what's up by the 4 non blondes came on.
mackenzie was like "what the?"

i turned it up and sang screamed along.
i remembered almost all of the words.

i had to dig out my cd.
and now i'm going to play it
over and over
until all three of my children
can scream along.
and they will learn to like my music
just like i've learned to like my parent's.

monday
back to school for the girls.
max and i ran to old navy, again.
picked up girls.
went to gym.
made dumplings and veggie stew for dinner.
probably won't be making that again.
had golden spoon for dessert.
watched a new how i met your mother.
watched wow wow wubzy with max at 9:30.

tuesday
max's karate class started back up today.
two of the boys from last time are in it.
they were silly together.
ran by the bank on the way home.
max fell asleep in the car.
got a call from school nurse at 1:15.
madison had a stomach ache and wanted to come home.
put on my gym clothes.
went and picked madi up.
waited for mackenzie to get out.
went to gym.
grilled chicken.
while i cooked a side of pasta primavera for dinner.

wednesday
madi stayed home.
went to target.
bath and body works.
trader joe's.
picked kenzie up from school.
went to the gym.
came home and showered.
met mandi, millisa, katie and mandi's other girlfriend
at california pizza kitchen.
to celebrate mandi's birthday.

thursday
went to the library for new books.
jodie, quincy and beckam came.
max fell and scraped his finger.
refused to move it or let me touch it.
because it had blood on it.
went to mcdonalds.
had lunch and the kids played.

    

ice-cream cone for the drive home.
picked up girls.
ran to neighborhood wal-mart.
came home and did the shred.
showered.
made the family spaghetti.
met at jodie's house.
went out with jen, jodie, jen r. and amber h.
ate at maggianos.
finally tried the chicken and spinach manicotti.
yum.
went over to the improv at harrah's.
(thanks to jen rose and maryellen)
laughed.
until there were tears coming out of my eyeballs.

 

got home just before 11:00.

friday
met jen and jodie at the mall.
looked in gap.
waved to the easter bunny.
max was going to sit on his lap.
but when it was his turn he said,
nah.

 

beckam was the only brave one.
he went and gave e. bunny a high five.

picked up girls.
went to gym.
tried to get darric to go out.
for a guy's night out.
i wanted to curl up on the couch.
and watch a chick flick.
instead, the basketball game was on.
but muted.
and we talked.
about people and churches.

saturday
max went with the guys.
to pick up a bike.
and then to the bike store.
they brought home lunch.
i took the kids to the south point.

 

to see monsters vs. aliens in 3D.
it was a cute movie.
and funny to watch max reach for things.
i talked darric into getting cafe rio again.
this time he got a salad.
and realized that i've been on to something.
for awhile now.
tommy came over to play that night.
dave brought us golden spoon.

sunday
went with kenzie to trader joe's.
darric got a new haircut.
pulled the weeds.
then bbq'd lunch.
madison played with the girls down the street.
went to jen and dave's for dinner.

happiness for under $2

special at trader joe's
$1.29 for a bunch
they looked like asparagus, all closed up yesterday
when we came out into the kitchen this morning...

  

madi had $1.75 in quarters in her pocket yesterday and couldn't pass these up. she decided to take a few in to school to give her friends and the biggest one would go to her teacher. mackenzie had to take one in to her teacher too.

...........

and for those of you that were wondering. this is lemmy. the lobster. you can barely see him sitting up above the freezer. he's wearing some kind of hat and a lei. max found him yesterday. and screamed, "THERE'S LEMMY!!"

(i made madi take the picture)

a hallmark moment

it's me, max and madison (who hasn't uttered a word in her sick voice since we dropped mackenzie off at school).
we are in the card aisle at target.
one of my least favorite spots in the store
because it always takes me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to find THE card.
madison is searching the cards too.
she picks one up and on the front is a line of old ladies in bikinis.
it's one of those cards that plays music.
before she puts it back, max grabs it.
he opens it and closes it.
again and again and again.
and as we walk away,
he has the nice little diddy burned into his memory.
and he sings it.
again and again and again.

tiddy, rump,
tiddy, rump,
tiddy, rump, rump, rump.

 

  
(checking out the cool shades just before the meltdown began for a pair of batman sunglasses)  

me, me, me, me

I need to change the time on my computer. it has thrown me off a couple times.

I wish my sonic believed me when i told them i had a 99 cent sticker. (even though, i don't)

I think we might need to change banks. i mean seriously... how cool is the name bank of george.

