Highlights from the week

It has been a crazy, stressful couple weeks around here. Topped off for fun with another attempt at potty training the toddler. Yay for us. Because of the crazy, and because I just haven't found it in me to do much blogging the last couple weeks, I am giving you the highlights in pictures.

This is what crazy looks like at our house. Also known as dinner time.

one: When the hubs was younger, he used to wake up in the middle of the night and find someplace other than his bed to sleep. The stories are hysterical, the way my mother-in-law tells it, of the occasional search for him. There is nothing like that jolt of fear you get when your child is not in their bed when you go to wake them up. My favorite was the time he crawled onto the shelf of his changing table, pushed all the diapers  to the front and nestled, out of site, into the 'fort' like hole he'd created behind them. Or the time they found him sound asleep on his rocking horse, in his diaper and cowboy boots.

So the other day, hubs peeked in on the toddler before he left for work. She wasn't in her bed, but she was easily spotted sound asleep in her rocking chair. So like her dad she is.

two: We are kitty sitting for our neighbors this summer while they are fishing in Alaska. They have more stuff in their backyard for the kids to play on than we do, so the kids like to play over there. This is the toddlers favorite way to spend the afternoon.

three: And look, sometimes the grown ups get to have fun too. We stopped in at DeLille Winery (my new favorite winery) for a tasting. We loved it so much, the hubs and I joined the wine club. We get our first shipment next week. Yay!!

four: This is how the tween and I spend our Thursday evenings, hunkered down under our blankets with our hot chocolate and popcorn, catching a family movie in the park. This is my favorite part of the summer, hands down. (PS it was raining and cold out this particular night. Sometimes its more about comfort than looking good).

I also posted an album of pics on my Facebook page if you are so inclined to peek. You can find them here.

I wish you all a good weekend and promise to update on our recycling challenge, post some cute family pics from my sister-in-laws wedding, tell you about the big weekend for the non-profit I am running, and maybe even do a writing prompt next week. Until then, Happy Friday. Go have a drink!

Metaphors at the beach

We vacationed at the beach this weekend, just the teen, the tween and I. Hubs stayed home with the toddler to give me a little break. I was under orders to relax and enjoy my “off” time. You know, with only two kids to be in charge of.

Yesterday I decided to take a drive on the beach. This is not unusual in Ocean Shores, people do it all the time. People also get stuck in the sand because they don’t know HOW to drive on the beach. I could hear Hubs voice in my head, “don’t slow down if you hit the soft sand” and repeated it over and over. And over.

So there we were, driving happily along, enjoying the sound of the waves, the ocean breeze, the smell of the water, without a care in the world.

But then the compact sand I was driving on suddenly wasn’t so compact anymore. And I panicked. And I stopped the car. And I got stuck.

I don’t do well in this kind of situation.

I knew enough (ha!) to not keep spinning my tires, this would dig me in deeper. But this is where my vast knowledge stopped and my panic set in. Which freaked out the tween, because he feeds off other people’s emotions (so like me he is).

I looked around for help, and saw a Tahoe driving to a group nearby, filled to the brim with a burly dad and his burly teenage boys. They all jumped out to help, yelling instructions to each other in Spanish. They tried (with my teens help) to push me out, yelling “give it more gas.” This just dug the back tire in deeper. They tried to hook me up to the Tahoe and pull me out, but didn’t have a strong enough chain and it broke. Eventually they gave up and went over to join the rest of their family flying kites.

We called the beach tow truck, cringing at the $250 my stupidity was going to cost us.

And while we were laying on the warm sand, soaking up the sun and wishing the car would dig itself out of its damn spot, a pick-up truck stopped and asked us if we needed help.

Bless this scary looking, toothless, burly man. Who stops to help a woman and her two kids stranded on the beach. With no way to escape.

He pulls a rusty chain out of the truck and hooks it up to my car. The first attempt results in a very scary noise coming from my car. I had visions of the undercarriage being ripped out. At this point, what am I to do? I freak out (in my head. I’m sure I totally played off the calm and collected beach regular on the outside). I glance at the teen and notice his slightly panicked expression. I couldn’t even look at the tween, because I’m that good of a mom.

