Extraordinary Mundane

• There is no smile like the smile we capture in our annual holiday jammies before present opening.
• I love my tree this year.
• It snowed today! Sure it was wet and didn’t stick, but it was still beautiful and we walked in it!
• Last night we opened the Karaoke machine and sang Christmas Carols.
• Everyone loved their gifts. The highlights were Noah got a digital camera, wii video games and a scooter . Dinara got a keyboard, inline skates and a horse stable . Emma got a Red nano, ds games and knitting stuff.
• John scored on my gifts this year. I got a ring, a beautiful cashmere sweater and a killer fossil watch.
• I got John a camera lens he wanted and a digital picture frame.
• Dinner was prime rib and it was excellent!
• I am highly aware that this is a perfect example of a holiday that I will look back on when I am old and gray and long for it.
• My children have been delightful this year. Everyone was grateful and appreciative. Everyone was just as interested in giving as they were in getting. Everyone showed genuine joy at the gifts others received.

I feel very blessed. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

(Click to embiggen the pics)

Ahhhh. Back from our trip to Florida. Back from spending time with Mickey. We had a wonderful family vacation. It was a very busy vacation that included a lot of time with family, time with my new niece, great moments with my dad, time with my cousins, time with friends and time at Disney.

Here are some pics!

John, Emma and Noah all wet from Splash Mountain!

Mommy and Dinara soaked but happy from Splash Mountain!

Arrrgh! Check out my favorite pirates!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year….at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Late night Mini Golf. Tiger Woods has nothing on us!

Line Waiting! It was a vacation theme!!!

Smile!!!

Brotherly Love

Isn’t she cute! I love being an auntie!

Work it girlfriend! Emma’s new clothes from Gramma!

Pop-pop playing his role as lap… or beanbag chair. We aren’t sure which.

Sunset at Fort Myers Beach!

Ok. So I ran 4 miles on Saturday with LOTS of hills. I did over 2000 feet of elevation. My legs (quads) were sore yesterday. I had hubby rub them down. Today I did a 13 mile bike ride. And let me just say… biking isn’t fun when your quads are sore!

Training is going ok. I have 27 days till the Triathlaon. So this is the final push phase for me. So I’ll do a build and then a long taper. I’ll continue to do “mini-workouts” of 20-30 mins the first few days and then about a week before I’ll just take the week off.

When I was running the other day, I saw a bird scrounging for food. Then he just stopped and puffed his breast out and closed his eyes in the sunlight. I felt like it was a metaphor for me and my life. The bird wasn’t focused solely on his task at the expense of enjoying what is around him. He was able to stop and savor the beautiful sunshine. Im going to do more of that. Just so happens I was walking UP a hill when I saw that. If I had been running, I might have missed it. Ha. I can rationalize anything.

The biggest test of my endurance is working. Fitting in 4 hours a day on top of an hour and half of training and my commitment to spend an average of 2 hours a day completely immersed with the kids. Then of course there is the patio project.

Oh dear friends, the patio project has been sooooo trying. I don’t even know where to begin. Our Landscape Artictect was a complete bitch. I didn’t like her at all. I would say things like “please put concrete in this area” and she would ignore me and do her own “design”. Then I would ask her again, and she would do something else different to show me. Each time, charging me for her time.

Then the contractor is very sweet but he’s young and has had a few missteps along the way. The biggest misstep was changing how we were going to construct the sitwalls from concrete block to pouring them. Which costs about double I figure. Add to that he didn’t put the sleeves into the concrete so we have to run more wire around the concrete, I had to project manage a lot of the project because he wasn’t here and various other small communication missteps, and it’s just added up to one big headache.

He also put all his eggs in one basket with this one mason. Well this guy came out and his quote was 18K more then what the General contractor gave us in bid. So we had to stop everything and regroup. Obviously, we aren’t going to add that 18K on top of the increased concrete costs.

So now we are looking at doing part of this project ourselves. We are going to build our own fireplace and bbq island. We are going to put our own rock on the sitwalls. I’m including a picture. It’s not much to look at yet…but it will be.

