Author: Superpaige (Page 154 of 180)

So happy to be home, finally.

The kids seem bigger and more grown up, can they have changed in a week? I’ve never been away from my children for that long, and I was really missing them. It was really wonderful to see their faces light up and run to us when we came in the door. Maybe they do love us after all!

We arrived here on Saturday afternoon, and after standing in line to be helped by the slowest possible rental car agent in the world, we finally made it out of the Rochester Airport. We drove to Palmyra and met up with my parents at the Smith farm Welcome center. So far, we’ve gotten “special personalized tours” of the Smith log home, the Smith frame home, the Peter Whitmer farm and the church that is now there, and a little bit of the Hill Camorah visitor’s center.

Today we’re off on a roadtrip to Niagra Falls!

–Take 3 kids to grandma’s (done)
–Take 2 birds to the neighbor’s house (done)
–Feed other friends’ birds while they are out of town for the last time (they come home tonight)
–Take 2 more kids to cousins’ house (soon)
–Return the Lost season 1 DVDs to my friend Sherry
–Take the summer fun calendar that I put together to friend Kimberly to copy and distribute
–Get insane amounts of cash out of the bank for taxis and food and everything else
–Pack the father’s day present for my Dad (done)
–Get a book that I think will keep me occupied for the flight (that entails starting about 3 books until I find one that I think is a winner, and then packing a back up book just in case–it’s a long time flying, and for once in my life I won’t have any children on my lap or beside me to entertain and keep from crying)
–Take all the sheets off the beds so the mattresses can “air”
–Clean the house (like that’s going to happen!)
–make sure there is no laundry either in the dryer or in the washer–that could be very very bad
–and, oh yeah–prepare to have FUN!

Some of you may have been wondering about the Hippy Vanagan that was parked at my house for several days this month. No, we aren’t crazy hippies, (not that there’s anything wrong with that) we just had friends visiting. But here’s a picture so you can get the full effect.

I call this one–Cotton Candy Mouth. This was taken at Ryan’s Company party. Unlimited cotton candy and snowcones–Wow!

While driving along doing my errands yesterday, a song came on the radio that I just HAD to sing to.

Don’t ask me,

And they could never tear us apart.

(then comes the cool drum part, you know? I really love that song)

Can you picture it in your mind? It just seems I MUST sing out loud to that INXS song. That got me thinking of other songs that just make me want to sing along. I made a little list, which follows:

**My Sherona (you know you sing along to that one, too, don’t you? Just the M-m-m-my Sherona part, though. I don’t know the words to the rest of the song)
**I am a rock, I am an Island
**Big Yellow Taxi
**Baby, I love you (by Martina McBride)
**Don’t go Breakin my Heart
**Crocodile Rock (good old Elton John)
**You’re Beautiful (James Blunt)
**You’ve had a bad day
**Hey, Hey, Hey (Ryan Shupe)
**Don’t know why (Nora Jones)

So, what do you sing along to?

The table is finished. Done. Well, that is, unless I decide to put another couple of coats of varnish on it, which I probably will, but for now–finished. And, in case you were wondering what it looks like now that it’s red, here’s a picture:

Try to ignore all the crap that is on all the kitchen counters and focus only on the pretty red table (and the cute fruit basket centerpiece that I fortuitously found at a garage sale for $2).

I’m happy with the way it turned out! I varnished yesterday and had the whole house smelling of varnish–ick. I put the birds outside for some fresh non-varnish infused-air, and I’m sure they’re thanking me for that.

Well, if I was ever in the running for Mom of the Year, yesterday knocked me out of the running. I may now be up for worst mom of the year. I think if I keep it up, I could be a contender! (It’s good to have goals, I think.)

What did I do that was so bad? Well, first of all, I made my kids work. Yep–work. I asked the three of them that were home and of working age (that would be 5 and up in our house) to pull ALL the weeds in the playground area. Now, the playground area does have weed shield and playground bark covering the ground, but some of those nasty weeds just feel the need to sprout and grown IN the bark. I don’t know why, since we have so many many other dirt or grass covered surfaces for them to grow in–but I digress. It’s really really easy to pull the weeds from the bark, since they can’t establish deep roots. It’s just a matter of leaning over and pulling them out. With the three of them out there, I estimate it should have taken them 1/2 an hour to do the whole area.

