The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: August 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

#14

Today is ourAnniversary.
us
Happy Anniversary Ryan and Paige! family It’s been 14 years since we got married. If I could find a digital wedding picture, I’d put it in, but I’m not finding one right now. In thinking about it, I really don’t know where my life would be had I not married Ryan. cabinBecause of him, I live in this beautiful house and I have 5 beautiful smart children. Because of him I’m able to stay at home with the kids and raise them the best I can.
wet
He’s supportive in my work with the bell choir, and doesn’t complain when I go to book club or out with friends once in a while. He’s helpful and loving. He can fix just about anyone’s computer, and if he can’t, he’ll recycle it for parts. niagra Sure, we get on each others nerves and dissagree about many things, but for the most part we get along quite well, and I still love him just as much (more, even!) as when we got married. california But then, that could all be because he married the best wife possible. Happy Anniversary!

(Feel free to sign in and give us your congratulatory wishes

Tired

I’m so tired today. I’m barely dragging myself around. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep last night (very noisy wind blowing outside) and John was up and bothering me in our bed before 6. My eyes hurt and I just want to ignore my children and take a nap. On the other hand, my hair for some reason turned out FABULOUS. I should take a picture just to remember it!

Zoo

I took my kids to the Zoo yesterday, and…

****Interruption from you, the reader—What? Are you CRAZY? You took your kids to the Zoo in this heat?! Didn’t you just take your kids to Lagoon last week?! Are your kids the most spoiled kids on the face of the planet?!***********

….um, yes, yes, yes, and mabye not the most spoiled, but Hey! I can explain if you just give me a minute ok?

***OK, explain****

Well, my friend and I were going to take our kids to the Hollywood Connection, which if you haven’t heard of it is this little indoor amusement park type place in West Valley. They have a Monday special that’s $4 for 4 hours. We thought we could go there, let our little rugrats ride the merry-go-round and bumper cars to their hearts’ contents, then play mini golf with them and chat and have a nice activity indoors. You can’t beat the price, either. It is way out there in West Valley by the E Center, but we figured it was worth the drive. Anyway, when we got there the parking lot was empty, and we wondered what the deal was. So, we checked the front door and checked the hours. They open at 3:30pm. What? What good does that do us? So, we discussed our options, and she suggested the Zoo. So, off to the zoo we went.

If I had planned on going to the zoo, I would have worn better shoes and not have worn black pants. I also wouldn’t have let Natalie wear black pants. I DID have the stroller and I HAD packed a lunch, so we were ok there, but I had taken the sunscreen out of the diaper bag and I didn’t have hats for my kids. So I wasn’t quite as prepared as I usually would have been, but we still had a fun time. It did get too hot, but we found shade and managed. It was fun to be there with a friend, and I bought the yearly pass, so if you ever get the notion to go to the Zoo (in the fall, ok?) with your small kids, call me up and we can meet there.

So, I think we’re about done with the fun field trips for the summer. Although I’ve got “read-a-thon” on my summer fun calendar, and I’m not quite sure what that will be. Any ideas how to have a neighborhood read-a-thon?

Oh, and here’s a few pictures of our fun in the sun at the zoo:


Here’s Megan (and her friend Emily’s legs) in front of the tigers-her favorite.

rhino
The kids always have to climb on this Rhino statue, even though it’s really hot in the sun.

lion
Do you remember getting a drink from the lion fountain when you were a kid? Always a must for a zoo trip, and I’m glad that some things stay the same.

john
And this slide (or one like it) has been there forever, too. John loved it.

Why I love my church calling

I teach Relief Society now. It’s really the calling that everyone should have once in their lives, becuase it’s a GREAT calling. In fact, it’s probably my favorite right after primary music leader. I’ve been lucky enough to have this calling at least three times (really, I haven’t been given that much variety in church callings, and I’m ok with that). Some people say how nervous they would be if they had to get in front of people, but think about it-by the time the songs and announcements and all that stuff is over, it’s only about 25 minutes that you get to teach, and there’s always more material than that. And you’re up in front of friends who want you to succeed, right? I gave an awesome lesson yesterday on living with faith. I don’t mean to brag, but it really turned out great! I had a little bit of everything–treats, small group time, testimonies from three sisters who had awesome testimonies of faith promoting experiences and really brought in the spirit. And when it’s over, everyone comes and tells you what a great job you did. Although that embarrasses me just a tiny bit, it’s great to get immediate positive feedback! It makes me feel…special.

(updated to add)
Oh, and did I add that there’s nobody to have meetings with, no correlation, nobody in your face. You just do the calling by yourself without relying on anybody else

To the lady at checkstand #6 in Target on Friday:

Thank you. Your kind words really made my whole day.

I’d taken my kids school shopping, so they could have at least one new outfit that they helped pick out to wear for the first week of school. Usually I pick things out for them, either from garage sales or from the store, and just bring it home. But, hey, I thought, it’s back-to-school time! Plus, we needed to get out of the house to avoid the bickering.

