I Love Goodwill

I really do. Some days, you walk in and find a veritable treasure trove of children's clothing that would cost hundreds of dollars new for $2.50 an item. And then there are the days you find this:

I think my favorite part was next to the coral and rocks lay a small bottle. A shiny little bit of ocean trash for the happy little dolphin. I almost bought it as a gag gift for a friend but I was afraid that if the girls saw it, they would want to keep it.

Maybe I am Ready for Summer's End

The children have been begging, endlessly, to go to Chuck E Cheese. While I find it utterly unbearable when crowded, it isn't all that bad, relatively, when mostly unpopulated. Hell, we needed to be out of the house when the cleaning lady was here anyway. The girls went through their tokens in record time but remained happy even when their supply was exhausted.

Eion stretched his out longer and, much to the surprise of all involved, shared some with his sisters.

There are worse ways to kill a few hours.

It was Wacky Wednesday and not raining for once so we headed out to the pool. The kids took the lack of clown and games pretty well. Might have been the free chocolate pudding but I take victory when it is handed to me.

But then there was The Ride Home. No sooner than we were just far enough away from the Club that we couldn't turn back, Eion announced he had to use the potty. I asked if he could hold it until we got home. He replied no and his seat dancing let me know that this was no bluff. While the girls gave him "holding it in" lessons, I thought about a plan.

Unfortunately for us, the Club is in a neighborhood where you really don't want to stop. But near the highway, there is a YMCA and I thought maybe they would have mercy on us. So I encourage E to hold it in and hightail it over there. I should have seen it coming by the diminished dancing but once we parked in the lot and I got out, I saw it was too late. But no, Eion said he needed to go more and planned to use the "outdoor stand-up potty."

So there I am in my pool cover-up in the YMCA parking lot with E letting it all hang out. And he wasn't in a hurry. At all. Better yet, cars of hooligans were yelling things that I can only assume were not good as I have never had a meaningful conversation start with "Woo baby!"

We get back in the car and Eion announces brightly, "I'm going home to change my pants!" Booster seat needed washing anyway I guess.

Here Comes the Boner!

So we are in public and Eion comes running at me yelling, "Ahhhh! Here comes the boner!" To which I can only think, that's just great. But as he continued, he talked about how he was Indiana Jones and how he was going to get away from the boner. Oh, the BOULDER. Please, for all our sakes, let's hope the boy gets speech therapy at school.

Must be in Our Blood

You know, this week has been tough. When Maggie & E got home from camp, we had thunderstorms almost every afternoon. We spent allot of time hanging around the house. And it was getting old. I didn't have a consensus to go to the pool so we headed out to the bookstore. That didn't kill nearly the amount of time the Club would have and I just couldn't bear another afternoon in the house. So on the way home I called Ann & Hans to see if they would mind an invasion terribly. Hans said "no problem, where are you." Good thing he was in favor as we were pulling up to the house.

We chatted and the kids played and it was just the break I needed. When it was time to go home, Eion started crying and said he wanted to stay for dinner. Just part of our genetics to make ourselves at home.

Warning, Rant Ahead

I need to address my friends at Facebook nation. (Of which I currently have 169. The number is going up as Tim's high school friends are adding me as a replacement for him, still a Facebook refuser.) People, you really need to stop updating your status with intentionally vague posts. Examples:

The more I think about the situation, the madder I become! Ugh!

is sad...Let's hope it passes!

Why me? Really...Why me?

Why are people so mean?

These fishing expeditions generally get one or more concerned friend to bite at which point (most of the time anyway) the original poster refuses to elaborate and says it is just something personal. So, um, if it is so personal, why the hell are you posting it on Facebook? If you don't want to talk about it, don't invite 100+ of your very closest online friends into your problem.

Whew, I don't know about you, but I feel better.

Repeat

Would that this week were better for my blogging....kids to camp, home from camp, afternoon storm. Repeat.

But the kids are happy, Tim is home and I won my battle with the auto insurance company and they agreed not to raise our rates. So no complaints!

Love/Hate

It will never cease to amaze me how fast I can fall from "the greatest mother ever" to "you're ruining my life." Case in point, today. Maggie and Eion happily off at Zoo Camp, well, Maggie was happy anyway, Eion refused his craft, has trouble staying with the group and doesn't like to listen to instructions - sorry suckers, camp is prepaid - so Morrigan and I set off for a morning together.

I curtailed my workout so we would have time to go to the cheap Asian nail salon, home of the massaging chairs. We each got a pedicure and Morrigan got a manicure. She was bubbling. "I am so relaxed!" and "This is the best! I love spending time with Mommy!"

