07.20.08
I broke the blog
I’m tinkering with the blog layout and keep breaking it. 
*sigh* So if something’s missing or looks weird, just ignore it for now. Still working on it.
07.18.08
more with the busy.
It’s been another busy week here at our house.
Saturday we left the kids with my parents and drove to CS to attend the Studio of J Reunion party. We got to CS, went to Specs & Half Price Books and had dinner with Steph & Michael at Freebirds. Then we hit the party. We stayed out until nearly 3am, which is some kind of record for us. Had a fabulous time! 
I neglected to take any photos, but there were others there with cameras and I’m sure they’ll eventually post something I can point to.
Sunday I couldn’t sleep past 8am, but Nick slept til nearly 11. We went to La Bodega for lunch with Steph and Michael, where I had the saltiest soup on the planet (and I love salt, but this was too much). Drove back home and collected the children & hung out around the house.
Monday we had a playdate with Ben’s girlfriend/fiancee ZW. They’re so cute! We started out at DSP, then hit Wendy’s for lunch before going to the library for a kids movie. Then it was off to the marathon of swimming lessons.
Tuesday the kids went to MDO. David’s group had a field trip to the planetarium. I went over to my newish friend CB’s house to scrapbook. Her kids were there (and hovering) but a good time was had by all. I picked up the kids and headed off for yet more swimming lessons. Nick’s dad came and picked up Ben for his slumber party with his cousins (which he didn’t want to go to, sadly). The rest of us went home and then I took Greg back out later for his swim lesson.
Wednesday we had a sad day without Ben. Greg missed him and so did I. We made blueberry muffins from scratch (blueberries we’d picked & a recipe from The Baking Book). We went to the library (all our friends were there) and were invited over to swim at someone’s neighborhood pool. So off we went to swim outside. Our sunscreen once again failed us. We headed from there to another marathon of swim lessons. Ben was dropped back off with us during those and we happily went home and snuggled him to bits.
Thursday was declared “stay home and clean” day. We did some of that, made orange bread (from a random online recipe–but it was so good) hit swim lessons again (David is finally done with his lessons–he finished Level one, to his dismay, as he wanted to finish both one and two–I’m relieved because it means that next year I can have David & Ben in the same class), then headed out to BB’s house after having her call and plead with us to rescue her from day-3-of-no-husband-and-no-adult-interaction. We played on her giant inflatable slide/swimming pool for several hours & picked 6 lbs of figs off her tree before coming home and collapsing.
Today we cleaned some more before having LH & GH over for a playdate here. They, of course, wanted to watch a movie this time (last time they came over was for a movie “night” in which no one wanted to watch a movie). *sigh* We made them play because we are “M-E-A-N mean.” LH’s mother was amazed that Ben can not only write his name, but his friends names and family names and whatever else he thinks he can spell (although more often than not his spellings are really funny). I tried to explain that I had nothing to do with his skill or interest in writing, but I can tell she thought we were forcing him to write all the time (we’re not–he just loves to write, in the same way that David loves to do math. We just can’t explain it.) Then we cleaned up again and did some laundry & grocery shopping.
That’s it. Next week will be nearly as busy. David has golf camp for four days (Nick’s brother hooked him up). Ben & Greg still have swim lessons two days a week apiece. We have a couple playdates planned. Yada yada hippity hop.
07.11.08
Change of plans
I was going to spend tomorrow morning clearing out my garage, but instead Nick and I will be driving down to CS by ourselves to go to the Studio of J Reunion Party! I’m very excited. My parents offered to stay here and watch the kids, so we get to do the weekend by ourselves. I’m wanting to leave here in time to go to Half Price and Freebirds and am hoping to stay long enough to eat at La Bodega for breakfast. Woo hoo!
07.10.08
Pictures
I\’ve finally finished labeling and uploading pictures. Well, sort of. I labeled things of importance and eventually ran out of steam and uploaded pictures anyways.
