life with WE

Aside from my kids getting sick, the weekend was great!

This weekend I got some baby time.  Meet my newest niece and nephew - Harper and Colton.  I miss holding them already!

Here it comes...

How about a little brain dump for your Friday enjoyment?

All righty then, let's begin!  In no particular order, here's what's up with me...

• I've been working a lot lately, so I've been too lazy to fit in blogging.  Sorry about that.
• Mike and I started the Insanity workout program.  And um, yeah, to put it midly, it's insane.  And no, I can't do it all - not even close!  But yes, I am sweating like a maniac.  And also, I love that he talks about himself in third person. " Shawn T is scared now!"
• Warren is a freaking giant.
• The doves are in my hanging basket again, and the eggs have hatched.  Mike is less than thrilled about this development and did not enjoy my, "we did it!  We're the proud parents of dove babies!"
• School is out of for my kids June 6th.
• Elaine still wants us to be on tv.  She could be a wizard or she could sing.  Whichever.
• My family is heading to Indiana tonight so that we can go meet my newest niece and nephew!  Hooray!  Oh, and we'll also be celebrating my father-in-law's birthday which was in April!
• I have had two dinner nights with friends in the past weeks.  I love a little recharging with my ladies.
• Camping was great - wet, but great.  I love hanging with those friends as well even if it's wet and cold and I get ticks. 
• I do however, miss my friend in Texas!  Love you Mim!
• I've done some good reading - finished 'the girl with' triliogy.  Read 'Something Borrowed' and 'Something Blue'.  I'm working now on Rob Lowe's autobiography.
• I dropped my cell phone twice in one day which um, broke it.  Good news is it was time for my upgrade - shweh!  Bad news, we spent like over an hour in the store last night waiting for our turn to get a new phone.  Ugh.
• Oh, camping.  Right.  I found a tick on me while there that a friend helped me remove.  Turns out said tick had an illness and now I am taking an antiobiotic to fight ehrliciosis (sp?).  Good times.
• This rain has been on my nerves.
• I'm sick of tornadoes.
• I started tracking my food and excercise on Livestrong.com and am surprised to see how much sodium I consume daily.  People, I am eating healthy - even some of the Insanity recommended items.  But did you know cottage cheese has a TON of sodium in it?  Bummer eh?
• Our main PC bit the dust.  Our fabulous neighbor had to help us replace all the wireless components to get us back on the internet and then recovered my hard drive information.  Hooray!  So now we need to back up those files and get a new PC.  Good times.  I swear, I didn't drop that.
• Our trampoline got picked up by the wind and blown into our tree and now it's done.  I'm not sure if we can order replacement parts or if we need to start new.  Boo to that.
• I wish I could wear things that have a halter top.  I probably should figure out how to do better pushups in order to have those arms.

I think that's it for now.  Is that enough?

I'll try to get refocused soon.  Okay?  Thanks for hanging with me!

I'm ranting - perhaps we should call it Tuesday tirade?

It seems to me that lots of places I frequent now have 'club' cards.  As in, "thanks for eating/shopping/looking in here today, would you like to join our club?  It's free.  And if you register your card online, you'll get coupons.  Oh, and a veritable shit ton of junk email.  Thankyouverymuch!"  Except, they forget to tell you that last part about the junk email and that they are going to sell your name and email address to a bunch of other junk emailers and tell them that you eat burritos.  Busted.

And then they forget to tell you that you'll NEED to have your card with you next time you frequent there in order to recive the club benefits.

Oh and you're going to need and extra wallet to carry all of these cards in.  Don't try to use your Qdoba card at Panera Bread  - it just won't work.  Barnes and Noble's card will not get you anything at Schnucks.  Your zoo membership is for the zoo, and it's not your debit card, so quit trying to swipe it to pay for your groceries, dumbass.  Oooh, and don't forget the stamped card for a free concrete because you are totally going to use that at the end of the summer.  It makes me think of Jim Gaffigan's bit.  "Are you a member of our super secret club?  No?  Then, that'll be four thousand dollars!"  (Quoted-ish from Beyond the Pale - you should totally listen to it.  I heart it.)

