The Trials of a Busy Mom
Does Utah have gangs, like the Crips and the Bloods?
Yeah, there are gangs here, but they’ve got names like the “High Priests” and the “Deacons” and the “Mia Maids”. And they come after you and say, “I think you were a little short on the Fast Offerings, Holmes.” Or they’re like, “You’d better be doing your home teaching, bro, or I might just have to mess you up a little.”
Yeah. That’s exactly how it is.
I’m on the brink of becoming one of those embittered housebound women who stays inside the house all winter and scares the small children when they come by and ask if my children can play. Yesterday it just kept on snowing and snowing and snowing. We DID manage to get to piano lessons (up a hill), but it was pretty much white knuckle driving in the little truck. I don’t know how Ryan drives that thing in the snow! I am going to worry much more about him than I have in the past! When we came home from piano lessons, we got stuck in the driveway again. Yes, that same driveway that three of us had been out there shoveling.
I stayed home for the remainder of the evening. I was supposed to go to our Youth meeting at the church, but since I was sending my two oldest kids, that left no one to be home with the younger kids. Originally I thought I would just take everyone, but with that weather, it wasn’t worth the hassle. The girls did come over afterward for ice cream, as a goodbye party for one of our girls, who is moving to sunnier climates next week.
I watch the news for validation. Come on, weather man, mention the TONS of snow we’re having here in our town. But then I get bitter when they discount or under report the amount of snow we really got.
“What?! Are you kidding me, Marti Skold? That is NO 7 inches out there!” I may be heard muttering. I did appreciate that KUTV reported 11 inches in a city close to us. I don’t know why that matters, but to me, it does. Like, someone, somewhere understands that we really got dumped on and appreciates our predicament. I told you–bitter old Relief Society lady right here.
I may have that seasonal depression. You know, when you don’t get enough light and then you are depressed? Except that today it’s not snowing and it’s BLINDING ME to look outside because the sun is reflecting off all that snow. What a complainer I am! I know!!! But yes, if I make it out of the driveway, it’s going to be a double sunglass day for sure.
But lucky for me, there is still good in the world. One of my neighbors took pity on me and either plowed or used the snowblower on my driveway. The whole driveway. Oh, thank you! I heard some noise last night, but I was already in bed and didn’t get up to see who it was doing the kindly deed. But I will make cookies or rolls or something and find out who it was, because that was a huge job and I really appreciate it. Also, my sweet friend insisted that we should go out to lunch “for my birthday” since she wasn’t in town for my b-day and she thinks we should still celebrate. So, while John is away at preschool, I’ll be enjoying a yummy Kneaders salad. (Ha, Ha, Ryan! That’s like his favorite place for lunch, and I doubt he’s found a kneaders close to the convention center in Las Vegas, but maybe.) And, another good thing…I just got an email telling me I was chosen the winner of a Lily on the fly meal planner from the Sisterly Savings blog. Well, that brightens things up a bit, I must say.
Speaking of Ryan, I am glad he got a phone for Christmas. Now I don’t have to wait and wait and wait for that phone call that inevitably never comes. Now I can call HIM when he’s out of town and he HAS to answer! Well worth the price of the service this week.
So, even though there’s still a ton of snow out there and I still don’t have four wheel drive, things are looking up. How are things in your neck of the woods?
I don’t want to say outright that I hate the snow, because really I do like snow.
In the mountains. On the grass. At the ski resort.
But my driveway? Not so much. Three of us have been out there for the past hour or so and we haven’t quite cleared a path from the truck that is stuck in the driveway to the street. And it’s still snowing. That’s at least a foot of snow today.
Grrrrr. (insert various cuss words here)
I miss my four wheel drive.
Well, if I can’t get out of the driveway to take Megan to piano lessons in 1/2 an hour, I guess she’ll be happy about that.
Listen closely. What is it? you may ask. I’ll tell you, my friends….it’s the sound of silence. Yes–blissful, silent solitude. And it’s mine! All mine! For 1.5 entire hours! I get the house to myself.
Yes, the kids have enjoyed a wonderful two week vacation from school and all things responsibility related.