One of the teens that had tried to help earlier ran over and asked if we needed help; he and my not so burly teenager (dressed in his button down, slacks and vest – yeah, I know) pushed while I GENTLY gave it enough gas to help it move, but not enough to get the tires spinning.

Success! Yay!

I had the teen call the tow truck driver to cancel (because I wasn't going to stop the car again for anything). He had apparently just arrived to the scene and was not terribly happy that we were not still stranded. Big fat bummer for him.

We drove the rest of the way on the beach slowly, but not stopping, as a fog rolled in off the ocean that gave us about 15 feet of visibility. And when we reached the turn off to get back to the real road we all cheered.

I vowed to never again drive on the beach. Or mindlessly spin my tires. Or dig myself in deeper when I know better. I vowed not to curse the people who are just standing around flying kites, because sometimes they can be helpful.

And I was thankful for the ice cold bottle of Stoli I was driving towards.

The kids new dad

If you know me at all, other than Stoli, I am slightly obsessed with Donnie Wahlberg. I'm not so much a fan of New Kids on the Block, but can sing along because I have seen him a few times in concert over the last few years. My friend and I went to see him (you know, Donnie) dance and sing and otherwise pretend to be 20 again with his buddies on a recent tour stop. Here are the highlights.

Hubs: Bye honey, it was nice knowing you. I assume you won't be home again?
Friend: I get bec in the divorce, so it was nice knowing you; bye!
Tween: mom, what are you talking about?
Me: I'm going to see your new dad honey.
Tween: *eye roll* stop saying that!

Opening for Donnie & friends was Matthew Morrison from Glee. Friend and I are HUGE Glee fans, so this was monumentous (to borrow from the teens vocab).



Halfway through Mr Shus number, the following (paraphrased) texts were sent from Friend to her hubs:

Friend: I'm going home with Matthew Morrison. It's been nice knowing you honey.
Friends hub: okay.

And then came the good stuff. The man I would leave my husband for.

Okay side note here. The difference between being an obsessed teenager and an obsessed adult is that I do actually understand that the Donnie I've created in my head is not the person he actually is. I do not REALLY want to be married to a man who, at almost 42, gets on stage to sing and dance to pop songs in front of thousands of screaming soccer moms. No thank you. But if I were offered a weekend with him, I'm pretty sure the hubs would understand.

So here I share with you, lovely readers, the reason I cannot get enough of this man. It might help if you have a few shots of vodka first though. It helps me get through the shows.

You're welcome.

Saving the toddlers soul

I had to get up waaaaaay too early this weekend (meaning that I came home waaaaaay too late from the concert Friday night, after consuming a tad too much vodka; the 6:30am alarm clock HURT) to meet the carpet cleaners at my grandmothers vacant house. Fortunately he was fun to talk with, and a pretty easy on the eyes, so that helped.

Anywho, as I was sitting under a blanket in my beach chair on the front porch, trying to focus on my book and stay awake, the hubs called me. Here, paraphrasing his words, is why:

So I was, *ahem,* unavailable when I heard the doorbell ring and the toddler immediately yell "I'll get it daddy." I hear her run down the hall, down the stairs to open the door. By the time I could get to her, she had slammed the door shut and was coming back upstairs. She handed me a pamphlet.

"Here daddy, I got this for you."

I looked at it and it was a pamphlet about Jesus coming to save her soul.

Okay, really? On one level, its funny that they handed a toddler their religious materials. Is she really the target audience here? Did they think she can read it? Did it occur to them that she is not the head of the household? WHY did they hand anything to a toddler? I assume she just shut the door on them and they walked away, which tells me they weren't really into this soul saving thing in the fist place.

Whatever.

But on another level, on that "death is everywhere" mom level, I was a little freaked out. My toddler opened the door to a stranger, with no other adult in site. Umm, no. Not cool.