Having the kids home this summer has been awesome. We have had so much fun. I love the age they are now. They are not driving me crazy. I am present and savoring the time with them. Even with work — it’s going great because I’m really making time for quality time every day. This is the first time in my life I can say that I am completely present with my children. Im not wishing away the time, I’m not hoping for free time, I’m not thinking about what I should be doing differently. Im just here enjoying it. They did one week of camp and it was fun for them… but if you ask them, they would rather be home then at camp. So I think we are just going to do one week more. We’ll see. What I like about camp is the dailiy activity level.

I’m in the process of planning a trip to Disney in November. Also going to head down to the house in Florida. This is my 40th birthday. I have to tell ya I don’t even care. I’d like to go get more “skin” taken off as a present to myself. But I don’t think I’ll have time to do that for awhile. Maybe in the winter?

Wednesday our In country Adoption Facilitator is meeting us for breakfast. It’s a rare treat to get to spend time with Kazakh peoples! Let alone our adoption facilitator. We are really looking forward to that.

Wednesday night I’m scrapbooking with some friends. I need to get on the stick and get some pictures printed out.

Ok… that’s the basic update….

We are celebrating Noah’s seventh birthday early so we could do the party before school gets out. We are having a party at one of those pottery painting places tomorrow. I made his cake today!!! Isn’t it cute?

I was reading a book the other day and the following quote really spoke to me:
“Have you ever met a perfectionist who has peace?”

I think that is my quest this year. To find peace that comes with giving up on the idea of perfection. It will be hard, but I am going to try.

Tomorrow construction starts on our new patio. The whole process already has been wrought with compromise. It’s been a good reminder to me just how whacky people can be. And I have had to find peace with the idea that I must trust folks who I do not know with a large sum of money to do what I expect. And yet I know they really don’t understand what I expect completely. But they keep assuring me it will all work out ok. I’m not so sure.

This week is the last week before school is out. So I am hoping that I can get a lot done. However its already quite booked up with several end of the year parties, planning and shopping for my son’s birthday party on Sunday, several PTA meetings, construction issues and of course Tri-training. I also am in the final negotiations with my employer for a part time job. And I just have this sinking feeling that it’s all going to happen right as the kids are out of school and I’m a slight bit worried about fitting that all in. And of course I am training for the Tri too about 7 hours a week. And did I mention I’m fighting a cold right now? Yes… life is fun.

I can do all these things, the question is whether I can do them at the level I want to do them. I am pretty sure I can not. So the key for me is going to be to prioritize them. I simply am going to have to give up the quest for perfection and be happy with adequate in several cases. You know, like I have with blog posting. Ha.

Where I am not willing to sacrifice is time with my kids. There are things I want to do with them this summer and I will give up other stuff to make that happen. I mean really just look how cute they are? How fast they are growing. Time is valuable and fleeting. I must spend the resource wisely.

I can’t believe how Martha I am becoming. Behold Emma’s SleepOver Cake. The people are made of Twinkies and Vanilla Wafers. Aren’t they cute? Tomorrow we do cake decorating, swimming and eat pizza and watch movies. Should be fun.

God help me.

In a week, my baby is turning double digits. My eldest baby is leaving childhood for the wonderment of preteendom. I can’t believe it’s been a decade.

We are having girls over for a sleep over bash on the 14th. We are going to decorate cakes, go swimming, do girly quizes, and Emma is going to serve pizza in her bedroom and watch a movie. Sounds like mucho fun eh?

Today Emma and I made little “fondant” present cakes to give each of the invitees to whet their appetite (so to speak) for the party. We had a lot of fun!!! And I should win a June Cleaver award for this don’t you think? Here’s the pdf of the paper invite that went with the “present”:

Emma’s Invitation to her Sleep Over Cake Decorating Party

Happy Gotcha Weekend late We celebrated a little later this year since we’ve been so busy. Took the kids to the Melting Pot where everyone enjoyed boiling overpriced food. Of course the highlight was the dessert. Chocolate Fondue. YUM! And then today we went and painted stuff at one of those Paint Your Own then they fire it for you. Below is a pic the waiter took for us. Not bad.

