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The Trials of a Busy Mom

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

December 6, 2009 / / 1 Comment

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?

December 3, 2009 / / 8 Comments

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.

Vacation Reviews

November 28, 2009 / / 1 Comment

The joys of vacation! I’m sitting here in our hotel room with the BYU game on the tv, one child “driving” his cars around the room, and two kids playing spinner at the table.

I wanted to record some of the highlights of our vacation before I get back into real life, and forget. We spent a week in San Diego. We went to Lego Land for two days and Sea World for two days, and spent one day at the beach. The rest of the time has been mostly travel.

Hotels–First off, let me just mention how highly I recommend the La Jolla Shores Hotel It was beautiful! When we finally got there, (after a VERY LONG drive from Las Vegas through hours and hours of horrible traffic), we were tired and grumpy, and hoped we were in the right place. They took care of us, got my parents in their room, and us in our room quickly. When we came back a few minutes later to request two queens instead of a king (darn), they were nice and accommodating. It was a gorgeous hotel, right on the beach. They set up chairs and umbrellas for us on the beach when they asked us. They had a beautiful pool, and even ping pong. I felt like one of the beautiful people while we were staying there. Our room was free, from the package I won, but I wish I could stay there EVERY vacation. Usually we try to stay in the crummy hotels first, and end in the nice hotel last, but this time it didn’t work out that way. We walked to dinner one night, and enjoyed Jeff’s Burgers and frozen yogurt.

The other hotels were….fine.

Legoland was fun. We haven’t ever been there before, and while it is geared for the younger kids, even our teenagers had a good time. The first day we went it was just us and Grandma and Grandpa

Picture 145

Since the park closes at 5 (winter hours), we didn’t get to do everything, but highlights were the pirate land where we could ride in the boats and squirt each other. The kids also really liked the little boats where they can drive themselves around the pond.
My boat, however, was not going anywhere. I was with Jenna in our little yellow boat, and everyone was passing us, or bonking into us. She was telling me, “push on the GAS, mom!!!” like I don’t know how to drive a little boat. I had to call over a Legoland worker, who told me to push on the gas pedal. There is NO power to the boat, I tried to tell her. One of the girls there got to put on waders, get into the pond, and PUSH us the whole way around the pond. Then they let us go again in a different boat, one that worked.
Picture 164

The mini land is amazing, with all those lego buildings. And the HUGE animals out of legos just got me thinking, “If I were to build one of those, I wonder how much it would COST me,” I guess I just think like a mom.

We returned for our second day on Thursday, Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law, when she heard us talking about going to San Diego over Thanksgiving, wanted to come, and really wanted to do something very UN-Thanksgiving-like. She lost her mom this year, and it’s very hard to celebrate the holidays without her mom. So, we were happy to go to Lego Land on the holiday. We were hoping that it would be totally UNcrowded on Thanksgiving. That was not the case. It wasn’t completely crowded, but there were still plenty of people there, and plenty of waiting in line.

Oh, I’m not done expounding on our trip, but it looks like the game is getting exciting, so I should really watch the end, and I’ll blog more about the trip later.

–Oh, and you’ll have to excuse the many typos and the weird picture placement. I’m using the laptop with some dodgy internet connections, and things are pretty darn slow. I’ll do better next post, I promise!

Thank goodness it stays in Vegas

November 23, 2009 / / 2 Comments

Saturday night we spent in Las Vegas. It was quite the experience. I’ve been there with Ryan before and with friends, and last time we drove through with the kids, but we haven’t taken the kids on the strip before.
Picture 115
So there we were, with my kids and my parents. We started down by Treasure Island and made it all the way down to the Bellagio to see the water show.
Picture 134
We passed Caesar’s Palace. There’s so much to see, but most of it is not appropriate for kids. Every bus or taxi that goes by has scantily clad women, and there are still guys handing out flyers. Thankfully they avoid you when you are walking with kids. The highlight of the night, however, was seeing Donny.
Picture 137
We may even do a show together one day; The Donny and Paige show. Maybe the Paige and Donny show. We’ll have to see how it all plays out. First he’s got to win his Dancing show, and then we’ll talk.

Anyway…Then we came back, crossed over to the Venitian, and went inside to see the “outdoor” look of the shops there. By then, the kids were tired of walking, and we were all pretty much spent. We barely made it back to the parking garage without one or more of the kids collapsing into a tired heap.

In quite a contrast, Sunday morning we went to church in Las Vegas. Inside, it was pretty much like every other Mormon church, with the organ, the singing, and the people. We were welcomed, and asked if we were visiting, and we felt very much at home. I was glad to be there. I was grateful that we were able to take the sacrament and hear the speakers. It was nice to know that even in Las Vegas, only a few miles from the over the top consumerism and selfishness and glitz of the strip there were normal LDS people in church on Sunday, keeping the Sabbath day holy and trying to do what is right.

And you know, what happens in Vegas…

Don’t tell anyone, but…

November 20, 2009 / / 3 Comments

Can I just say that my husband is a freaking genius? Seriously. He can fix any computer, I think. The other night when I came home from rehearsal, he informed me that he had fixed our neighbor’s computer, (again) and that it was a blown capacitor, the same thing that was wrong with our fridge. And he didn’t even have to go to Radio Shack to buy one, he just took it from an old dead computer that he had laying around.

