Really? Again?

Remember this picture from two years ago?

You can read about it in This Post. <-click on link

The readers digest version is that When John and I went to NYC two years ago, I picked up a big chocolate bar because it said "Times Square" on it. Within a day or two my bloodhound of a child had sniffed it out, and was chowing down on it.

So, on this last trip to NYC, John picked me up a replacement bar. It sat undisturbed in my room for several days until one day Christopher came waltzing out of my room smelling of chocolate.

I ran in to find this- (sorry the picture is upside down- I can't seem to fix it)

Luckily John picked me up a spare. Ü

Ted's

There's this hot dog place in Tempe called Ted's. It's actually quite popular. According to John, it's not an uncommon site to see the line wrapped around the building. They have Regular, All-beef, Foot-long, Polish, Italian, Bratwurst, white hots... Their shakes, fries, and onion rings are really good too. Apparently they even have hamburgers and chicken, but as my husband says "You go for the dawgs".

So we took the kids there for the first time the other night.

The other kids liked it, but Nick could hardly believed he'd lived 13 years without ever experiencing the delights of Ted's.

The unexpected bonus was that this little trip to Tempe was good enough to make up for all the cool places that John would get to go to and leave Nick behind. (England, Tokyo, Hawaii, NYC) If only the other kids were so easy to buy off.

Just because

look what came in the mail today

1 year

4 blogs

341 pages

Back on the diet wagon

I had my initial weigh in yesterday for the next challenge at Catz.

I spent the last 4 weeks eating whatever I wanted. It was great.

But like all good things, it had to come to and end and I had to face the consequences of my choices. In other words, the scale. And the trainers.

I was asked once if they (the trainers) are supportive at all, and yes, they are, to a certain extent. One is a little more encouraging and supportive than the other, (high fives at the scale and at the end of a hard work out) and the other is a little crankier. After all, I am paying them to help me lose weight. If I don't lose weight, they fail too, and so they are a little tough on us.

To illustrate, I overheard a conversation where one girl was accusing him of being mean or strict or something. "What are your goals?" he said. "If your goals are just to get some exercise, then great, you're doing awesome, but if you want to lose weight, then, yeah, I'm going to be a little tough on you."

So any guesses as to how much I've gained?

Any brave souls willing to venture a guess?

No? (smart choice- John just guessed 10- he's in the dog house.)

Only 5.

(I was actually pleasantly surprised)

So Food Vacation's over. 8 more weeks.

