In John’s opinion, it was the best lunch date EVER. Let me tell you about it. Today was early out day for the kids, which means John is home before noon. He’s needed a haircut for a couple of weeks, so I took him over to Great Clips and he got a great little boy haircut. No line, no wait (and I had a coupon!). Since he was so good, and we were so fast, we had time to go to Wendy’s for lunch. At his begging, we actually went inside instead of just driving through and picking up a 5 piece chicken nuggets and value fries. He got a kids meal, and I got a hamburger. Inside his kid’s meal was a WATCH! A really cheap watch that will probably be broken or lost very soon, but still, it was a WATCH. He’s been asking me (bugging me, actually) for a watch for about a week now, and I actually bought him one to give him for Christmas, but this, this watch was a promo inside his kid’s meal. How great is that? He was thrilled to get a watch, and he’s been telling me what time it is all afternoon.
While I waited for him to finish his meal, dipping all those fries into the jr frosty, I decided to call the number on the receipt for a survey. I sometimes do the survey things, but usually I forget. Since we’re going on vacation soon and I know we’ll be eating at Wendy’s at least once, we can use the free single that you get with the completed survey. It took me about 5 minutes, and by then John was about done, new watch and all. As I was throwing away our trash, I noticed a receipt on the ground. Hey, I thought, why not? So, I picked up that receipt, used the home phone to call in and do the survey again for..you guessed it, another free hamburger. Funny thing is, it’s the same code. I could have just written the same code on the found receipt without doing the survey. Now I know.
So, John’s happy because he got to go out to lunch AND get a watch of his very own. I’m happy because I didn’t have to pay extra to get John a watch of his very own. Not a bad lunch if you ask me.
Tonight is concert night! Can I have a “Hollah”? Thanks. We only have one night this year, as last year we had two nights and a dress rehearsal that was open to the public. They tell us it’s too expensive to do two night of concerts. Okay. I hope that means that our concert tonight will be packed. They give out way more tickets than the Tabernacle can seat, so it’s always a good idea to arrive early. I am thankful that I have not contracted any major sickness. I’ve had some days of not feeling well, and my throat hurt last night, but I’ve tried to get extra sleep whenever I can, drink lots, take lots of vitamins, and be liberal with the lysol and germ-x. We’ve spent a lot of time working on this concert, and it’s going to be really fun. Since it’s so early in the season, it’s not really an all out Christmas concert. In fact, it’s called “A little Christmas, a little fun”. We’re excited about the “fun” part. We’ve got a saxophone, harp, and strings joining us, as well as the woodwinds and piano and organ. And some fun songs. As long as we don’t mess anything up, right?
**
Today I’m hoping that my daughter stands up to a girl who’s kind of bullying her. On Wednesday, when I picked her up from school, she was very thirsty and chugged a capri-sun drink like it was nothing. Aren’t you drinking anything in the day? I asked her. “Oh, this girl stole my milk. Again,” she told me. What? Who’s stealing your milk? It turns out “some girl” who she says she doesn’t know her name but she’s in two of her classes, just comes up to her on B days and takes the milk right off her lunch tray. It’s happened for three days now. The rest of the carpool was getting in the car and hearing this, and they were outraged. “Who’s this girl? I’ll come and beat her up,” said her friend Lauren. “Oh, wait, I’m in class at that time on B days.” They all rallied and told her to be loud and tell this girl off, but Megan is really quiet and shy at school, it seems, and just lets this girl take her milk. She doesn’t have any friends to sit with on these days, and usually just sits alone. All of her friend have the other lunch. How sad is this? And aggravating, because I would like to go there and stand up for my child, tell this other kid that she has NO RIGHT to just take her milk. On the other hand, it’s just a milk, and maybe this bully kid is really starving and doesn’t have money to buy her own milk and thought my daughter was nice and is therefore taking the milk. Probably not. One of her carpool friends said SHE had this lunch on B days and would sit by her and protect her from this girl, but when I reminded daughter to sit by her, she kind of shrugged. Oh, what to do, what to do?
