2000 hits

Wanna learn something new about me? It is a little known fact that I love numbers. I'm a numbers nerd. I actually took extra math classes by choice in high school and college. (yes, they will let you take extra classes in H.S. if you beg them enough) I always loved math and was a human calculator (within reason) for many years. That skill has left me recently, probably due to lack of practice. Now, when my brain works that quickly, I always doubt myself. In fact, on Easter, I was tripling the recipe for something and was double checking 2 2/3 cups with my cousin's son (who still IS a 10 year old human calculator) and he immediately said, "Eight cups." That's what I thought, just needed confirmation.

Anyway, I realized I was a true numbers nerd and not just good at math quite a while ago. I love seeing numerical patterns when I look down at my tripometer in my car, on various signs around town, at a digital clock, where ever. Today, when I clicked on my blog to check a friend's link to read her new post, I was delighted to find that my "number of hits" counter was exactly on 2000. Don't know why...I just love stuff like that. Such a nerd...

A peek inside my head

My brain is so...interesting. I have to tell you what I went through today. A complete rollarcoaster of emotions! I've been very busy going from one thing to the next this last week. It started Saturday with a packed day full of Easter egg hunts, then church, then preparing for a houseful of people for Sunday. Sunday: more prep work, entertaining, throwing the contents of Easter baskets here and there. The dishes got done, but nothing else really got put away. Monday: busy, busy...I had a project to do for work, so I had my laptop with me while the kids were playing in the backyard in the morning, worked through naps, then had a houseful of friends over for dinner. (just to keep track...that's a total of 42 house guests in 24 hours) Tuesday: I hosted a kids craft day for the moms group that I run at church. Oh, and Monday night, after everyone left, I stayed up late finishing up a bunch of prep work for that. (Have I mentioned lately how much I try to avoid procrastinating?? I hate living in crisis mode...) That's when it started to pile up, really. 4 days of not putting things back where they belong. And it ended with me coming home with bags and boxes of extra supplies from the craft day. With no where to put them. So they stayed in bags and boxes and were dumped in my craft room. Wednesday: ran some errands before Mike's mom came over to babysit. I had a lot of work to do, so the bags from the errands were dumped. Last night I finally got a chance to sweep and mop my disgusting tile. That was my first sense of "regular household maintenance" accomplishment in days!

That brings me to today: I volunteered at Ryan's school all morning. By nap time, I was exhausted and wanted to relax, but finally started feeling overwhelmed. There are Easter eggs (and their contents of candy, sidewalk chalk, toys and coins) sprinkled all over my house. There are bags of things that need to be put away. There are bags of things that need to find a home. My desk was piled high with all of the above mentioned items plus paperwork, notes, receipts and things to do. I decided to play before working on tidying up and read a friend's blog. There was a mention of "decluttering" and that sparked my interest to Google "decluttering" to figure out how to tackle the leftover crafts I need to store. I found a great website that had a link to another site promoting meal planning. I've been wanting to meal plan forever and have been yearning for some guidance. Then I back-tracked to organizing and got so overwhelmed that I completely shut down, went and laid down on my bed and turned on the t.v.

I watched a show that showed this couple organizing their garage. That made me feel lazy, but I was still overwhelmed. Watching it, though, motiviated me to get up and do something before the kids woke up. I started with my bathroom. There was a Walmart bag on the counter that didn't belong. I put away its contents, picked up what didn't belong in there (2 stuffed animals of Ryan's and some batteries left in the bag) and put them in a pile to go back to their appropriate rooms. I had one tidy room in my house and I was ready to tackle the rest.

Although I hate procrastinating, I've always been one who works well against the clock. I knew 3:00 was arriving soon, so I moved quickly. I gathered things that belonged downstairs and started a pile by the stairs. I sat in my craft room and sorted the leftover crafts into logical categories, throwing away all of the bags and just making temporary piles, and I already started feeling like I was moving in the right direction. Mike called in the middle of all of this and I asked him to bring home some storage boxes that I'd been promised by the Women's Ministry at church so I could store things properly. The kids graciously both slept until 3:30 for me and in that extra 30 minutes, I completely picked up every single everything that I could through the rest of the house. The Easter decor is even on my fireplace, ready to go back into its box in the garage.