Fast forward to Zoo Camp pick up where, incidentally, my darling son snubbed Lennon, a friend's son, when he tried to hug him goodbye. The poor little guy looked so dejected that I told him I would love his hug. Well that really opened the floodgates and I was surrounded by affectionate 4 year olds who all wanted to hug me. Naturally, the E was not among them.

But I digress. I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the pool for lunch. Maggie and E, enthusiastic yes. Morrigan, no. Seeing as I had a 2/3rds majority (and we all know Mommy has the super majority anyway), we decided on the pool. Morrigan pouted and cried the whole way, letting me know I made her life so boring. Seeing as all my goodwill was already gone, I informed her it was by design and nothing brightened my day like her sadness.

When we got to the pool, she had a great time though I think I did not receive the credit I so richly deserved.

Eion Undone

Eion, as we all recall, not much of a coloring or craft guy. The one time they sent home art from school, I was shocked. And then not so shocked when I found out one of his classmates had made it for me because they felt bad that I never received any papers from school.

Well he's at Zoo Camp this week and it does appear nothing has changed. I arrived to pick up E and John Paul and was given the day's art project which was compliments of JP. Eion had refused to make a paper turtle and so JP made two, one for his Mom and one for me.

This did not sit well with the E who cried all the way to the car and told me how he wants to throw it out. And additionally, how he is not part of this family. You people who keep telling me how sweet sons are, I would like some hard evidence.

Home Alone

I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself. Tim left yesterday for a Board Review class in Arlington and won't be back until Wednesday. We're not really the separate vacation types so this is a little odd for me. But good news is, years of long ER hours have trained me to be plenty self reliant!

Yesterday, after a week off due to illness, we hit the pool. It was so sparsely populated that I thought we were sure to leave soon. But we soldiered on and reinforcements arrived. In the end we clocked six good hours. When we got home Ann came by for a drink as Hans and the boys were at the lake. We sat out on the deck, relaxed and let the kids stay up too late. Day one passed pretty quickly.

Eion's friend John Paul has been out of town and the two were anxious to be reunited. So Jerry and Melanie invited us over. The kids played happily all afternoon requiring a minimal amount of parental intervention. Though we were requisitioned to watch their "rock show" in the basement.

Sadly, their quintet was reduced to a quartet as Eion could not be lured away from his ongoing battle with anything coming in his dart gun's range. As I am prone to do, we vastly overstayed our welcome. I would feel bad but I was thrilled to be out of the house after last week's quarantine and if you hang around long enough, dinner comes out and you don't have to go home and cook! [Just kidding - though I am inclined routinely to linger, Jerry made it abundantly clear that if the kids were happy, he was too.]

Day two down. With Zoo Camp and vet visits coming up, I think the next few days will fly by!

New Earrings

The girls told me they wanted to get their ears pierced. I had mine done when I was six so it was fine with me. Tim was sleeping - night shift last night - so the kids and I packed up and headed to the jewelry store. The sales woman chose Maggie to go first. She happily sat still and got marked with a pen. All smiles, that is until the first earring went in. Then is was crying, crying and more crying.

She clearly wasn't ready for another go so we put Morrigan in the chair. To my complete and utter amazement, she sat still and got both ears pierced even after the display put on by her sister. Which, incidentally was still going on and included crying, thumb sucking and a runny nose. All the while Eion was attempting to touch each and every glass display several times over.

We ended up ejecting with Maggie only having one ear pierced. She went home and put herself to bed in tears. After a two hour nap, she returned, all smiles and wanted to go back. So we loaded up the whole family this time and went back to the jewelry store where we were greeted with all the enthusiasm one would expect given our last visit.

Twas a bit dicey but she did it in the end and we all went out for ice cream. After we got home I barely had a chance to get on the computer to post this as they shopped for new ear adornments. In the end, success.

The Cover Up

You know, it's been a long week. I still feel pretty crappy and have been under the influence of cold medicine. So I should not be terribly surprised that I am now also The Worst Tooth Fairy Ever.

Morrigan lost a tooth yesterday. We were all dutifully excited and placed the tooth in the tooth fairy pillow for extraction and exchange for prizes. Then I watched some bad Jessica Alba movie, forgot all about it and went to bed.

Fast forward to this morning when a teary eyed little girl makes her way into my room crying that the tooth fairy forgot her. Well sh*t.

Think fast Katie.....I told the girls I had to go downstairs to get something. I quickly put $2 in quarters (twice the normal rate) and a bunch of sprinkles at Morrigan's seat in the kitchen. "Come quick!" I yelled to them.

