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Wednesday Musings

Posted on June 26, 2013 | 5 comments

We’re moving this weekend. In theory, I’m ready – or we’re ready, I should say, though my husband will gladly tell you I have done 98% the packing while he makes sure the rest of our house runs as it should in the meantime. I kind of like packing and do not trust him to not just put things randomly in a box and call it good. That kind of packing is only allowed the day before the move when you resort to just throwing all things left out into boxes and taping them shut. This is also when you abandon labeling boxes so you end up with 20 boxes that you have to search through for that Very Important thing that you had to wait until the last minute to pack (in our case it will be Vegamite, toothbrushes and/or power cords for the Kindle/iPad).
I made a Facebook event out of our move so maybe it won’t seem like we are asking too much of our friends because it’s: FUN and we will feed you and give you drinks of whatever variety you would like. Win-win, right? Unless you pull a muscle lifting a box, in which case, I can give you an Advil Liqui-Gel, a heating pad and my sincere apologies.
Swim lessons went fabulously last week – both boys learned to swim and swam the required distances across the pool after either jumping in or being tossed in by their beloved mother. This week’s lessons have not gone as fabulously… well, for 50% of my children. Jack happily does whatever Miss Julie asks of him and hasn’t once protested or cried this week; Liam is another story. He has suddenly developed a FEAR of the deep end and whenever he is taken there to swim because he will NOT stop touching in the shallow when he is not supposed to, he FREAKS out. It is not pretty. And it makes no sense because he is actually quite a good swimmer and can swim across the pool, no problem. It’s all in his head and it’s like a switch gets flipped and he WILL NOT be reasoned with. I am at a loss. Tonight is the last night, I’m hopeful he will remain calm as he did finish up well last night and without a total freak out for three laps across the pool.
I made these Nutella Mocha No-Bake Cookies as first recommended by my friend, Keri… they are awesome and you should make them. The End. Recipe at the end of the post.
We had a family reunion last weekend – it was quite a lot of fun to catch up with people I don’t see often and also makes me sad I didn’t grow up along with my cousins being that the closest in age cousin to me is still 9 years older. Ever the baby of the family. Alas. But at least I can hang out with them now that we are all adults and hopefully we will make the reunion an annual or bi-annual thing! I’m totally up for hosting next time – though we might elect Bill and Paula every time because they were pretty awesome hosts!

Because we will be getting rid of our DVR next week, I have let the children record whatever shows they would like in the past couple weeks. So now we have 15 episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and at least a dozen of Kung-Fu Panda Legends of Awesome and Monsters vs. Aliens. [Spell check offered “Lung-Fu” as an alternative option for Kung-Fu up there – really?]
Sandy’s little baby L has finally warmed up to me and will let me hold her without crying. This does wonders for my confidence since last week I made her cry the big tears after I looked at her. She probably knows I am the mother of boys.
I wish bandages solved all the worlds problems like they do for my kids. Jack will demand a bandage for a nearly invisible ouchie he has been crying over for a large amount of time and when I give it to him he is suddenly “all better.”
We also close on our current house tomorrow, which will be awesome to no longer own two homes. Sadly we didn’t close on it sooner because yesterday Simon tossed a bread knife in our sink and it poked a hole in it so today we had to put in a brand new sink. Awesome.
I feel I shouldn’t put this here, but I have a wrinkle on the outside surface of my eyeball (yes, even imagining that makes me squeamish and it’s MY eye) that I’m just ignoring until after the move. It feels like I have an eyelash in my eye but does not seem to be affecting my vision. And yes, I will get it checked out but I cannot be wearing glasses right now since I have not actually worn glasses since freshman year of college and that one time I did, I fell down some stairs because my depth perception was WAY off. Does anyone else ignore health issues because they don’t want to deal with them at the moment? I know I’m not alone on that one.
And happiest of birthdays to my sister-in-law, Joan! I think she’s pretty awesome! May you all be so lucky to have a relative like her!

Nutella Mocha No-Bake Cookies
In double boiler, melt: 1/2 c. butter
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant coffee granules (I used 5 packets of Starbucks VIA instant coffee)
Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup of Nutella until melted. Stir in 3-4 cups of quick oats (original recipe called for 3 cups, I used 4 because mine seemed too runny and I also used Old-Fashioned Oats, use your judgement). Scoop onto wax paper and cool in fridge.

