Gotta love being a mom

So DH has been working like a dog. He decides he is going to have dinner with us on Friday night, so we decide to make it fun for the girls. When I get them at daycare I tell them we are going on a "secret mission". They cannot tell daddy. We are going to get him to drive home the "wrong way" so we can get ice cream for dinner. They are totally psyched and can't wait to get started on the secret mission. When we meet DH in the hallway, they say that Mommy is going to drive us "home"..giggling all the way. DH plays along and says "what?! uh..ok" The girls are hysterical. Of course we get about two blocks away and oldest daughter tells DH that mommy has a "secret mission" way to get us home. Youngest daughter says "yeah..secret mission!" Then in stage whisper that could be heard several cars away say, "But mom, what about the ice cream?" OD says "shh..that's the secret mission"...YD says "I know its the secret mission..but what about the ice cream?" She repeats this about 5 times until DH and I are hysterical in the front seat. OD gets that Daddy is in on it, but doesn't get upset. It was too funny.

My son, Big Man, has been fighting an AWFUL diaper rash for almost 10 days. Two nights ago I decide to get serious. I spend about 10 minutes blow drying his butt. Yup. There I was, sitting on a step, holding the blow dryer on cool, pointed at my son's naked behind as he played with stuff on the edge of the bathtub. But know what? It worked. His butt looks much better this morning. I did it last night too.

I love being a mom.

Cut Off From the Outside World

Ok, not really. But on Saturday morning when my MIL came by, she informed me that my phone was constantly busy. I picked it up -- no dial tone. So, I grabbed my cell and attempted to figure out who to call at the phone company. It was not easy. "0" did not work. I then had to call 411 to get them to forward me. I then had to deal with automated phone hell. Finally I got a person. I tell them my phone has no dial tone. First question? "are you calling me from that phone?" Um, yeah...i know how to dial without a dial tone. She transferred me to someone else. First question? "are you calling me from that phone?" What the #)(&$(#*@? Once we get past that, they run "diagnostic test" whereby they determine that the phone line is broken on there end, and they will have someone out as soon as possible, Monday morning. What? I have to live with no phone all weekend? They say they will forward it to my cell. That lasts about 5 hours. Then it stopped working.

Then on Sunday morning I go online to get directions to where we are going. Keep in mind we were surprised to still have Internet as they are both Verizon, and we assumed connected somehow. But, no Internet was working fine. Until about 1pm, whereby it was no longer working. ARGHH. Oh well. We'll see if them fixing the phone line fixes the Internet, or if we have to schedule that separately. Luckily DH is working so hard, he doesn't even miss his WoW fix.

Bad Girls, Bad Girls

I am so glad my girls are not teenagers..or even pre-teens. I don't have to explain the Parises, Lyndseys and Nicoles of the world to them. What is going on? And WHERE are these girls parents??!! Seriously. Not that they aren't old enough to be responsible for their own actions -- but at least for Paris and Nicole, their parents are completely and totally enabling this behavior!!! Its not like the are earning the money they use to buy drugs and alcohol. (Ok, I'm sure the Simple Life makes them money, but not the kind for how they are living). What is with these people. I guess we had the decade of the bad boys back in the 50s..now its the girls turn? I'm over it. And so glad I don't have to explain this to MY girls.

WOW!

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Originally uploaded by MBooth_98

Going up fast. We now have the exterior framing for the first and second floors. Pretty cool -- went up so fast! We are really liking it. Post holes for the porch in front are dug, and they will start framing next week. Not sure how we will be getting in our house!? Bedroom is big, but will be taken up by 3 closets and a bathroom. Not a whole lot of living space left over, but frankly, how much real living gets done in the bedroom anyway? I'd rather have the closets. We will have a window seat near the HUGE windows on the sides, so that is cool. Getting very excited about how it is all coming. Of course, we are just realizing how much more we will need to do. Landscaping alone will be a killer, but right now we have LOTS of mud, dead grass, and debris. Ahh well...it will all be worth it!

Daily Musings...

So..what's going on in my life?

• home renovation going GREAT! Roof/ceiling on the first floor, when we left this morning walls were going up on the 2nd floor and posts were being dug for the front porch. The obliterated all plant life there yesterday (including my HUGE azaleas, but LOTS of weeds as well).
• DH's work is INSANE. It will be nice when we all get to see him again.
• Can't wait for vacation! Hoping to go to PA in 2 weeks, and then the beach at the end of August. YAYYYY! (has Congress gone home yet??!!!)
• Still running..tomorrow up to 25 minutes with no stops!
• Just had the BEST watermelon aqua fresca...think it would be even better with tequila!
• DS turns one in 2 weeks!! It has gone so fast!

That's about it for today. Will post more pics of the renovations later this week...

Movin' on up!

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Originally uploaded by MBooth_98

So see the previous post for where we were about a month ago. Demolition complete, but just a big pile of dirt out back. Then we had a foundation. By the end of this week we have this! Wow! We are getting very excited, as things are really coming along! Our contractors signed a deal for another big job they hope to start at the end of Sept..so they are motivated to move quickly. yayy! They say we will have a second floor and roofing by the end of next week. The weather has been great, so that has surely helped. Looking good!

I DID IT!

I did it. Today I ran for 20 minutes non-stop, no walking breaks...20 whole minutes in a row. 5 weeks ago I could barely do 90 seconds. Seriously. I am so proud of myself. I have no idea how far I went (the program suggests time OR distance -- not both). I just run in random zig zags around my neighborhood, so there is no way to know. Think I'll wait a few more weeks til I worry about that. For now I am too pumped (although I'll probably be a little sore later)

And my $135 running shoes that I went to the specialty store to get and end up totally hurting my feet? The store says I can bring em back and they'll figure out what is going on and replace with something else, if necessary. yayy!