But I kept it light, and after my initial reaction of a sort of awkward guffaw that made the carpet guy look up and chuckle at me, all I said was "perhaps it is time to actually install the latch you bought for the front door, honey."

Thankfully, though, I can rest easily knowing my toddler has been saved. By a pamphlet.

Whew.

Writing Prompt: surviving the summer

Writing Prompt:

"It’s hot, the kids are home and crazy, our pets are panting, the days are long…share your number one Summer Survival Tip."





If you know me at all, I know you can figure out what popped into my head when I read this one.

But interestingly, I posted a similar question on facebook a couple days ago. The kids were driving me nuts, I was tired of sitting home (though was feeling quite productive with the tween helping me keep an eye on the toddler), I needed a new perspective. So I asked my 244 closest friends, "parents: how are you keeping your kids entertained this summer?"

And here is what they said:

Jessica by locking them in the basement. 

Ericka I give her lots of candy then send her to grandma's. 

Rebecca G I let them play with matches, run in the street, and babysit themselves. it's really working well. 

Lisa I'm with Jess. I tie my kids up, then read all day, eat bon bons and watch soap operas!  

Me I was just going to slip them some vodka and turn the radio up really loud - dance party at our house! It's my vacation too, right? 

Becky H Duct tape works well I have heard :) 

Jeff waterboarding.....they hate it!

Do you see how I surround myself with like minded people?

So after a brief deliberation, I have decided that my answer is the same.

I use vodka to survive my summers. The good stuff, in case you are looking to help me out. 100 proof Stoli - the blue label.

How about you? 

Wasting Less

It’s been a week since we officially kicked off our “Waste Less” recycling challenge (okay, it’s not really a challenge per se, but we are calling it that to make it competitive. That’s how we roll in our house). Last week I met with Tom and learned that, over all, we weren’t doing such a bad job of recycling. I caught a few tips from him though:

• To help reduce waste, it is helpful to actually eat the leftovers in our fridge rather than just store them in there for a time, then throw them out a few weeks later.
• On a similar note, if I only buy the fruits and veggies I know we will actually consume in a week, I will have less smelly garbage. I can’t tell you how much spinach we throw out. I always THINK I will want a salad, but I suppose it’s time to realize Costco may not be the best place to buy my greens.
• Microwave popcorn bags can’t be recycled or thrown in the yard waste because of a chemical in the bag. BUT you can make your own! How cool is that? Just put popcorn seeds in a lunch bag and seal it – it works just the same. And you can season it however you want! I love this plan; the summer movies-in-the-park-season is coming and popcorn is high on the packing list for these evenings out with the tween.

One of the cool things we got for taking part in this was a stainless steel, motion sensor recycling can that is divided into two sections; we use one side for garbage, the other for recycling. First I have to say how freaking cool the motion sensor thing is. We all play with it. You just wave your hands and the lid opens, it’s almost like magic if you forget about the four D-cell batteries it takes. It’s the toddlers favorite new toy.

I noticed at the beginning of the week the recycle side and the garbage side of the can filled about the same speed – we’d empty the bags at the same time. But as the week has progressed and we are all more aware of what we are throwing away, the recycling side fills up more quickly – right now it is full and the garbage side is only half full. Yeah us! Having a recycling can in the kitchen has made a HUGE difference because it’s easier for us. It’s all about convenience in this house – we’ll only save the earth if it works on our schedule.

The biggest thing to come out of this week though has been the compost bin. We never used the one we got from the garbage company (other than the first few days, when it was new and cool). But we decided to leave the new one on the counter and it has really helped us use it more. The food scraps go in there, we empty it every other day or so, and we are feeling like we are doing something towards our waste less goal. We have, however, decided to get a prettier one. Not so much loving the green plastic, but it is working for now.

So our garbage tally this week (ugh, what a weird thing to mention!) – the garbage can was only half full, the recycle bin was almost ¾ full and we had THREE yard waste bins (okay, we did some yard work that accounted for the majority of that, but it sounds like we are amazing. Or really bad at meal planning).

I’d count that as a win!