Not that he needs advertising, but he’s a genius when it comes to fixing computers. People bring him their old, run down, slow, virus infected computers, and he fixes, upgrades, cleans and repairs them. Often for free. He’s like the statue of liberty of old computers…”Give me your tired, your poor computers, your corrupted files yearning to be free…”

Yesterday he also fixed our little DVD/TV combo for the car. I’m pretty excited about that one, because who wants to drive 11-12 hours in the car with five kids with NO movies? Not me, I tell you. That man can fix about anything, I think. Which is wrong. He can’t fix everything, and he gets kind of ticked when I bring him something wonderful I found at a garage sale, or rather something that would be wonderful, if it just worked, and I expect him to be able to fix it. Then he reminds me that he can’t fix everything, and I should “stop buying crap at garage sales”.

Yes, he is amazing, but he also runs on his own time schedule. He doesn’t appreciate me trying to TELL him what he should be working on, and he doesn’t me trying to MAKE him work on a project he’s not ready to work on. Darn. But still, I DO think he’s pretty amazing. (Hi, honey! I’m giving you a little wave!)

Service with a smile

November 17, 2009 / / 4 Comments

I made dinner for a friend tonight. She’s exhausted and run down and emotionally spent after a difficult ordeal, so when I heard about it, I volunteered to bring in dinner. Usually when I take in dinner for someone in the ward, we do it in pairs, as a visiting teaching companionship. But my companion has been sick and is pregnant herself, so I didn’t try too hard to get ahold of her, I just figured I would do it myself.

Last night, while I was preparing dinner, I was watching Food Network (big mistake, I know) and we watched this recipe for Bacon wrapped Turkey Breast stuffed with pear hash. My children all sat with wide eyes glued to the television. “Bacon” they sighed. I had to admit it DID look good, so when I got the phone call later that night from this friend and told her I would bring her dinner, I thought of this recipe. After all, is there anybody out there who doesn’t love bacon?

This morning I went to the grocery store to buy turkey breasts so I could make that recipe. Did you know you can buy a WHOLE turkey for less money than you can buy two turkey breasts? Oh no I’m NOT going to pay $15 for two organic turkey breasts. I bought chicken instead. I came home, put away my groceries, and started on some rolls.

While I was mulling over what to do for dinner, the afternoon kind of got away from me. I was driving carpool pick up from both the high school and the junior high, as well as taking three kids to two different piano lesson locations, and each trip in the car seemed to take longer than it was supposed to. Megan also had her first footsall game, and I had to make sure she could get to that.

But I managed to pull off a pretty amazing dinner, even with all the LIFE that happens.

Bacon wrapped chicken breasts
Brown rice with veggies
Fresh hot homemade rolls
Apple bacon Green beans
Fruit salad

Luckily, I had made a big pan of mint brownies on Sunday, and had a little more than half of them already packaged up, so I took those to them for dessert.

mint brownies

(In all honesty, that’s not MY picture of mint brownies, I just found it on the internet, but really, they were that good.)

As I was trying to get everything done at the same time and package it all into disposable containers (or containers that I don’t really care if I get back), the kids started whining about how nobody ever brings US dinner, and why are we giving them ALL the rest of the mint brownies? I had to remind them that when we give service, we should always give the BEST to the person that we are serving. And I had to remind them that TWO of my friends brought in dinner just over a month ago when I had surgery, and that they were both very good meals, and included dessert. One of my daughters went so far as to suggest that her sister should break her leg again just so that people would bring us meals. Can you believe these kids?

I was quite proud of myself for a)making such a delicious dinner, and b) getting it all done and delivered while it was still hot. I made TONS of food, since they have a big family, and I had to have enough for us to eat, too. We sat down and ate dinner, and I must say it was delicious. Sure, I would have liked a nice mint brownie after the meal, but I can live without it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think that I may have used every single pan in the house, and I have to go and start doing the dishes. But I’ll do it with a warm heart, knowing that I made someone else’s day a little easier, and hopefully taught my family a tiny bit about service.

We are in unchartered territory

November 17, 2009 / / 4 Comments

We are getting ready for a trip to San Diego. Remember way back when all of you nice people took the time to vote for my cute kid picture?
Well, we’re going to take that trip. All told, that “free trip” will cost us quite a chunk of change. Because they give you a trip, but no tranportation, and only 3 nights hotel, and only passes for 4 and we’re a family of 7…. anyway, it should be really fun! We plan to go to Lego land and Sea World and the beach, and spend some fun time with family. Speaking of family, my parents are going, as well as my brother and his family are meeting us there for half of the week. So it’s turning into QUITE the production, and should be a blast.

But as I was thinking about it, I realized that we have a big time question. When you have a 6 year old, do you still take a stroller? I have never gone to an amusement park without a small child, so the stroller’s just been automatic. Even when we went to Disneyland two years ago we had a stroller. John can walk just fine, and did fine hiking all over Yellowstone without a stroller, but this is an amusement park. We’ll be at the park ALL day, and he may get tired and want to rest. But more importantly, where would I stash all of our stuff? Without a stroller, where do you put the water bottles, snacks, jackets, extra socks, more snacks, hats, sunscreen, drinks and all that stuff? A backpack? And who would have to carry that backpack? The mom. I don’t think so!

So, people with children who aren’t little any more, what do you do? Do you take a stroller anyway, just to haul all the stuff and the occasional tired child? Do you divvy up all the snacks and make everyone carry their own fanny pack or back pack? Do you leave stuff in the car and then go back to the car at lunchtime? Push a shopping cart? Please share your solutions.

the BEST lunch date EVER

November 16, 2009 / / 2 Comments

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.

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