Our solution was to bring home lunch today. Then she won’t be in the line buying lunch, she can just go right to a table (hopefully), avoiding this girl outright. And if mean girl comes by, she wouldn’t dare take her lunch that she brought from home, would she? I want to just be there, and watch what goes down. If only I had one of those invisibility cloaks from Harry Potter. I could just sneak in there and watch and nobody would know I was there. Or send a spy. A spy who would identify and tell off this mean girl.
Any suggestions? Or should I just forget about it because this girl won’t be there picking on her forever, right?
I feel like I’m doomed. Yes, doomed. Doomed to get sick. I feel like no matter what I do to protect myself and my family, there’s no hope and I’m going to get sick. At the very worst possible time, I’m sure. I’m remembering our cruise aboard the Disney Magic when so many people were getting sick from the Norwalk Virus. There were crew members cleaning the ship CONSTANTLY, and we still managed to all get sick. And here I am, armed with my Lysol wipes and my hand washing and my clorox and my vitamins just trying to keep healthy. But I feel like it’s kind of a losing battle, and I should just give up.
When I call the doctor’s office about my kids, they tell me, “Yes, it’s probably H1N1. Good luck.” When I ask about getting tamiflu, or about the possibility of getting vaccinated, they tell me that they are only vaccinating the very youngest kids, and after that only the high risk kids (those with asthma and other immune disorders), and that they are only giving tamiflu to a select demographic as well, and that unless you get it within the first 24 hours of getting sick, it doesn’t help much. Cole, my sickest family member, who was sick for a week, is now fever free and back at school. He’s survived! Megan is also doing well, and will probably go back to school today.
John, who seems absolutely fine in the day, has been crying at night. He just cries and says “OW!”. He’s not awake enough to tell me what’s wrong, and in the morning, when I ask him what hurts, he says nothing hurts and that he’s fine. I’ve kept him home from school and church for three days. When I called the doctor about him, they first said I should test him for strep, but then when they heard that two other members of the family had the swine flu, they said not to bother. He probably had swine flu, too. Well, after three days of this nighttime drama, I’m going to take him in to the doctor today.
Jenna, one of my “healthy kids” has developed a rash on her face, arms and hands. Yes, a rash. At first I thought it was that she had gotten something on her face (she said she ate spaghetti), but by Saturday it was a full blown rash, and so I took her to the doctor. They tested her for strep, just to see if that could be the cause, and I was hoping for strep. Please let it be strep, so that at least I can TREAT it. No strep. Viral. What do I do about it? Not much. No magic cream, no pill, nothing. While she’s most likely not contagious (rashes are usually contagious right BEFORE you break out, by the way), she looks so strange that I’m going to keep her home from school today. And by the way, if you are counting, we’re now into our second week of having someone stay home from school–Cole’s missed four days, Megan’s missed two, John’s missed two, and now Jenna. Natalie is my one hold out.
Oh, and Ryan’s still coughing up gunk.
Yesterday Natalie and I went to church. Where there are usually 7 of us, we had 2. Our neighbor asked me if I had killed off my family yet. Ha.
So, yes, I’m feeling trapped. I feel like no matter how hard I try, how well I clean, how many times I wash my hands or gargle with salt water, I’m doomed to get sick. And I’ll never send all of my kids to school again. Ever. When I was talking to the nurse, she said, “Well, the good thing is you can get all this over with and then everyone will be done with this flu, right?” Oh, right. There’s still a few of us who haven’t been sick and we might go through this whole thing again later. I asked her if, when I make it through this bout with sickness and don’t get it, if I am then immune, since I was exposed to the virus. “Oh, no,” she said, “unless you actually GET the virus, you don’t develop antibodies, so you aren’t immune.” What the what?