We’ve had our cousins for a week
and played all kinds of games and puzzles.
After Christmas we excelled in video games and rock band.
We have eaten every unhealthy thing we can imagine.
We played in the snow,
we shot at things,
raced on motorcycles,
danced,
and threw parties.
We’ve seriously funned ourselves out,
and pretty much driven Mom to the edge of crazy and back.
Yesterday we switched to the 9 am church time, which is fine, except when you have no plans for the rest of the day. Ryan went to sacrament meeting with us, and then drove the highly packed with electronics and all things expensive Suburban down to Las Vegas. Seriously. I’ll bet the stuff in that car cost more than the cost of the car itself. He’s off to the consumer electronics show for a week plus. Have fun with that, sweetie.
I was left with the tiny two seater piece of junk truck to transport my family. I had to ask people at church if they would give one or two or my children a ride home, less they have to walk home in the 12 degree weather. Ugh. 
ANYWAY, going anywhere together is now out of the question, so we had the rest of the day to lay around and NOT play video games. We watched Wall-E and a couple of Monks that we had recorded. I sent them to bed and matched up a basket full of socks.
So, back to the quiet. The kids left for school this morning. Yes, we had some “WHERE IS MY BAND NOTEBOOK?” drama, and we will have to find that band notebook sometime today, for heaven’s sake. But at least they all made it out the door and on their way to school. John also goes back to preschool today–Hooray for Mrs. Net! So, for a blessed hour and a half from 12:15-1:45, I have the house to myself. It’s something I’ve not had in over two weeks, a quiet house. And I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing with my abundance of quietitude, but I’m not going to be spending it on the computer.
I can’t seem to get the words and images to line up properly, but here’s the note that Ryan left me, saying “Thanks for letting me take the car. I hope you have a great WALK.” When I questioned him about it, he swears that he wrote ‘have a nice week’, but that sure looks like he wrote ‘walk’ to me. I’ll let you be the judge–did he write ‘walk’ or ‘week’? Help me sort this out.
Here’s a bigger look, just in case you are on the fence. Walk? Week? I think it’s pretty sarcastic of him to tell me to have a good walk, but that’s just me.
So, I hope you enjoy the quiet in your house today, too. The Christmas break was wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but it was just a bit noisy. I’m off to enjoy the sound of a quiet house.
Happy New Year to you all! Did you stay up late and ring in the new year? We had a casual, fun evening here. We invited our friends, Tess and David and kids over for a low key party. They brought the pizzas, and we turned on the Rock Band and Wii. We had fun testing out our inner rockers, and everyone got a chance to play. The kids also enjoyed some weird bunny games playing Rabbids. We tuned in for the New York New Year’s Eve ball drop at 10, so that some of us who don’t want to stay up all night could go home and go to bed. Perfect!
As we were talking about setting goals and resolutions and things, the kids asked us what we were going to be changing this year. Hubby said, “I’m just going to be doing every things 10% better. Same stuff, just 10% improvement.” How’s that for a concrete goal?
My goals are:
1-spend less. Using coupons, sales, rebates, and will power. I need to track my spending, make a budget and stick to it. Ick, I know, but it has to be done if I’m going to really see a decrease in spending.
2-play more. Spend more time with the kids and less time on the computer, and play with the kids and have fun.
3-weigh less. 20 pounds is my goal for this year. When I kick that 20, then I’ll feel like playing more, right?
4-exercise more. I want to be able to do a 5K this year, and actually jog it, and not just walk and jog. So, I’ve got to hit the treadmill, and go to my twice a week exercise classes and stop making excuses.
5-yell less. Less yelling overall would be nice. I’m not sure how to track and monitor this one, but I’ve got to make a conscious effort to stop the yelling or it won’t go away.
6-Organize more. Which really means be more organized, but I was trying to stick with the little more and less theme I had going there. I’d like to cut out the clutter, get rid of the junk, and clean up this place. I’d also like to be more organized in my meal planning, my time management and my lesson planning, but I’ll just leave it at “organize more”.