Now if only I could work on the eating. In the 5 weeks I have been doing the running program, I've gained 4lbs. URRGHHHHH. I am afraid to go weigh in at ww. But I probably need to in order to get back on the wagon.

I feel like I was stood up...

So I am feeling weirdly discouraged. I have been working for about a week to prepare for this big event at work. Lots of writing, researching, etc..to prepare one of our members for this big presentation. Felt completely organized, totally prepared, was psyched. The event was this morning. I meet with our speaker this morning at dawn (yes, I actually got up pre-dawn to jog this morning - 8 minutes 2x! yayy for me!) went through all the prep..expected q&a's, etc. We were good to go. Get to said event, event starts, and about 30 minutes in, gets cancelled. For weird reasons, that are sadly, legitimate. I feel like I got stood up by my prom date. Now I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Is there a Doctor in the House?

So in the last 10 days, we have been to the doctor's office 5 times, and we have one more visit scheduled for tomorrow. For the last five months (knock wood), the kids have been remarkably healthy. We maybe were home for one day with them from Feb-June. But when it rains it pours.

First, two Saturdays ago we brought bigman in to check if he had an ear infection. The answer was no, but in the 1 1/2 hours we spent waiting, DD#2 caught strep. We were back with her on Monday. Rapid strep said no, overnight said yes, so she was on antibiotics on Tues. On Friday we brought bigman back cuz he was getting more sick, and wanted to make sure he didn't have strep. He was fine. On Sunday, DD#1 has a screaming crying fit for an hour before I take her to urgent care -- diagnosis: swimmers ear. She is on antibiotics starting on Monday. Then DD#2 had her 3-year checkup on Monday. Tomorrow bigman has his regular checkup with the pulminologist. Oh yeah, and we didn't go on vacation last week cuz we had too much work. nice.

I am praying this grants us another 5-month reprieve. We really need a friend who is a doctor -- preferably family practice, or a pediatrician. Apply within.

Help! I'm being followed!

So. I have been doing this exercise program for about a month now. It is called Couch Potato to 5k (CP25K), and was designed by some experts on Cool Running.com. Now before you get the wrong idea -- I am not a runner. My whole life I lived by the mantra "I only run when chased". Seriously, even as a kid, I did not run. But for some reason this program seemed compelling. And, I realized something. I AM being chased. By a big old butt that I can't believe belongs to me. So, with my big butt chasing me, I have started running. The program is cool. Each week it alternates running and walking at increasing intervals, until, at the end, you can run for 30 minutes.

Currently I am up to running about 5 minutes alternating with three minutes with walking in between. It doesn't sound like much, but when the program started, I couldn't imagine running for 90 seconds, so this is big for me. The program is helped hugely by these free podcasts. They tell you when to walk and when to run. I can't imagine how people do it without these -- you would have to keep looking at your watch or pedometer constantly!

So..I can't really imagine myself running a 5k in a few months, but who knows? If you'd have told me I could run for 5 minutes without stopping (much less do it 2x in a 20 minute period, along with 2 3-minute runs), I'd have said you were nuts!

So far my funniest moment came about a week into the program. I hoped on the scale, figuring there should be a big loss, given I am now actually exercising. But nope. My first thought? What the (*#$, I'm not doing this for my health! Then I laughed, and realized, I am doing it for my health!

Hopefully, combined with weight watchers, in a few months, nothing will be following me.

Slow News Day or WHAT??!!

So what is with all the hoopla over John Edward's haircuts. I mean seriously. The man has nice hair, and pays a little too much to keep it that way. Do I need to know that? Do I care??!! The Washington Post, which I consider to be a good newspaper, had an entire article (at least it was in the style section) telling the "REAL STORY" from the hairdresser's point of view. Are you serious???!!!

Aren't there people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan? Try reading the posts on anysoldier.com -- that will give you some news people should read. Aren't there debates on immigration and health care reform to be reporting on? I simply do not care what anyone -- candidate, elected official, next door neighbor, teacher -- spends their money on, as long is it is legal. I beg the media to just let this -- and any other stories of its ilk -- go!

Blueberry Pie

So last Saturday we decided to go blueberry picking. It was so fun. We went to Butler's Orchard, about 35 minutes from us (depending upon which of us is driving at breakneck speed). Anyway, when you get there you weigh your containers (we had beach buckets) and get on hayride-type truck to get you to the blueberry fields. The girls and I went, as DS was asleep, so DH stayed in the car with him (not being a big blueberry fan anyway). We got out there and started picking. The kids really liked it and there were blueberries as big as a quarter! My 3-year old kept eating the berries, while me and my 5-year old focused on filling our buckets. After only about 15-20 minutes we had all the buckets filled, and hopped back in the wagon to the parking lot. After weighing all our loot we paid for the blueberries and it was $10!!!! We easily had $40 worth of blueberries there. I was psyched!

This farm also had a flower garden you could go picking in too, so we stopped there on the way out. The girls insisted on ONLY picking pink flowers. No red, yellow, or even purple. Just pink. okey dokey.

When we got home we made pie. My oldest must have done this at preschool, as she rattled off the ingredients from the top of her head when I suggested it. Weird, especially because she won't eat fruit -- OR pie. We used store-bought roll out crust, and cut hearts in the top. The girls loved making it. We served it the next day at a party we held to meet other kids in our neighborhood who were going to Kindergarten in the fall. It was a HUGE hit. I had three pieces. So much for WW that week.

Now I have about 4 pints of blueberries frozen to make pies into the winter. Can't wait!