But I can’t get sick. I will keep myself healthy by the sheer strength of my will. I do NOT have time to be sick. This week is concert week, and I’ve put in many many hours of rehearsal (months of rehearsal) for this concert this week. I will NOT get sick. No matter what happens to this family of mine. And I will NOT get sick the next week, either. And I won’t get sick when we go on vacation. I will somehow get my hands on that vaccine and I will GET the shot. I will stay healthy. I will make a dress out of curtains if I have to, and I will never go hungry again! Sorry. I just went a little bit Scarlett O’Hara on you. How’s that for resolve?
And speaking of Gone with the Wind, here’s a classic just to make you smile today.
Natalie’s birthday was Saturday, and we threw another fantastic (meaning loud) party for her and her 10 and 11 year old friends. And I need to remember who NOT to invite next year (the loud one). OK, I’ll get over that. She originally asked for a sleepover, but that idea got nixxed, especially when we realized that she had a volleyball game at 8 am the next morning. But we did do a Luau, and I think it turned out very well.
We started out with a craft, which is always a nice activity to do while waiting for everyone to get there.
Then we did some limboing. Because it’s fun to limbo. We might just have to incorporate the limbo into every party now.
And then there was food. There must always be food at a party, right. We went with the real authentic Hawaiian food. Pizza. Hawaiian pizza.
And that pizza disappeared in about 3 seconds flat.
Next we experienced the “spa” part of the party. Each of the girls got a little facial. We put on a nice mask and gave them some cucumber slices.
And then they all found a place to lay down and relax. I would have to say that this was the best part of the party. Even though they did not stop talking, they did stop moving. At least for a little while. After they were all exfoliated and refreshed and cleaned off, we played the fun little “truth or dare game” that we played last year. It’s such fun, they don’t even mind that they have already played it before.
Soon it was time for presents, always fun at a birthday party, and CAKE. I must once again thank my fabulous sister-in-law. Even though she had a super busy weekend, she managed to decorate AND deliver this cake (delivery was a BIG problem, because almost all the roads leading to our house just happened to be closed on Friday. I don’t know when this construction is going to be done, but it’s been a huge pain!) and we totally appreciate her. Go, Julene!
After the cake and ice cream, we had just enough time to gather up the treat bags and the crafts and paint some fingernails before the parents came.
*Whew* It was a FUN party, but most of all, it was a happy night for our sweet Natalie. Happy Birthday, Natalie, and may 11 be a wonderful year for you!
Dear Son,
I’m so glad you had a fun time on your mountain biking trip to Moab with the scouts. I’m very glad you have great leaders who love you boys and are willing to take whole groups of sweaty boys on long drives.
I just have one small request; in the future, could you please not just dump all your dirty laundry out in the laundry room? Since your clothes were covered in red dirt, perhaps a more appropriate place to empty out your duffel bag would be, oh I don’t know, OUTSIDE, perhaps? Let’s try to keep these things in mind the next time you go on a scout trip. If there is a next time.
Lovingly,
Your laundry slave,
Mom
The other day I realized that we needed to once again switch up the bedrooms. Ugh. I thought the last time we shifted bedrooms, which I think was about two years ago, that would be the last time. But when you have five kids and three bedrooms to put them in, there tends to be a lot of shifting going on. It wouldn’t be fair to let one child continually have their own room, so there is much sharing. Sadly, the basement is not finished yet, and our son continues to grow. It came to my attention that Cole, my nearly 16 year old son who is now taller than me, does not fit very well in the top bunk of the bunkbed we bought for him when he was 4. He can’t be sleeping that well up there, and although I don’t think it’s a bad thing to share a room with your little brother, he’s been very good to share for the past couple of years. I guess it’s time he gets his own room again.
On Friday I announced to the kids that we would be changing roommates, and that everyone would need to help out to perform the shift. Megan, who has had the biggest room and the biggest bed, which doubles as the guest room, will no longer have the room to herself. The bunk beds will be going in there, as will Natalie. John will then go into the room with Jenna, and Cole will stay in the same room, but he will get the queen bed again, and no roommate. BUT, there is the stipulations that he keep his room CLEAN, as when guests come, as they frequently do, he will vacate the room and sleep on the couch bed in the unfinished basement.
