Embracing The Chaos...or trying to

Genius Birthday Idea

embracingthechaos — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:38:38 +0000

Sage’s birthday is coming up in September. She is already planning. Every time she watches Qubo (TV station that has infomercials instead of regular commercials) she adds another request to her long, growing list of desired birthday gifts. It’s kind of funny to listen to her. Sage: “Mom I want THAT!” Me: “What is it?” Sage: “It is the Miracle Hanger!” and then she proceeds to recite all the reasons that this is the best thing that she has ever seen. She sounds like a mini infomercial. They learn so quick. But today, she had a great idea for a birthday present. “Mom I know what I want for my birthday. Only 2 things. #1 lip gloss, and #2 a real bank machine so that we can get as much money as we want anytime we want.” Genius!

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Beat Up Doing Pilates

embracingthechaos — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:27:23 +0000

I was feeling more energetic today so I pulled out a Pilate’s video that I had bought a while back and never even opened. Since I am hating the Firm videos with that stupid step that I will kill myself on, I thought this might be better. It comes with those rubber bands for resistance training. To do upper body training you are supposed to pinch the middle of the band in a door. Against my better judgement I did this. Apparently you need a door that seals really tightly. As I was doing bicep curls and the band is stretched to the max the damn thing slips loose and SNAPS me on the chin. I saw it coming in slow motion. It hurts so stinking bad, I can’t even tell you. Then as I am standing up I realize how funny that must have looked. Even now as my chin has a HUGE red welt on it and it still stinging something fierce I can’t stop laughing at myself. I am injured from doing Pilate’s for seniors! I am pathetic.

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Pole Dancing

embracingthechaos — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:41:26 +0000

My friend brought over a DVD set that included 2 exercise videos, 2 steps and a weighted pole. Since getting to the gym is proving to require far more desire to go than I am capable of mustering, I have resorted to once again trying to work out at home (which I detest maybe even more than working out at the gym). I started it this morning and gave up 10 minutes later because I had already been interrupted 3 times and I kept having to move Justus away from me so he didn’t get trampled. Sage however continued to try to do the video for another 15 minutes. It was pretty entertaining watching her struggle to hold and maneuver this pole while stepping up and down on the steps. Gotta give her credit for persevering longer than I did. Anyway, when Ron woke up this afternoon she excitedly asks him, “Daddy, do you want to see me pole dance?” To which he responded “absolutely not!”

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They Can’t Be Mine

embracingthechaos — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:12:39 +0000

Ron got a little extra help yesterday while building a new fire pit. The girls loved playing in the mud and never hesitated for a minute. Neither did Justus. Justus seemed pretty convinced that it was something that he should eat. Good for the immune system, right? Then there’s me who can’t stand to get dirty, at all. I have to do all my gardening with gloves on otherwise I spend more time running inside to wash my hands than I do in the garden. Once again, the kids are more like Ron than me. And once again I am thinking that if I hadn’t seen them come out of me I would think they are someone else’s kids.

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Appointments

embracingthechaos — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:28:03 +0000