I subscribed to creating keepsakes. i don't scrapbook anymore, but i love looking through the pages of the magazine.

I got my mammogram results back in the mail yesterday. everything is NORMAL. :)

I thought we lost the meet the robinsons dvd. i was very sad. but I found it... under the tv stand.

I get really mad about the fact that in the afternoon, i get to the girl's school 30 minutes early to get a good parking spot, mainly so i don't have to parallel park, but anyways, as i'm going to leave, i can't. because some person (who doesn't bother coming on time and is probably the same person who drops their kids off after the morning bell has rung) has pulled up next to me and blocked the street. sorry if any of you do this, but it really irks me. I also can't stand (ok, hate) when people drive down the center lane. and when people get in the right turning lane... when they are not turning right... and they go straight... when there is really no lane marked on that side of the intersection to begin with.
whew.
that felt good to get that all off my chest.

I had to laugh yesterday. i was folding clothes and madi had just locked max out of her room. he starts to bang on the door and then in a deep voice says, "let me in. it's me, mom."
do i really sound like that?

I have some errands to run now. madi is home sick (we'll see how long that lasts) so she gets to run errands with me too.

   

I took these pictures yesterday while max was trying to get rid of his hiccups.

where did he get that from?

[i'll be adding to the list as i remember]

"hold your applause" 
(from meet the robinsons)

"what's the big idea?"
(pinky dinky doo)

"what the?"
(from his big sisters)

"dingleberry"
(from his dad)

"dingleberry plant"
(he came up with that one all on his own - him and his dad were going back and forth calling each other names... this was the last one max came up with)

 
(got the idea for this photo from the amazing tara whitney) 

03.22.09 [sunday]

today was chilly.
today was windy.
today was rainy.
today we went for a drive. the kids asked several times, "where are we going?" the answer, "no where, we are just going for a drive."
today i talked darric into having cafe rio for lunch. (he liked it)
today madi discovered the comics. when i was a teenager, i used to cut out the luann comic strip every sunday. 
today kenzie and i went grocery shopping at trader joes. then we ran next door to super k for a couple things. (i do not like that store)
today crystal came by for a few minutes.
today the girls played with the neighbor girls. there are about 7 other girls around their age that live on our street. sometimes we don't see any of them for months.
today i watched twilight. for the first time. i was not expecting jacob to look the way he did and i kinda laughed at dr. cullen and jasper. not what i was picturing in my head while reading the book. the movie was ok.
today madi invited hunter for dinner.
today we had trader joe's pizzas.
today kenzie, madi and hunter helped make banana cream supreme for dessert. (we forgot to add sugar, but i don't remember the pampered chef lady adding it the other night.)

 

today the girls had to prepare to go back to school. track break is over. madi is happy. 
today darric discovered the ceiling fan lights dim when you hold down the button.
 

03.21.09 [saturday]

the guys were off golfing today. all 18 holes this time. the girls (dani, me, kenzie and madi)... had a big day planned. an important one. we were in search of the wedding dress. and i believe it was found. the "junior bridesmaids" needed dresses too. but, lost control of picking them out when madi handed us her first choice. there were beads and lace and it looked like something an adult would wear. some things are on order, but we all ended up with a beautiful dress and shoes with just the right amount of bling.

we were all starving as we left the store. so off for lunch at sammy's woodfired pizza. we would like to recommend: the hummus tapas (appetizer). it was sooo very good with the grilled herb flat bread. and when it was time for dessert....

 

we went a little crazy. that's mackenzie's messy sundae and madison's cotton candy. it said cotton candy on the menu, but for some reason we, the adults, just glanced at it and thought it meant a cotton candy flavored something or other. ha. when they brought it out, all we could do was laugh. and i'm sticking with dani's story... each of us enjoyed a delicious sliced apple. ha. ha.

we hurried home. the guys were done and they were starving. wha.

everytime we leave their house, we have to get this extra kid out of our car. he says his name is not billy. and usually, he tries to fool us into thinking he is our third child, max. but today, his name was duke. we left him there.

darric and dave stopped for gyro time. we had a little debate on how to pronounce the word. jy-roh, guy-roh. we'll never know. dave refused to ask the gyro time clerk.

we got home and i remembered we were on our last roll of tp, (and that twilight came out on dvd today) so me and mackenzie ran over to target. we also had to get some more schlim fast drinks, garbage bags, shampoo and conditioners for everyone and dishwasher detergent.

that night... in-n-out for dinner. cheeseburgers and fries. protein style for me and mackenzie.