Very excited, Morrigan exclaimed, "She did come!" While the sprinkles were devoured, I ran up stairs and took the tooth. Then back downstairs where I suggested Morrigan get the tooth so we could use it in a craft. (Look people, it was early, I am sick and had zero coffee in my system. I was doing my best.)

She came flying down the stairs saying the tooth fairy must have just taken her tooth and that means she might still be in the house. Which lead to a frantic search for the tooth fairy.

Sadly, we did not catch her. But we did get to spend an inordinate amount of time devising elaborate plots for her capture next time. Clearly, this was the worst cover up of all time. I don't know if Morrigan bought it or just wanted to. Maggie told me, "You did this" and winked at me. I denied it all.

The Week Lost

I was thinking just the other day how well this summer had gone and how I was feeling a bit sad it was almost over. As if that weren't enough, along came a wave of sickness that overtook the entire family. Eion was the first to fall, followed quickly by the rest of us. The whole week was a waste with kids and parents languishing on sofas and beds everywhere. Just when I think I am feeling better, I go out to Kroger to get some antibiotics for E (new development this morning - ear infection,) and find I am really only feeling ok when stationary. And in a reclined position.

While Maggie missed most of Zoo Camp this week, she was well enough today to go to her friend's house for a tea party. It was so cute and I would have loved to stay but that standing up was getting to me again.

As we wrap up the week, two out of three kids are on the mend, both parents are sick and Morrigan's most recent temp was 101.6. To add to the joy, Tim is leaving us on Saturday for five days to go to a Board review class. I can only hope we are all well (and more interesting and less complainy) by then.

Worse and Worse

Seriously, I am just going to throw myself a pity party. I'm sick too. But god bless Facebook and my sweet friends, after updating my status to whine about my sick kids and my sick self, I was flooded with offers of help. Sadly, not much to be done besides wait it out....

FML

Tim is working the next three nights. I have moved from one sick kid to three. They are all in the office with me discussing which family members have cranks. FML

I Don't Like Mondays

Actually, more correctly, I don't much like this Monday. When I don't sleep, I am not a very pleasant person and I slept very little last night. I knew there was trouble when I went to bed and heard Eion whimpering and moaning. Sure enough, he was in our bed, sick and unhappy soon after we arrived there. Consequently, I got about 2 hours of sleep. Tim was nice enough to take E downstairs around 4am so I could get in a few hours. For his good deed, he was rewarded in vomit.

I should be happy it didn't happen over the weekend. Tim was working long hours so we were clocking maximum time at the pool. Sunday as we were headed out for another all day session, we saw the cat on the deck eating a lizard while it was still alive. Seriously, I may never be the same. It was disturbing.

The picture doesn't give the full effect because you can't see the lizard slithering out, trying to escape its imminent demise, only to be sucked back in for more chomping. It was like fricking Wild Kingdom.

But we made it out and the day went smoothly with lots of friends there as well. We've arranged Eion's marriage with my friend Jennie's daughter, Eliza. They have alot in common....both fairly irritable, driving their mothers to drink, obstinate, and they both have names that start with E. Match made in heaven!

Gosh, I feel rambly today. I think it is the lack of sleep. Today was largely a waste for anything other than nursing the boy back to health. But a few cups of Sprite seem to have done him a world of good and he hasn't thrown up in hours. Since Tim goes on nights tomorrow, I really hope E's improvement holds through the night.

Fun on Caprine Mountain

Thursday, my kids had their friend Sam over. He was much the rock star and all were devastated to see him go. When his Mom came to pick him up, she said she was going with the kiddos to our friend Krista's the next day and we should come too. I was a bit hesitant to call her up and invite myself and my circus over but clearly not so hesitant that I wouldn't do it!

Krista is a really good sport and told us to come on over and join the fun. She lives out in the country or all the way across town but the beautiful and serene setting is worth the drive - all 20 minutes of it.

The kids swam and attempted to eat her out of house and home. I think my crew polished off no few than a half dozen popsicles.

And Krista's goats are the ever popular attraction. There had been allot of monotony around here this week and the trip to her house was a perfect break. I'm glad we invited ourselves over!

Problem Solved!

It seems the key to getting my daughters to eat forms of protein they have previously rejected is to put it on sticks. Grilled chicken, no go (it's not pork after all.) Grilled chicken on a stick, devoured. Same seems to go for other meat too which is awesome! The boy is not fooled. He still hates dinner. That is, unless dinner is hot milk and Cheerios.

Hmmmm

Why is it that every story Maggie tells me after she has been scratched or bit by the cat starts with, "I was letting the kitty go and..."