Why so many cards?  Why?  Can't you just scan my eyeball or something and give me the free appetizer?  Why must I have my card with me for my discount?  I can't carry all this stuff in my wallet people - it's huge already!  "Wait mom, we need to save this bowling card.  I have points on it from the arcade so I can get some fabulous prize I will never have enough points for!"  Girlfriend, I'm all out of wallet space.  Find your own!

Next up in the rant department...stores that ask you 'complete a quick survey' for them.  Yeah.  I keep answering them and I never win the free visa gift card.  NEVER.  Does anyone?  To be followed by a rant on the "upsell".  Why can't you ever just do one transaction? 

Oh my I have a lot to discuss.

Happy Birthday and we are out of here!

Today is Elaine's seventh birthday!  Hooray!  It's also my sister in law Kelli's birthday!  Hooray again! 

And I can't be bothered to type any sort of tribute, because Mike and I are busy packing up for our regular camping trip.  Once or twice a year, we congregate with college buddies and their families at fabulous Camp Ondessonk in the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois.  (OMG, that was a long run on sentence was it not?)  Rain is in the forecast, but I'm hoping its wrong.  We all very much look forward to this.  The stress of preparing and planning is forgotten as soon as we hit the road.  Electronics are put away for a weekend.  DSes are traded in for rocks and creeks.  Movie watching is swapped for hikes to waterfalls.  Laundry and showers?  Also forgotten.  Instead we crawl into sleeping bags exhausted, with dirt, sunscreen, bug spray and campfire smell on us. 

As Martha would say, "It's a good thing".

See you Monday! 

Please let her keep the sweetness.

Each school morning I wake Elaine up by getting into bed with her (and her 80 billion stuffed animals she sleeps with).  I ask, "who's the biggest first grader in all the land?"  She lifts up her sleeping eyemask and replies, "me!"  I lay next to her and kiss her cheek while she tells me how much more she loves me than I love her.  It's silly, but I know I won't get to do this forever.

This Friday, she will turn 7 years old. 

As I lay with her this morning, I remembered how she was this lovey from the get go.  She'd hold onto your shirt collar while sucking her thumb.  She 'pat pat pat' my back while I did the same for her.  She's always wanted to be next to me, near me, touching me, snuggling me...  Her classmates call her the hug monster.  There's really no choice, you're getting a hug from Elaine!

I hope that part of her never changes.  I'm no fool, I'm sure in the teen years I will not get any of those hugs, but still, a mother can hope!

This is who will get the hugs during the teen years.  Her "daddybear".  And she'll pull a $20 out of his wallet while hugging him, I'm sure! 

Completely accurate!

Yesterday I got a card thing from Elaine that they had made at school.  They had to fill in facts about their mothers, which of course got me giggling. 

She specifically listed my hair color as Dirty Blond.  Correct.

Eye color?  Brown.  Correct.

Height and weight?  5 foot 9 inches tall, weighing in at 112 pounds.

HELLS YEAH!

It's all in the sales pitch!

About a month ago, my mom called to pitch me an idea...

Mom:  Hey, do you want to go to Kirksville for your cousin Bryan's graduation?

Me:  YEAH!  I LOVE KIRKSVILLE!  Oh my gawd we can totally go to... (and as my brain starts reeling with ideas, she interrupts).

Mom:  Um, well, we'd be taking your grandma there too.

Me:  Okay.  Whatever!

Mom:  And um, we'll be driving there and back on the same day.

Me:  Say wha?

Mom:  Oh, and yeah, it's the day before mother's day.

Me:  blinking eyes, not saying a word.

Me:  Okay, that's fine too.

Mom:  I'll give you a day or two to change your mind.  You'd better re-think this!

So folks, that is my big Saturday plans.  The graduation is at 2:30.  The drive is four hours.  I've only managed talking them down from an 8 o'clock departure to a 9 o'clock departure.  I've also stated that I will do the driving and that if needed, I will hit them both with a sledgehammer.  I can already hear the comments about how fast I am driving.  I heart Kirksville and I won't get to really see it.   Perhaps I can skip graduation and wander around while they sit through it?

My mom is a master saleswoman.  See how she lead with the good stuff?  Kirksville? Damn her!

This should be a great Saturday!