This week has been so busy. Nearly everyday this week we had some appointment. Tuesday Sage had a dentist appt to get 2 fillings. Poor enamel goes along with Celiac Disease so this really is less of an indication of her oral hygiene than it appears. Dr. was fantastic. He gave her nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and she didn’t even flinch. She did great. Wednesday was Rori’s appointment for a speech evaluation. I was getting concerned with her speech and the fact that she is working with about 1/3 of the alphabet. Everything starts with an H. Anyway, apparently that is normal and she is right where she needs to be. Ron was right, I was wrong. Additionally they assessed her comprehension and that is above normal. So all in all I am glad I took her so now I can put that worry to rest. Thursday was just an appointment to get my hair cut. That’s always nice because I get to go by myself. Friday was great. It was our first meeting for parents with kids with Celiac Disease. It will be a once monthly meeting. It was so great to be in a room full of people that understand what our life is like. When I heard other people’s stories it made me feel like we really got off lucky. All the other moms had terrible stories of what their kids went through before they got diagnosed. Many of them had additional food allergies (CD is not an allergy but an autoimmune disorder) and other health problems they were dealing with. We’re lucky so far and have not had a lot of drama. So my plan for Saturday was to take it easy at home, do some cooking and not much else. The house really looked like it had been ransacked with me taking a day off from the continual pick up. The day had gone smoothly and the kids were playing together really well at about 6:45 last night. Ron was at work. I was just starting to pick up the house and finish cleaning the kitchen when I heard a blood curdling scream from Rori. If you have kids of your own you know the scream I am talking about. The one that means get over here quickly, I am hurt! I ran into the bedroom and Rori was holding her arm and screaming. Sage said Rori pretended she had fallen and Sage pulled on Rori’s arm “really hard” to help her get up. Rori wouldn’t move her arm and continued to scream for 30 minutes. Justus lightly touched her fingers and she screamed even louder. I thought she had broken her arm. I called my good friend and neighbor, Susanne, she had fortunately been cancelled from work and was home. She was such a HUGE help. She came over right away so that I could take Rori to the hospital while she stayed here with Sage and Justus. Moving Rori at all caused even more screaming. I felt so bad for her and all the screaming had me more than a little rattled. I got to the hospital and Ron met us in the ED. They took us in right away. For once being employees of that hospital worked in our favor. The nurse practitioner came in immediately. She said, “let me look at your arm sweetie” and she touched it and moved it a bit and Rori screamed. Then the NP said “her elbow was dislocated and I just reset it.” It was done already. She was fixed. 10 minutes later we were discharged. It was the quickest ED visit ever. As soon as it was reset she was fine. She called it “nursemaids elbow.” Apparently it is really common and once it happens once she is at a high risk for it to happen again. The NP taught Ron and I how to fix it ourselves the next time. So home we went. Susanne had managed to get Sage to sleep which was amazing to me. Not only that but she cleaned my house! Unbelievable. I don’t know how I can ever repay all that. Now this morning, Rori is short on sleep and incredibly cranky. So now I need some parenting tips. How do you get a 2 1/2 year old to nap when she doesn’t want to nap and doesn’t think she is tired. I can not get her to even lay in the bed for more than 30 seconds. Crib won’t work cause she can crawl out. I tried laying with her. Nope still won’t stay in the bed. Please, any tips would be appreciated.

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Weekend “Camping”

embracingthechaos — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:56:36 +0000

I use quotations with the word camping because Ron refused to call it camping since we stayed in a cabin. All the way there he kept reminding me that “this isn’t camping” and “next time we should save ourselves the gas and camp at home.” We went up to Heber, AZ which is about 2 1/2 hours northeast from here. We went with another couple and their 2 girls who are about our girls ages. We all had a good time. On Saturday we took a drive up Christopher Creek. We had a picnic there and the kids splashed around in the stream. The weather was about 71 degrees and it sprinkled rain a bit but it was beautiful. I was impressed with Justus. Unlike the girls he had no reservations about crawling around on all 4′s in the dirt, gravel and pine needles. He added a little drool and appeared to be making cake of some sort. After a battle in getting our sleep deprived kids to sleep on Saturday night the 4 of us even got to sit around the fire, alone, without kids. It was really nice to have a conversation that wasn’t interrupted a hundred times. On the drive home we stopped to go for a walk on a trail on the Rim. As we pulled in to the parking lot it started to sprinkle rain. We decided to go anyway thinking that we probably wouldn’t melt. It was kind of fun to walk in the rain. It smelled great and it was really quiet. Then we started to hear thunder and see lightening. Hmmmm, do we go on? Sure, it’s only rain. Turns out that we did start to melt. And then came the hail. And then came the stampede of all 9 of us running most of the way back to the car. And lastly came the sunshine as we arrived back to the parking lot, just like Roy said would happen.

All 5 of Us

We rarely get a pic of all 5 of us so I had to include this one despite the fact that it is really obvious the we haven’t showered in 3 days. It also appears that I have a huge tire aound my middle. In my defense, Rori’s tush was pushing it down over the band of my baby carrier, otherwise I would have sucked it in! Also it seems my bra is peeking out. Geez, maybe I should reconsider including this pic. Ah, who cares. Just family reading this.