It amazes me that when you work quickly (with the right pre-anxiety-attack type of motivation) you can get SO much done in a short amount of time. I seriously did everything I needed to do in under 45 minutes. All of that "stuff" that had completely overwhelmed me for days! I think I've said this before, but I recently read in an organizing book that "it's not what you do that weighs you down, it's what you don't do." That is so true for me. I think if you're honest with yourself, it's true for you, too! So stop reading my blog and go do something productive, would'ja? :)

Spring Flowers

The flowers in our little planter in front of our house are amazing right now. We played outside, waiting for Daddy to come home tonight and the kids picked flowers for me. I took a few pictures because I want to remember precious glimpses of our occasional "happy" afternoons. (more often than not, just before Mike gets home, I'm exhausted, frazzled and running around, but today was great...of course I had no plans for dinner when Mike arrived and he was starving, but unfortunately that's the price he has to pay for a calm, happy wife at 5:00!) I stuck one of the flowers behind my ear and Kaylin thought it was hilarious, so she tried, too. The difference was that she stuck hers IN her ear. (our camera doesn't have audio, but I took a short video...enjoy!)

Integrity

For years, one of the most, if not THE most, important quality for me to personally possess is integrity. Websters defines integrity as: uncompromising adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. I define it as: who you are when no one is looking. And sometimes, my friends, this character trait drives me crazy.

For instance, here I am, entering my receipts meticulously into Quicken for my husband. I break everything out into their appropriate categories so we can stick to our budget and know where we spend our money. I was going through a recent receipt from Target and noticed that the guy charged me for one storage bin and I bought three. They were nested inside of each other, so I can understand the mistake, but it makes me wonder why he thought it was okay that I had one bin and three lids? Anyway, this stupid integrity of mine is the driving factor behind me going back to Target and asking them to charge me for 2 more $1.29 bins. Some say that's ridiculous to do this because "no one will ever know." I'll know. And Lord knows the LORD knows! The dollar amount is irrelevant. It's a matter of principle. I continued entering my receipts, mildly annoyed that I'm going to be inconvenienced by a special trip. (I rarely shop at Target, so doing this on my next shopping trip may take weeks/months and I surely won't remember.)

Then I got to a JoAnn's receipt. They charged me for 2 spray bottles and I only bought one. I decided to dismiss it until I realized that she rang me up for 2 spray bottles but didn't charge me for the other item I bought, which was twice as much. Seriously!?!?!? Is this a test of my commitment to this level of integrity? Because the inefficiency of this exercise might make me nuts.

Getting that "perfect" family picture

Lots of people ask me how I get "so many" pictures of the kids both looking in the general direction of my camera and sometimes even both smiling. My answer: I take a LOT of pictures. I get one good shot out of dozens of tries, all on different days. I pull my camera out when they are both in a good mood, each look cute-ish in their outfit and are stain-free with no food lingering on their faces. (that last one isn't always a qualification and "no bruises or scratches" is never an option because my kids are always banged up!)

I thought you'd enjoy the series of 5 pictures my mom took on Easter Sunday of our family. The last picture of all of us smiling at the camera (and is definitely one of the only ones ever) was taken on Mike's birthday in November and was our Christmas picture. And even then, Ryan had a handful of my hair and Kaylin had a huge bruise that was turning yellow, right in the middle of her forehead. (click on it to enlarge to see the detail...)

I digress...here are our pictures. If you look at each person individually, they're quite funny. Ryan tried to be a good sport, then got bored and flopped forward while I attempted to ask Kaylin to sit still. I tried Kaylin in a few positions, but she really didn't want to be photographed, so she was wiggling away from me. The problem with family pictures is that I like them outside, at dusk, and it requires a 3rd adult to take the picture. Oh, and I'd like to have recently showered and have on something other than my gym clothes and maybe even have eye makeup on, but that's a stretch. Those moments are rare. On Easter, all elements were there except that it was the end of a big holiday with lots of stimulation and I had an over-tired, sugar-high-ed 1-year-old rebelling against my efforts. The first picture ended up being the best; it was the only one where she was looking at the camera, even if she wouldn't smile. FYI, these are posted in order that they were taken. (See now? My family IS normal! I just take a lot of pictures...and for those of you who know me at all, you shouldn't be surprised.) Even though I didn't get a great picture, it's more current than the one we took 4 months ago!!!

Ryan's first Spring Break

For those of you have asked why I haven't written any novel-ish posts lately...have a seat and read on. After posting about all of our events last weekend, I decided to compile a huge, long remembrance of Ryan's first Spring break into one post. Enjoy!

Friday - Ryan spent the morning at the mall with his friend, Reagan, went on the Merry Go Round in the food court and got to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap.

Saturday - We all went to the Railroad Park with Grandma Cindy. After nap time, we spent the afternoon at Ryan's friend, Caleb's, house.

