The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: December 2009 (Page 2 of 3)

More adventures in shopping

Yesterday I took my children (all of them) Christmas shopping. And it was actually a good experience. Well, a mostly good experience. I mean, how good can it be taking five kids shopping? First we went to Deseret Industries, the local thrift store. I actually loaded up the bags and boxes that had been in the garage waiting to be taken to D.I., dropped them off first at the donation drive through, then took the masses into the store. I was specifically looking for BOOTS, since I can’t find the whole gosh darn box of boots. I’m getting tired of the kids going out to play in the snow in just their shoes and getting soaked down to their skin, then leaving wet shoes and socks scattered around the house. We seriously need to find that box of boots! Unfortunately, the selection of boots in pretty much nil, so we struck out there. The kids, however, had a great time finding presents (mostly stuffed animals) for each other. They all had cash in hand, since I had just paid them their allowance for the month, and they had a blast spending 50 cents or a dollar on presents for each other. Then they had to take turns sneaking up to the register and buying their purchases without the other kids seeing them. They had things stuffed in their jackets and all looked like some kind of shoplifters.

After that, we went to the mall. Yes, you heard me, the mall. I know I vowed to never take my children to the mall again, after our last horrific experience. But I couldn’t just leave the little one home alone, so he went with us. We had a little talk about the behavior I expected.

First, we went to Hallmark. With the coupons from magazines and this printable coupon here, we had 4 $5 coupons. I let the kids each take a coupon (well, except for Cole, who wasn’t buying anything in this store), and shop. Some of them needed a present for Mom, and I pointed out some suggestions of things that were just a little bit over $5. With the coupons, four of them were able to buy some nice little gifts for only a dollar or two. Score!

Then we had to go to Deseret Book and the game store. Much to our surprise, Deseret Book wasn’t there anymore, and in it’s place was Tai Pan Trading. Oooh! A store for mommy! The kids were getting tired by then, so we kept it short, not buying anything. I did let them go quickly into build a bear, but I wouldn’t let John go into the game store. That was where he turned into a horrible child last time we went to the mall, so we avoided that store.

All in all, it was a successful trip. The kids bought their gifts, and didn’t spend more than they had. And I didn’t lose my temper or my sanity. Hooray!

Yes, the human.

My 6 year old was looking around the office at some of the gifts I have laying around waiting to be wrapped (not for him, but for cousins, friends and people that don’t live in this house). Whose *** is that? (I won’t say the specific gift because I’d hate to ruin the surprise)
“That’s for Rachel,” I said.
“The human?” he said.
I looked puzzled for a minute, wondering what in the world he was talking about. Of course it’s for a human. OH, I see, the HUMAN Rachel, a cousin, as opposed to the TURTLE named Rachel that lives upstairs in Cole’s room. “Yes, John, the human.”

A mother’s prayer

John didn’t want to go to school this morning. We were rushed, and couldn’t find any gloves, and he thought he could just go to school wearing a hoodie and not a coat. “But that’s what Megan wears,” he said. Mom won on this one. It’s about 8 degrees out there, and he has to walk to the bus stop and wait, and I don’t want him freezing. He was grumpy, and I was short with him.

As I gave him a kiss and sent him out the door, I started to cry. I watched him walk to the bus with tears streaming down my face, and I’m not really sure why. I guess I’m just hit with the uncertainty of it all. I don’t know what’s going to happen to him for the next three hours. Is the bus driver going to drive safely, are his friends going to be nice to him, is his teacher going to welcome him with loving arms, or is she going to be having a bad day and may get irritated with all those noisy busy Kindergartners? Is he going to have someone to play with during recess, will he be warm enough? And I worried about my other kids, too. Are they going to be strong in the face of temptations? Are they going to be accepted for who they are? Or are they going to be sad during school today? I wanted to just tell him to come back, you don’t need to go to school today. Just stay home with me and play with your Star Wars guys and we’ll watch movies.

I just want to grab all my kids and give them a big huge hug and keep them safe, keep them warm, and keep them happy. We can stay home and drink hot chocolate and play games, not send them off to school where people could be mean to them, or misunderstand them.

Please, Heavenly Father, keep my children safe, keep them warm. Please watch over them when I cannot. Please help them to know they are loved.

Inappropriate Christmas gifts

Utah Cosmetic Surgery—Seriously? Your radio commercials say something like, “You’ve been taking care of everyone else, isn’t it time you did something for yourself for Christmas? How about a breast augmentation or that tummy tuck you’ve always wanted?” Give me a BREAK! Do you really think a boob job is an appropriate Christmas gift? Is that something YOU’D like for Christmas?

Or this one..

But it goes both ways, here…

Or maybe I should enter this contest, because THIS would be a great Christmas present as well.

