These are a few of my favorite things...

The older I get, (and the older my children get) the more I appreciate the holidays and the traditions that have developed in my family over the years.  A lot of families spend time at the Thanksgiving table going around having everyone say what they are thankful for.  Since I come from a family of seven and my parents both come from families of seven kids our holidays don’t have down time to hear each person talk.[1]

So today, since chances are I won’t get to talk much since there will be so many people around[2] I would like to give a shout out to the people that I am most thankful for.

1.   I am thankful for my husband.  He is both hardworking and loving.  He is appreciative and helpful.  He is a great dad and role model for my children. 

2.  I am thankful for my children.[3]  My mom wrote me a letter in 8^th grade which I still have that said “you will never know how much I love you until you hold your own baby for the first time.”  She was right on this among other things.[4]

3.  I am thankful for my parents.  They worked hard[5] to provide for myself and six[6] siblings and are always there to help with anything I need.[7]

4.  I am thankful for Matt’s parents for helping to raise my babies and for raising my husband to be a great guy and father.[8]

5.  I am thankful for my brothers and sisters[9] for each of their separate personalities but shared sense of humor.

6.  I am thankful for my few but true girlfriends that provide me with an outlet away from all the above mentioned people.

All of these people mentioned along with numerous acquaintances that I may not see as much as I would like to[10] continue to make my life complete.

I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

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[1] It wouldn’t matter if we did anyway, because no one listens to each other, they are just waiting for the other person to pause for breath so that they can jump in and tell their “much better” story that will more importantly put the focus back on them.

[2] Plus, I like to focus my attention on more important things, like eating.

[3] Most days.

[4] Not EVERYTHING Mom, this is not a concession.  Maybe next year?

[5] And continue to work hard

[6] Yes, 6.

[7] Especially babysitting.

[8] Could someone tell them I said that?

[9] In-laws included

[10] With the exception of light facebook stalking.

Girls Rule, Boys Drool

We left early Friday morning for our much anticipated girls weekend, where the theme was “Girls Rule, Boys Drool.”  We spent all morning Friday shopping through Birch Run, stopped and had a late lunch, and then headed over to the Bavarian Inn Lodge.

 Is anyone surprised that my daughter wouldn't cooperate for this photo?

I cannot say enough great things about this weekend-we had a blast!  We had 6 women and 3 toddlers (age 2.5, almost 3, and almost 4[1]) and we survived incident free.  Mostly.

We had a few scares, with my friend’s daughter stepping into the pool and going under for what seemed like hours until her mom jumped in and saved her in the 18 inches of water that she was in.[2]  Also, Ryann walked away from us as we were gathering our tickets in the arcade and we couldn’t find her forever[3] until my girlfriend happened upon her at the opposite end of the play center shaking hands with what I can only assume was going to be her new family.

However, seeing the girls jump on the beds and run down the hallways and dancing on the dance floor[4] made me feel like a kid again myself.  And getting to spend a lot of time with my girlfriends (and sister) was recharging as well.  We are already looking forward to next time-although I will remember to pack life jackets and baby leashes. 

    Ryann out like a light on the ride home.  

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[1] Half years count a lot more developmentally when they are young so I felt it was important to give an accurate age.

[2] It was seriously up to their waists.  Just goes to show you can never be too careful.

[3] Or at least long enough for me to run through the rest of my unhappy life in my head including my massive weight gain and divorce.

[4] Kids are welcome at both bars at the Bavarian Inn ;)

Girls' Weekend

This Friday I have the day off so a few weeks ago I got with some of my girlfriends and we decided to do a girls shopping day at Birch Run accompanied by a stay at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth for the evening.   It would give us all a chance to hang out and get some holiday shopping done and in the evening we could go back to the hotel and let our daughters play, swim, etc. while we sit and talk about the way things used to be.

As soon as I booked the hotel, I started getting Ryann pumped up for it.  At first, she made me wish I had never mentioned it because she kept asking about it.  Anyone that has shared space with a toddler knows that they can be quite persistent[1] when they want the answer to something, and of course Ryann is no exception.

However, the tables have turned, because Ryann is so excited to stay the night with her friends that I can get her attitude adjusted in a heartbeat.

“If you aren’t going to be nice to your brother, then you can forget about going to girls’ weekend.”

“You better try some of those vegetables or no way can I take you to girls’ weekend.”

“Stop whining or else I am calling and canceling girls’ weekend.”

“Rub my back until I fall asleep so I can rest up for girls’ weekend.”