Also went on a date with hubby and saw Premonition. Uh. Take this statement as a premonition: Skip it!

Hey… I take pride in my kids where I can folks.

2 points for symmetricalness of the mashed ‘tater
4 points for use of green beans as ears
-1 for not enough color

Here he is!

Merry Christmas!

Pictures speak a thousand words don’t they?

We had a fantastic day. I just love Christmas. I do remember the Reason for the Season, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit how much I truly enjoy my children’s delight in opening presents. It’s amazing. I absolutely adore it. You could probably say I am addicted to it – evidenced by the receipt totals this season!!!

We opened gifts around 8am. Em got her new bike and Club Penguin membership. Dinara got a video camera and Playmobile Castle. And Noah got a DS Lite and a haul of Pirate Playmobile stuff.

The family gift was the coveted Wii. Oh my. This thing is so great. It really is all it is hyped up to be. We bought several games to go with it and 3 controllers. And we have all had fun bowling, playing tennis, and cow throwing. My favorite game is Trauma Center. I will admit that I bought this game for myself. It’s a lot of fun, although I will admit to not getting much Wii time today!

We had a delicious western egg casserole for breakfast with cinnamon rolls. And for dinner Prime Rib. We made this jello salad we saw watching the Paula Dean show. And what I loved the most was that everything was so “easy” today… that I was even able to take a nap this afternoon! YIPEE!

Having my parents here has been really nice. I will admit that we are in the “home stretch” now and mom can sort of “grate” on my nerves at times. But it still makes me very happy they are here. I have made a real effort to express how I feel to them. That it isn’t just about what I “think”… but that I feel so happy they are here to share all of this.

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday too. Thanks for reading about mine!

But instead, I’m scrapbooking. I love this page.

I got some time to do some digital scrapbooking this weekend. This is one for Dinara’s book that I really like. Clean and simple.

Scrapbook Page \"Bliss\"

When my children forget to push their chairs in, our resourceful dog figures a way to snatch things off the kitchen table.

Busy busy busy day today. School started. My how my children have grown. I think this is the time of year when I really recognize the difference from the year before. The change is striking. Also striking was that for the first time I was really sad to see them go back to school. I *enjoyed* them this summer. And minus a few times when they drove me crazy, I really felt we had a memorable summer. I didn’t want it to end. I think I’m growing up too.

So we got them all to school, made extra hectic because I had to park further away then I thought. I couldn’t “drop them off” because the door on the drop off side of my van is broken. That is a whole other post, but it’s going to cost $700 to fix it. My 2001 Town and Country minivan has 35K miles. We don’t use it THAT much. And I will never buy another one. Just because of this. I feel like that even though it’s out of warrantee, the part is obviously defective.

Ok…so back from that tangent. Distributed the kids to their classes. We are thrilled with their placements this year. All the teachers are great.

Then I went to the PTSA coffee. Mingled. Saw old friends. Why would I go to this coffee you ask since Im not the Board anymore? Because I signed up to be Staff Appreciation Chair. Why? Because yesterday after talking to my friend about maybe taking the position I read a quote that said: “that which matters most should not be left to the mercy of those who matter least”. Expressing gratitude to our staff is important to me. I can be passionate about that. It creates lots of goodwill. It builds momentum. I believe I can make a difference. So I figure if I want something done I should step up and do it myself versus complaining about someone else barely doing an adequate job. Also… I decided that I suck at being a worker bee. It’s not as rewarding. Being bossy just suits me. Ha.

Then I went and tried to get Starbucks $2 Latté Cards for the teachers. But turns out that the minimum is $5. That is out of our budget. So I gave them $2 instead.

