My Boys

My boys are almost 5 years apart in age, but amazingly, they still hang out together--a lot. They light saber fight on the trampoline, play basketball or soccer in the front yard, wrestle, nerf gun fight, and shoot each other in video games. So while we're off enjoying Space Mountain and the California beaches, you can enjoy some pictures of my awesome boys.

Man Code Education

We were watching the Bachelorette on Monday night when one of the guys mentioned breaking 'man code'. I asked Zac to tell me some 'man code' and he only knew two rules. But then Alyssa wanted to know about whether bikinis or skimpy clothing was really a temptation to guys. (According to Zac, this depends on the girl.)

I sat in my chair, listening to this conversation, and it made me smile. Why? Because my kids feel comfortable enough with me and their siblings to talk about whatever comes to mind. There are no off-limits topics or ones that are met with condescending looks or immediate reproof. That is not to say that we are accepting of all things or inappropriate in our speech. My kids just feel okay bringing up any topic. I give them my opinion and guidance when needed, but for the most part we just enjoy being together.

I think we accomplished this in our family by what we did when the kids were younger. When we were in the 'preschool' phase, we were consistent in our discipline--the rules stayed the same every day of the week. The result is that now we very rarely have to discipline our kids other than an occasional attitude check or chore reminder. Instead of griping or nagging them all the time, we can just enjoy each other's company and 'hang out'.

We definitely haven't done everything right with our kids and definitely have some regrets about things I wish I had done better, but this one thing we got right. A lot of parents I know don't enjoy being around their kids. I'm glad we've transitioned from being the rule-makers to developing the friendships with our kids that will last the rest of our lives.

All cleaned up for Vacation

I'm taking a break from packing and laundry and cleaning and making lists of all the things I need to remember to do tomorrow before we leave for our vacation. Why is it so much work to go on vacation? I probably make it more complicated than it needs to be. To truly enjoy my vacation I need my house to be clean before I leave. Otherwise I spend the last 3 days of my vacation, stressing out about going home to a dirty house. Pathetic, I know.

We'll leave on Friday morning to fly to Houston where we'll meet up with Kevin's brother, aka Uncle Weve, then fly to Orange County, as in the OC baby! We've got big plans to ride everything in both Disney parks at least once, star stalk at the Land of the Lost Premiere at the Chinese Theatre, drive on the PCH, and for a little culture, go to the Getty Villa in Malibu.

One of the things on my to do list is to schedule a few posts for next week. You'll just have to come back to see if I actually get that done or not!

It's a holiday, supossedly

I would like to request a 'do-over' for my holiday weekend.

Reason #1: Kevin had to go out of town on Friday for a conference. He needed to meet with a guy who's going to be a guest speaker at our church in the fall and the only time they could get their schedules together was this weekend at Bike week (as in Harley) in Ridgecrest NC. He got home last night around 8:30.

Reason #2: Kevin had to leave again today for another conference in Dallas. He'll be back tomorrow night. So in 5 days I will have seen him for about 20 hours, 8 of which we were asleep.

Reason #3: The city of Broken Arrow felt the need to call me at 8 o'clock this morning to tell me they would not be picking up my trash. And while I appreciate this information, they had already called on Friday so I already knew this and would have assumed it anyway even without a phone call. I work Tues, Thurs. and Sat. On Mon., Wed., and Friday, I also get up at 6:30 to get everyone out the door on time. On Sunday, I get up to go to church. As you can see, this leaves no day of the week for me to sleep in. Today was my day and totally ruined by a stupid pre-recorded phone call that I didn't even want!

On the good side, I did manage to get the garage cleaned out. Found lots of mice poo and 7 gloves, only 2 of which actually go together. And, I can now locate a philips head screw driver in less than 30 seconds as opposed to the 30 minutes it took last week. Spending time looking for things that should be in their proper place sends my organized personality to the brink of a breakdown so getting the garage organized has probably saved me from a panic attack in the near future.

What you missed

Some how I managed to go a whole week without posting. I've been working tirelessly on my 'to do' list that has grown to novel status while my toe has been broken. There are still a few things I can't do, but it has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks and I'm almost to 'cute shoe' status.