So Friday night, before we all went to our parties, activities and concerts, Megan and Cole switched beds. Dad helped take the bunkbed apart, but they did most of the hauling. We stripped the beds, threw that bedding in the wash, and started pulling out new bedding (boy type bedding for the queen bed, and girl AND boy type bedding for the bunk beds). We can move everyone’s clothes, books, toys and other crap later, but I wanted to at least get the beds situated.
Saturday I told the kids to go ahead and start moving their stuff, and I took Natalie to a volleyball game. When I came home, I saw that the entire hall was full of stuff. Look, there’s John’s dresser, and his toys, and a pile of books, and piles of bedding. *Sigh* As long as we can get past, I can deal with it. I left again to go to a baby shower for my dear friend, Maranda, and asked them to please continue to work on their rooms, and don’t spare the garbage bags!
I came home to find all the kids down in the basement playing wii and other games with Cole’s friend Sam, who had come to spend the day with us. Nothing more had been done. Off I went to a soccer game for Megan. I ended up sitting in the shade of a tree back by the goal instead of the usual parent place on the sideline, and I was completely happy there. I spent almost the whole game time (about an hour and a half) talking to my sister about their whirlwind trip across the country with all ten kids in the van. I really should blog about THAT, shouldn’t I? Can you imagine taking 10 kids on a 7 week roadtrip? Well, neither can I, and I only have 5 kids, but that’s another story for another day. After the game, we came back home, to see that of course NOTHING had been done on the rooms. Ryan had been outside mowing the lawn, and the kids were just playing.
Oh, well. I don’t have the energy to go through the piles and piles of stuff, and move dressers, closets and bookshelves right now (maybe not ever), so I’ll just let it stay that way. For now.
Before bed, I did actually go into the room that will be shared by Jenna and John and threw away two garbage bags full of stuff. I also sorted a bunch of John’s toys so that he can have a bin for star wars guys, a bin for cars, and a bin for dinosaurs, but I don’t know how long they will STAY in their assigned bins.
I’m hoping that Monday I’ll wake up bright and early with a BURST of energy and enthusiasm and be able to tackle at least one room. And when they get home (Monday’s early out day) I’ll put them to work at sorting, organizing, and moving, so that someday soon we can get the dressers out of the hall. I’m sure it will take at least a week.
So, if you don’t hear from me for a while, you might want to check under one of the piles. Just in case I fall and hit my head and no body can find me for days and days. Wish us luck.
John’s long awaited Star Wars Jedi training party was yesterday, and I’m happy to say it went VERY well. I’ll give you the run down just in case YOU someday have a demanding 5 year old who insists on a star wars party.
#1–Jedi training. I gave every member of the family except the birthday boy, of course, a station. At each station the kids had to do some kind of “training exercise” to help them become Jedis. They were actually just things to do, like do a trick on the trampoline, walk frontwards and backwards on the balance beam, crab walk, kick a soccer ball and knock over three stacked #10 cans, go across the monkey bars and down the slide, and fill up a cup with water using a spoon. Don’t ask me what these tasks have to do with the training of Jedis, but at least it kept our little boys busy.
#2–Laser beam limbo. It’s basically just limbo with a fancy name. We used a mop handle and played Star Wars music.
Laser Beam Limbo
When they got tired of going under the stick, we lowered it and made them jump over the stick. Because sticks are versatile that way.
#3–Borrow some cool costumes. When I was complaining about the elaborate star wars party my son was asking me to throw, a friend volunteered that she had some star wars costumes! She said they had used them years ago for her daughter’s party, and we were welcome to use them. Hello! That is awesome! The queen Amadala costume, she told me, had fit her daughter when she was 5. Hmmm. The only person that would fit around here would be John. But wait! My 13 year old daughter, Megan, also happens to be extremely skinny, and what do you know? She fit into the costume just fine!