5 Comments

Posted in Food, Life in general, Random

A comparison of sorts

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 2 comments

Not too long ago someone popped up on Facebook that I hadn’t seen before and we friend-ed each other and sent along hello notes to see how life was going since we’d last seen each other in high school. You know how it goes, “How’s life? We should catch up the next time you are in town… cute kids, etc…” I thought nothing more of it until I started reading his status updates and they made me realize how life had taken us down very different roads, like laughably different.

And as is bound to happen, I thought about how these things occur… how two people end high school both as class officers (he being our president and me being treasurer) and almost twenty years later in the span of a week he is having a private dinner with the President of the United States and partying at the same event as Jay-Z and Beyonce [both true stories and not exaggerations] and I am carting my kids around to swimming lessons and camping [also true and far less glamorous]. And that is not at all to say that I would want his life, or am jealous of where he is and what he is doing (okay, a little “jealous” because, Sasha Fierce people), but it is really to note how anything is possible in life. Anything. And the choices we make in what school to go to, who are friends are, where to live and what priorities to have make the difference in where we end up – no matter where we start out. Two roads indeed diverge and we choose one or the other at every juncture.

Senior year class officers (left) and junior year (small inset on right) – humorously, all the same people two years in a row, mostly because I think our class was too, shall we say, lazy to elect new people (clearly we were not so intimidating that others wouldn’t run, to wit: the photo on the bottom right is also me and yes, I am wearing a turtleneck, denim shirt and a scrunchie on my arm. I am Michelle Fierce.)

Yes, I had that momentary twinge of “wouldn’t it be nice to have dinner with the President?” Because, hello, he is THE president and I am only human. But just as quickly as that thought came another one reminded me that his life wouldn’t be the life for me. Sure I was the girl who did everything in high school but now I’m the girl who does what she wants and there is a difference. And Mike is living the life he wants and making the choices that will take him where he wants to be (which I believe I can safely say is not at swim lessons and sleeping in a tent). But different isn’t better and different isn’t worse, it is just different. So instead of maybe being a bit jealous, I can be a whole lot more happy that it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round (and be super proud of where life has taken people I knew way back when). I can also take a moment to remember that just because someone’s highlight reel on Facebook is pretty fabulous, doesn’t mean they are any happier or better off, they are just living a different life. And good for them… it gives me a glimpse into an alternate reality and it is my choice to be thankful for the reality that is my own.

And because my search for the class officer photo also uncovered a couple other gems from the yearbook I thought I should post them here for your viewing pleasure. Above is a pic of me and my friend, Josh, decked out for the Homecoming pep rally. And because I was also the yearbook editor, I wrote the article that is featured on the page – I was totally that person in high school, the over-achiever. I’d be apologetic about that, but I’m not really sorry. I was also the girl who was on winter homecoming court my junior year (below). And, yes, Mr. Junior has black painted nails; he’s now all grown up, married to a girl we went to high school with and has two kids.

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Posted in Gratitude, Life in general

Things that perplex me

Posted on June 19, 2013 | 4 comments

Why I need to fax copies of my marriage license, driver’s license and social security card to the gas company in order to change my last name on my account from my maiden name to my married name (yes, I have been married EIGHT years and haven’t done this yet because I have to fax all those documents – which is a slight improvement over eight years ago when they required you to go in person with said documentation to change your last name [aside: when I called customer service to see if I could do it over the phone, the person congratulated me on my marriage and I had to sheepishly tell her, actually, I got married eight years ago, I’ve just never made the name change; thankfully she laughed.]). Yet, when I called the credit card company they asked for ZERO proof and made the change over the phone. Is there some high fraud problem with utilities and name changes that I am unaware of? It seems a bit much.
Why my son (Liam) feels the need to question everything I tell him. For example, I told him he didn’t have to take a lunch to daycare today because he was getting Jimmy John’s every Wednesday, he questioned, “Are you sure? How do you know?” I would understand if he were an overall suspicious child or if I was unusually flaky and or often wrong about things but none of those things are true. Instead, he just questions me and I find myself very frequently saying, “Because I said so.” Or asking him, “Why do you think I don’t know things?” I blame Simon.
The new wave of boy bands. One Direction and The Wanted. At least our generations boy bands actually looked like boys/men and have you heard Justin Timberlake? He can actually sing and is witty to boot.
People who look graceful running. If ever I took up running, I am 100% positive I would never do it with grace and if I ever thought I was looking smooth and serene, I’m sure I would actually look like Pheobe running:

GIFSoup
How Jack is always hungry. The kid will be stuffed and unable to eat one more bite at dinner (and in his defense will mostly have eaten everything I put in front of him) and within 10 minutes of being done, he’s “starving” once again. Bottomless pit, albeit a picky, bottomless pit.
Why all technology can’t be plug and play.
Why my phone suddenly started audibly responding to my Google searches. Yesterday I used the voice command for the following inquiry: “Costco Grand Rapids hours of operation” and my phone answered, “Costco is not open, it will open at 10 this morning.” Um, thank you. And also, creepy.
Why, despite my advanced age, I like show offerings from The CW.
Why I cannot resist buying things at Target, Costco and IKEA.
Why I am a procrastinator.
How intense swimming lessons look a lot like the teacher is drowning my child. I am not worried about this because I know they are not going to drown and obviously this method works since 100s of children have been taught to swim by this person, but my goodness, it’s… well, intense.
How I can be dead tired at 2 in the afternoon and wide awake at 2 in the morning despite not having slept at all between those times.
How Jack can NEVER nap and has not napped since he was 2 and will randomly fall asleep on a 20-minute car ride.
How my husband doesn’t trust my medical judgement when I tell him I think he has sleep apnea but our friend (yes, our friend who is ACTUALLY a doctor) says that it sounds like Simon might have sleep apnea and should have a sleep study done and Simon thinks it might be worth looking into. Okay, that one I can understand, but how can I not keep from saying, “I told you so?”
How it is nearly July already.
How Simon and I could both think an Indian dish we had at a lunch buffet was chicken and yet the food sign said “V” for vegetarian. Whatever it was, it was delicious. Also delicious: butter chicken and naan.
Why my dog loses his ever-loving mind when he sees anything out of the ordinary happening outside our house; I cannot wait until he sees deer and turkeys our our windows at the new house.
Whether or not it is terrible that I am letting my children believe the invisible fence at our new house will also work on them if they try and leave our yard.
Why Liam is insisting he get to do something special with Simon for his birthday but is apathetic about whether or not Jack and I come along with them. [He actually sighed and said, “I guess you guys can come, too.”] Apparently, Jack and I = chopped liver. Jack, I can understand, for they have a typical love-hate sibling relationship, but me, I’m the giver to good gifts, organizer of play dates and purchaser of toys and fruit snacks, I should be on the good list, too.
All the different kinds of life insurance.
Why boxes can’t just pack themselves; related: how we got so much stuff.

4 Comments

Posted in Life in general, Random

A camping we will go… for real this time

Posted on June 17, 2013 | 5 comments

It was on my list of things to do before I turned 35 and with just two weeks to go, I got it in. We went camping; like for real, in a tent and not in someone’s backyard. We had been talking about it with our small group since last year and with one family moving out of town, we knew we needed to get it in before they left (much to their non-camping chagrin).

I grew up camping – yes, I consider sleeping in a pop-up camper camping, despite what my sleep on the cold, hard ground under the stars husband has to say about that – and I loved it. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from camping, not at all tarnished by the bad aspects, including the time we were riding bikes across the road (me sitting on my dad’s crossbar) and my foot went in the wheel of my dad’s bike and we flipped over in the road and my mom had to drag us out of traffic. My dad couldn’t sit for a week but we still got to get ice cream after I stopped crying, so bonus! Happy memories. I had always dreamed my kids would get to make the same memories – minus the near death experiences – but I also knew my ability to be able to deal with them camping wouldn’t start until they weren’t so into actively trying to harm themselves in normal settings (a.k.a., post-toddlerhood) and Jack being Jack, we had to wait a little longer to ensure we wouldn’t sneak out of the tent in the middle of the night and go swimming. But from here on out, I think we can say we are a camping family. After one weekend, I can honestly say I’m looking forward to going again and trying to figure out when that can happen.