Sunday - We colored Easter eggs after church, then Ryan made chocolate chip cookies with Daddy, and flew a kite outside *in the freezing wind* after dinner. (The kids' hands were like ice; we had to bundle them up in coats and gloves. I heard that it was 57 degrees, but I know Phoenix doesn't ever measure wind chill and the wind was freezing. It felt like the mid-40s, maybe lower.) During his bath, Ryan made a bubble goatee so he could look "just like Daddy."

Monday - St. Patrick's Day! Ryan and Daddy both ended up wearing green-ish shirts, though Daddy didn't know it was St. Patrick's Day until I told him at lunchtime. We had green egg salad sandwiches and broccoli for lunch. (Ryan took the picture of his plate, below) In the afternoon, I took pre-Easter pics of the kids. Ryan took some pictures, too. (again, see below) To continue the green festivities, we had spinach and pesto pasta for dinner mixed with diced chicken, broccoli and artichokes. Oh, and a side salad. It was a very green meal. I should add that Mike took off his green shirt after work and was walking around in a white Hanes shirt, so Ryan changed his shirt, too. They both ate dinner in jeans and a Hanes t-shirt. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he was wearing the only green shirt he owns today? Just like Daddy? Hmmm...

Tuesday - Daddy took the day off to join us at the zoo. The weather was back to a perfect 70 degrees. Ryan fed the giraffes, got to pet a bunch of animals at the petting zoo (he and Kaylin both had their clothes gnawed on by a goat), rode the train and the skylift (with Daddy) and even sat on an animal (not the bench!) on the carousel - twice. According to Ryan, Kaylin threw her $6 hair bow at the giraffe for a snack. What am I, made of money???

Wednesday - A nice, quiet, normal day. After the gym, Grandma Barb came to babysit while I worked. When Mike got home, he took the kids to get the mail, then to the park down the street.

Thursday - We had a backyard picnic lunch and played in the beautiful weather until nap time. In the afternoon, we baked spring-themed sugar cookies with frosting and gave them away to some neighbors. Ryan also learned the definition of tattle-tailing. Out of no where, he's started reporting Kaylin's every move to me. We discussed that I only need an informant if there's blood and for safety issues. Otherwise, I'm teaching him how to resolve disputes on his own.

Friday - Ryan spent the morning at his friend Reagan's house. In the afternoon, we were supposed to go for our first swim of the season at our friend's house (who solar-heats their pool), but it didn't work out. For dinner, we went to Sweet Tomatoes, where Ryan was on a complete sugar high from the muffins and ice cream. It didn't occur to me to bring a bib for Kaylin (P.S. that will never happen again) and the only thing she wanted to eat was chili. Three adult-sized bowls of it. With a spoon. By herself. Imagine drinking something and someone comes along and bumps your elbow, spilling it all down the front of you. That was Kaylin's outfit, covered with chili. Mike made a make-shift napkin bib (four of them...the napkins were thin and chili soaks through pretty quickly) but it did little to stop the spillage. She rode home in the car with just shoes on and a diaper. Thank goodness for Oxy Clean!

Saturday - Our neighborhood had an Easter Eggstravaganza complete with egg hunts, crafts, lunch, face painting, bounce houses and relay races. I made the mistake of keeping Ryan out of Kaylin's age group for the hunt, not realizing until later that the group was 0-4 year olds. (he looked like the biggest kid and it didn't seem fair at the time) An hour later, the next group went and I found out it was 5-7 year olds! They were like a swarm of wasps...Ryan did not get one single egg. (and look at all of them in the grass in this picture!) He was pretty crushed, but my spirit was absolutely devastated for him, since I had essentially ruined it. Thankfully, we were told that an hour later, there was another hunt for the young kids and he got enough eggs to fill 1/2 of his basket. So he came home happy and both kids crashed into bed. We ended up going to church that afternoon. Our neighbors (Ryan's friend Morgan) and my cousin's family (Ryan's cousin, Ella) were both supposed to join us, but didn't for different reasons. Ryan still got to see Reagan in his class, though, so it was special for him. We let the kids stay up a little later than normal so we could make Easter Story Cookies.

Sunday - Happy Easter! The kids started the day by hunting for hidden eggs all over the house that led them to their Easter baskets. We each ate a hollow, Easter cookie just before our cross-shaped pancake breakfast and some of the hard-boiled eggs that we colored last weekend. The rest of the morning was spent playing in the backyard with Daddy. Then we had a houseful of 24 people over for Easter dinner and one final egg hunt. Quite an eventful day...