Then I went out to lunch with my best friend. I love spending time with her. We are in a really good place right now. And I just love it when friendship rolls along at a good clip with no waves. When we have enough time to spend with each other. We do better when we can see each other a couple times a week.

Then I went back to school to distribute the cards. And I wrote 3 welcome to our school cards for the new staff.

Then I went grocery shopping. I bought $16 worth of apples.. I don’t know how families of 5 eat for under $100 per week and still buy fresh produce.

Then I picked up the kids from school.

The rest of the day has been a wash. I sorted through papers. Heard first day stories. Read a paper Noah wrote that said “What I liked best about my first day of school was that I ate lunch and went to PE.”

Made a delish dinner of grilled salmon, gnocchi, broccoli and spinach salad.

Now Im off to go do some laundry and clean up around here since I was out all day. Exciting life I live huh?

Subjecting you to some vacation photos

Ahhhhhh. It was in the high 80’s today. I just love this weather. It was wonderful. We had a dinner of cashew chicken salad sandwiches and watermelon. And we enjoyed some fun sprinkler time with friends. I’ve included some pictures below.

Emma got her braces today! She looks so much older with them!!!

It was a reflective day for me. Looks like we are going to get an offer on our house in Florida. I’m still thinking about the job situation. Went to lunch with a friend. And am just processing what minor “adjustments” I need to make to my life to maximize joy.

Has anyone read the interview in this month’s Oprah with Hugh Jackman? It was very inspiring.

Have a great evening everyone!

The house is quiet. It’s 11:30 and I’m tired, but not sleepy. So here I am. Blogging. Lucky you.

It was a busy day today. Spent some time with friends. Drank lots of coffee at Starbucks. Made poodle skirts for my kids. Cleaned my whole downstairs. But morning didn’t start off great.

I came downstairs and got coffee. Like normal. Then sat down to read my email. My mom wrote me this morning to thank me for her Mother’s Day Package. I sent her a Micro Cooker from Pampered Chef she had been wanting. She thanked me for that. She thanked me for the mousepad and notecards the kids made. Those were acknowledged. But the scrapbook I made of her grandchildren? That I spent HOURS on and was really beautiful? Not a mention.

I remember as a child my mom not putting up my artwork. I remember her not wearing the tacky jewelry I bought her. And now still at age 38, I am still marveling at her abilty to cut me down to the quick. My first reaction of course was outrage. The thought “I will never make that woman another thing in my life” crossed through my mind more then once.

Then I progressed to hurt. Really hurt. I don’t think I spent enough time with the hurt actually. Today was busy with making poodle skirts and all. (and I made Emma’s twice so… really… it was a very busy day!)

Now I’m just sort of numb. I talked with my sister about it. She basically wasn’t much help because she all but called me an idiot for expecting a different reaction from our mother. So there wasn’t really much comfort there either.

Emma heard me talking about it with John this morning. She said to me “Gramma didn’t thank you for the scrapbook?” I said “ nope”. She said “Oh wow mom, you’d never do that to us.”

Is it wrong that I want my mother to know that her 9 year old grandchild recognizes her mothering short-comings?

But did I mention the beautiful poodle skirts?

Amazingly, I didn’t over eat through my hurt. So I figure I’ve progressed a lot or I am so detached that it’s not effecting me. I think it’s progress through because if I was detached I wouldn’t be writing about it.

Tonight John took the kids to the Sock Hop at school. I’m burned out on school activities and have had such a busy week… this seemed like a good opportunity for Daddy time. So I stayed home. And what did I do you ask? I cleaned.

Yet another sign that perhaps something is bothering me. But I didn’t eat.

Two good things did happen today. Two people said it looked like I lost weight. I consider that a minor miracle actually. Did you know that when I lost 100 lbs there were still people who wouldn’t say “wow… you’ve lost weight!” I finally figured out that people don’t like to recognize weight loss in really fat people. It makes them uncomfortable to have to admit they actually were paying attention to how fat you were all along. So I always make an effort to recognize fat loss achievements in fellow fatties.

I’m kind that way.