Click on the links below for the various sets:
07.07.08
and then there were projects
Now that we’re post-one-week-long-adventures and firmly into several-hours-a-day-at-swimming-lessons territory, I’ve decided to work on some projects around the house. In no particular order, they are:
1. Attempting to unstick all the stuck together photos from 2001-2005. They’re not stuck in one great big pile, thankfully, but thoughtfully broken down into monthly increments. 2001 & 2002 are hopeless, but I’d scrapbooked those years for David already. 2003 looks a bit more hopeful, with mostly the bottom third of every photo stuck together. 2004 is pretty well unstuck. 2005 didn’t have a lot in it anyways. (Why am I bothering to unstick them? Most of them are labeled with info I’ve since forgotten. I can read most of the labels and see quite a lot of the pictures, so I’m thinking they can be salvaged.) Things I’ve learned so far: a. photos printed at home do not in any way have the quality that photo lab produced photos do. b. You can slide a stuck-together-stack of officially produced portraits into a bowl of water and 20 minutes later you will have several individual portraits which are still perfectly good once dried & ironed. c. Kids really love trying to pry pictures apart.
2. Preparing to move David into his own room. This involves: a. Switching Greg into his car bed. b. Finding the instructions on how to deconstruct the bunk beds (Yes, the man that made the bunk beds gave us an instruction sheet. He is made of awesome.) c. Figuring out just which toys belong to which boy. d. Figuring out where to put all the stuff that’s currently in the nursery closet. e. Deciding if we want to repaint the room David is moving into. We’re not doing the switch until mid-August, so we’ve got some time to do all this.
3. Scrapbooking. I haven’t done anything in the last year, which means that I’m basically two years behind. David’s scrapbook is stuck in January 2004, with occasional bits of 2005 & 2006 thrown in. Ben’s is finished through 2004, with two pages of 2006 thrown in. Gregory’s is finished through Thanksgiving of 2006, leaving him 1.5 months old forever. Yeah, that pile of stuck-together photos was really important. My plan at this point is to have the photo place print out a small stack of photos once a week and spend my Saturday afternoons working on the books. I’m very even-handed with the kids, so each kid ends up with two pages every week. Which means I’ll be caught up sometime in 2019. I’ve gotten to the point that I’m not going for frilly or arty or creative, I’m just going for DONE.
4. I’ve got a bunch of books on my to-be-read pile that I haven’t gotten to, since I’m frequently distracted by newly released bits of series I’ve been reading. I’m getting to those books, I promise. I also have a stack of books that “if I don’t read these by summers-end they are going to be sold back” that I have had for probably ten years now. I also have a bunch of books-that-I’ve-read to put up on Good Reads, which I plan to do today.
5. General reorganizing of stuff. I don’t know why, but it’s harder to stay organized in the summer. *sigh* I’m redoing the bookshelves, as I’ve got three boxes of paperbacks coming in (my m-i-l is getting rid of all her paperbacks. All. So I’m going through them before she takes them to sell back. The first three boxes arrive today.) and I’ve noticed a shift in the shelves again. I think I’m going to need to buy another bookshelf (maybe I can stick all the YA stuff in David’s room. Yeah. That’s the answer. 
) Since I have to redo two closets for the room change next month, I’m tackling the other closets as well. Woo-hoo.
6. The garage. I must make a big path through to get to the car bed, so I may as well organize the rest while I’m at it. I’m hoping to do that this Saturday morning. My parents will be in town and I’m either going to a) talk them into watching the kids over here or b) I’m dumping the kids over there. Nick will be around to watch them as well, but I will need him in the garage from time to time to tell me that yes, we can finally ditch that box that we haven’t opened once in the ten years we’ve been married.
7. There’s a story brewing in the back of my mind, once again.
8. Portraits: We had pictures made just before our trip and they’ve come back now. Here’re pictures of the portraits (my scanner, eet ees dead). I need to know who wants some, which ones they want, and what sizes. I will try to accomodate your choices. Either email me at awamiba at gmail dot com or comment here with your requests.
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#5
07.05.08
do dee do dee doooo
I’m still here. Labeling the vacation pictures, doing the July 4th stuff, cleaning the house, etc. I’m just not feeling very talkative. Sometime in the next few days I’ll post all the pictures. Oh yes. There will be many pictures.
07.02.08
blogging vacation
I seem to have taken a blogging vacation. I didn’t mean to. Here’s what happened: cub scout camp followed by VBS followed by a week of actual vacation. Oh, you want details? Here’s what I remember (not much):
Pirate Cub Scout Camp: Chaos, with a side of boys. It was the organizers first year of having a boy at camp. ‘Nuf said, really. I told them I would work one day, got cajoled into working two, then ended up doing a half a day at the end as well (Nick went up for the other half of that day). David had a blast though. He got to tell all his friends that his mommy knew how to sword fight and I got to lead that for a while (the lady running that segment was late). There was boat-making and boat racing (in rain gutters). He got to run all over the local junior college campus. It was all fun for him!