We all have a backward roll we can't master.

Elaine's not afraid of much.  (Well, aside from being afraid of the dark and bees.)  She's full of herself and self-confident.  I admire that about her.  I'm jealous of it.  I've had to work all of these years to find self- confidence - or at least the desire to just not care anymore.  Recently though, she's lost her certainity.  I'm not sure how to help her get it back.  I thought she still had it. 

For instance, she found out that to advance to the next level of her gymnastics program she needs to master her headstand and her backward roll.  As her instructor filled me in on these requirements, I gave her a quizzical look; because I know Elaine can do those things.  I've seen her do them in class!  On the way home, I repeated the requirements to Elaine who quickly rebutted, "I can already do those!"  That night after dinner, she did five headstands without fail, and then five backward rolls.  Perfect.  We joked about how it would be no problem next class to show her teacher and she'd be good to go.  Perhaps the days she had done them in class had been when there was a substitute.

Now let's pause.  Do I care if she moves up as opposed to staying in the same class?  Not really.  But at this point, knowing that these particular two skills are the only things holding her back, I think it's kind of silly if she doesn't advance.  Why stay in the same class if out of an entire list of skills, only two are lacking?  And those two are clearly things she can do?  I think if she doesn't move up, she'll be bored.

I suggested to Elaine that we should practice a few more times before class to make sure she's ready.  After all, I'd just watched her bust them out and knew it would be no big thing; more practice could only help build her confidence.  Plus I promised to do them with her - you know, mother daughter bonding time.  (Only the mother ends up seeing stars after doing her headstand because OMG she's too old to be standing on her head for Pete's sake!) 

The end of the week and the weekend were busy, so the next time practiced was Monday.  She was in a giggly mood and definitely not focused.  It was however her suggestion to practice at that point, so I went along with it.   She couldn't do either the headstand or the backward roll.  Huh.  I encouraged her and helped a bit - she finally got the headstand.  Finally, after much cheering and persuasion.  The backward roll never happened that night.  I tried to help.  I tried to remind her of how it had been for her to do five in a row just days ago!  But no, nothing.  I could tell she had given up.  Her effort was gone.  She just flopped to her back with tears in her eyes.  "That's fine," I told her, "let's try again tomorrow.  Somedays are just harder than others.  It's not a big deal."

Yesterday was much of the same.  Easy peasy on the headstand.  Giggles then tears on the backward roll.  And people, again, she was not trying.

Again, I remind you.  I do not care if she advances to the next level.  Whatever, it's fine.  But seriously, how do you go from busting out backward rolls like it's no big thing to nada?  And what bothers me the most is that she won't even freaking try!  Which is so not like her. 

So what is this?  What's this all about?  Where's my confident girl?  I tried asking, but got nowhere.

I read her "Unstoppable Me" before bed.  The book is great and talks about believing in yourself and being persistent.  (As well as other great things like not caring what others think, giving instead of receiving, being healthy and strong etc.)  I didn't draw any conclusions for Elaine; just hoped that the words would sink in and land somewhere.  I've been at this mom gig for quite some time yet there are so many instances when I'm just not sure what to do.  At this point - I'm just backing off.  She'll figure it out for herself in due time.  It might not be tonight when she gets evaluated during class.  She'll either do it or she won't.  I can't give her the self-confidence back.  I can only help build her up and remind her of how great she is, no matter what.

We all have to remind ourselves at times that we do indeed know how to do a backward roll.  And then we have to try hard to get it right.  But it all has to come from within yourself. 

I hope tonight to see my confident little girl again - whether or not she completes that backward roll.

Monday monday.

I have nothing profound to say about the day's top news.  I mean I am delighted that he's finally been found.  Our US military is amazing, as are their families.  And it's still not over.  I'm not sure it ever will be...

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As a distraction, I will give you these two photos from my field trip Friday with W's third grade class to Cahokia Mounds in Illinois.

Here's a pic of the famous Monk's Mound, which we climbed.  (It was 156 steps, which doesn't seem like a lot, but TRUST ME, it is.)

And here is one of the views from the top.  Totally worth the climb!

Can you see the arch?  It's in there - way toward the back.  I should really work on my focusing skills.