Monday - We had 3 other families over for dinner tonight: 8 adults and 10 kids...believe it or not, Ryan was the only boy. You would think that would be chaos, 10 kids under 5, but they all played in a backyard and ran around like wild animals. The little ones were a little whiney, but once the "older" kids started playing hide and seek, everyone was occupied and the adults actually got to hang out in peace! It was a great finale for Ryan's spring break. He's really excited to go back to school tomorrow.

Kaylin on the hunt

Kaylin really got into Easter this year, believe it or not. She enjoyed wearing her bunny ears and playing with eggs - opening and closing them, shaking them, carrying them around, it didn't matter. The eggs were a hit.

She also participated in several egg hunts over the last 2 days. We went to Sprouts Saturday morning and they were supposed to to let the little ones in early to get a head start looking for the 2000 eggs hidden throughout the store, but someone let in the bigger kids and Kaylin's basket stayed empty. Ryan and I found an egg among the tomatoes and one that a kid dropped on the ground, but that's it. There was a firetruck, a dressed up bunny and a clown there, which was fun, but we didn't stay long. We likely won't do that again.

Later in the morning, we had a huge neighborhood event and she was able to collect lots of (unhidden) eggs, all by herself. It was really sweet.

Then on Easter, I re-hid all of the eggs in the morning for an indoor egg hunt (Kaylin only found a few eggs b/c he stopped to open each one - whispering "Wowwww!" - and sat inspecting it's contents for a few minutes before putting it in her basket) and after dinner, we had the final egg hunt in our yard with all of the cousins. She got more eggs that time, but sat in the same spot for over 15 minutes, inspecting her stash. Some of the eggs had peanut M&Ms in them and she found a few, but we caught her before she crunched into any. Whew! Someday I'll remember that we need to be peanut-free...

Kaylin's new smile

Recently, Kaylin realized that she can pose for pictures... unfortunately, she squints her eyes and it doesn't look anything like a purposeful grin. At least she's trying? Ryan's loves to immitate her. Actually, he does a pretty good impression!

Hoppy Easter

...from our little bunnies!

I know a reality show participant!

An acquaintance from my church is going to be on the TLC show, "The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom" this Sunday, March 23 and again on Friday, the 28th. (both at 5pm PST) Their names are Stephanie & Garth, they have 4 boys and they were both in the Air Force. He flies for Southwest Airlines, she's a stay at home mom and they're even from Kansas! They are huge KU fans...often flying home for weekend games. I guess the show asked them to make it look like you're trying to decide between working or staying at home and they asked Garth to borrow some neighbors' dogs to take them for walks with the kids...so some things were staged. She also doesn't want the show to make him look like a clueless dad, because he's very involved with the 4 boys. They're such a great family.

Anyway, if you get a chance on Friday (since Sunday is Easter!) to catch the show, do it! Know that you know this family by association. And that, my friends, makes us all famous. (like my logic?) I already have my DVR set.

Useless info for your Easter dinner discussions

Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the SpringEquinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. This year, Easter will fall on March 23.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will eversee the rest of our lives...and only the most elderly of our population (95 years old or above) have ever seen it this early before. None of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier.

The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so ifyou're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that).

The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.

So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year.

Don't you feel educated now? Happy early Easter!!!

Kaylin's twin

There is a little girl at my gym that I've mistaken for Kaylin (from afar or from behind) a few times. She has the same color hair, is the same height and build, it's pretty funny. Then today, at the zoo, this family had a 20 month old red head and insisted on taking pictures of her with Kaylin. They said they could be twins. It was cute at first, but then they wanted a picture of their 4 year old with "her little sister" Kaylin (*snicker, snicker!*) and continued to follow us around. They thought it was hilarious. It started feeling creepy, though I'm sure they meant it to be completely harmless. Anyway, the picture of the two girls is also below. (Click on it to enlarge and judge for yourself. Mike thought they were blind.)

Back on the Health Wagon

I watched Oprah the other day with Dr. Oz on and I was glued. (the link to the show is here) I knew some of the stuff but learned a few things along the way. I've been all over the board "health" wise this year...I think it was all of the sickness in our house and all of the stress-eating I did when Ryan was misbehaving. I got a huge wake up call yesterday when my favorite jeans were in the laundry and I was forced to wear my "I hate pulling up these pants every 3 minutes" jeans. The problem was that I wore them all day and hardly pulled them up at all. (!!!!) That coupled with the fact that I thought I had an allergic reaction to something because my hips and thighs have been itchy this week. The feeling is similar to that of my itchy belly when I was pregnant. (ladies, are you with me?) So my skin is stretching on my hips and thighs and my "big jeans" fit well because I'm obviously gaining weight!!! Serious devastation set in.