So, there you have it, kids–my totally original goals for the New Year. I’ll bet you’ve never heard any of these before, have you? At least I don’t have to quit smoking. That’s one I can cross off my list without much effort.
Happy New Year, and let’s have a healthy and happy 2009.
Congratulations to you. You must be doing something right if people are willing to put up with the lousy treatment, and to actually pay you for it. You have a really great marketing team, I guess.
On Monday, it was my birthday. We had a bunch of gift cards to chose from, and I let my kids decide where we should go out to eat. They chose Applebee’s. We have had fun and good food there in the past, so we went for it. It must have been “gift card Monday” –you know, that first Monday after Christmas when everyone goes out to eat to use up their giftcards– for when we arrived at 6:30, it was already very crowded and we were told we would have a 30 -35 minute wait. We weighed our options and decided that 30 minutes was manageable, and we squeeeezed into the already tight lobby area, to wait it out.
Now 30 minutes may not seem so long to you and me, or to my husband who started reading a book on his PDA, but to a small child (or even a big one) 30 minutes in a very confined space with nothing to do is like an eternity. I tried to cheer them up and make it a little more fun when they were whining and complaining. “Remember when we were at Disneyland and we waited all that time in line to ride the new Finding Nemo ride? That was a longer wait than this, and it was raining? Remember?”
Only grumbling from the masses.
“Or for Tower of Terror. That was kind of a long line, right?” I tried lamely to continue.
“That was a short line, mom.”
Tough crowd. Well, never mind, then.
About 40 minutes into our 30 minute wait, I searched my purse for some kind of food for the poor kids, who were REALLY hungry by this time. All I had were Altoids, which don’t do much for the hunger. I encouraged the kids to stretch their legs and go for a little walk to the bathroom. My five year old had really had it by this time, and he looked at me with all the menace he could muster and said, “WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?!” I tried to tell him that I had wanted to go to Olive Garden and YOU KIDS were the ones who voted on Applebees, but really, what’s the point. I sat on the floor and held him in my lap and tried to comfort him. “Do you want to hear a story?” I asked.
“No, I want some food!”
I lost track of how many “How much longer”s it was before they finally allowed us to sit, but by 7:30 we were squished into a too tight booth. We are a family of seven people, and the only thing they had for us was a four person booth. No WAY were they going to let us have a larger table, because it was still SO crowded. There was some arguing over where everyone was to sit, and some changing sides. Since there were no chairs and no hooks to hang our coats, and I wasn’t about to put my wool coat on the floor, I held my coat on my lap, hoping there was nothing gross or disgusting on the bottom of the table.
Soon our sweet but frazzled waitress was there to take our drink orders. The poor thing was so busy with so many tables to wait, I really did feel bad for her. It only took a few minutes for the kids’ root beers to arrive, but she didn’t have the chocolate milk for the other two. She said she’d be “right back” with it. We ordered our dinners and tried to have some fun while waiting. I mean, we were finally sitting down, right? But my youngest two kids still didn’t have drinks, and after 15 more minutes, we finally managed to stop our sprinting waitress and ask about the chocolate milks. She gave us a confused look and said, “I got those out, didn’t I? I’m so sorry! I’ll get you those in just a minute.” I again felt bad for her, and wondered if I could just walk over and get some drinks myself to save her the trouble. But soon someone else brought two kid size chocolate milk, which helped placate the hungry little ones for a little while, at least.
To kill some time, somehow we got on the subject of weird things you can do with your face. We had a fun contest to see who could wiggle their ears, roll their tongue, raise one eyebrow, flare their nostrils, etc. Soon we were all laughing and having fun, although still hungry and squished.
The people sitting in the booth behind us had had enough. I kept hearing remarks like, “This is ridiculous! We’ve been here TWO hours!” I think they were a couple with a two year old and another mom with a two or three year old. They had been pacing the restaurant, trying to keep the hungry kids happy. Finally they left in a huff. “We’ll go to McDonalds!” they said to the kids. I didn’t blame them for leaving, really. How long can you expect a hungry two year old to behave? I felt a little bad for the waitress when they brought out their food a few minutes after they had left. But I wondered what they had ordered and who was going to eat that food.