I gave them all thier own baggie of fruit loops to take and spill in the car, the store, or the parking lot, and I had a package of fruit snacks and a granola bar for each of them in my purse ( we wouldn’t want to be ill-prepared.) We started at Kohls, where I had to return an electric shaver that I’ve had in the car for over a month, and would have really liked to have checked out the women’s section, especially the clearance. The kids were running amok, however, and I had to keep it to the kids section. We found a few cute things that they liked, and proceeded to the checkout. As the lady was ringing up the items, I noticed a $24 item, and i knew I hadn’t picked out anything that was that much, so I had to ask, “What was that item that rang up as $24?”. Yes, I know there were three people behind me in the line, and I know my kids were taking the shopping cart/stroller over to the stuffed animal display to handle all of the stuffed animals, but by gum, I’m not paying $24 for something that should be $12. Sure enough, it was the pair of pants that I grabbed from the clearance section without even trying them on because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of the dressing room. They were originally $44, marked down to $18, and then it was supposed to be 33% off THAT price, to make it the clearance price of 60% off. I KNOW my clearance items, and it shouldn’t have been $24. Since she had already applied the 15% coupon for the entire purchase, she couldn’t correct the price. She said, “You can either go over to the service desk and have them refund it, or I can void the purchase and start over. I looked over at my roudy children, who were having a GREAT time laughing and putting their hands all over the mirror, and said, “Could you just ring it up again?” I’d already waited in line at the service desk once today, and didn’t really feel like dragging my kids over to that end of the store again. I got a couple of dirty looks from people behind me in line, but REALLy people, what do you want me to do? (and another line opened up just then, so the scowlers could go to another line)

So, we made it out of Kohls, and it was a little past lunchtime, but I thought we could just keep going a little bit and make it to Target for socks and things, since it’s right there. So, off to Target we go. Of course, we got one of those huge carts, but only John is sitting in the seat part, because last time he and Jenna were strapped in there together, and fighting ensued. Jenna’s in the cart part, and the two girls are hanging on the sides, or “helping” me push the cart. Even though it wasn’t the “run in–run out” that I imagined it would be, we were actually pretty quick, and managed to get socks for three of them, shoes for three of them, sparkly shirts for the three girls, a couple of t-shirts for mom, underwear and a couple more things I can’t remember. As we came up to the checkout line, the kids were laughing and teasing and generally making their mother cringe. They start tossing all the things onto the conveyor belt with wild abandon, not allowing mom to help.

And then the nice checker comes in (you were wondering if I’d get to the point, well here it comes).
“These are the happiest kids I’ve seen all day,” she says.
“What?” says I “Do you mean the most obnoxious kids you’ve seen all day?”
“No,” she says, “Most of the kids are crying by the time they get here, and these kids are happy. You must be having a good time.”
Well, that really made me think. It wasn’t really my idea of a good time, but the kids were indeed happy. There’s no rule that you have to be quiet in the store. It’s not a library or church. And the kids weren’t screaming, they were just having fun. And for being almost two hours past lunchtime and the second store we’d gone to, they were behaving extremely well. Nice checker lady even gave them all stickers for sitting down and buckling up in the cart!

So, nice checkout lady, THANK YOU. You’re kind words of encouragement really went a long way with one frazzled mom. You must really enjoy your job, and I appreciate you.

It’s no use reasoning with a two year old

Mom-What’s that, John?
John-My Komagachi. (It’s really a little calculator/organizer thing Cole bought at Disneyland)
Mom-Oh, a Tomagochi.
John-Yes.
Mom-Is that Cole’s?
John-No, it’s mine.
Mom-Where did you get it?
John-From Cole’s room.
Mom-Then it must be Cole’s.
John-No, it’s mine.

This could go on all day, so I’ll just quit. What Cole doesn’t know won’t hurt him, I guess.

Lagoon

john
We went to Lagoon on Tuesday. I won some passes back in June, but we couldn’t really go that day, so we decided on a week day (we’ve heard that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the least crowded). We got there about 10:50, and rides opened at 11:00. carsOh, the fun to be had at Lagoon. It’s no Disneyland, that’s for sure, but it really is fun. They’ve got a lot more kiddie rides now, than they used to when we were kids. Do you remember Bulgie the Whale? He’s still there. That was seriously my favorite ride!
bulgieThat explains alot about the thrill seeker I’ve grown into, I guess. I also loved these little boats, and I love seeing my kids ride them. It will be a sad sad day when they are too tall to ride any of these cute little rides. Megan is just at the point where she can barely just fit on the kiddie rides, yet still ride all the big kid rides.
boats
John had a great time, although he was deeply offended every time we told him he wasn’t big enough to ride a certain ride. Jenna and Mommy rode “the Bat” for the first time, and it was fun and not scary. Then we saw the flying aces. What fun! That used to be one of my favorite rides! So, we all got on (even John got to go), and went round and round. What was I thinking? Round and Round rides are the worst! I closed my eyes about 1/2 way through hoping to avoid the inevitable motion sickness that I knew was coming. What a wimp! When the long long yucky ride was finally over, Jenna wondered why our plane didn’t go sailing up and down like all the others, and I wondered if I was going to be able to climb out and walk over to the nearest bench without throwing up. Ugh. paigeWhat has happened to me that I can’t even ride the dumb flying aces? I sat there in a sickened stupor with Jenna and John while the brave and stupid ones went on the Rocket (both blast-off and re-entry), then we slowly made our way to something mellow–the skyride. girls