Anyway… After I cleaned, I took a shower. And it was really a hot one. And then I laid down in my bed to read my new Oprah Magazine. But I fell asleep. For about 25 minutes. But it was a hard sleep.

Did I tell you I took a Yoga class the other day? (Bonnie are you reading this?!) It was good. It was challenging. I could still feel the workout today. Deep tissue. Made me recognize muscles I didn’t know existed way back there in in my back. Anyway… I think it really helped me to sleep better. Next week I’m supposed to go with a friend to a yoga place in Seattle that is more spiritual focused. I liked that yoga slowed me down and made me more present. It took more mental focus then I expected.

So now my downstairs is clean. But I still have three loads of laundry to fold. But now at least I can enjoy my weekend. I can’t stand when my house is so messy that I can’t enjoy myself. It’s like I can’t give myself permission to do things for me without order in my house. Weird huh? It’s a touch OCD… but it works for me.

You know, if my kids acted like my mother with regards to a gift… I’d give them a consequence. What do you do to a 59 year old woman though?

I can’t change her. I can’t make her value things I create. My mom has made tremendous progress this year in being more “feeling” and yet today she showed me just how far a road we still have to go.

I won’t be telling my mother about the beautiful poodle skirts I made the girls today I guess.

I am enjoying being around my children immensely lately. They have become incredible beings with incredible thoughts. I love talking to them and exploring their minds. Time is going by so fast. I am working hard to savor every moment I have with them.

I thought I’d share some pictures. Here’s one with Emma and her new space between her front teeth. She’ll be getting braces in a couple of weeks.

Then there’s Noah. He’s climbing a lot lately. And is in a big eating phase. And gets boo-boo’s everytime he plays outside. We’ve worn through the knees on at least half a dozen jeans in the past month.

And then there’s Dinara. She’s about to lose her other big front tooth. She’s got that cheeky toothless grin that just screams “I’m seven years old… look at me!”

My kids are growing up.

Rest in Peace Gramma. I’ll miss you more then I can express.
1920 - 2006

I’ve been scrapbooking a lot. That is why I’m not into blogging. It’s like I’m not much of a creative multitasker.

Anyway…here are a few of non-personal layouts I thought I’d share. I’m a liberal arts scrapper. I scrap in a bunch of styles…. I like having no creative limits. My big limit right now is simply not being digitally knowledgable as I would like to be!

Song I love of the moment: Narrow Daylight by Diana Krall

Here are some pics from the weekend.

I have so much to write about, I don’t even know where to start. How often does that happen?

My parents left today. It was a good trip but it was a bittersweet trip. There just isn’t any denying the decline in my father’s mental capacity any longer. He could not put new laces in his shoes. He could not get his seat belt buckled 90% of the time. He could not follow television shoes and preferred shows that used repetition and rephrasing like the news and the weather channel. Much humor went over his head. He inferred things that just weren’t true. His dementia hasn’t progressed the way I thought it would. Mom said that what they say is that he has lost mostly “executive functioning and reasoning”. Which means that he can’t do tasks that a person with a Master’s degree should be able to do. His speech has slowed down a lot. He has to stumble to find words. He doesn’t complete some sentences. It was sad. And yet he’s lucid in many ways. We were talking about how he copes with all these things and he said it’s difficult. And I mentioned that many times he’s been “wrong” when he says things and I don’t want to correct him and hurt his feelings. He was quick to tell me he wants family to do that… (although I know for a fact when my mom does it – it sends him over the edge). Anyway… it was a deep conversation. So who knows. It’s just so very hard to practice my coping skill of choice when they are “here”. Detachment is hard when you are living with it day in and day out.

My mom’s judgement continues to concern me as well. My father is having back surgery on Dec 12th. I’m a bit nervous about that… but I’m sure I”ll practice my fine level of detachment. Anyway.. on this trip my father had a few days of high blood sugar and we realized he was getting confused and injecting himself with AIR instead of insulin. He would see a ‘line’ in the needle when he was drawing it up but it would only have a couple of units and there would be an air bubble. Probably because he is a bit shakey. Anyway… finally got my mom to realize only SHE needs to be doing his medicines from now on.