Relocating

My dear son informed me yesterday that he was going to leave home. I gave my standard answer that I would be happy to help him pack and his sister would be thrilled to have her own room. He told me that he was going to move in with Ann and Hans and he was taking his room with him. I wonder if they would agree to it? It's alright with me!

I didn't forget about my other blog.....

For the sake of those not so interested in my political views, I've tried to keep them mainly (only mainly - every once in a while I boil over) quarantined on my other blog, Relentlessly Conservative. Well after I set it up, summer was upon us and I wasn't posting much out there. When I checked in the other day on the site's hit counter, I saw that there were people checking in regularly and alas, I had let them down. But fear not, I've been pretty fired up about healthcare and promise to post regularly for those interested.

On a side note, hit counters generally tell you the location (city, state) of the visitor but not who they are. On my other blog, I saw that someone at the House of Representatives has checked in a few times. Could they actually be listening to what their constituents are saying? Let's hope so!

Best. Idea. Ever.

Yesterday Tim was working all day so I took the kids to see Half Blood Prince, which was an awesome idea. And by awesome idea, I mean possibly one of the dumbest ideas ever. They all seemed enthusiastic enough but 5 minutes into the movie, when they had finished their smuggled in snacks and drinks, it all went to hell.

Yes I could have ejected, but dammit, I had just shelled out $28 in tickets and I wanted to see the movie. So we persevered. Morrigan, it turns out, is a movie-talker. But once I got it in her head that she needed to keep it down, she was the least trouble of the three with just a random "this is too scary, I want to leave" here and there.

Maggie looked miserable, sucking her thumb and curling up on the seat. In an effort of self preservation, I ducked out to get a large $7.75 popcorn. It went against my cheap nature but I thought it might pull us through. And it was more than a little nerve racking to leave the kids unattended while I went to the concession stand. But they didn't destroy the theater in my absence and were much subdued by the addition of popcorn.

Eion attempted to sit in every seat in our row and at one point got both his legs stuck in the seat yelling "Help! Stuck!" Luckily for me, the two dudes who resembled the comic book store owner on The Simpsons seemed to find us amusing. Or they just took pity on me. Eion found the movie infinitely boring, save the parts with violence when he would clap loudly and say, "He's killing him!"

As we walked out of the theater, I said to the kids, mostly in jest, "Well that was great! Maggie, it looks like you loved it." And then, I kid you not, she turned to me and sincerely said, "I did love it Mommy." I guess all the I want to leave and I am bored and deep sighing were just to enhance my movie watching experience.

MIA

So it has not been your imagination. I have been MIA all week. It was an odd week for us. Morrigan was at horseback riding camp this week from 8-noon. I mercifully had a carpool with two other families. If not, the hour round trip might have done me in. But the camp threw us off anyway. Top that with marginal weather all week and Morrigan's swimmers ear infection nixing the pool on all but one afternoon and you have a very atypical string of days.

Morrigan has loved horses for years. Personally, I'm not much of a horse person and have no desire to acquire an expensive hobby so I kept hoping she would grow out of it. She didn't. Seeing as I am not willing to shell out for or drive to regular riding lessons, we compromised on this camp where I truly hoped she would go and have a miserable time, forever putting the topic to rest.

No such luck. She had a great time. And she placed first in her section at the end of week show. Now Maggie wants to go next year too. I guess if we keep it to camp only, I can tolerate it.

What we did do this week, weather being what it was, was finally break down and buy a huge tv. [Note to Fraught: Hans and Ann bought one first!] We fought for so long not to but after watching our 27 inch Daewoo for years, upgraded to a 55 inch LCD. We have our laptop hooked up to it and can stream Netflix. The whole family is in love.

I had to go out with Eion and buy a stand on which to put the new tv. While at Best Buy, he settled in to watch Transformers. Seeing as he was the boy afraid of and crying at Night at the Museum and Ice Age 3, I asked him if this might be a bit scary. As he sat, transfixed, watching a robot try to kill Shia Labeouf, and simply responded, "Why would I be afraid of this?" I give up.

Additionally, he has decided he can swim. This would be fine but he can't. Which makes his desire to be in waters over his head maddening. Just today he informed a group of people, "Look! I can swim!" and jumped into the 4 foot deep water, which is over his head, and where he surely would have drowned if not for a couple of tweens who thought he was "so adorable." Thank god for Kirsten who right on the spot started working with him to actually teach him to swim rather than just leap to his watery demise. I need this like a need a frakking hole in my head.

Anyway, we topped off the week with drinks and homemade pizza on the deck with some friends during which the kids bothered us not a whit and watched some streaming Scooby Doo. Can't beat that.