We had reached the point of EXTREME hunger by the time they brought our food. But imagine my little boy’s face when he was handed his plate of Kraft macaroni and cheese, but no fork. His sister was SO lucky–she had ordered a hamburger and could eat it without silverware, but here he was, without even so much as a french fry to scoop up his mac and cheese. I’m not joking when I say it took us 5 more minutes to track someone down who could give us the precious silverware. And they weren’t going to give us more than we REALLY needed, either. “Oh,” said the server, “how many of you need silverware?” Well, all of us, wouldn’t you think? But no, they only had enough silverware for the people who actually NEEDED their fork, and couldn’t just pick up their food. Forget napkins for everyone. I usually like to ask for extra napkins, since we do have a bunch of kids, and I’m a fan of napkins, myself. But I wasn’t going to mention that to the waitress or server–if I could even find one.
After we finally had food AND silverware and were all devouring it like hungry hyenas, the waitress came by to ask if the food was all right. She hadn’t wanted to stop by BEFORE. Probably because she was scared we might just eat her. I’m sure she’s seen her share of hungry people before, and she knows to avoid them, if possible. My husband reminded her that it was my birthday and asked if they did anything to celebrate birthdays. “Sure!” she said. I have to say that my trio platter was delicious and filling. The kids enjoyed their burgers, although my son’s “Frito chili burger” had chili but no fritos. Oh well, just eat it, we had told him. My husband’s steak was good, and the macaroni and cheese was…well, just like the macaroni and cheese that we make at home, but it only costs me 50 cents for the whole box, instead of $2.99 for a plate of it.
Then it arrived–the Birthday Freebie! The coveted brownie, ice cream covered creations that the whole family can take a bit of, and …what? What’s this? A shot glass filled with ice cream and hot fudge? And one spoon. “Usually we have the waiters come and sing for birthdays,” apologized our poor waitress, “but they are all too busy. So… Happy Birthday.”
Oh, the disappointment. It’s my birthday, for heaven’s sake. I’ve waited 365 days to be treated like someone special, and this is the free dessert you bring? We all took a bite (with the one spoon. One of the lucky ones who had a fork used their fork) and the “special dessert” was gone in seconds.
Check, please.
Now, Applebee’s–I know you can’t pack any more people into your restaurant. You’ve tried. I know it’s not your fault that everyone and their dog decided to “eat good in the neighborhood” that night. I understand.
But when a family goes out to eat, and is willing to part with over 50 of our hard earned dollars, they expect to be treated better than mere cattle. May I suggest you call in a few more waiters or maybe another cook so that people aren’t waiting over an hour for their food. Or maybe give the kids some crackers or a basket of bread to nosh on while they are waiting. A little bit goes a long way to assuage the hungry and the grumpy. And your birthday treatment? Well, let’s just say that when my precious one day a year, right after Christmas birthday comes around again, I won’t be spending it with you.
Yes, it’s my birthday today! No, I’m not throwing myself a big party like I did last year, but I am going to do like my friend Robin does, and only do things I want to do. So, there will be no yelling at the kids, no cleaning of toilets, and no vacuuming (I’ll let my pet Roomba do that one). I do have an indoor soccer game to go to, but I’m going to try to send her home with someone else, so I won’t have to. I will hit some after Christmas sales and have my big kids babysit my little kids. We will probably also go out to eat, since I will not be cooking. I’ve already gotten the CUTEST e-card from my friend Melinda, who always sends the cutest e-cards that make me laugh,and several happy birthday emails and some actual cards. And I suspect that my kids are off making birthday cards for me right now, since they’ve all come in here to steal some paper. How fun!
For Christmas, Ryan and I got some speakers. Woo-Hoo! Yes, we live on the edge, don’t we? Well, yesterday, Ryan was installing said speakers in our bedroom and in our bathroom! Speakers in our bathroom, people! Now I can listen to music AS I SHOWER! I’m a little bit excited about that one, can you tell? And I can listen for radio contests even while I use the bathroom, now! I’ll just have to take a phone in with me, of course.