Also convinced her that he needs a follow up on his sleep apnea to make sure it’s correct. He’s sleeping so much I’m not sure it’s right. I also think he’s experiencing a high level of anxiety because of the feeling out of control because of the dementia. So I told mom I think she needs to ask for him to be on some type of anti-anxiety meds. He does take Xanex at night sometimes… but I think he needs to be on it all the time. He seems to really get anxious whenever there is a new situation or he anticipates something new. This seems like it’s actually something they can treat. No reason for him to suffer. I also think he’s got the beginnings of Parkinsons. He was very very shakey a lot. All of it is so hard to watch.

My daughter gained 8 lbs while my mom was here. I know my mom can’t help it…but if you ever want to peel back the layers on why I was fat… you can start square one with my mom and the way she ties giving love to giving food.

Also did have a good time with mom though. They did a great job while we were away in Hawaii. I couldn’t believe how smoothly she kept everything running. I really did appreciate them watching the kids. I need to send her a thank you note.

Dinara had her Audiologist appointment and does have Auditory Processing Disorder… I’ll write more about that later this weekend. There’s enough there for a whole post.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I need to post my Turkey Brine recipe. It came out so wonderful. Really made delish gravy too. It was a nice day. I feel like I have so much to be grateful for in my life. Yes, my life gets so stressful sometimes but what blessings I have in my life.

Today we put up the tree. And I spent an hour playing with the kids putting the trains up around the tree. The Geotrax trains. Gosh… can I just say that I love these trains? My kids all love them too. All of them. Santa is going to bring some more for Christmas!

I’m going to go enjoy some down time and read in bed!!!

Pictures of summer….

Fishing with Grandpa

Swimming tricks

Enjoying the beach

The eight year old gagging herself from mommy kisses!

Happy 5th Birthday Noah!

Nothing says summer like a little bumbum hanging out of a bathing suit!

My husband and I have never had professional pictures that we have both loved. We struck gold on the cruise. There was an awesome photographer and he took some beautiful black and whites of us… And then took some awesome ones of the kids!

Life is really hectic right now so here are some great pics to hold you over….

Great Picture of the Day: Today after school we picked up some Slurpees and headed to the park to spend time with friends. Here’s a great picture my friend snapped of Dinara and me.

Weekend Proclamation: This weekend I have no plans. I am not obligated to anything or anyone. I am going to get my house in order. I am going to only do things that make my soul feel nourished. I will accomplish things for me because they make me feel good. I will not interact with people who don’t understand me. And that, unfortunately, includes family members who want my input on problems they are going to handle the way they see best anyway.

Cute thing today: Noah today told me that the white puffy things that are floating around (cottonwood pollen?) was the cloud rain.

Happy Mother’s Day to Me !

My three

Noah’s preschool portrait

Dinara at indoor park

Emma at Brunch

Happy Mother’s Day to all my fellow Mom’s out there

Dinara took a tumble on her friends bike yesterday. My heart just hurts for her!!!

And my lip.

And my nose.

Today we celebrated Emma’s 8th Birthday. She had a great party and we had a fantastic time. Lots of fun, all the girls were great and it was a day where we enjoyed being a girl!

1 Cupcake Cake: $25
14 lunches and one Diet Coke at McDonalds: $40
15 girls at Libby Lu Party: Obscene amount of money!
The smile on my daughter’s face when she said she’d remember this birthday forever: Priceless

Blowing out the candles on the cupcake cake!

Emma getting her hair done into a “Pop Princess”

Emma’s ready for her closeup!

Dinara is ready to rock!

Do I look like Hillary Duff?

Perfect Spa Day for Eight Year Olds!!!

Pictures are worth a thousand words right? Click thumbs to embiggen!

We’ve had incredible weather in Seattle the past few weeks. Here are some pics from our latest park outing a few days ago. They are growing up so fast!!!

