The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: September 2005 (Page 1 of 2)

Beauty and the Beast

I took four kids to the Hale Center Theater in Orem last night to see Beauty and the Beast. Other than Jenna, who squirmed around and complained through the first half, and squirmed around on my lap until she fell asleep during the second half, the kids really enjoyed it and had a good time. It’s considerably longer than the Disney movie they made it from; they’ve added lots of new songs. So, it was a LONG time for them to sit still, and I’m really proud of how well they sat still and were well behaved. I didn’t enjoy carrying Jenna out to the car after it was over (that’s what Dad’s for, right?), but other than that we had a great time!

In other news, our digital camera has really bit the dust. It wouldn’t open or close all the way, and displayed an error. Ryan couldn’t figure it out, so he took it apart. Now it’s just a bunch of camera peices in a ziplock baggie. So, of course, since I have no camera to document anything, John took the opportunity yesterday to cover his face and some of his hair with Mascara. So, not only do I not have a picture of it, I don’t have mascara. So if any of you would like to donate your old digital cameras to our cause, we’d be sure to give you a receipt and you could write it off as a charitable donation. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Hey, That’s Kevin and Drew!

Well, Ryan and I are totally hooked on Amazing Race, so you know what we were watching last night. We were sad that the Black family was eliminated right off the bat, as they had spunk and worked together. I really can’t stand families who just yell and criticize each other; thus we really hoped the Paolo family would be gone. I don’t want to listen to them bicker the whole season. But I’m pretty sure they won’t last that long (I hope).

We also brought up all the Halloween/Fall decorations last night, and the kids had a great time setting stuff out. Speaking of Fall–This is the week to go for a drive and see the Beautiful Fall Colors. Looking out my windows at home I can see mountains all around and they are turning lovely colors. We’ve got to enjoy Fall before it’s wet and rainy and turns to winter.

Gunnies

Congratulations to Ryan, who won a $100 gift certificate to Gunnies yesterday. If you’ve never been to Gunnies, then you, like I was, are in for a surprise. It’s a mini Cabela’s! Taxidermy all around the store, including a girraffe, a bear, and a boar, and all kinds of fishing and hunting gear. Gunnies and the Daily Herald sponsored a puzzle page, with a word search type thing, a “what’s wrong with this picture”, and identify the eyes of 8 different animals. Ryan wrote a computer program to figure out the highest scores for the wordsearch, figured the differences in the picture pretty easily, but we had a tough time guessing the animals. Megan helped out there, but we were still not right. We ended up with 4 wrong, but were still in the drawing. Only one person got them all right, and she won $400! So, Congratulations to Ryan. Happy Birthday–go buy yourself something fun.

Slumber Party

Saturday night was Erin’s Slumber Party . I had won 6 tickets and a hotel room. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get 5 friends who could ditch their families and commitments and come and play with me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all about families and commitments. I have many myself –commitments, not families– and I understand that not everyone can get away on a Saturday night. This being said, however, I found it quite difficult to find the requisite 6 people to use all the tickets. So, congratulations to Sherry (a neighbor and friend), Tess (long time friend found again), Lisa (mother of 3 month old twins and I am very impressed that she was able to get away), Tennille (bell player extrordiniar), and Chrissy (my sister who left 7 children with her awesome husband) for being able to get away and play, and coming with me so I didn’t feel like a loser with no friends.

The Slumber Party, although fun, was not all I had hoped it would be. The lines were long and the place was crowded. It was a bit overwhelming at first to decide which line to stand in, (Do I want my toenails painted pretty or do I want my eyebrows waxed? Wait, what’s that over there, a psychic?), but we soon signed up for massages, stood in a few lines, got some food and had our fill from the chocolate fountain (chocolate covered cream puffs and cinnamon bears–who knew?). We enjoyed our 10 minute massages (wish it were longer), were entertained and amused by our “psychic readings”, and pocketed a few of the little dessert tins from “My Girlfriend’s Kitchen”, avoided the “Party Girls” and their adultproducts, and Sherry got to ask her make-out queen friend from high school if she had made out with Sherry’s boyfriend 15 years ago. Apparantly her answer was something like “there were so many, who can remember?”. Chrissy even endured a very long line and had eyelash extensions put in.