Last Wednesday, I painted Kate's room purple then put her loft bed together that we bought in February. It's very tall so then we had to take the ceiling fan down. Currently, she doesn't have a light at all with the exception of the lamp she stole from the living room. Home depot is on my list for today.

Alyssa's recitals were this weekend. She did a marvelous job as always and as always I didn't get any good pictures. Something about the lighting, the motion, and the fact that I'm not allowed to use a flash challenges my photography skills. I get blurry photos with weird lighting every time and there's just no way to fix blur even in photoshop. This is one of my better shots of her doing "Swans" from Swan Lake.

Her professional pictures should be ready by the end of June.

Zac and Kate will be done with school on the 28th then we fly out to California the next day! Woo Hoo! We are all very excited about our trip and it can't seem to get here fast enough! Nate has been done with school for a couple of weeks and Alyssa is working on ACT prep. She's taking it for the first time in June so that she can take dual credit classes at the community college this fall.

I must get back to my list, but first I need to find out why Dora the Explorer is on tv in the living room when there are no children anywhere around.

Communicating with Teens

If you want the lines of communication to stay open with your teens, then you need to become proficient at texting--their preferred method of conveying information. It's still cool to text your mom since no one probably knows who they're texting but a conversation with mom is out of the question.

Katie and Zac went on a church choir trip to Kansas City this past weekend. Katie doesn't have a cell phone yet so I have to rely on Zac to provide me information about how the trip is going. Great. Here's our conversation on Saturday night:

Me: Are you having fun? We're at dance recital #2. I know you're sad you're missing it. (Notice my complete thoughts and correct grammar.)

Z: at the park

Me: Have you seen Kate at all?

Z: A little

Me: Are you capable of texting more than two words?

Z: I'm having lots of fun mother.

Me: Much better. Love you!

Z: K

If I had known...

There are some moments in life when I wish I could see into the future so I could plan things a little differently. If I had known in advance I was going to break my toe, there are definitely some things I would have taken care of before hand.

First, most important: Gotten a pedicure. The tidbits of nail polish on my toes is left over from January and looks hideous yet I'm forced to parade my feet in front of doctors and x-ray techs which causes me to cringe every time I pull off my sock. I think I can stand to actually touch it now so this issue will be resolved this week.

Second: I had plans to paint Katie's room the weekend I broke my toe. We were trying some sample paint colors in her room so for over 6 weeks, she has had a purple square and smiley face painted above her bed. I also had planned to have my kitchen painted by now, but the white walls are torturing and mocking me. I don't know how much longer I can take the boringness of it.

Third: I would have already done my cute spring shoe shopping. I feel like I've missed out on the big game for the Spring. By the time I can shoe shop, all the cutesy, fun, yet economical shoes will be gone. And, no I can't shop anyway with just trying them on my right foot. I have weird, skinny feet and one is longer than the other by about a 1/4 size.

Seriously, my toe is doing much better. I put on a tennis shoe this weekend for the first time and survived. I'm hoping in a few more days I can tolerate some ballet flats. I have to get into shape so I'll be ready to go see Mickey Mouse in a few more weeks!

Money Saver: Pest control

I used to pay 40 bucks every three months to have a pest control company come spray my house. Then I met someone who worked for Orkin and told me the ingredients to look for in a good bug spray so I could do it myself. I'm sorry to say I don't remember the exact ingredients, but I can tell you I've been using this stuff for several years and it works great.

You can get the larger bottle at Walmart for around $7 and it will last over a year. It works for indoors and out and seems to kill all sorts of bugs. We've lived in lots of places and every house seems to have its own bug issue. Our last house had ants everywhere--even in the pantry and our current house has big ugly spiders. I usually spray the baseboards and around the perimeter of the house in the spring and don't spray again the rest of year unless I notice the reappearance of the creepy crawlies. Savings over using a professional: $153/year!

Head Theories

Nathan wasn't feeling well on Thursday. Anytime a 9 yr. old boy volunteers to take a nap, you know something's not right. He seemed to feel the need to explain why he didn't feel good. He told Alyssa he hadn't cleaned his ears in a while so all that extra ear wax must be weighing his head down, making it feel heavy. The he told me that he hadn't gotten to bed on time in several days so his neck must be too tired to hold his head up and that's why he needed to lay down all day.

I think I need to teach him the phrase, 'I have a headache' and make life much simpler!