Outrigger Island VBS: On the last day of Pirate camp, I went straight from there to set-up for VBS (hence working a half day at pirate camp). Then I helped run crafts for the elementary aged kids. This involved getting there on time to drop my kids off, walking over to see if my building was open, going back to the main building for the key, going back to my building to unlock the door, going back to the main building to drop off the key, helping set up, going to the main building for the worship rally & to eat some breakfast, then back over to my building to help kids do art, reset the whole thing, help kids do art, reset the whole thing, help kids do art, reset the whole thing, help kids do art, then clean up the whole mess, and finally pick up my kids and take them home. Pros: free breakfast! didn’t have to pay attention to the same three kids all morning long, got to talk to adults Cons: had to take my own hyper kids home afterwards & feed & entertain them (and oh, were they hyper).
Williamsburg trip (the really really quick version): On the last day of VBS, we went straight away to do a family picture (for the first time in several years), then drove to Nick’s parents house for a family dinner. We spent the night there and left the next morning, leaving the kids behind. We stopped in Texarkana to go to church, then continued onward until we hit our hotel around 10pm.. The morning of the second day we spent having breakfast with some friends in Knoxville, TN. We made it to Williamsburg early enough to go grocery shopping. Day three we spent split between the Jamestown Settlement (re-enactors; I thought it was awesome) and Historic Jamestown (the actual place; I was disappointed). Day four we spent split between Yorktown Battlefield (one really boring tour guide plus one really good tour guide) and the Yorktown Victory Center (re-enactors again; also awesome). Days five and six we spent in Colonial Williamsburg; it was mind-numbingly wonderful (all that history starts blurring together for me after a while). Day Seven we drove to Norfolk to see the USS Wisconsin. Days 8 & 9 we drove back to Texas. (If you’d like a longer, more detailed version, let me know. I journaled it by hand, as there was no internet there, so I’d have to type it up. Please comment if you’d like more info.)
Home again: the kids got home a couple hours after we did and it’s been “mama mama mama” all week since then. Monday we went on a walk/electric jeep/ bike ride & did massive grocery shopping & some laundry & I played with them for hours. Tuesday we went on a walk/electric jeep/ tractor ride & the kids went to MDO while I chose & got my pictures developed (I only had 167 made out of 324 taken last week). I did yet more laundry and started in on figuring out how many scrapbook pages I’d need for my pictures (20 sheets spread out over 6 layouts). Then we played outside & cleaned the trampoline & went fireworks shopping.
There, that’s it. Doesn’t quite make up for three weeks of silence, does it?
06.12.08
on the news…
If you happen to live in my area, tonight on ch. 7 news, at least one of my kids may be on in the story about the boy scouts.
(My kids have been on the news or in the paper a lot lately. I forgot to mention it the last few times, but they got on the news at the park a couple weeks ago and were in the newspaper a few weeks before that.)
06.10.08
Summer plans…
I can’t remember if I posted here about our summer plans. This week is cub scout day camp, which lasts every day from 8:30a-2:30pm. It has a pirate theme this year. I worked the first day and it was insane. I don’t know why I expected otherwise. David is loving it, though, and that’s what matters, right? (I was so exhausted after working one day that I had to take all day today to rest. Seriously. I am just now getting anything useful done. The kids have watched TV & played games all day. And I still have one more day to work.)
Next week is VBS. It has an island theme. I’m one of the craft ladies for the 1st-5th grader rotation. I’m actually really excited about it. I’m not in charge of anything; I just get to help kids do stuff.
The week after that the kids are staying with their Nana & Pa while Nick and I go to Williamsburg. It’s our 10th anniversary trip (although our anniversary is not until August). We are so excited about it!
In July the kids are doing swim lessons. David goes 4 days a week for two weeks while the younger two go two days a week for 4 weeks. There’s a one hour layover between lesson times four of those days (I think I’ve counted that right) and I’ll be entertaining at least two kids per lesson time while the third one swims. It is a nightmare of scheduling, but it was the only thing available at a decent price (and no, I don’t consider paying $500 for the family for the summer decent).
In August, we are blissfully doing nothing other than two days of MDO (the first two Tuesdays of the month). Woo-hoo!