The only downside is that (hopefully) my maternity swimsuit won't fit any more and I'll have to buy a new one and I LOATHE swimsuit shopping.

~~~~
This post brought to you by the makers of Girl Scout cookies, Sweet's Cinnamon Bears, Cornish Pasty Co., Paradise Bakery, Camelot Cooking Club, Sprout's bread, Einsteins, churros from Disneyland, Coke, and any of the chocolates that John brought home from his various trips.

Where there's a will....

....There's a way.

And this boy is as determined as they come.

His favorite activity is riding his scooter.

Unfortunately he can't ride whenever he wants because he needs someone out there at all times to make sure he doesn't get lost or run over.

So sadly his scooter stays locked up in the garage.

The other three kids had this same dilemma, but they just accepted their fate and waited for me to be benevolent and open the garage door for them.

Quietly accepting his fate is not something Christopher understands.

Over the past couple of weeks I have found random objects pushed up against the wall under the garage door button.

A step stool... a chair... even the wagon. Somehow they were never quite high enough.

Then the other day I heard our last, pathetic bar stool being pushed across the tile towards the garage door. I watched with interest to see if it would work.

By himself he managed to prop open the garage door to the house. (It's designed to swing shut, it doesn't like to stay open.) And haul the stool out over the threshold.

And we have success! - a fact I'm not exactly thrilled about. I hope his determination and persistance, and ability to think outside the box will serve him well in later years, but right now it's inconvenient for me.

Putting it all in perspective

Okay, so everything on the trip didn't go perfectly smoothly.

First we were a little late because I thought I lost the GPS. We spent a half an hour looking for it and were a little late getting to Disneyland because of it. I was afraid I left it on the bumper of the car and I was going to have to figure out how to navigate myself around town old school. (you know, paper maps and asking people for directions)

Finally Nick had an inspired idea, and the GPS was found.

Next, I left my cell phone in the car. Or at least I was 50% sure I left it in the car. 40% me wondered if it was in the hotel room and 10% of me worried I dropped it in a parking lot, or left it at breakfast or something.

That was inconvenient because I was planning on letting the older two take off on their own and go on "scary rides" and check in every once in awhile. Also I was hoping to meet up with another friend and fellow husband-less mom who happened to be there at the same time. I elected to not spend 30-45 minutes dragging the two younger kids back to the car for the 50/50 chance that my phone was there. I kept my eyes open, but never ran into Tricia.

Then after Indiana Jones, Nick informed me he left his glasses on the ride. He went back and hung out with the ride attendants and they sadly informed him his glasses were no where to be found. "Sorry, kid" they said. "Check back later. Maybe someone will turn them in."

I was pretty livid. Despite the fact that I was clearly not guilt-free in the losing things category (although nothing was really lost), his lost glasses really irked me. That would be the second pair lost in less than a year.

So fuming a little, I took the little kids to go for a relaxing train ride around the park while the older two went off to find some thrills. We were going to meet back up in a little bit.

The train arrived at the station and there was a little commotion as a lady tripped and fell off the steps to the train. I heard a little girl cry "Grandma!" and I pulled out the camera to snap some pictures of my boys while I waited for her to be helped up. Maybe she sprained her ankle or something. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention because I figured the last thing this lady needed was another gawker. (I can relate to falling on my face regularly) The attendants didn't seem too concerned, so I just figured I'd kill some time while we waited for her to be helped up.
Next thing I knew, hysterical kids (her grandkids?) were being rushed away from the scene. I looked over to where she fell and realized she was still down and laying abnormally still. Then I saw the blood pooling under her head.
The attendants suddenly were rushing us all away from the scene, the train was emptied umbrellas were brought over to block the view of curious onlookers. Christopher didn't understand why we were leaving the train station- he looked at me , rubbed his chest in baby sign language, and very deliberately pointed to the train and said "Pwease?"

As we walked away, several thoughts were running through my head. First, I was sure she was dead. Just like that. On vacation with her family, stepping of the train, and then out of the blue she was gone. I knew that head wounds bleed badly, and she could still be fine, but it was the look on the faces of the family members being rushed away that had me fearing the worst.

So there I was, concerned about material things, thinking how my day wasn't going as smoothly as it could, and worrying about replacing glasses and cell phones.

And suddenly I was ashamed.

I was facing a couple minor inconveniences, and this other family was facing a tragedy. Best case scenario, their day at The Happiest Place on Earth was going to be cut short to spend the rest of the day in the hospital with grandma. I was looking at a few hundred dollars to replace the things lost, and who knows how much they were looking at in medical bills. Worst case scenario, Disneyland for them would forever be the place where grandma died.

Things ended on a better note, the cell phone and glasses were found, and a little while after the train incident, I was standing in the middle of a walkway examining a map, when a pushy medical person yelled at me to step to the right. They had a gurney coming through. I was glad to see she seemed conscious (and not covered up by a sheet) although clearly she needed immediate medical attention. I prayed that it was nothing a couple of stitches couldn't fix.