So there you have it, folks. Lots of ideas for those “hard to buy for” loved ones. You’re welcome

Holiday wish list

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
Today’s Mama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
**A clean house (really–this would be enough)
**A cute new purse
**A new handmixer that doesn’t burn out every single time I use it. Seriously–I’ve gone through three hand mixers in the last 6 months. What is up with that?
**A new bowl for my Bosch. There was an incident. Need I say more?
**A healthy, happy family and kids that don’t fight ( I know, impossible on that last one, but a girl can dream can’t she?)
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
**My grandma made me several quilts when I was a kid, but my favorite was my camping quilt. It’s HUGE, and stuffed with not one, but two wool army blankets. It weighs a ton, but I love it.
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
**Aprons. I love those cute vintage aprons, and I had dreams of making them for all my friends
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
**My mom used to make a lot of our Christmas presents like pajamas and dresses. She also sewed stuffed animals. One year she made me a large stuffed dolphin. It was about 3 feet long and blue. I loved it. When my little sisters came downstairs to see the presents, one of them saw the big dolphin out and she said, “You got a SHARK!”
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
**Games, books, movies, webkins, littlest pet shops.
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
**Eggnog and candy cane ice cream (not together, of course).
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
**I bought fabric for aprons, but I’m not sure if I’ll get to it. This year I’ve made yoga mat bags for friends, and I might make a few more of those.
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
**It’s a wonderful life
9. Favorite holiday song?
**I love Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song”.
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
**eating cookies? Does that count as a pastime? Probably not. I love the whole week of Christmas concerts with the choir. I love making and decorating cookies with the kids, making the little gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, wrapping presents, decorating the house, the holiday parties, taking the kids to see Christmas lights, reading Christmas stories, even shopping! I love the holiday season!

If you want to answer this meme yourself, feel free to copy it.

“Raise your hand! Raise your hand! Stop Crying!”

On every vacation, there are just a few things that stand out. Little things that keep me laughing long after the vacation is over.

While at Lego Land, we were watching John and Jenna and Natalie drive their cute little lego cars around the driving school. Those cars don’t reverse, so if the kids get in a jam or hit each other, they are instructed to raise their hand and wait for someone to come and help them. Right in front of us, two little kids collided in their cars. The little guy couldn’t figure out how to back up and get going again, and he started to cry a little bit. His dad, a man from India with a nice Indian accent, was standing right by me, giving his son all kinds of instructions. But he was also getting frustrated when he yelled, “Raise your hand! Raise your hand! Stop crying!” It cracked me up so much, I had to walk away and tell Ryan.

Ryan has an unhealthy obsession with the churro. Once he smells a churro, I don’t think he can stop himself from buying one. Or two. Or sometimes three. He tells us they are for us “to share”, but I know he wants them all for himself. On this trip, he made it through the whole day at LegoLand without buying a churro. He talked about it, and he got close, but he resisted the urge. You really can get a churro anytime you want at the local Costco for $1, and at the park they are something like $3.50, so you KNOW where I stand on the subject. What did him in was when a French man walked by saying something about getting a (insert heavy French accent here) Schurrrrrro. Ryan gave in and bought 3 Churrrrros, since they were “on sale”. 3 for $7 or something like that.

In my observation, you can tell when it’s about 4:00 at an amusement park because that’s when the little people start to melt down. As I was making my way around, I overheard, “Daddy, let’s just go HOME!” That makes me laugh, since aren’t we all there trying to make our kids happy? I heard several children melting down around that time, and also witnessed more than one parent also melting down. Food, people. The secret is to keep feeding them the WHOLE day so they won’t melt down so badly when you are trying to squeeze in the last few rides of the day.

Later in the week, at Sea World, I was sitting waiting with John outside the Atlantis ride. John did not want to go on it, and everyone else did, so I was ok to sit out and wait. I had ridden it twice the other day, anyway. As I was sitting on a bench waiting, I realized that the couple sitting right next to me was speaking German. Ryan is really good about seeking out the Portuguese speakers from Brasil so that he can talk to them, thus practicing his second language. I’m not so good about it. Even when I hear someone speaking German, it’s usually just as they are walking by and I don’t want to jump right in. But they were sitting right next to me, and they were obviously waiting for someone, too. So, I manned up and said, “Sind Sie von Duetschland?” They instantly payed attention, turned to me surprised, and we started talking. My German is “nicht so gut” anymore, and I was rusty, but they were very sweet and told me I spoke “such good German”. I even told them that I had been a missionary for the Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der letzten Tage when they asked what I had been doing in Germany. “Oh, Mormonen?” they said. I enjoyed talking with them for 5-10 minutes until my brother and the rest of the family came. I was proud of myself that I hadn’t just been chicken and sat there silent.

