Tuesday Randoms

• I was talking with a friend, observing that we always say things like, “when life slows down…” but I think this is just the pace of life from now until retirement, or at least until the kids are out of the house. I kind of like it – the being busy. I mean, I have my moments where I need to take a beat and go to bed early or say no to a social outing (both very rare things, indeed).
• I am loathe to admit it, but I downloaded a Kesha (I refuse to use the $ in her name) song – more exactly, I downloaded a Pitbull song that happens to feature Kesha. Because Liam asked me to. I also downloaded “Happy” by Pharrell Williams and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and I’m sure I’ll be getting “Everything Is Awesome!” from the Lego movie after we take the kids to see it on Friday. My music tastes are easily swayed by pop culture and sometimes 7.5-year-olds.
• I have found a sporting event that Simon doesn’t care about: the Winter Olympics. More ironically, I cannot not get enough of them and have been watching every evening and getting real-time scores on my phone (because while I like watching, the anticipation of not knowing how the athletes are going to do makes me crazy). But, it still baffles me that the man who watches every cooking competition and mindless sport on TV could care less about such a big event – just because his country of origin isn’t overly represented. I fully expect that when he carries dual citizenship that he will take an interest in the Winter Games.
• We’re driving to Texas again for Spring Break… start praying for us now. Our much shorter road trip to Cleveland at Christmas was not as smooth as one would hope (though it went about as well as I expect from my kids who are like oil and water to each other) and Simon and I just shook our heads at the thought of two days and 20+ hours in the car together. I guess we can always drug them. I kid.
• I’m trying out TRESemmé’s new Heat Activated 7 Day Keratin Smooth Treatment that claims “works with the heat of your flat iron to transform unruly hair into salon-smooth hair that even lasts for one week.*” Amusingly, both on the box and on their website, the asterix at the end of the claim does not refer to any disclaimer statement that I could find – perhaps they mean it even lasts one week if you don’t touch your hair again and sleep in an upright position. So far it smells fantastic and my hair is beautifully smooth – we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Simon even complimented my hair this morning so it must look noticeably different.
• Simon and Jack had birthdays last week/over the weekend. We celebrated with family on Saturday and had a great evening out with the grown-ups that we have now decided should be an annual tradition. That’s a sure sign of success when you want to repeat something again and again.
• Simon’s gift was/is tickets to Dave Matthew’s Band this summer… it was a real hardship to get him something I will not enjoy in the least… I mean really, I took one for the team.*
• We had a surprisingly good shopping trip to Costco yesterday… one where I was totally that mother complimenting her children on their good manners and smiling as they hugged each other and practically skipped out of the store holding hands while Liam sweetly commented about how good I was at steering the shopping cart. I’ll pause to let you imagine that in all its saccharine sweetness… are your teeth aching yet? I feel like the next dozen trips are going to be awful to make up for it… and I will be there, bewildered and wondering what happened to all the sweetness. I believe my kids have mastered the skill of keeping me guessing and pulling out a medal-worthy performance when it counts – much like America’s sweetheart, skier Julia Mancuso.
• Bob Costas has double pink eye, which he amusingly keeps referring to as a common eye infection – apparently he is too good for pink eye. I feel terrible for him because the Olympics are kind of his thing and it’s painful to even watch him on screen. Thankfully Matt Lauer is stepping in for him tonight. Pink eye is the worst. It is not, however, caused by getting poop in your eye as my husband said it was last night – I’m sure he’ll appreciate my sharing that with you. I will note that it can be caused by a cold virus, herpes or gonorrhea (welcome freaky Googlers).
• Has anyone else tried the Swanson’s Thai Ginger Broth? If not, you should, my friend Kristy introduced me to it and we have made this soup three times since December… it is DELICIOUS. I add the following: 2 quarts regular chicken broth, the meat from a whole rotisserie chicken, 1 tsp. each curry and ginger, Thai stir fry noodles.
• I decorated the house for Valentine’s and while Simon refused to say “it looks like cupid threw up on this house,” he totally wanted to. He hates to be predictable and I love that he is.
• Not sure who is more looking forward to the Lego movie, Simon and I or the boys… cannot wait!

* I am totally lying because DMB is one of my faves and concerts in general are my happy place.