My God…the laundry never ends!!!!

Calgon… Take me AWAY!!!!

Which reminds me… we all agree what bathtubs are really good for right?

Who started this sending holiday picture tradition anyway? You know when you read those articles in Oprah and Redbook about doing away with the one tradition that makes you break out in a cold sweat and doesn’t give you joy? This would be my one. But I do it, because I committed in college and to my far away friends to send out at least a Christmas card every year. I might be crappy with maintaining friendships the rest of the year, but when the yuletide spirit hits… dammit I’m right there with a perky family Christmas Card. And at least I know then that I will have one picture a year of our family, looking decent and presentable. So it’s like killing two birds with one stone.

Yes I really do tell myself all of this. You should hear the conversations in my head.

We took our Christmas pictures this morning. This is no small feat. Cause everyone looks at the picture and thinks… Oh… look at them. How sweet. It looks EASY. WRONG WRONG WRONG.

The process started last night when I decided that we all needed to wear the same color shirt. And since black is thinning… and I feel like everyone is looking at this stupid picture to see if I have put on any weight after my 2 1/2 years after weight loss surgery… decided black is a good choice. But my children don’t have black clothes. Because… well… I don’t think black is a good color for kids. So I went to Target and bought black shirts for those who didn’t have them.

Then the weather needed to cooperate because everyone knows that good pictures are all about lighting. This is a big deal in Seattle since it’s cloudy and rainy a lot. But the weather gods smiled on us and it was sunny today. And of course, the pictures have to be taken in the morning because we live above the 45 parallel and that means it starts to get dark here around 4pm and the light isn’t as good. So this means everyone had to be up and ready for the pictures by 10am. Because we had a birthday party to be at 11am.

You can count this as a horrid scheduling error on my part. We needed way more time for breathing room to stay calm.

So we got everyone fed and did showers. Showers for five. Blow Dry hair. Don’t use conditioner on the hair so it dries faster. Deal with kids screaming I am hurting them when I am brushing out the hair. Time saved by not using conditioner but dealing with screaming kids? Prolly a wash.

Daddy gets himself ready. That’s it. Just himself. Sound familiar? Yeah. We won’t go there.

I scramble to get everyone’s teeth brushed.
I scramble to make sure everyone is dressed.
I scramble to do girlie hair.
I put some gel on Noah’s cowlicks.
I put makeup on myself.
I fasten necklaces and put in earrings.

I yell down to hubby to make sure that he has the directions for the party “printed out and ready to go”. I tell him to make sure the camera has batteries and to set up the tripod.

I finish up with the kids. I make sure I am presentable. Damn we all look good!

I come downstairs and John is scrambling. He can’t find the doohickey to attach the camera to the tripod. It’s now 10:10. He has to leave at 10:35. We are already dangerously behind schedule. I’m pissed. If he would put stuff back where it’s supposed to go, we wouldn’t have to scramble for it when we really need it.

I start taking pictures of just the three kids. Kids are grumpy and won’t keep their hands off each other. Why can’t Sanibel, our dog, be in the picture? Why is Noah squeezing me? Why aren’t you and daddy in this picture? Can we go yet? UGHHHHH. But at least if we can’t have the family shot, I’ll have some cute pictures of the kids.

John finally figures duct tape will hold the camera on the tripod. We take about 14 poses. And this is what we came up with.

I guess it was worth it. Merry Freakin’ Christmas Everyone.

Going through vacation photos to figure out what to develop for prosperity… and there are some nice pictures, some pictures that invoke memories, and some pictures that make me laugh and maybe are best left in the recycle bin. You be the judge (and jury!).

On the Monorail

Loving Everything Disney!

Daddy and Dinara at the Luau

Emma and Mickey!

Noah and Mommy Soaking Up the Sun

Here are the funny ones that most normal people wouldn’t share on their blog. But no censoring here folks!