We had some ticket trouble on this trip. Since we had four comp tickets with the prize that I won, that meant we had to buy three more tickets for us, and then two ticket for my mom and dad for both Sea World and Lego land. We bought the tickets through Scott’s employee discount something. The Legoland tickets were mailed to us, but my mom printed the SeaWorld tickets from her email. When we got to the ticket booth of SeaWorld, the printed tickets didn’t work and we had to spend 20 minutes or so waiting at the guest services window to get things sorted out. They were also running a promotion that if you buy a one day ticket, you get to come back another day free. But it didn’t work for the comp tickets because we didn’t “buy” them. So they gave us second day tickets for all but those four. Funny thing, but we had a lot of volunteers to stay home from the second day of SeaWorld. Ryan had a presentation to work on, and he hadn’t done hardly any work on it. My parents offered to let us use their tickets, and they would go to Old Towne or do other things instead of going, and I was certainly willing to stay home, but that would leave Scott and Lori-Kay with ALL nine kids, so that wouldn’t be quite fair, would it? So, we took my parent’s tickets, and when scanned, they said “welcome back Eugene” on the screen when Megan scanned the ticket. But no one cared. Somehow John’s ticket hadn’t been scanned or something, so he was able to use that ticket again and we all got in fine.

At LegoLand we had similar issues about our tickets. They are also running a promo that you can buy one ticket and come back another day. It says right on the ticket that the second day must be used within 90 days of the first. So, after our first day, we checked at guest services to see what we had to do to use these tickets for another day. The guy gave my dad his two tickets, but then when looking at my tickets, told me that three of these tickets weren’t valid for the extra day ticket (why three and not four, I don’t know), but he would give me comp tickets for the Sea Adventure or something like that. But we could still come back within 90 days on the ones we had paid for. What? It all worked out, somehow. Even though that guy at the guest services did his best to confuse me.

In order to save money, we didn’t buy lunch at any of the parks. What with a single hamburger costing about $8, feeding a family of 7 can really KILL any kind of budget. So, we made our own breakfast when the hotel didn’t have free breakfast. We brought lots of snacks and lunch type things, and stopped at a grocery store halfway through the week to replenish, but by Friday we were down to the last few pitiful snacks. I made sandwiches out of the last of our bread, but we had the choice of cheese (just cheese–no ham. But we did still have mayo and lettuce) or peanut butter (no jam or jelly). I packed up some sandwiches, threw in the last of our granola bars and apples and capri sun, and off we went. Unfortunately, I just put everything in one bag and stuck it under the stroller instead of divvying it all out in their individual fanny packs. When we went through security, they said, “You can’t take those sandwiches into the park.” What the what? “You’re actually not supposed to take food in at all,” she said. I felt like saying, “If you knew the caliber of these sandwiches, you wouldn’t even care,” but I didn’t. I offered to throw out the sandwiches, and she said, “oh, I’ll let you take them this time.” like I was some kind of sandwich toting criminal.

We did luck out on a couple of dinners, though. Monday night, we chose to eat at TGIFridays, and a sign on the door said that kids eat free with a paying adult. Since we had my parents there, that made 5 adult meals, and four kids’ meals. ALL the kids meals were FREE! I jokes with my parents that now the truth was out about why we invite them along–to drive our kids in their car and to help us pay less for dinner. Those are definitely perks. The restaurant right next to our hotel also had a “kids eat free” special, and then in St. George we were eating at the Denny’s, and our bill came to something like $30. What? Kids eat free on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and it was Saturday! Score!

Wow-sorry this post got so long. If you made it through to the end, I commend you. And I promise, next post will NOT be about our vacation.

Would you like a side of Drama with those jeans?

If you are anything like me, even though you may have 5 or 6 pairs of jeans in the closet, you really only have one pair of jeans. The jeans that actually fit right. They don’t pinch, squeeze, or gap. They’re the perfect length, they aren’t cut too low, they feel fine every time you wear them, and you are comfortable in those jeans. I know it takes a while to get them that way. They probably weren’t perfect the first time you wore them, but they were close. And after several wearings, they fit just right.

So, while I don’t wear the jeans every single day, now that it’s colder and the wearing of capri pants is not practical, I wear those jeans about 4 times a week. Is that wrong? Should I be branching out more and wearing other types of pants?

However happy I am in my relationship with my jeans, there comes a time in every pair of jeans’ life when the “Go-to” jeans become the “up and went” jeans. They eventually wear out. -sigh- In my case, I developed some bare places where bare places shouldn’t be. I had to admit that the jeans were just too worn out to wear anymore.