Well, as he was telling me about the speaker install, he mentioned, “Sadly, there was a casualty.”
“What? What are you talking about?” I said, a bit confused.
“As I was vacuuming up the insulation mess, I inadvertently vacuumed up a lipstick.”
“Which lipstick? Was it the brand new one I just got for Christmas?” a little bit of panic may have crept into my voice about then.
“I do not know which lipstick it was, but I’m sure it was your favorite one, the one you searched months for, and that they’ve discontinued and you will never have again.”
“Let me just check.” I said, figuring that a lost lipstick, even if it was the brand new one, was a pretty small price to pay for cool speakers in the bathroom.
“And you’ll Never Have that RECIPE AGAIN…” and that’s when Ryan launched into a lovely version of MacArthur Park, which seriously has got to be the dumbest song ever. Someone left the cake out in the rain? Whatever.
Snow, snow, and more snow.
The snow has been lots of fun to play in, if you enjoy freezing your extremities off, that is. The problem, however, lies in the fact that it takes about an hour to find everyone’s snow stuff, see if it’s dry from the last time they went outside, and get them into it. We’ve had cousins staying with us, and at one point had 10 kids to outfit into snow gear. And once we get them all outside (and lock the door–no, not really), they are only out there about 20 minutes before they are inside complaining of how cold they are. Then they leave all those wet, snowy clothes all over the place to “dry” out, and they demand hot chocolate.
And I’d like it stop snowing sometime, so I can go out and find my after Christmas bargains, thank you very much.
The Neighborhood Party.
We have some neighbors who host a party every year. There’s tons of food, and you get to talk to your neighbors without any kids pestering you. I haven’t been able to go for the past couple of years, but Ryan will go to this one by himself. This year, however, they did it late enough that I could attend, and it was super fun. And even better than a party? Leaving my brother and sister-in-law in charge of the masses at home. They had 10 kids to send to bed, but hopefully it wasn’t too bad. They let them watch movies and play games until bed time. The highlight of the party, of course, is the white elephant game. I thought my gift was cool but kind of weird, but apparently, it was just weird. Not the worst gift, though. I think the pre-flyed fly paper was the worst. Or the viagra. Thankfully we didn’t come home with that one.
The annual Christmas Nativity Puppet show.
The kids enjoy the Nativity puppet show each year. We read the story from Luke and they act out all the parts with puppets. It’s easier than coming up with costumes (or bathrobes, rather) for them to act it out, and they love it.
Screaming Monkeys.
The kids got Webkinz and flying slingshot Monkeys in their stockings. Who wouldn’t love a flying monkey? I think these might be good gifts for the neighborhood white elephant party next year.
Rock Band Surprise.
I was thrilled to give the kids an X-Box and Rock band. It’s doubly nice when I didn’t have to pay for it. Had I known I was going to be winning an X-Box, I might have bought less presents for them. But they were very surprised and pleased, since I would normally never buy such a thing. We finally got it set up today and are rocking out. And just so you know, Tina, I suck. But then, we all suck, so I’m in good company. I’m sure after the kids spend hours playing it and I still have only played it 5 times, they will totally smoke me, but right now we’re on a pretty even playing level. Except for Cole, who’s played guitar hero a lot more than me, and Megan, who actually plays the drums in the band at school. But since there are 5 kids and only three instruments, John is having a total melt down right now.
Chaos. And Mess.
I don’t know about your house, but our house is pretty much a mess after all the present opening. I wouldn’t say the mess is a highlight, really, just an unavoidable part of the eqasion.
Faster, Stronger, Better than it was before.
Ryan got me a new computer for my Christmas/Birthday present. The old one was the “free” computer he got back when he was fired from Intel many many years ago. It was old, slow, and frequently refused to do what I asked it to do. Now it has like eleventy times the memory and ram and all that computer language. So far, it’s working out nicely. Can you tell just by reading the blog how much faster it uploaded? Good job, new computer! And he secretly transferred all my old crap onto the new computer without me knowing what he was doing. He’s pretty sneaky that way. Ryan and I also both got new phones. Yes, you heard right. Ryan now has entered the 21st century and has a cell phone. Or, as he calls it, a leash. So I can call him. And you can call him, too, if you want! Everyone can call him! Hooray for phones. And yes, that does leave one extra phone for the kids to share. We haven’t worked out the details of that, but they haven’t seemed to care, yet.