03.20.09 [friday]

tommy's birthday!

this morning, i made the mistake of letting darric shower, doing two loads of laundry and running the dishwasher before i turned the shower on for myself. i stepped in, realized there was no hot water and jumped back out. there was no way i could handle that. i uploaded some photos on the computer and in about a half hour, decided it had been long enough. not for hot water, but for a bearable warm. that was a quick shower.

we left the house later than planned, but still plenty before lunch time. (it was about 10:30) the rule was, if i got my shopping done, the kids would get to play at the park. with that bribe and the cool tv function on my phone... i was able to quickly look in h&m, take my time in old navy and walk through victoria's secret to see their slim pickings of swimsuits.

we got pretzels from aunt annie's. original. salted. sticks for me and max. cheese dip for all of us. then over to the park. it was really warm in the sun, but perfectly wonderful in the shade.

   
   
  
   

i was one of the few parents that was able to leave the park with no meltdowns. (the kids knew they were getting to go to yogurtland) first, we ran back into old navy so i could try on a few of their swimsuits. got one and then we went for dessert. 

  

this ended up being one of my best trips shopping with all three kids. but as soon as we got to the car, the fighting started. :)

we had one of my favorites for dinner... creamy mushroom and chicken soup. max even helped me by slicing the mushrooms with my pampered chef egg slicer. he was very proud of himself, but still refused to try one when we ate.

the whole family headed to the park that night. darric and madi ran around the track first while the rest of us played. tonight was madi's night to not be happy. she ran all four laps, but probably cried through the last two. we switched and it was me and mackenzie's turn. we did our four laps. i think it was a little easier for her tonight. not one bit of complaining. but as we arrived back at the play area, max was crying. he had walked right into the path of madi's swing. and got knocked right off of his feet. poor guy. by the time we got to the car, both him and madi had dirt streaks down their cheeks. and darric had a craving for golden spoon. 

thursday's trip to c.e.c

i decided not to tell the kids where we were going today, hoping to totally surprise them. but ended up telling madison because it was DRIVING her CRAZY (she wasn't allowed to let anyone know she knew).

as we took a left onto sunset, mackenzie had a pretty good idea where we were headed. madison was still pretending she was clueless. i asked them to keep quiet to see if max could guess.

sure enough, when he saw that big ol mouse on the building, he knew. and then i told him we were going to the sears to get our tires rotated. he was ticked for a second before i let he know i was just joking. then he hollered with excitement. and screamed with even more excitement when he saw jodie's car there in the parking lot. grandma, jodie, quincy and beckam were waiting for us inside.

one of the employees must have been testing the machines because strings of tickets were hanging out all over the place, waiting for our kids to go rip them off, i hope. before we even spent one token, the kids had over 350 tickets. score.

   
   

we always have to give the little ones two tokens at a time, that way, they have to keep coming back to us. and they don't find one game to stick all of their tokens in. (like quincy was starting to do here with the ducks.)

   
   

sitting at our table, i could hear max laughing. a good deep belly laugh. i could see the back of this little girl sitting in the roller coaster ride and as i came around... there he was... with his new friend. when the ride ended, she helped him unbuckle his seatbelt and they were off. i don't know if he enjoyed the company more or the fact that she had tokens.

   
  

it is pretty entertaining watching this three year old boy play skee ball. i think he was too short to get a good roll, so he ended up throwing the ball. throwing it into the wrong lane or right at the separator thingy. his last two balls he just threw overhand. and those ones actually scored more points.

     

when the tokens ran out (or money, according to quincy) and the kids "munched" up all of their tickets, they went and picked out their super duper prizes. slinkies, were the popular pick today.

then off to the free entertainment. the tunnels and slide. and while they enjoy themselves, i sit at the table and hope that there is never any reason that i should have to go save one of my kids from up there, because i don't know if i could handle it.  

as we pack up to leave, i grab the stack of pictures/drawings the kids have been bringing to us during our entire visit. these are always my favorite.

 
 
they did a really good job getting this group shot.

 

as if chuck e. cheese wasn't enough, we stopped at sonic and grandma treated everyone to a jr. candy sundae. ok, maybe chuck e. cheese was enough, because meltdowns were quickly upon us.