Just a reminder....

Just a reminder that tonight is the big benefit show for Merideth Curteman. All proceeds go directly to them and their medical bills a plenty.

So come and buy some cool stuff at the auction and raise some money for them!!

Also see my husband's band rock the house! That just goes without saying though :)

click ......here for more details.

See you tonight!

molers are awesome!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words.

If only these pictures had a volume setting. Because the noise in this house today is staggering.

He's had his maxium dose of baby tylenol. So theres not a whole lot I can do for him. We just need to put up with a couple days of mega grump.

This too shall pass.

Ahhhh spring......?

So I think we may have somehow crossed over into some sort of alternate reality. I was under the impression that we were in fact in spring.

Hence spring break.

Well this morning we woke up to giant fluffy snowflakes falling from the sky.

Ok let me remind you that 4 days ago we were at the zoo in t-shirts and flip flops. But today we have snow.

Only in Oregon.

Truce offering

So today seems to be much better all around. As a peace offering I even broke out the play doh.

And you KNOW I don't let them play with play doh very often. So thus far it is a good day.

I might even let them stay up until 7 tonight :)

And the mother of the year award goes to.......

Yeah...not me. Hard to imagine I know.

My kids are lucky they made it through the day with all of their teeth intact. For those of you that don't know me, let me fill you in a little here. I have a bit of a warped sense of humor. That was in fact a joke.

Sarcasm. Look into it.

Anyhow, we had a rough day to say the least.

It started off when my husband woke up only to discover that he had pulled a muscle in his back. He had helped some teenagers in the zoo parking lot push start their car. It seemed simple enough. You see someone having car trouble, you help them. It was three teenage girls desperately trying to push a car to drop the clutch. He jumped in and lent a hand. However when he asked if they needed help, they all stopped pushing and just let him do all the work by himself. During this process, he over did it. It seemed like a good idea. He's always getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop when it comes to helping people out. But it never stops him. And that is why we love him so :)

So because of this, what with the inability to move and all, he couldn't ride his bike to work today. So I drove him. Which normally isn't a problem, however it was just sort of early. He needs to be there at 7 am. So I brewed some coffee and made up some breakfast to eat in the car and away we went.

Then there are the kids. My precious little lambs.

Bug woke up in a grumpy mood. Then it spilled over to Sunshine which in turn she took it out on Peanut. I then had to listen to it ......ALL DAY.

Bug wanted to play the Wii which means that we all have to watch him play wii. Sunshine doesn't really mind it so much, but I have to sort of stick pretty close as he gets frustrated with a level on a game and starts getting mouthy with us all. So we have set time limits for him. I think he just gets a little over stimulated. Well, when time was up he pitched the mother of all fits and stormed off. Then he trashed his room some. When that got old, he came back down and picked a fight with his sister. Then he got annoyed with his brother and yelled at him. All the while I am riding him and sending him to sit on the stairs (our version of the naughty chair) and I am giving lectures about respect and positive behavior vs. negative behavior and better choices... blah,blah,blah. I feel like I spent the majority of my day disciplining and correcting. However by about the 12th trip to the steps, I was tired of my own voice.

Then there was Sunshine. Sweet as she is, she is under the impression that the only way to be heard in this house is to say the same sentence over and over and over and over and over. But in a whiny sing song voice. This seems innocent enough, however when you have to listened to the same sentence 154 times, it gets real old real quick. Not to mention the tone. The whine is enough to drive me to drink. Now I know I used to have a tone when I was little that would make my mom insane (maybe that is what happened :) So I am taking this moment to formally apologize to my mom in front of God and everyone that I am soooo sorry that I ever used that whiny voice. I only now see the damage it does. So basically what I am saying here is that I just had her constant chatter (about nothing in particular) in my ear all day. Also she felt the absolute need to be perched on my lap all day. Normally this is cute and encouraged. But when you are trying to pay bills and lecture her older brother, it just gets too clingy and needy. The cute fades when the annoyance factor comes in.

Then there was Peanut. Well I only have one word here that all mothers will agree is just some sort of cruel joke. Molars. He is cutting 5 molars all at the same time. What a blessing!! So basically there was not a lot I could do about this other than give him baby tylenol and a nice big cold carrot to gnaw on. (old remedy, works great on teething gums.) Enter the drool.

Bug-Mom!!! He's gonna get drool on me!!!
Me-Be nice to him he doesn't feel good
Bug-He's gross and bad for drooling!~!!
Me-Hey!! He is not!! You used to drool like that too!!
Bug-No I didn't !! Get him away from me!!!! smack
Peanut-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
Me-ok now you need to go to the stairs and don't get up until you are ready to apologize to your brother.