Giving a Great Gift
We decided to give my sister and her family a gift that they really really needed this year. A van. Our van. They have three kids and can barely squish into their truck, plus my sister was left without a car most of the time when her husband went to work. We had been talking about it for a while and trying to figure out if we can survive with just the suburban and the little truck, and decided it was time to take the leap. We gave them the present a month early, and they have been enjoying it since. It really makes us happy to give something that is really going to be appreciated and used. And we hope it lasts for a long long time and they get many years and miles of use out of it.
Family Time.
We went up to my parent’s house on Christmas day and had the fun and folly of being with the whole family. Except for my sister’s family. Now that she’s got 10 kids we may never see her again. But even without her, we had something like 22 people there, and it was fun. It was actually the quietest Christmas celebration we’ve had in quite some time. Most of the kids stayed downstairs or watched a movie, and we’d call them up one family at a time to get their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. The picture above is my brother actually blowing out his birthday candle that is there in the birthday pie. Yes, his birthday is on Christmas. A fact that I try to remember when I’m feeling picked on by the unfortunate timing of my birthday.
Food, Goodies, Sweets, Temptations.
I think I’ve eaten my weight in cookies, candies, chex mix and goodies. Seriously, people, don’t bring any more yummy food to our house ever again. Or at least until my birthday.
Singing Silent Night
Ryan and I sang Silent Night for our talent portion of his family party, and it was fun to sing with him. He actually played the guitar (my guitar that I don’t play), and I sang, and it was nice to sing to a guitar. I think this year I really DO need to learn to play the guitar. We also sang Silent Night with our family on Christmas eve before the kids went to bed, and then in the morning before we opened presents, John said, “I want to sing the PEACE song”. So, we sang the peace song together and it was nice. It’s one of my favorite Christmas songs, and if he wants to sing it anytime, I’m game.
Since I hadn’t yet watched Rejoice and be Merry with the King’s Singers (last year’s concert), I made the kids watch it on Christmas eve with me. You would have thought I was torturing them with hot pokers or something, to hear them complain. I mean, come on, people! Who doesn’t love the Twelve days of Christmas? You can see the video from that song here. I think I might just watch it every day just to make them crazy. Right after Rock band.
Christmas letters.
I know I was late in getting my Christmas card and letters out this year, and I may have inadvertently forgotten some, and didn’t have addresses for others. I felt very disorganized in my card sending. But I do enjoy getting those letters from friends. For some, this is the only communication we receive all year, so it’s especially fun to see pictures of their families and read what they’ve been up to. And even if I have to hear all about their perfect kids, I still enjoy the cards. (I know that their kids can’t be perfect ALL the time, right?) My sister and brother-in-law actually send out the funniest letter, and I really look forward to reading about their mishaps and adventures.
That warm Christmas feeling.
I love everything about Christmas. And I love the feelings of love and peace that we have each December as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I almost didn’t want Christmas to come because I don’t want Christmas to be over. But, yes, it’s come, and now it’s over. It’s up to us to keep those feelings in our hearts even when we don’t have people telling us Merry Christmas, and we aren’t hearing beautiful Christmas music on the radio. It’s up to each of us to keep Christ in our hearts.
Hey, I’m still here. I’m just buried under about a foot of new snow. Because we didn’t quite have enough.
I’m so thankful I’m not traveling in this wet mess. There are people who have been stranded at the bus station for five days, but thanks to some kind people, they have found flights for many of them, and also fed and put them up in hotels, finally.
Our Arizona guests made it up here without any traveling trouble, and are enjoying the snow. I think the kids will be playing outside a lot of the day today. The problem is when they come back inside! They bring the snowsuits, boots, gloves, hats, and wet socks, and they have to put them somewhere.
Yes, it’s a winter wonderland!
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