Well, after 1/2 an hour, they were out there lounging on the tire swing or cowering under the meager shade of the slide platform. Yes, it was hot, but it was only 9:00 am when they started, so they really couldn’t complain that much. Two of the children are soon inside whining about the work ethic of the other child, complaining that it’s hot, that “she pushed me”–whatever! So, I herded them back outside, shouted at them to get off their BEHINDS and start weeding. After I finished loading another pile of laundry, I went out again to demonstrate how easy it was to pull the weeds (part of their evil plan–get Mom to “show” them how to do it, then finish the job herself) and told them in a not so nice voice that they would be outside until the job was done. None of them could come inside until they were all finished. I went on to explain that they would be coming inside for absolutely no reason–if they were thirsty, they could fill their water bottles from the faucet. If they were out here at lunchtime they would get no lunch. If they were out here at dinner time they would get no dinner. If they were out here at bedtime they would sleep outside. Yes, I know it was overexaggerating the length of the job and the amount of their laziness, but I was sick of their whining and laziness, darn-it!

I went inside, started Tarzan for the little one (lucky child–not old enough to weed) and locked all the doors.

Yes, I’m a bad mother, I know it. I admit it. I was only trying to teach them to WORK and not drag the dumb job out for the ENTIRE day.

At around 11:30, when they had only a handful of weeds left to pull, I tried to redeem myself with popsicles. I took the popsicles outside and held them until they were done, hoping the speed of the weed pulling would be faster than the speed of the melting popsicles. And they did it! They finally got the last few and were able to have the reward (and I let them back in the house).

Throughout the day, there were various other flare ups and some shouting on my part about finding a certain library item. I’m not proud of my behavior, and I’m not trying to justify it–just telling it like it is. By the time we got home from our “outing”, which included:
–taking care of a friend’s birds
–going to the Library (where I complained a little bit too loudly that my kids couldn’t get their own library cards because we dont’ live within the city. I have to PAY $70 for my library card AND my kids aren’t allowed to have thier own library cards? How fair is that?!)
–going to Target to get a new size 4 soccer ball for miss soccer who had a special soccer camp this week and couldn’t possibly use any of the soccer balls we have at home because they aren’t size 4
–going to the bank to cash a few checks and get a large amount of ones and fives so I could pay the kids for their grades ($1 an A) and allowance (for doing such jobs as the weeding–back to the weeds, are we?)

I was about ready to drive off a cliff with myself and the children in the van. Thankfully I restrained my suicidal urges and brought the menagerie inside and gave them fruit snacks.

-Sigh-

We didn’t end up going to Lagoon on Saturday, since we found out the passes are good for ANY day this season.

We DID go up to “family night” at camp Maple Dell. We saw Cole and the other dirty campers, saw some skits, heard some songs, and a nice patriotic program. And Cole came home safe and sound on Saturday. He accomplished 4 merit badges, which I’m proud of, but I know he could have done more. He didn’t pass his swimming test, and blames it on the very cold lake water. I feel kind of responsible that Cole doens’t have any athletic abilities. His parents are not athletic, and I guess we’ve passed that along to him. We’ve got to get out and be more active as a family so he’s not so timid in those situations.

Saturday was dance recital day for the girls, and they did their best. Very cute! Jenna loved her frilly red and white polka dot dress (think Minnie Mouse) and both she and Natalie did great. Even though it was long (an hour and a half), John did quite well sitting through it (thanks to the water bottle I had in my purse). He even watched a lot of the dances, and enjoyed the movie-theater seats there at the Junior High School.

Sunday we had a lovely Father’s Day, and Ryan even enjoyed his presents. The kids (well, me) made him breakfast in bed, and then we had pork ribs for dinner (his choice).

This week is a week to get the laundry tackled, get things organized, and get everyone packed for our trip!