* Ok now repeat that scenario about 30 times. Throw in Sunshine pinching one of the two and that would about look like my day.

Rinse....repeat.

So now here I am. Best mother ever!!

It was sort of a dreary day and as soon as the sun dipped down just a little, it looked darker and later than it really was. I saw my chance and jumped at it. My sin here.....I took advantage of my kids inability to tell time. They were teeth brushed, prayers said and tucked in bed at 6:30 tonight. Really....they were none the wiser.

Do I feel a little guilty? Yeah a little. Could I have handled the day any better? Possibly.

I read a quote once that I always try to keep in mind when I have days like these....

"The days are long, but the years are short"

One day I look back and reread this blog post when my kids are all out of the nest. I am sure I will miss all of this. I'm sure I will be one of those people that give the cliche "enjoy it because it goes soo fast" .

But tonight.....I am just going to pour myself a glass of wine, kick the toys out of the tub and have me a nice bubble bath.

Preferably with no one in my lap.

Viva spring break!!

So I have said it before and I will say it again. The best investment we have made for our family has been our zoo membership. Bug is on spring break this week and frankly I am climbing the walls. The very thought of summer vacation is already beginning to send me into a cold sweat. There is something about having all three home all day for a week straight is making me loose my mind. I am a pretty structured person and have my routine. But it's all off this week. Somehow during the summer there is enough time that I just create a new routine. But when it's only one week, there just isn't enough time.

So the cure I have found here is lets just get out of the house. Rain or shine. So we went to the zoo. We have a membership so it's an activity we can do for free. I just pack up a little picnic and away we go.

My husband was even able to cut out of work a little early and meet up with us.

So we survived another day without hurting each other. I say this casually, but really the biggest challenge of this blessed vacation is just to keep my kids from killing each other. I can't keep the boys from roughhousing and Sunshine has made it her personal mission to referee (tattle) . Which in turn warrants her to get ambushed (clobbered) by her oldest brother. So it more or less has turned into an ultimate fighting challenge.

So basically I have three choices.

-I can referee every minute that they are awake and get nothing done.
-I can let them fight it out and hope that the blood doesn't stain the carpet.
-I can get them out of the house and distract them.

I opted for the latter.

So here are the pictures. Please note that I chose not to include the ones of Bug's giant meltdown as we were exiting the zoo. It was quite a sight to behold.

Happy Easter!!

So we spent Easter as we do every year by going to Church and then on to my in laws house for brunch. We were lucky to avoid candy for most of the day and just enjoy our time together.

The kids were (mostly) well behaved and we ended up spending almost the whole day over there. My Mother in law got the kids special giant eggs with all sorts of goodies in them. A couple jelly beans got snuck in there, but other wise were pretty healthy. Fig newtons and cheese crackers. Plus a whole lot of toys. They were a big hit.

Typical Oregon weather...we were rained out and couldn't do an egg hunt, but nobody really seemed too upset about it.

We got some cool pictures though.

Enjoy!

I heart Easter!!

Who doesn't remember this?

But more importantly....who can say "thank you Easter bunny" without throwing in the "BAWK BAWK!!" at the end?

The great EGG-stravaganza.......(I'm sorry)

So as we do every year, the timely egg decorations. Truth is I love doing this and did it every year even before I had kids. What is so magical about food coloring and egg shells, I don't exactly know, but every year at this time, this is always on the menu.

Speaking of menus...this is also the only time of year I can really stomach deviled eggs. I get my fill in a vain attempt to use up the eggs that I just decorated. Then they gross me out for at least another year.


****Also as a side note to the last blog post about the kids baskets... my husband wanted me to point out that I did in fact get a couple of little trinkety things for their basket. So it isn't quite as minimalist as I made it sound. But they each get three things. So there, I set the record straight. My bad.

When did Easter turn into Christmas?

So I was at the store last night putting together the essentials of my kids Easter baskets and I started getting really annoyed as I started feeling guilty because I was trying to keep it to a minimum and not buy every trinket in the Easter display.

Then it hit me....Is Easter the new Christmas?

Why is it nearly mandatory that you have to put together Easter baskets? I mean I know my Mom made one for me every year. Even when I went off to college, she still had one for me. Now maybe this isn't typical, but my mom is just nutty like that.

So naturally when I had kids of my own I looked foreword to this holiday to pass on the crazy.

It was fun the first couple of years, but when we discovered allergies to chocolate and food coloring in my oldest, it put a whole new spin on the candy situation. Needless to say the "Easter Sunday church service meltdown" was always unavoidable.