I just hope that the next time I'm dealing with a couple of minor inconveniences, it won't take witnessing somebody else's major problems to put it all in perspective for me. We still had each other, and our good health.

People over possessions.

I'm sure it won't be the last time I let minor things get in the way of the big picture, but hopefully I can recover quickly.

Swimming

My kids can't get enough of the water. I think that stems from the fact that we are the only family in Arizona without a pool. Okay, so maybe there are one or two other families out there. Anyway, I spent several hours on the internet trying to come up with free/super cheap activities to do in L.A. Besides the beach, the best I could come up with was driving out to see the big Hollywood sign. At least two of my kids would think that was the coolest thing EVER.

I forgot to take into account the hotel's pool. I would have thought it was too cold to swim. Apparently I was wrong.
We spent hours out there. The big Hollywood sign will have to wait for another year. (I hear they are going to replace it with some sort of "save the planet" signage?)

Our third and last day there we hit the beach (not before one last dip in the pool though). The older three couldn't get to the water fast enough, but I think Christopher thought we were all nuts. I made him take off his shoes and walk in the sand, (he has a very strict shoes-off-in-the-house, but shoes-on-when-you're-outside policy) and then I held him down so the waves could rush up and get his feet wet. He HATED it. While the kids built sand castles and raced the waves, we spent the next hour sitting on the towels. After awhile we started collecting things that could be reached from the safety of our towels. I had a nice little collection of shells, he collected sticks.
He finally ventured off his towel right before it was time to go, and even played in the sand for a little bit. I even think he actually enjoyed it. ( But he didn't go near the water)

Disneyland

With just one day in the Happiest Place on Earth, we kept it as bare-bones as possible. No time for loitering. No character signings, perusing gift shops, watching the shows... etc. Our goal was simple- to get in as many thrills as possible. The End.

Technically speaking, this was not Christopher's first trip to Disneyland, but I'm fairly certain he doesn't remember the last time.
First up were the cars. Historically the lines for that ride have been pretty long. Plus it's at the farthest corner, so strategically it's a good starting spot. I let Christopher drive.
Next we hit Space Mountain. I really didn't think he'd actually like it, and I don't think he did, but he was a good sport about the whole thing. Zach whined a bit more. (okay, a lot) I think Christopher just didn't know to be scared. Zach knows better. The biggest clue that Christopher didn't like the ride was that he couldn't get off it fast enough. At the end when our "space ship" was waiting in line for us to disembark he started freaking out that the safety bar wouldn't go up.

Before we left for California, Zach had promised me that he'd go on California Screaming with me, but after I dragged him on Indiana Jones, The Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, he simply wasn't able to deal with anything else. I'd already pushed it to the limit. I think Big Thunder Mountain was his breaking point.
I felt bad (sorta) for all the tears, so I figured an ice-cream break was in order.

I think Christopher's highlight was seeing Lightning McQueen and Mater. I wish I'd caught that on video. When he finally realized what we were standing in line for, he went a little berserk. Luckily it was a short line. There were only two other little boys in front of him. When it was finally his turn he could barely contain himself. "Aqueen! Mamer! Tires!" I'm sure we could have skipped everything else and just cycled through that line all day.
It was a good day. I think some people might think I was crazy and/or brave for doing it on my own, but it wasn't that bad. The kids were helpful and well behaved, and that made it a heck of a lot easier to do it solo.

I'm up to the challenge

Okay, so really I wasn't all that demanding "I'm going and there's nothing you can do about it!" (insert evil laugh here) We had a grown-up, responsible, conversation with very little whining and begging on my part.

John looked at our finances and said that I could spend $500 during spring break, and if that could get me to Disneyland....

I had a few obstacles- I mentioned John cashing in some Marriott points- that wasn't my first choice. We like to stay at Hotel Tucker. The price is right (free), and then there are the perks- swimming pool, food, and we just love the proprietors. They're the best. Unfortunately, John's aunt and uncle were out of town visiting 2 of their kids in Mississippi and so Hotel Tucker was closed for the week.

Fortunately I was able to use John's points and get a little room (one bed and a pull out couch).

We were a little scrunched, but it worked.

As an added bonus, in addition to free breakfast in the morning (which as free breakfasts go was really good- waffles and eggs and sausage and bagels and toast and cereal and french toast) they also had a free "Managers BBQ" out by the pool. We stuffed ourselves with free hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and soda for dinner. Score!

Now for the big obstacle. Tickets for Disneyland for 5 of us. Gate prices were gonna be almost $500. That was my entire budget.

Fortunately I had read a friend's blog just last week and she mentioned buying tickets on ebay. I figured it was worth a shot. I was able to get 5 one day passes for only $275.