Although we entered every contest we could find, none of us were big winners. By 9:30 we had had our fill of the fun and excitement, and were ready to leave. We only had to find our hotel room and get the jackets that we had stashed. That was a little harder than we had thought, as no one really remembered the room number, or where exactly it was. Lisa was in the room, but walking the halls calling her name didn’t seem like the best idea. We eventually found it and were impressed by the comfy beds. Hopefully Lisa had a lovely relaxing night in the room with no twins, no kids, and no husband. She was the only one who took advantage of the free room, and I hope it was a good one for her.

All in all, it was fun, but not the event of the century. I’m glad I could spend a night with girlfriends, and we had plenty of those frosted sugar cookies to go around.

Martha, Martha, Martha

I don’t know about you, but it makes me a little bit more secure to see that Martha Stewart is back on the air. I saw a bit of her new show on TLC last night. Interesting. Live audience kind of like a talk show. But she had a guest cooking a wonderful fluffy dessert that of course looked like everyone should try it. Now I can sleep easier knowing that Martha is back doing what she does, inspiring housewives everywhere.

Clothesline, anyone?

Well, the dryer isn’t working. Ryan said he’d take a look at it and it was probably just the thing that goes in the thing, just like he’s replaced in the oven. He looked at it, and unfortunately, it isn’t just the thing that goes in the thing. So, I have to suck it up and call a repairman. I’ll call the same guy who came and fixed my washer when it wasn’t working. This, too, will probably be some 10 minute problem that will cost me $60 minimum (I hope). I guess each appliance is allowed one service call. More than that, and I’m getting one of those fancy Maytags.

Win big, baby

Did I mention that I love winning things? It’s just a little thrill. I usually change the radio around all day so I can try for the usual scheduled contests (if I’m home, that is), and it really brings me joy to win things.

So, yesterday I picked up some passes to “Erin’s Slumber Party” being put on by a radio station. It’s a big girl’s night out, and I’m very excited to take my girlfriends and we’ll all go get pedicures, facials and eat chocolate and watch chick flicks!

I also won two CD’s (one from Keane and someone else that I can’t remember right now) by answering the question: The human brain has ______ the memory of even the best computers.
a) 100 times
b)1000 times
c) 10,000 times
d) about twice.

Do you know?

How does anyone get any sleep around here?

Ugh. It was a rough night.

Sometime around 3:00, Jenna had a bad dream. I took her back to her room and sat on her bed with her until I thought she was asleep. I also turned off everyone’s ceiling fans that were left on, used the bathroom and shut a window.

Sometime after I had gone back to sleep, in comes Jenna again. Bad dream. I don’t know if I’m believing that, but I’m half asleep, so I pull her into bed with us. It’s a big old King bed, right? There should be enough room for two adults and one small child. But alas, the one small child is a squirmer and a kicker. Not good sleeping.

Later, around 5:40, my alarm went off, reminding me that I was going to go to yoga this morning. Turn off alarm before it wakes squirmy kicky girl, and drift off to…

Screaming. It’s John. He’s wet through his clothes and needs his clothes changed. With two matchbox cars in his hands and dry clothes, he goes back to bed. So, I go back to bed, only to be kicked one too many times.

So, I lift Jenna up and carry her back to her own bed. As I walk in, I’m assaulted by the sound of Megan’s CD player alarm clock. I franticly pound on the thing until it stops, put Jenna in her own bed, then it starts again. I unplug the blasted thing!

I wander back to my own big half empty bed with no kicking, and drift off to sleep once more, only to have a bad dream of my own, that involves bells and putting them away in their cases. I won’t elaborate, as it will only bore you to sleep, as I wish it would do me. I’m jolted awake by a very loud chirping noise–someone’s alarm. Why do these kids set their alarms for so early?! I’m about ready to throw the dumb thing out the window as I stumble towards the sound. “Don’t wake up John or Jenna!” is my thought as I find that it’s Megan’s alarm again. How can it be beeping? I took away your power source, you evil thing! Not knowing how to turn it off, I just bang on it a few times, and realize Jenna isn’t in her bed, anyway. Megan is sleeping through this millionth alarm and doesn’t notice her crazed mother pounding on her CD player alarm clock. Good. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

I creep back to bed, even though it’s obviously time to get up by now, lay my head down, and hear the lovely wake up call from John, “MOM!” over and over and louder and louder until I get him up and fix him breakfast.

My only hope is for a nap today.

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