So we started doing trinkets in the basket instead of candy. Mostly out of guilt because everybody else got candy and they didn't.

But then I heard a radio ad where they were pushing the idea of "making this Easter extra special by giving your kids video games and Barbie dolls in their baskets." .......????

I know this is just another marketing ploy to make you feel guilty for not giving your kids the moon when they ask for it. But C'mon!! It sort of falls under the idea of "You have to make your mother feel loved by buying her diamonds for mother's day" campaign. You know these commercials that they run a couple weeks before Mother's day where they have Dads scrambling to jewelry stores coughing up ridiculous amounts of money to buy their wives (not their mothers) diamond pendants to let them know what great mothers they are. Because nothing says "I love you" quite like a pile of debt. Personally I would be furious with my husband if he bought me jewelry. Mainly because we (along with most families) can't afford that sort of luxury. You couldn't wear it without thinking ..."gee this is really pretty....I wonder how long it will take to pay it off."

Plus, if you get your kids "gifts" in their Easter baskets this year, what can you do to top it next year, and the next. It just seems like a slippery slope. It's just a can of worms I don't want to open.

So with that, I am giving each of my kids a basket full of strawberries and they each get a coloring book. Thats it. We are going to focus on the death and resurrection of Christ and not what kind of loot the Easter bunny could produce. If that makes me a bad mom, well then so be it.

I'm sure my kids college fund will inevitably turn into their therapy fund anyways. So this really is just another drop in the bucket :)

Art projects a-go-go

So Sunshine has been on this huge artistic rampage. She has always had an artistic flare, but it has suddenly kicked into high gear the past year or so. She has recently discovered safety scissors, so I find small piles of paper chunks EVERYWHERE. Even in the bathroom. Because when going potty, one MUST be productive artistically.

Also she has rediscovered water color paint. But what is really funny is she will do a couple strokes on the paper, then stand up, do a little dance and then come back for a couple more strokes. There is some sort of weird method to her madness. She's like the preschool version of Andy Warhol. (Seriously, wikipedia him and check out some of his artistic methods. They are really interesting)

Another thing to point out here, is that she is really advanced for her age. I mean I know every parent thinks their kid is the greatest thing on planet earth, but most kids her age can't draw things that represent other things. When she draws a person, it looks like a person. It's sort of a developmental milestone that normally doesn't develop until much later. Like her brother who is three years older is just starting to draw people and it's not nearly as clear as hers. Not to say that he is behind, he's right on track. She's just advanced.

But yesterday she drew a picture of our entire family. She's the one with the long hair. Clearly. I'm the one with the big lips. (Don't ask) It's pretty impressive for a 4 year old.

Fancy schmancy

So my rock star husband surprised me this weekend with a big night out. We had planned for the kids to go to his parents and then we just go out to a nice dinner. But instead he got us a really nice room just across town.

Although a nice night out is great, there is always going to be dishes waiting for you when you get home if you know what I mean. So he wanted to just get us out of town without going out of town.

Our room had an enormous jacuzzi in the room which we spent the majority of the time in, just watching TV. It was a luxury we totally can't do at home. The room also had a sleep number bed in it. Now I'm not normally big on gimmicky type things, but if these weren't so stinking expensive, I would buy one of them in a heart beat!! I slept like I haven't slept in years. It was absolutely incredible.

It was just one night and we had to come back to our real life, but it was the best little get away we've ever had. It was great just to do nothing. Although I totally could have used a couple more days :)

By the way, we did go out to a nice dinner too. Hence the fancy schmancy dress.

How not to embarass yourself.

Ok I know this video is sort of going around, so if you've already seen it, then I'm sorry.

What is sad is I have probably at some time or another committed all of these crimes. Especially judo and snake charming.

Cancer schmancer show

Ok well I know this is a couple weeks off, but I wanted to get on here and pimp a really great show with great bands and all kinds of goods up for auction.

Our good friend Meredith Curteman kicking Cancer where it hurts.

For those of you that don't know her, she goes to our church, is comprised mostly of awesome and has has been battling lung and ovarian cancer for the past 6 months or so. Also did I mention she's only a handful of years younger than I am? She really is a true super hero! She has taken this entire experience as a learning experience and held her head high along the way.

I know that is has been hard physically, emotionally, and financially. So with that we give you the...

Cancer schmancer benefit show.

This is a show that will have many cool bands (including my husbands band, The New Urban Decay) But there will also be a silent auction for all kinds of awesome goods. Including a guided fishing trip offered by my father in law. So it's not just for the kids.

This is an all ages event. There will be no alcohol and it will be clean. We are comfortable inviting the youth group from our church.

So come one , come all and bring money to help out the Curtemans!!