Here's the scoop- (these are the current on-line prices) 1 adult 1 day park hopper is $97. A Child ticket is $87. One 6 day park hopper is $173. Seriously? Days 2,3,4,5 AND 6 cost less than day one? I am sure the magic diminishes with time, and even I might not be as giddy about going to Disneyland on the 6th day, but still...

So I guess the premise is this- if you could buy the larger pass, and share it with another family, would you?

You'd each reap the benefits of paying less per day, and not have to pay the added expense of more hotel nights, eating in Disneyland, etc. for 6 whole days. And maybe you want to do something else (gasp!) in California like go to the beach or Sea World, or Legoland, or Knott's Berry Farm. Sounds like a good deal right?

In theory it's a great idea, but practically speaking, not so much. You'd need to find a family who wanted to go about the same time you did, but not on the same days, have the same number of family members, and whichever family went first, would have to worry about not losing the tickets.

That's where the ebay auction comes in. Basically you are paying a broker to handle all the details and you get to "share" the tickets. I just said I needed 5 one day tickets and saved about $200.

Admittedly it feels a little morally gray. It's not illegal, but clearly Disney wouldn't be thrilled with the situation. They are still getting their money for the 6 day tickets, not to mention the fact that once they get you in there, you are at their mercy. Yes, I brought snacks and bottles of water, but there were still churros, and ice-cream, and a couple Cokes, and Dole Pineapple Whips, and CARS' cars, and a glow in the dark lightsaber, and a Minnie Mouse hat that certain little people couldn't live without. And I even confess to paying $50 for dinner. The granola bars just weren't cutting it. I could reason that Disney wouldn't have gotten ANY of my money if I wouldn't have been able to afford the entrance fee. But I still felt a little squirmy on the inside when the lady handed me the tickets and explained that we are on day 3 of day 6 of our vacation if they ask at the entrance gate.

And I had to explain that same thing to my kids.

I ended up just telling them to wish the attendants a happy St. Patrick's Day and avoid that line of questioning altogether then no one would have to lie.

I wasn't quite able to stay within budget. I think it was the food. (5 churros and one Coke- $20) And the next day at the beach we were starving and ended up scarfing down two pizzas, a basket of twisty bread, and a pitcher of rootbeer. ($40)

That and somehow, even though I was super careful, I lost one of the tickets and had to pay a $50 fee to the ticket broker.

(I realize that I should have jumped on the "give a day, get a day" bandwagon and then we could have reaped the rewards of free tickets and feeling good about giving to the community. (instead of feeling like a cheater-pants) I just didn't foresee us being able to go to California this year at all. John travels so much, the kids are so busy, etc.)

Righting a Wrong

"You did it, mom! Congrats! And you didn't kill any of us!"

Um, wow. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

(he wants it to be understood that he was joking)

It is spring break for us this week, and we had nothing going on.

Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

No school, scouts, music lessons, sports. Nothing. (okay, I lied, Madison did have gymnastics on Wednesday, but the lessons are cheap)

John is out of town, in NYC, so it's just me and the kids for a whole week with nothing scheduled.

Not even an out of town visitor.

I got to thinking about what a rare occurrence this is and started racking my brains trying to think of something we (me and the kids) could do.

Christopher put the idea in my head.

Zach asked if we could go to McDonald's sometime during spring break. I think Christopher gets confused with the name McDonalds. It sounds a lot like Mick - Donald's or Mickey - Donalds's. and so every time he hears the name of that particular fast food chain he pipes up-

"Donald? ... Ickey? ... Innie? ... Doofy?"

Oh Man! My kid thinks Mickey Mouse lives in McDonalds!?! What a travesty! I MUST rectify this situation!

And so I announced to my husband- "I'm taking the kids to Disneyland next week. Since you are leaving me behind and not taking me to New York City, there's nothing you can do about it. Now please cash in some of your Marriott points and reserve a hotel room for me."

And so we survived- (don't worry, I'll blog more) We took a little whirlwind road trip to sunny California, introduced Christopher to the real home of Mickey Mouse and spent some time at the beach and made it home safe and sound. (Just a little tired)

I figured out how to post a title from my iPhone, but not anything else. :(

Learning to love baseball

Last Saturday after Zach's baseball game, he came running up to us, "Mom! Dad! Look! I got the game ball!" Sure enough, in his hand was a slightly used baseball with Zach's name and the date on it.

Why exactly the coach picked him over any of the other boys that Saturday, I don't know. Zach worked hard and even scored a run.

But so did some of the other boys.

I don't know what exactly the coach looks for each week when he hands out the game ball, but he must have seen something.

Let me tell you what I saw-

I saw my little boy have fun and do his best.

I saw his coaches teach and encourage.

We are loving this team Zach is on right now.

One day while talking to the wife of the coach, she was telling me about a conversation with her husband. He was telling her how it was his goal to have the boys learn to love baseball. He wanted it to be a positive experience in every way. Maybe they wouldn't win every game, but he sure as heck wanted them to have fun, develop some skills, understand the game, and hopefully have some successes along the way.