Especially if by “fit’s just fine” you don’t care that it’s about a foot and a half too short. She was a good sport and wore the costume, even said the lines I fed to her.
My awesome husband also got into the act. While the boys were limbo-ing, he went inside and put on the Darth Maul costume, and came out in all his scariness. He wielded his fancy double light saber thingy and challenged the young jedis.
Those jedis attacked with vigor when I said, “go get him,” and he was no match for their strength in numbers.
We had to call them off before they did any serious damage.
#4–Get a really cool pinata. My brother-in-law Italo has connections. He has a friend who makes pinatas. And not just ANY pinatas, AWESOME pinatas. When we picked little yoda up, we were amazed at the cuteness. And so BIG!
Who wouldn’t be impressed with a yoda pinata as big as the birthday boy?
I hated to even let them smack him, but that’s what the pinata is for, right? And for some reason, the little boys think a party’s not a party without either a bounce house or a pinata. They whacked with vigor.
Soon Master Yoda delivered up the coveted candy, and was but a shred of his former self.
#5–Feed them. After the pinata, I served up hot dogs, cheetos, and grapes, with special galactic punch (lemon lime shasta with a scoop of lime sherbet). But some kids eat and some kids don’t eat. It’s a party, so we don’t really care if they don’t chose to eat. And after presents, we ate some more.
#6–Easy cake decorating tip. Just get a cake from the grocery store and put some little star wars toys on the cake.
The kids had a great time, John had a great time, and the party was fabulous. I hope so, after all the stressing I did in the weeks leading up to this birthday party. But it’s all worth it when I asked him if he liked the party, and he said, “It’s the best party EVER, Mom!”
So, there you have it. My 6 easy steps to throwing an awesome Star Wars Party. May the Force be with you.
–According to the one Ranger we talked to, Moose sightings are pretty rare in the park these days. They haven’t had many Moose in the last few years.
–The big animals we commonly call ‘buffalo’ are really called ‘bison’
–Try as I may, I can’t stop my kids from getting sick, even on vacation
–Vacationing with grandparents is THE WAY TO GO. They put two of our kids in their hotel rooms, took two kids in the car, and were a lot of fun to hike with, picnic with, and hang out with!
–You can never have too many pictures on a vacation
–Geyser steam makes my hair instantly flat
–It doesn’t matter if you have gas or not when you are hiking around the hot pots–No one would know, anyway.
–On about the 100th hot spring or geyser, you just really don’t care so much. In fact, my five year old was overheard saying, “Geysers, geysers, geysers! That’s all we see are geysers!” Well, it is Yellowstone National Park.
–At the end of the day, having a hotel with a pool is all the kids care about
–My kids have never heard of the song “muskrat love” and they thought I was pretty weird when I sang it to them when we saw two muskrats swimming in the stream.
–Listening to multiple episodes of Gilligan’s Island while in the car can cause a person to want to jump out of a speeding car, even if it is keeping the yahoos in the back entertained.
–Never say, “he could run around and play here all day” when the five year old is balancing or jumping on down trees. The minute you say that, you have jinxed it, and sure enough, he will be crying and needing band-aids in 5-10 seconds flat.
–Sacrament Meeting in the outdoors is a wonderful experience
–Lodge pole pine trees have two kinds of pine cones. One that drops their seeds after two years, and one that opens and drops their seeds when temperatures reach over 150 degrees.
–There are a heck of a lot of lodge pole pine trees in Yellowstone.
–When you are at a place with nice bathrooms (and by nice, I mean toilets that flush and running water where you can actually wash your hands), you should USE that bathroom, even if you don’t really think you need to go. You never know how nice the next facilities will be.
–The Junior Ranger Program is WELL worth the $3 they charge for it.
–Even the most simple of new toys, such as a happy meal stuffed animal or a little plastic shoe, will entertain the kids in the car, as long as it’s something NEW.