1930’s wife meme
I took the test for me and got:
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80 As a 1930s wife, I am |
…and then I took the husband test for Nick and he got:
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149 As a 1930s husband, I am |
06.08.08
Kate & Nathan’s Wedding
Yesterday we got woken up early by a medium sized boy around 5:15am, but managed to stay in bed until not-quite-6am (no more sleeping, just snuggling the wiggly one). Got up, kept kids busy, then had blueberry pancakes–which the kids did not like, even though they liked the blueberries alone and the pancakes alone. Packed up kid stuff, packed up our stuff. I actually curled my hair for the first time in several years; the kids said I looked like that scene from Beauty & the Beast where the Beast curls his fur. Yeah, delightful. We took the kids to Nick’s parents house, I showed Nick’s mom how to use her camera, I discovered my camera wasn’t with me, but I used the one I’d passed on to David instead. Took off for DFW.
Got to DFW, ate lunch at The Great Outdoors (which wasn’t as good as we’d remembered it, plus they had new menu boards), and changed clothes there. Got to the wedding really early and I made Nick wait in the car with me because we were there as Kate & the dress were going inside. Eventually we went in and I played with people’s babies. Got to catch up with a bunch of people. The wedding itself was a traditional Catholic service (although someone mentioned that it actually was slightly shortened–it still lasted about an hour or so). Everyone looked lovely and there were no weirdnesses.
Got to the reception: there was a Bounce House! There was cake cutting with a WWI sword! There was “The Night Santa Went Crazy!” There was talk of leaving Nathan at the altar (”I was kneeling there and thinking ‘We haven’t said the vows yet–I could still run!’”)! There was talk of the first dance being “Breaking up is hard to do” (but someone switched the music to something else)! It was a lovely reception: It was outside, but pleasantly shaded & full of cool drinks. Parents danced with babies. The wedding couple bounced in the bounce house together. I got to talk to lots of people I don’t see often enough.
We left around 6:45. I was starting to get extremely painful knees & ankles & shoulders (when will my meds get here?!) and after that I would have been too cranky for anyone to enjoy themselves near me. We stopped by the liquor store on the way out of town to get some 1998 wine for our anniversary (no place near us has that in their selection). We lamented in the car about how annoying it is to live so far from people we like so much. Got home around 10 & collapsed in a puddle on the couch.
We had a great time though. It was so much fun! Photo set here.
06.06.08
too busy to think
Slightly less cranky now, so here’s how the week went:
Monday: First time at Sprayground. Some of my friends can wear bikinis. It’s disturbing. Greg loved the sprayground…and picked up two new girlfriends there–soo cute. Followed each other around looking all googly eyed. Ben refused to get wet for the first 45 minutes. That was not fun. Eventually they all played and were happy. After school I picked up David and we all went with the cub scouts to tour the TV station and to watch the evening broadcast. That was…both interesting and nerve racking, as boys are naturally noisy and news broadcasts are naturally quiet. I ordered pizza for dinner, as the hamburger was a) still frozen and b) at the bottom of the chest freezer (which would have required me to actually climb inside to get it).
Tuesday: Greg’s last day at MDO before the break. Awards ceremony at David’s school; he gets a citizenship award. Another mom and I ask about the party for the last day of school & find out no one planned one, so we plan one. After school David finally gets to have a playdate at his friends house. Afterwards we learn that the kid took out his BB gun and showed it to David without permission. Lucky for us, both kids had been trained in gun safety and no one loaded it or aimed it at people. Still, scared me to bits to hear about. In the evening, I head out to a town 25 minutes away to do cub scout day camp volunteer training. Find out that there are way fewer volunteers than needed and I might have to be a den leader, which requires more training than I have and more supplies that I’d have to pay for and bring with. Also, I’ll need to wear a staff t-shirt, but they didn’t order me one because I’m only working half the camp, but I’ll still need to wear one. (Yeah, explain how that’s going to work. Really.)
Wednesday: David’s last day of school. Have Ben & Greg’s friends over for a “movie night” playdate during the day, complete with darkened room, popcorn, and strawed drinks. Then run around getting party supplies & finishing up David’s teacher gift. Go up to school for party & help out. In the evening, trade out outdoor tables with my mom (which requires more work than you’d think). Afterwards sit on couch crying because my feet & knees hurt so bad from all the standing and moving things around.
Thursday: Ben’s last day of MDO before break. David is out of school, Greg is out of school. Run around getting stuff together for Ben’s party & teacher gift. Go up to help with party, only to find out they decided to do it during/after lunch time. Argh.