Here is the information

http://www.anomalouspdx.com/cancerschmancer/

I will also put a link in the side bar here>>>>>>>>>>


*** Also go and check out Meridith's blog. She has done an incredible job talking about her journey. Good and bad.

Meredith's blog

She is awesome and I just heart her!!

What a little punk!!!

So I have been watching this drama unfold for the past couple weeks in my front yard. I have this little punk of a squirrel that has been raiding my bird feeders and teasing my cats for some time.


Last year I had had enough with the squirrels in the bird feeders so my rock star husband took a super soaker to them every time we caught them red handed. That took care of the problem for the whole summer.

Now we have a new generation that clearly is scared of nothing. What makes it worse is that he is just a little bit faster than my cats. So now he just likes to tease them.

Notice the picture above.

That is him in the middle just casually munching on some sunflower seeds that had fallen from a bird feeder above. About 7 feet to the left (left bottom of the picture) is my cat Annabelle in pounce mode. Just waiting for her chance. About 5 feet to his right (right near the top of the picture) is my neighbor's cat, Metro. Also in pounce mode.

This particular stand off lasted about 20 minutes until Annabelle couldn't take it any longer and ran to him. He took off across the street and up a tree. All the while Annabelle was only about 6 inches behind him swiping as she ran.

Every time he just barely gets away by the skin of his teeth. I totally expect to find a headless fur pile in my yard as a glorious gift from my beloved cat.

Just for the record I don't endorse the murder of any animal, so PETA you can just back the heck up....But hey, nature is nature. What can you do.

Don't flirt with death and you won't meet your maker by an overweight feline.

You have made your bed my friend. The end is nigh!!

We're gonna bow-ow-owl to-ni-ight !!

Ok for the 3 people who got that reference....you get a gold star. For the rest of the planet, it's a song and dance number from the horrible and totally unnecessary movie...Grease 2. It was horrible. Don't even rent. Trust me on this one. Any how it was singing and dancing and bowling. I can't set foot in a bowling alley to this day without humming a couple bars of that song. Thanks for that guys! Not only did I have to sit through your crummy movie, but now your stupid song will forever be ingrained in my brain.

Ok enough ranting for now...


In other news, today was Bug's good friend, Romania's birthday. We've been looking foreword to the party for the past week. They had it at the local bowling alley and the kids had a blast. It was Bug's first time bowling with a real ball. He's champ at Wii bowling, just not the real deal. By his third frame he had a strike!
It's in his blood :)

Why being a grown up is cool

Ok this is what I looked foreword to when I was little. I have a weird thing with throwing random foods together and making a meal out of it. Sort of like 2 great tastes taste great together.

Tonight my rock star husband had band practice so it was just me and the kids for dinner. I sort of had a hankering for soft pretzels. Luckily I just happened to have a box of the in the freezer. But I figured it would probably be irresponsible to only feed my kids pretzels for dinner. Enter the broccoli. But we couldn't stop there because I have also had a hankering for hollandaise sauce. You know for dipping......what?

So lets recap....

We've got the bread group,

the veggie group,

the dairy group with the sauce

and the gigantic rock salt group.


Ok somewhere at this very moment, my Mom has her head in her hands shaking it fiercely.


What is funny about this (where do I begin) is while making this I was practically doing a little dance thinking to myself "I'm a grown up and I can eat anything I want for dinner".

Yes I realize this is a "once in a while " meal. We don't normally eat like this. But it's fun every once in a while.

In the dog house.

So all of my kids have had some sort of weird fascination with the dog kennel. It would seem that the harder I try to keep them out, the more they can't keep their hands off of it.

Problem is, they can't just play in it. Oh no. They must pack it full of their toys and then lock them self in. Thing is....they can't quite figure how to get out once they are locked in. They as of yet seem to lack their "rats of nimh gene". (2%)
So I spend my day rescuing him. It's just the little dance we do :)

Sometimes it's just the little things.

So I am believe it or not, but I have had a sort of boring week. Nothing really of blog worthy significance. Although I did get a fabulous night out with the girls and Kurtis last weekend. I had a great time, but my pictures (along with the evening) came out to blurry and dark to put up. It's probably for the best that I don't divulge all the details. I wouldn't want to tarnish my reputation as such a stand up wife and mother :)

So instead I will give you the next best thing.

I was folding laundry and all of a sudden it got quiet in the house. Instantly I felt the need to investigate why. (I'm starting to feel like Mel Gibson in Signs when he drops everything because he can not hear his children)

This is what I stumble on to. Few things warm my heart like the sight of my kids dressed for bed and mellowed out reading a book with Dad. What a guy!