The One Where it Looks Like My Boob is Falling Out

The One Where Gary trys to Make me Hot

The One Where my Four Year Old Son Feels Up his Aunt

The One Where my Husband Likes To Watch Me Eat A Frozen Banana

Ahhh the first day of school. Today went off without a hitch. The girls bounded out of bed this morning and their energy level stayed high all day. They love school. I hope they can keep this enthusiasm through the years.

Morning started off all smiles with lots of hugs from Emma who enjoyed her role as “big girl on campus” getting to be big sister to Kindergartener Dinara.

My brave little girl was so excited to be starting Kindergarten. She did great. She was all smiles this afternoon with lots of details. Well… lots of details about how she got lunch all by herself in the lunch room.

Emma loves school. She was up at 6:45 this morning because she couldn’t wait to get there.

Noah isn’t going to start preschool till we get back from Disney. So he sat around this morning, playing with his Gameboy, eating a candy necklace, and sipping on the sport bottle. Pretty much all he’s done since he broke his leg. Mom lets him play lots of video games so… Life is good!

Too tired to blog today so I’m going to simply upload some pictures that speak a thousand words.

This first picture is of Two Monkeys. Noah & friend at the Zoo.

Last Day of School Smile. Dinara and her preschool teacher on their last day. Dinara is going to be in Kindergarten next year and she’s going to miss Margie!

Emma and Neve have become Best Friends and we couldn’t be happier! Neve is Jay and Kim’s gorgeous kidlet.

Slip Slidin’ Away — Emma and Neve experiment using the gator going down the slip n’ slide!

And they called it Puppy Love….
Noah and Sanibel sharing the love.

We are home! I have spent my day doing tons of laundry, grocery shopping and catching up on emails.

We had a great time. Noah was recovered enough to be in my sister’s wedding. He did a great job. The kids stole the show. I think my favorite part of the whole scene was watching Noah peek out from behind the best man’s legs and wave at us during the ceremony. He stayed up there the whole time though. I was quite proud.

And not to be out done, my daughters did a wonderful job being flower girls. They sprinkeled their white rose petals daintily on the floor, and when they were bored during the ceremony they realized there was some left and proceeded to create a nice big pile of left over rose petals at their feet!

There was a lot to do in Vegas. We visited lots of hotels along the strip and took in many of the freebies. We enjoyed the free street type shows at the Venetian with their jugglers and mimes. We liked the butterfly garden at the Bellagio. Kids loved the amusement park at Circus Circus. (OMG what a freakin ZOO!) I liked the pretzels at NY NY. I liked the breakfast buffet at the Paris. The kids enjoyed the Shark Reef at the Mandalay and the Lion Habitat at MGM. And we all felt like we were going to puke our guts at the motion ride at the Luxor. We got around! And we also enjoyed the Lazy River at the MGM and even got a little sun burned. But you will never hear a complaint out of this Sun-Starved-Seattlite!

Emma’s favorite thing was riding the mechanical bull at Gameworks.
Dinara’s favorite thing was making her own bag of M&M’s with her own hand picked colors.
Noah’s favorite thing was the Aquarium at Mandalay.

I was disappointed that MGM closed their theme park. And I was disappointed that they didn’t have childcare. But I was still able to win $250 at the nickel slots playing this really cool slot gamed called Flip-Flop. John and I would take turns watching the kids and go down and play after they went to bed.

So we had fun…. We didn’t go to any shows (Celine was on break!). I didn’t get to go to any spas (dammit). We didn’t eat at the really good restaurants I had hoped to enjoy (kids were always too cranky and tired by evening to take them anywhere where they’d have to sit still for 2 hours)… but we created wonderful memories with our kids. And let’s face it, that is more important then the other stuff.

Enjoy the pictures!

Emma riding the mechanical bull!! She did great!

John riding the bull. He didn’t do so great!

We loved touching the rays at the Shark Reef at Mandalay!

Noah giving mommy a little wave during the wedding. Isn’t he adorable in his tux?

What vacation would be complete without pictures of the new stuffed animals?