Friday: Get up, take kids directly to berry farm to pick blueberries. It’s the perfect day for it: cool, breezy, overcast. Pick 5 pounds of blueberries (Greg probably ate a pound more himself while picking). Start to get kids in car; kids protest they want to pick blackberries, too. Get out of car, start picking blackberries. It gets bright & sunny & hot. Kids complain. Leave and go to Chik-fil-a, but by then they’re not serving breakfast anymore. So we use our gift card on lunch (gift card David got for knowing all the books of the Bible in order, plus their correct divisions–even I can’t do that) instead. Get home & Nick suggests we go to the recycling center & DSP. By the time we get back out of the house, there’s not much time left for all of that, as Nick has to go donate platelets. We hit the recycling center and by then we have two sleeping boys. Drive over to DSP, where I sit with one sleeping boy until Nick has to leave and then I go in to watch boys for another hour. They had found friends there, so I hung out with the other kids grandma–who was not the watch-the-kids type– while their dad took one kid out for a nosebleed. Eventually went home and collapsed.
cranky Lisa
I’ve been cranky for a few weeks now. Pretty much constantly.
Things that are making me cranky:
-people that cancel things at the last minute
-people that don’t cancel things, but instead bring extra people along
-people that don’t give me all the information about stuff up front (this covers a mulitude of events)
-children that talk way too much and too often
-children that pout and throw things and are crankier than I am
-being too busy to clean my house or file my paperwork
-feeling like a freak because I don’t want to be too busy
-summer. i hate summer. that’s another list in and of itself.
-windows vista and the neverending request for confirmation
-my sister and her inability to figure out how money works
-my parents and their neverending “second chance” for my sister
-the fact that I never get a second chance for anything
-my husband being unreasonably healthy. (I know that should be a good thing, but I hate being the one that’s always unwell)
-people who believe that I should act like a normal, healthy person, despite knowing the truth about my health
-unorganized organizations
-constantly being the one who volunteers to help (where are all the other parents out there? apparently half of my school zone is being raised by their grandparents & aunts & uncles & strangers–all of whom don’t volunteer.)
-children “helping clean” for five minutes before destroying another part of the house while I finish up
-the fact that the world is too dangerous for damn near anyone to be happy. i hate the world. hate.
-vista, part two: nothing I own is compatible with it. not that I had a choice in the matter. you can’t buy xp anywhere in town anymore.
-I am just as busy in the summer, if not busier than the rest of the year.
-no one will leave me alone for more than two minutes.
-the smallest boychild can work all the doorknobs and drawers and cupboards now.
-the kids room is never, ever clean. I could throw away all their stuff and they’d still somehow clutter it up with something.
-I have 9,000 magazines to read and I feel guilty if I take time to read them.
-I thought that making a “what’s making me cranky” list would make me less cranky and it’s not.
05.30.08
…and over and over and over….
Gregory update: He’s not only learned how to climb into his crib, but also out of it. He can open the childproof cabinets & childproof drug lids & regular door handles. He can climb up almost on top of the fridge (not quite) and can climb up the side of the washer and look in. He can turn on the bathtub & climb in, too. He climbs into the bathroom sink and washes his hands, puts on lotion, and brushes his teeth. He puts the potty seat on the toilet and sits on it (naked–he can take his clothes off, too), shoving handfuls of toilet paper in the bowl (we’ve put a child-safety lock on the door & now no one can get in unassisted). He starts the dishwasher whenever he feels like it (not anymore though; it’s locked!) and calls people on my phones speed dial (David has also been calling people randomly lately). So if you get a phone call with either a) heavy breathing or b)chipmunk sounds—that’s Greg. He’s colored himself four different times in the last week because he can get into the craft shelves by way of pulling a chair over to the dryer and climbing on top of it. He hates the sand in the sand box and has been carrying it out, shovelful by shovelful.
***
I feel like life is flying by too fast lately. We’ve continued to read The Phantom Tollbooth and done little activities to go with it. The kids want to make Tock, the Watchdog sometime soon, which sounds fun & destructive. We didn’t do any playdates this week (thank God, actually), but I got to go out to dinner and stay out late with my friends on Tuesday, which was tons of fun. I don’t post enough about the adult fun, I guess. Wednesday night Nick was supposed to go out, but valiantly stayed home with me since I was having an extremely trying day (day one of three). *sigh* This afternoon we’re driving down to CS, but have decided to finally stop at the really cool Indian Mounds that we usually just pass by. I’m excited about that! Tomorrow we’re going swimming for the first time this year (baby pools don’t really count, do they?) and hopefully I’ll get to see Steph at some point (lunch on Sunday, maybe?)