Okay, the last one was a joke[2]-but you get the idea.   Of course, I am glad that it is finally this weekend, mainly because I am sick of hearing myself threaten about girls’ weekend[3] all of the time but also because I am so very excited to spend some time shopping and relaxing with friends.  Plus, I know that I have Santa Claus to call this coming month if she gets out of hand.  Now I just need something for the rest of the year…

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[1] Like, Chinese water-torture persistent.

[2] Kind of.

[3] Ryann pronounces it “go streakin” which cracks me up all the time.

Turning a mole hill into a mountain.

Today I have nothing on the agenda, so I decided today was the day that I would tackle our cuarto del terror (terror room, in Spanish) which is our bedroom/office/laundry room that resides above our garage.  I think I am safe in assuming that most people have a room like this in their house, or at least people that are friends with me do.  This room is full of laundry, books, shoes, and other things that don’t really have a “home” within our home. 

The problem with me cleaning is that I have severe ADD when it comes to organizing so I can spend hours on a project and in the end nothing looks any better.  Here is how I spent the first few hours this morning.

1.  Enter el cuarto del terror.  Have no idea where to start.  Decide to put a load of laundry in to knock down the pile and hopefully get a glimpse of the hamper buried beneath.  Start folding the pile of clean laundry that has been sitting in the basket for a day.[1]

2.  Start putting the laundry away.  Note that there isn’t much room in my closet.  Start pulling out things that are either out of season or that I shouldn’t be wearing.[2]  Put those to the side.

3.  Go back to the laundry that is now done, start putting the kids stuff away.  Notice that there is a lot of stuff in THEIR closet that no longer fits.  Get boxes and start pulling things out of their closet to give away. 

4.  Noticing now that I have a bunch of empty hangers, I start to go through the hangers and get rid of some of them.  Since I have a garbage bag now, I start walking through the upstairs throwing things away.

5.  While I am emptying the garbage can in the bathroom, I notice that it could use a good cleaning.  Put the garbage bag down and get out the cleaning supplies. 

6.  Start cleaning the bathroom and realize I can’t wash the rug from there because the washer is full.

7.  Load the stuff from the washer to the dryer, start folding the things in the dryer.

9.  Notice a lot of the things from the dryer is summer wear.  Fold that and put it to the side.  Figure if I want to put the summer stuff away, I should get out the winter stuff. 

10.  Pull the Rubbermaid full of winter stuff out of the attic.  Dump it out.  Put the summer stuff inside.  Put the winter stuff in a pile to be washed.

11.  Eat a cold piece of pizza while standing in front of the fridge.

12.  Decide that I should update my BLOG.

13.  Finish typing the BLOG, and realize that the room looks worse than when I started.

See why it is pointless for me to clean?

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[1] Week.

[2] So long, maternity clothes. (Not you, maternity pants, I may need you for Thanksgiving, see #11)

Halloween Hangover

I have always enjoyed holidays, but I think once you have kids there is a lot more pressure on you to really get into the spirit so that they can start to appreciate holidays as well.  I figured Halloween was an easy sell.  Ryann would get to walk around after dark up to strangers’ houses and get free candy from them.  What is not to love?

We invited friends and family over around 3:30 for white chicken chili and appetizers so that the grandparents could see the kids in their costumes and Matt could see some people outside of the working world on his first day off in a few weeks[1].  Ryann, of course, took a longer nap than usual, and as part of some twisted plot to destroy me, everyone showed up around 3:30.[2]  I was upstairs nursing Matthew, Ryann was sleeping, and none of the snacks had been set out yet.  I would have had it all set, but Ryann wanted a Dora pumpkin and that took me longer than I expected to create.[3]

Ryann woke up in a bad mood[4] and didn’t want to put her costume on.  I finally convinced her[5] to get ready and she headed back downstairs and really enjoyed herself for the remainder of the evening.  She trick-or-treated with the neighbor, visited with her best girlfriend, and slept like a baby.  Besides Ryann dealing with a little bit of an upset stomach[6] I think that she really enjoyed her first “official” Halloween. 

Now I have a few weeks to decide how I am going to turn myself into a sweaty mess on Thanksgiving.  Maybe we will try shopping that morning for an outfit!

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[1] Guess my “honey do” list can wait a while longer. Grrrrrr……

[2] This is unheard of in my family.

[3] All morning.

[4] BIG SURPRISE.

[5] Through an assortment of bribes and threats

[6] Which includes filling diapers with flesh-eating diarrhea