And now, back to me...

Saw this on a blog and thought it was cute.

99 Things I Ought to Have Done

Instructions:
Copy the list, bold the ones you've done (with explanations if needed), share with friends.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars - maybe one day once I get my RV (hint hint DH)
3. Played in a band (ok, marching band - but hey it was a band - oh, and Rock Band, of course)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (ok, it was Mount Monadnock in NH, which I know many would not consider a "real" mountain, but bite me)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (does Rock Band count? then MANY MANY times)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (knitting, stained glass - well, I took a class for that one)
15. Adopted a child (am a sibling to an adopted child!)
16. Had food poisoning (throw out Apple Juice a few weeks after opening!!)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (uh, at least a few times a year - MENTAL health counts, people!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (will NEVER happen - would consider a 1/2 one, maybe, someday..)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (REALLY REALLY want to do this one)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (but would love love love to go back to Ireland)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (and not really any interest at all)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt (RV would make this happen!)
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (ok, RV won't help here, but would LOVE to go on Safari!)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (and I consider that good - and not at all something I "ought to do!!!")
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (ok, sold stained glass at craft fairs for a season..)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (double red, baby).
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (not yet - but been to Anne Frank's house and the Holocaust museum though)
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (mine or my children's? both)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar (sorry, but it was ick)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle (I prefer to donate organs via my donor card and not roadkill)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican (even saw Easter Sunday mass!)
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (and don't see this one ever happening, as I have no plan to touch a gun in my life. I guess I could catch and gut a fish some day)
88. had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

How about you?

Starfish of the Week

K's 2nd grade teacher has a cute project for the class. Each week a different student is chosen to be "Starfish of the Week". That child gets a bulletin board in the class that they get to decorate however they want. They can also bring in any kind of props. Then each day they get 5-10 minutes of "circle time" to talk about themselves or their family and answer questions about the stuff in their display.

K has been DYING for her turn since September. Well, it is finally her week. She decorated the bulletin board with pictures of her and family vacations and pictures of our house and her room. She also made a book with pictures of important family/friends. For props she also included the little books I have been making for her and her siblings using their pics to make up silly stories. She is so excited to be sharing it with her class.

Kudos to her teacher for spotlighting each kid during the year!

Follicles of Fun

So why did I get up early and cut my workout short this morning? Crazy hair day of course. K insisted she wanted her hair to be striped different colors. Well, Target didn't have any hair color spray last night. I had some pink left over from (I think) crazy hair day 2 years ago. And then...in the $ spot - I found these. Pom-poms. 2 per color for $1 each! INSPRIRATION.

Here are my crazy girls this morning. The love the sounds their heads make! The pompoms go all the way around the back too!

A Day of Dicotomies!

So on the last day of snowpalooza the unplanned, unscheduled February vacation, we decided to do some really fun stuff. The kids hadn't been to school in 12!!!! days.

Some friends had made the coolest sledding runs in their BACK YARD! not a big back yard, either. Pretty standard for our urban neighborhood. But it was SOOO cool. The kids loved it.

After a short lunch break, we decided to hit the other end of the spectrum - a water park. Fairfax County, nearby, operates a small water park that we had never tried, but always wanted to. It was a HUGE hit!


We all had fun splashing, swimming and sliding! And it only cost $14 for the whole family!!! Gotta love that.

We learned one thing. Spend the morning sledding and the afternoon splashing, and you get one thing by 5pm:

All 3 socked out just a few minutes after we left the parking lot of the water park. LOL. Guess we have the formula for a quiet night now!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

yay! The Winter Olympics. I have always loved watching the Olympics, and now it is so much fun with the kids! Bienvenue!

Killing Time

3 snowy days =

lots of fuse beads (occupied the girls for nearly 3 hours!!)
TONS of cookies for the bake sale that is hopefully still this week
Spin Art
Make and explode a volcano
roller paints
sparkly marshmallows
melted candy cane hearts


hmmm...more days to come (tomorrow for sure) - what next?

Mind Over Matter

I have blogged previously about the amazing connection (for me) to running and mental exercise. I didn't start running until age 40. I did it for about 18 months. But I HATED it ever second I did it. Really. Some people talk about a runners high, or getting out there and getting some personal time. Not so much for me. I spent every minute of it wanting to stop. So for me, running was almost completely mental. Convincing myself not to stop to keep on going. stay tuned - I may try it again, but several people have told me that if I didn't like it after doing it 3+ times a week for 18 months, I probably never will.

When I went skiing for the first time a few weeks ago, I found there was a similar dynamic. But instead of hating it - it was getting over FEAR. Fear of falling, fear of sliding out of control, fear of careening off the edge of the mountain. During the lesson, I gained some confidence. This increased as I skied down the bunny hill, and made it though the easiest of the green trails. (see below video when I was feeling GOOD). Then I got cocky and went by myself down a different green trail that merged with a blue trail. Well, I did it wrong and ended up on the top of a big drop that lead from the blue trail to the green. And I got petrified. It was a big incline, and I didn't see how I could do it without falling off the edge of the mountain at the bottom. So I sort of scooted down on my butt (with 10 year-olds on snow boards shushing all around me). Then I had blown any confidence I had and was terrified the rest of the trip down. I barely made it through the rest of the trail (some more scooting involved). Then I decided to go back up and do my "good" trail again. Unfortunately my loss of confidence was now joined by my physical tiring and it just wasn't fun anymore. My legs didn't want to cooperate, and I struggled my way down.

It was so interesting to see how much my mental frame of mind went into this. It was so must less enjoyable when I let the fear in. Interesting. I will definitely try skiing again, and hope to enjoy the confidence I had here:


Don't I look like Suzie Chapstick?

also LOVE this skiing humor!

Winter Wonderland

Did we relocate to New England and nobody told us? Still..its beautiful!

Sleep Help!

All three kids are really good sleepers. We have been very lucky. But now, at 3 1/2, Big Man is fighting sleeping in his room - more specifically, sleeping alone. It is hard to blame him. Afterall, I DH and I sleep together, and the girls sleep together (often even in the same bed!). He is the only one sleeping alone. And just last week he decided he HATES it. WE let him sleep with the girls on the weekends, but on "school days" he has to sleep in his room.

Is that fair? I don't really care where he sleeps, I just figure if we don't stick to our guns now, it will be even harder to get him out of there when he gets older. Thoughts? We just redid his room last spring, so its not that he doesn't like his room (he has a cool car bed!). He just realized he is alone, and doesn't like it. HELP!