–The Grand Prismatic Spring is breathtaking.
–With whiny, tired kids, even a .3 mile hike is too long.
–I look pretty good in a cowboy hat. Especially a red one.
–Eating healthy while on vacation is not really possible.
Friday night. Opening night of Annie Get your Gun. The girls and I have been rehearsing for two months, and it’s finally performance time. Even though energy is low and we are exhausted from our long week of 7 hour rehearsals each night, excitement and enthusiasm are high. The show went very well. Yes, there were some slip ups, and it still ran long, but overall, it went quite well.
A few of the ladies were saying that they were going to meet at Chili’s after the show. Come with us, they said. But it’s not just me, it’s me and my kids. How do I work that? After the show, the girls were asking if they could go to iceberg and get a shake, or to snowasis and get a snowie. “How would you like to go to Chili’s and get some dinner?” I asked them. “OK,” they said. I figured since the rest of the family was camping and wouldn’t care how late we were, and we had two shows to do the next day, and this might be the only night we could go out with some of the cast, we would go.
I am hoping to create memories.
10:45 or so, we are seated at Chili’s. The girls are already starting to look very tired. Maybe this was a mistake. Jenna lays her head down on the table while waiting for her food. The rest of the cast (well, the 40 of us who came) are joking and laughing. We look a sight in our stage makeup and fancy hair from the show, but we don’t care. We are just having a good time, celebrating the show and the fact that we made it through the week and opening night. When our food finally came, the girls perked up a bit. We ate, laughed, and I think they had a good time. There were only a few kids there, and I think they felt special to be included in the grown up group.
11:30 my check came. I grabbed it and jumped up. We’re outta here, folks. Driving home, Natalie managed to stay awake, but Jenna fell asleep and was leaning against me in Ryan’s little truck. But she was full, and I hope she was happy.
I hope this whole experience has been good for them. It’s been some very long hours and I know it’s been boring for them a lot of the time. I know it’s been boring for me a lot of the time. But the experience of being in a play is like no other. And to be in a play with your sister and your mom is, I hope, an extra special thing for them. Will they LOVE theater and try out for every play that they can from now on? I don’t know. But will they remember the summer they were in Annie get your Gun? You can bet on it.
We had quite the softball season here at Casa Erickson! With four kids on four different teams, I think we had about 50 softball games. Seriously. They started in April with John’s cute little 5-6 year old team, the Rivercats.
They were so much fun to watch, and it was fun to have all 8 of his neighborhood friends on his team.
Jenna enjoyed her softball team, the Pirates.
She turned out to be quite the softball player, and she got a hit every time she was up to bat! Of course, in her age division, they give the kids as many pitches as they need, and then they bring out the t.
Natalie had a great time with her team, the Green Giants, and I was glad that my friend Lisa was willing to coach that team and make sure the girls all had a positive experience.
Machine pitch was pretty scary for the girls, but they got used to it, and they all improved over the season.
Megan enjoyed being with the same girls she played with last year, and most of them were on her basketball team in the winter. It makes it nice to know all their names, and it’s even nicer to have people to carpool with.
Megan’s team, the RAZZ, did pretty well in the regular season, but came alive in the tournament.
They were undefeated going into the championship game. Which they lost. But, since it was a double elimination round, and the team who beat them had already lost one game, that left them tied at one loss each, so they had to turn around and play another game that night. And that game, they won.
They were thrilled and excited to win.
And I am proud of all my softball and baseball players, and I’m glad we made it through the season. Now there will be no more panic about “where’s my hat?” or “MOM, have you seen my mitt?”, or the worries about how we were going to get this girl to her game, that boy to his practice, and Mom and two girls to play practice. I’m glad it was a good experience for them, and that they are learning skills, learning to be team players, and having fun. Good job, kids!
After they were all exfoliated and refreshed and cleaned off, we played the fun little “truth or dare game” that we played last year. It’s such fun, they don’t even mind that they have already played it before. 
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