Right around this time, I read a hilarious post by my friend April. (You have to check it out...you will definitely be entertained.) When reading her thoughts, I realized that for the first time in my life, I've had a stint with seeing myself as much bigger than I actually am. Over the last 6 months or so, I've seen pictures of myself and thought, "That doesn't even look like me...whose arms are those?" or "Wow - I was sitting at a good angle there because I look pretty fit." This self talk happened with almost every picture I saw. When I looked in the mirror, (again, for the first time ever) I've been seeing someone much bigger, jigglier, and who needed to go to the gym. Interesting. Now here I am fitting into my "big jeans" quite nicely and itching from expanding skin in areas that will soon have a road map of stretch marks, if I'm not careful.

I know I've been stress eating. I actually know that when I'm in the middle of doing it. But if I'm stressed, I don't care. And I figured if I was aware of it and came to terms with it, the calories wouldn't stick. Logical, isn't it? Another issue lately has been my portion sizes. Not much to say about that, I just need to stop going back for seconds. The most recent problem is Easter candy. We are helping with an Easter egg hunt this weekend and I was in charge of filling 4 dozen eggs. I tried to be "that mom" and fill some of the eggs with small toys to reduce the amount of candy consumed by these poor kids, but let's face it...candy's much cheaper. And the leftovers have been easily accessible in my house. I put them out of sight of my kids, yet I know exactly where they are. I should just throw them away. (oh, but I love those miniature Snickers!)

Back to my point...the premise of the Oprah show was anti-aging, but I still got a lot out of it. Some of his daily food recommendations:

- Antioxidants, 5 servings (like blueberries, broccoli, tomatoes - heated with a little olive oil to help the lycopene absorb better...or eat tomato sauce)

- 4 cups (FOUR!) of green or white tea

- 1 glass of red wine (I will never benefit from this one)

- 1-2 Tbsp of Olive Oil (If you pour it in the pan before the food and let it get hot, the healthy fats are damaged and it loses it's benefits - he recommended either pouring it on your food after it's cooked or even tossing your food in it before cooking. Interesting, huh?)

- 25 grams of fiber - whole grains (bread must say "100% WHOLE grain," nothing else), steel cut oatmeal (the longer the oatmeal takes to cook, the more fiber is in it), wheat pastas, beans, etc.

- Omega 3 fatty acids - flax seed must be ground up, the seeds just go through your body whole. Grinding it up by hand or in a coffee grinder releases the good oils. You can buy the meal, but grinding it fresh is best, by far.

Other stuff:

- flossing daily will take 2-5 years off your "real age"

- do yoga once a week (in addition to cardio 3 times a week, strength training once a week and stretching daily) to increase flexibility and protect your joints from injury

- Rosemary (just the smell, but also eating it) helps you focus and actually helps you learn faster - who knew?!

- Take daily: a multi-vitamin (he recommends cutting it in 1/2 and taking it in the am and pm), vitamin D (especially if you live in a non-sunny state), DHA fish oils (I recommend "enteric coated" - no fish burps!), calcium and magnesium.

I was intrigued by the new things I learned and I'm even one who keeps up with a lot of this stuff. But I wanted to pass on all of this knowledge to YOU. I hope you got a nugget of wisdom out of these lists! Come join me on the heath wagon...I need to jump back on ASAP. (maybe after I have one more mini-Snickers...)

Coloring Easter Eggs

I decided on Friday to finally decorate my house for Easter. It's a shame the decorations will be up for only 10 days! Oh well, we'll enjoy the festivity (or is it festive-ness?) while it lasts.

We colored Easter eggs after church today. Walmart was selling these little Q-tips with dye in the stems for $.88 and it ended up being the perfect tool for Kaylin. (I highly recommend this product!) She unknowingly received the eggs that cracked on the stove, so there was no need to worry if she dropped one. I was still very on edge, however, because she continually put the Q-tip close to her head and hair. As you can see from the pictures, her face, hands and high chair tray became quite colorful. So much for taking pre-Easter pictures this afternoon! (That's my new trick, by the way...I dress the kids up in Christmas outfits, Easter attire or Halloween costumes and take pictures several days before the big event. Everyone is much more relaxed, especially ME.)

This is another place holder for a scrapbook page, so just enjoy the pictures!