Then I was faced with a dilemma. What to wear? And do I go out and shop for another pair? Ugh. Not jeans shopping. While not quite as ridiculous and painful as swimsuit shopping, jeans shopping can also be embarrassing, time consuming, and pricey. And even then, a pair of jeans may look and feel ok in the store’s dressing room, but when you get them home and introduce them to your other clothes, they just don’t behave. They gape in areas where they should hug, or they’re not quite as long as you thought they were, or they’re just too darn tight. It’s like you’re adopting a pet. The jeans must act all nice and obedient while in the store to convince you to take them home and away from that dark and lonely place that is the store, but once they get out, all bets are off. Plus, who has the TIME or the MONEY right now?

I admit I’m totally not a designer jeans girl. I’ve never spent over $50 for a pair of jeans, and I’d to keep it that way. I don’t get how they can charge hundreds of dollars for a pair of jeans. I mean, maybe I would get that super great fitting pair if I was willing to fork out half of my mortgage payment for a pair of jeans, but that’s not gonna happen. I’m going to buy them on sale, or with a coupon code, probably from Coldwater creek or my favorite store, Kohl’s. Don’t look down your nose at me, but that’s how it is. Maybe if I had a great body so that the jeans would actually look hot, but really, even with a great pair of jeans, I’m still going to be chubby.

And what’s up with all these different “rises”? By “low rise” they mean that these jeans will give you a plumber’s crack even before you bend over. Mid rise should be just about right, and high rise would be Mom jeans, I would guess. I can’t figure it out. I put on a pair of mid or high rise jeans and I still feel like I’m going to be pulling on the jeans all day to make sure they stay up.

Jeansless, I headed to the closet to see what else I could wear. I pulled out a few pairs of jeans to try. Let’s see, there’s the pair that fits but is obviously too short, and every time I sit down I’m painfully aware that everyone can tell if I shaved my legs or not. Denied. There’s the pair that fits pretty well, but it’s got a flower pattern on it that was started out gold, but now looks as if I was standing by the side of the road when a big truck drove by and splattered me with mud (kind of like in the movie “How to lose a guy in 10 days” with hunky Matthew McConaughey). Denied (I’m feeling very Suze Orman here). There’s the pair that has flower applique down the leg. Is applique in? Out? I don’t know, but when I wear those jeans I feel a little self conscious, like “Hey, look at me! I’m wearing my fancy jeans!” And I just don’t want to draw any undo attention to myself today. Denied. There’s the WAY cute pair that will look FABULOUS of me when I lose 10 or more pounds, but at today’s weight, they are most likely unzipable. Denied. There’s the other cute pair that are long enough and fabulous if I lose just 5 pounds, and I could wear them today if I weren’t planning on sitting down. They do “stretch”, right? But today, right after Thanksgiving, is not the time to try to pull that one off. Denied. There’s the pair of Khakis that fits fine and is long enough, but they are actually too long, and I feel kind of like puddle pants when I wear them. They need to be hemmed. Not feeling like hemming or wearing heels today, so they are denied. I found a pair of black pants that looked like a possibility. I put them on, and realized that while they did indeed fit, they were tapered leg, making me look OH SO HIPPY. How old ARE these things? I wonder to myself. I don’t buy tapered leg anything anymore. So Denied they go straight in the “donate” box.

What’s a gal to do?

Once again, I’m reminded why it would be so much easier to be a guy. Guys don’t have issues with their jeans. In fact, half of the time, they don’t even try them on. They just pick their waist size, and the length they want–Boom. Done. My husband doesn’t even buy his own jeans. Never. He hates shopping. He just asks me to get him a couple of pairs of jeans now and then. He likes the $13 jeans from Costco. Seriously. I tried to fancy him up last month, and bought him some Calvin Klein jeans. Still from Costco, but just a little nicer jean. He FINALLY tried them on, and said he doesn’t like them, and would I please just get the regular kind. Oh, well, if you want to keep on wearing the budget jeans from Costco, I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Way in the back of the closet I found a pair of jeans I didn’t remember. Hmmm. Whatever. I’ll try them on, I thought. I put them on, and they fit pretty well. They seem to be long enough, but not TOO long. Not too loose. Tight enough, but not TOO tight (Oh, who am I kidding? It’s just after Thanksgiving, of course they’re too tight, but not unbearably tight.) I can sit down in them. I think these might just work. I looked at the tag again, and they are Old Navy “curvy” jeans. I don’t know when the last time I was actually in an Old Navy store, and I don’t remember buying them. And what’s with the “curvy”? Is that a nice way to say fat? At this point, I just don’t care. I pull on the jeans. They are a little bit low in the back for my taste, but with a long shade shirt, I’ll be fine.

I wore the jeans. All day. While not as comfy as my last pair, I may have found a suitable substitute for the time being. And if some kind soul wants to volunteer to find me the perfect pair of jeans, I wouldn’t turn them away.

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