It’s pretty easy to say that when you go with awesome company with built-in playmates for your kids (we had 15 kids between five families) and an ideal setting for camping with all your normal free activities (beach, playground, dirt for digging and ponds to go frogging in), plus some abnormal ones like a petting zoo and skate park and some paid ones (archery, riflery and horseback riding).

Jack 100% approved of the paid activity of candy purchasing at the Barn Store.

We might have been newbies to camping with our family, but Simon and I are old souls when it comes to the experience and we had good friends who loaned us most everything we brought, including an awesome bunk bed-cot set up for the boys, which was the best thing! I think it helped us enjoy the experience to have all the things we needed to make life a little more convenient in a new situation. I highly recommend hitting up your camping friends when you attempt to go camping for the first time – it comes in handy when you want to test it out before going all in. But now I think we’ll be going all in… anyone have some good leads on camping equipment? And, mom, I now have a Christmas list for our family.

Hopefully this is the start of a lovely family tradition, one we do again with these friends (and any other friends who want to join us) as it is the friends that helped make it fun for everyone. Without all the playmates, I’m sure I would have heard the dreaded, “I’m bored” at least a hundred times and without all the grown-ups, I’m sure one of us parents would have lost our minds on our children, instead we could just walk away and know another adult could take the reins. Community is a beautiful thing (so is all food prepared and eaten outdoors).

This post is all over the place and not at all organized, but I wanted to capture the weekend before too much times passes. Despite my eldest son coming out of the tent to throw up (because someone always has to puke; he was fine, just too much junk food and watching another kid play a video game in the tent; and bonus points to him for NOT doing it in the tent) and despite one family getting rained out in the middle of the night, I would do the weekend over in a heartbeat. This is life: making memories, making the best of every moment and creating situations where the experience so much greater than the sum of all the parts.

Of course, despite my thinking they would revel in the outdoors living, no-holds barred approach to cleanliness, both children asked for long baths on the way home, so they are still city boys at heart.

I loved this sweet moment between my boys and we’ll pretend it happened almost completely organically and that I didn’t tell Jack to go sit by his brother and “please, just don’t hit him.”

5 Comments

Posted in Family Traditions, Life in general

Thursday Randoms

Posted on June 13, 2013 | 4 comments

Like every other person in the world, we’ve been busy. That’s what happens at the end of the school year, when you work full time and also are packing up your house to move the first week in July. Throw in a round of IBS flare up and/or the stomach flu, camping one weekend and a family reunion and even the most prepared person might not find time to blog. But my fans are clamoring (read: my dad) for an update.

Here’s a recap of what I’ve been up to since last we met:

Watching The Voice… it’s pretty much the only new television I’ve been keeping up with this summer, though I also enjoy Rookie Blue when my husband doesn’t delete it from the DVR before I can watch it… we’ve also been cleaning off all the saved items on our DVR since we will be sending it back when we move. We watched 50/50 two weekends ago – pretty good movie. Genuinely funny, though still with Seth Rogan so at times inappropriate. We also rented Pitch Perfect last weekend and I really enjoyed it despite the two unnecessary puking scenes, but I love a musical (aside from Les Mis, which was not my favorite despite how much everyone loves it). We also went to see “Fast & Furious 6” for date night recently – it was even my pick because along with musicals and movies with dancing in them, I also love a mindless movie with fast cars (and Paul Walker).
We found a restaurant in town that actually makes its own tamales and tortillas – delicious. It is tiny and more suited for take out, but it is worth checking out. La Huasteca on Plainfield.
We closed on our new house – I don’t think I actually mentioned that here… we also ended up buying all the furniture from the list in my last post that weekend (thanks to an awesome warehouse sale at a local furniture store) so in the span of a few days we spent a whole lot of money with virtually nothing to show for it at this point since we don’t get possession of the house until the 30th and our furniture isn’t delivered until the first week in July. Here’s hoping it actually comes then or else the living room, kitchen and dining room are going to be quite empty. [Also, we are leaving the clawfoot tub, at our buyers request so I don’t have to fret about that.]
We’ve had some fun play dates with sweet friends – I feel so blessed by the people in our lives – my friends and my children’s friends.
Liam wrapped up first grade – which officially means we have a second grader (yipes) – and got a little verklempt on the last day of school when we pulled out of the parking lot. (I admit that it choked me up a little but then I remembered that it was the last time I’d be doing daily school drop off and pick up and I was happy once again – the bus stop for Liam’s new school is literally at the end of our driveway).
I signed up for the summer round of Biggest Blogging Loser – last time I came in third (though we were on vacation and my last email weigh-in never got sent so that’s according to my calculations and nothing official) and there is no glory (or money) for third place so I’m doing it again! Wish me luck!
The boys had their 6-month check at the dentist and BOTH of them had cavities. Sigh. We are admittedly a little lax lately in the toothbrushing department and apparently it DOES make a difference (yes – I really do know this, but sometimes things fall through the cracks). So we go back in another couple weeks for fillings. The dentist recommended that we get nitrous for Jack since during the cleaning and check up it was all she could do to get him to stay in the chair. I booked them for a morning appointment, thinking it would be a perfect thing for Simon to take them to but then realized I wasn’t about to miss the hilarity that was sure to ensue with Jack in nitrous oxide so I think we’ll make it a family affair. Winsies for everyone.
I had a perfect check up. Go me. At least one of us is good with their dental hygiene (Simon also had a cavity at his last check up).
The boys start swim lessons next week… like the intense, teach them to swim in four days kind of swim lessons. I cannot wait!
I received the following mis-directed texts this week which cracked me up:
- Text #1: That ugly [derogatory term we don’t use here, but made it clear they weren’t referring to my Australian husband] you with doesn’t deserve you. He be cheating with some b!tch. I tell you cause you some sweet girl and deserve a [same lovely term] that will treat you good.
- Text #2: He was pulling out of a hotel with some girl last Tuesday.
Firstly, what a lovely sentiment and text to receive from a “friend.” Second, the sender waited an entire week to send this tidbit of information, clearly they weren’t overly concerned. Hope it all works out because I never responded to tell them that they sent the texts to the wrong number.
I cooked nearly 4 pounds of bacon last night and you would have thought George would have been at my side, begging for every little morsel I might throw him, but there was also a thunder storm going on so my sad little dog was cowering upstairs, too afraid to venture down the stairs even for some bacon.
Speaking of bacon, it is delicious.
Liam had a play date with my coworker’s son last week to reacquaint them since they will be at daycare together one day a week this summer and she texted me about how talkative he is… and it is 100% true, the kid can (and will) talk to anyone, about anything, for as long as you will listen.
And then there is Jack who just never stops moving and does everything with the greatest intensity he can muster (which is great).
Re. above two bullets: my children are exhausting.
I’ve also been playing a wee bit of Candy Crush Saga and Words with Friends (read: every evening, until my eyelids can no longer stay open). I have a problem and I’m okay with that.
We are going camping this week (like for real, in a tent and not in someone’s backyard) (i.e., reason for the bacon cooking above). In theory, we are all looking forward to this weekend. The boys have no idea what to expect and I know they will love it. I grew up camping (be it in a pop-up camper) and also love it, but I never had to do all the prep work for those trips and lo, it is a lot of work. But the memories, it will be worth it!
I feel like there were many other funny stories to share about the boys… but this is what happens when I take two weeks to blog, I forget things. Sorry, dad.
My Nespresso maker came and I am dying to use it, but I am saving it for the new house. It is adorable though and it’s going to make yummy coffee…
Making this today, per Heidi’s recommendation: Blueberry Boy Bait. Also made these Party Pretzels and Get Thee Behind Me Satan Snack mix (recipe below) for camping

“Get Thee Behind Me, Satan” Sweet Snack Mix
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup lite corn syrup
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
melt all in sauce pan, boil 2 minutes
In large bowl mix together 18oz box of crispix cereal (can also use corn or rice chex), 3+ cups mini pretzels (optional, replace 1 cup pretzels with peanuts). Pour syrup over all and mix well. Put into large greased roasting pan (or two 9×13 pans). Bake @ 250 for about 1 hour, stirring every 15 min. Dump out on wax paper or foil to cool (slightly) then add M&M’s (optional). Eat until you can’t stand yourself!! Store in airtight container.

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Life in general, Random