Cole and Megan just Had to go on Colossus, and while they did, Jenna started on the “I want to win a stuffed animal” whine. Well, I thought, we didn’t have to pay to get in, I guess we can waste a couple of bucks on a game. We chose the “throw the ring onto the bottle” game. I asked for 12 rings, which was $2. I gave the girl a $20. She had to go to several other carnies around to get change. We were not doing so well. John was chucking rings and they weren’t even getting to the bottle part. If I reached WAY over and my feet came up off the ground, I could retrieve his rings so he could throw them again (what? It’s not like he’s going to win anything). The guy running the other half of the booth came over and casually picked up a ring and put it on the bottle. “Did you just win one for us?” I asked him. He said that if she gave us a prize (a huge stuffed dino), then so be it. But when she came back she gave me back my $20 and said she couldn’t find anyone with change, so I couldn’t really make a big deal about the supposed prize that we hadn’t really won. But at least the kids got to play a game without really paying.

We had a great time, enjoyed Rattlesnake Rapids 3 times in a row in the heat of the day and then were thouroughly soaked for the rest of the evening. I think everybody got to ride every ride they wanted–with the exception of Dracula’s Castle and the Terror Ride. I know they are hokey, but I wanted to ride them. We just ran out of time, so we didn’t get to do it. It’s probably just as well, as certain little people would have thrown a fit and said how scared they were if we had made her (I mean them) got on it. We stayed until 10:00, when the park closed. A fun time was had by all. wet cole

*****

As an aside, lest you think that my life is all fun and roses, we had a “lovely” experience in the car today. I took the kids up to my parents’ house to put up a banner to welcome them home from their mission. Bicker, bicker, argue, complain in the car. Many instances of Paige turning around (well, reaching) to try to break up fights or tell those kids to BE QUIET! Finaly, I’d had it. John kept screaming. Jenna was teasing, then yelling when John would hit her. I said. I’m throwing this water on you if you keep on screaming, John. Well, more screaming, so I flicked the water bottle over my shoulder, getting John all wet. The screams turned to cries, as he was absolutely offended that I would get him wet. Even that wasn’t enough. I did it one more time before we got home, and then he got a 2 minute time out (in his car seat alone in the car) when we got home. How in the world do you keep your kids from screaming in the car? I can’t stand it!

The fun never ends around here

Saturday, after going to the Highland Fling Breakfast (pancakes, eggs and ham and cantelope in generous proportions for $1 each? Of course we’re going), we took the kids to see Brother Bear 2. What can I say about it, except that it’s a typical Disney Sequal. With the exception of Toy Story 2, all the sequals are not even 1/2 as good as the first one and usually go straight to video. But the kids really enjoyed it, and it was free. So, right away, I think, “Those are not the original voices for Koda and Kenai, which always bothers me. Can’t they at least get the same actors to voice the characters? ( I just looked up Brother Bear 1, and it was Joaquin Phoenix who played Kenai in the original. I didn’t know that! Maybe they couldn’t get him after he’s played Johnny Cash and all. Hmmmm) Anyway, the whole time I’m wondering who the voice of that bear is, and finally at the end, I read the credits, and it’s Dr. McDreamy! Had I known that Patrick Dempsey was playing the voice of Koda, I would have been a lot more impressed with the movie. Maybe paid a little more attention. Oh well. Your kids will really like it, if you ever decide to see it.

After the movie we came home and the kids had friend over, played outside, watched a movie we had recorded for them, and generally had a fun day NOT doing any jobs.

I made cookies, picked up the kids’ artwork from the city office building, read a book, and generally did NOT do very much productive. It was a great day.

After a dinner of leftovers, we all pitched in to clean up the kitchen (Hooray! Some help!) so we could go back to the city park and play and wait for the fireworks. Ryan bought his Kettle Corn and ice cream that he wanted. The kids played in the sand and playground, and I gabbed with the new neighbors. We had little glow sticks for all the kids. What a perfect evening.

At 10:00, we stretched out on our blanket and watched the greatest short fireworks show in Highland. It’s a whole bunch of good fireworks packed into a short show. About 20 minutes from start to finish, and no waiting around for the next fireworks. It’s a good one for kids, especially, so they don’t have to stay up really really long.

It was a great day–jam packed with fun, and there was very little grumpiness. Hooray!

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