What I didn't expect was that I was going to slowly but surely learn to love the game along with my son. I might not be buying season tickets to the Diamondbacks any time soon, (but maybe a game here and there) but there's something pretty special about cheering on your favorite little player on your favorite Little League team.

must be an acquired taste.

John spent the better part of February in Japan. Three weeks to be exact. If he ever downloads any pictures to my computer, I might share them with you- but until then...

For starters John has never been a fish eater. Never liked it. That works for me, because I don't like it much either. It makes going out to eat easy. "Anything but fish." That's our motto.

But in Japan, he didn't really have a choice. Besides being a cultural faux pas to say "no, thank you", many times it was a matter of eating what was in front of you or going without.

Within those three weeks in addition to regular fish and sushi, John ate snails, squid, octopus, raw lamb, fish eyes, chicken hearts, and blow fish. Something I didn't know- when you order blow fish, you pick your own live fish out of a tank, and they cut it up on the spot, It is so fresh when they serve it to you, some of the pieces are still moving. Ask John and he'll show you the video on his iphone. AND they leave just enough poison on one of the pieces to make your tongue go numb. (If not prepared just right by highly trained professionals, blowfish could kill you.)

He said there were several things he ate but was afraid to ask what it was. About the only things he saw others eating but didn't have the pleasure of trying were chicken feet, and chocolate covered fish.

(If you've known John for some time, you might want to take a seat before reading this next part)

So, John comes home, the Catz challenge ends for me, and we go out with my Catz companions/friends/partners-in-crime to celebrate. I had chicken and pasta. Others had steak. And John, well he ordered Mahi Mahi. Um, hello? Who are you and what have you done with my husband? With all the other non-fish options on the menu, you still order fish?

His response- "I think I like fish now."

the new guy.

We've had the same bug guy for several years now- Burt. We liked Burt. Alot. He was a nice guy. Friendly. Chatty. Took care of us. Kept those nasty bugs away. I think he even went above and beyond the call of duty. Once we had a little problem with ants. These little tiny ants kept coming out from under the kitchen sink making me crazy. Burt took some home in a ziploc baggie so he could examine them under his microscope to accurately identify them, and figure out the best way to rid my house of them. (which he did) So, okay, we didn't just like Burt, we loved him.

Then without warning a new guy started showing up. He was nice. But he wasn't Burt. I heard Burt left that particular pest control company. I think he went off on his own to start up his own business. To tell you the truth, I was pretty upset. I thought about somehow figuring out if I could track down Burt.

But in the mean time I thought I'd give the new guy a chance. He seemed competent enough. But it is the winter and all the bugs are in hibernation.

Then the other day after spraying my yard, he handed me this -

It's a hair elastic thingy. (The marker is there just for a size point of reference.- you're welcome.) It has been stuck on the stucco right outside my front door halfway between that window and the ceiling in that alcove for FIVE YEARS.

Too high to reach with any of our ladders, it has stayed up there. Monsoon winds can uproot trees, but a stupid hair elastic remains unmovable. It's been stuck up there since right after we moved in. I have no idea who shot it up there, but I would like to hunt them down and shoot hair elastics at them until they cry. It has been driving me crazy all this time.

To make matters worse, I swear the stupid thing was growing. I looked up the other day as I was walking through my front door, and I would have bet it was bigger. This thing has been such an irritation for me I was planning on blogging about it before. Really. Even with the little nagging voice in my head whispering that nobody else cares about the stupid hair thingy driving me slowly crazy and I should get a life so I have something interesting to blog about, or get off my tail and do something about it instead of just complain about it.

And then, like it was no big deal, I answer the door, and he casually says, "Here. This was on your wall up there. "

I think I heard angels sing.

Anyway, it was a sign. He gets mega points for getting rid of that little annoyance. Hopefully he'll be just as brilliant with the creepy crawly annoyances.

I surrender

I am losing a potty training battle today.

I prepared myself mentally for over a week. Today would be the day. I had a positive attitude that we could do this.

I purchased 6 packages of "big boy pants"

Thomas, Toy Story, Cars, and some extra thick white ones.

I loaded up on enough sugary liquids- capri suns, Popsicles, juice, etc to make sure that he had ample opportunities to use the potty.

I had stickers and Starbursts ready for motivational prizes.

I put a little potty insert into the guest toilet so he would feel more comfortable and safe and not feel like he was falling into the potty anymore.

I cleared my schedule for the day.

I said a prayer for patience.

I set the timer to take him to the potty every ten minutes.

I brought books into the bathroom so we could sit and read while we waited for him to tinkle.

It's 2 PM.

I've been at this since the kids left for school at 8 AM.

Since then, I've changed 11 wet pairs of big boy pants.

He has not tinkled 1 drop into the toilet.

Not. One. Tiny. Drop.

But he's loving all the sugar and attention.

The only thing that has worked was my prayer for patience.

Or maybe it's not patience anymore. Maybe it is defeat. I have no more fight left. I'm not even going to open the thick, white underpants. Once Buzz lightyear is soggy, I'll pull out the diapers again. I wonder if I have time to go to Costco and buy some more in bulk today?