My Boys

Rori, Sage, Sarah and Emmily

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Deja Vu

embracingthechaos — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:30:18 +0000

Yesterday was almost completely a repeat of the day before. We had to leave the house early to drop off one of our cars to be serviced. Ron left earlier than me and the kids so I was left with the dreaded task of getting everyone ready and out the door. I made breakfast as usual and as usual the kids wouldn’t eat it. Rori had maybe one bite and it was only because she was trying to scrape the brown sugar off the top of her hot cereal. Justus who usually loves the stuff had 2 teeny bites and Sage maybe had a third of a very small bowl. Apparently they are all living on air. As I am sitting there at the table trying to convince the kids to eat so that we can avoid the “I’m hungry” 30 seconds after we leave the house, Kiya pokes her head in the dog door in the kitchen. She didn’t even come in and I could smell orange blossoms (aka horse crap – see previous post) again. I screamed at her to get out and then sent Sage to find the door that will keep her locked out. While I am trying to get this door on I think I hear water running. Water running? There’s no water running. And the light comes on. I go running to the bathroom to find Justus standing at the toilet splashing away happily. He’s soaking wet as is the bathroom. Again. So now I am scrubbing him down, again, and the girls are whining to get into the car. I tell them “fine, go get in the car I will be there in a minute”. I set Justus down and closed the bathroom door. I go to the kitchen to gather the 100 things that will be required by all of the kids before I get to the end of the driveway. As I am doing that I hear Rori shrieking “husus honan in hag.” The girls left the garage door open and Justus had crawled out through the filthy garage and was already out on the pad waiting for our resident coyote to come for his meal. So, back into the house to scrub him down, again, while the girls wailed in impatience. As I pulled out of the garage I see Kiya, with so much dung on her it looked like she had taken a mud bath. She’s an outdoor dog now.

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As If That Wasn’t Enough

embracingthechaos — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:06:26 +0000

I just killed the second scorpion in less than a week. This one was in the kids play room where they had just been playing. This will never stop freaking me out.

Additionally, I have a second bathroom to clean. We caught Justus playing in an unflushed toilet this morning. Fortunately it was just pee but the bathroom and the kid were covered as was the ball that was at the bottom of the toilet. The kid has been scrubbed and now I am off to scrub the bathrooms. Man! I sure wish I was at “work” today.

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A Dog to Horse Crap is Like a Fly to Shit

embracingthechaos — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:40:13 +0000

Why on earth do dogs love to roll in horse crap? This is so disgusting. Within a few minutes of being awake this morning our dog, Kiya, goes outside only to return in a few minutes reeking of horse crap. I have to admit though that when she first came in I thought she smelled like orange blossoms. I wasn’t really awake yet, clearly, because we live in the middle of the desert where there are no orange trees and it isn’t even the right time of year. Sage soon starts shrieking “Kiya smells like horse poop!” Well, CRAP! (literally) she was right. The dog HATES bathes and is 50 +lbs which is nearly half my body weight. So getting her into the tub was a real fight. This of course happened right after my shower. Now me and my bathroom smell like a horse barn. What a great start to the day!!

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Birthday Parties and Bedtimes

embracingthechaos — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:38:44 +0000

What an exhausting weekend. I have been running since getting home from our first sleepover party. (see previous post) You would think that with the kids being so overtired that they would go to sleep easily. Ummm, NO. Never. Same stall tactics every night. There are 2 times of the day that I am typically not at my best. First thing in the morning before my coffee. I can’t stand the 57 requests being made of me all before I am ever really awake. I really need to make myself get up earlier so that I can have some time to myself in the morning. It makes all the difference. The other time of the day that I don’t always shine, bed time. I feel like I get so run down by the same crap over and over every night. They are tired and it is obvious to everyone but them. Is it like this for everyone else? On TV it is always portrayed as this sweet time of reading a book and a kiss goodnight and then the kids just go to sleep before you even close their door. This is about as accurate as the TV version of labor and delivery, which is also just laughable. I can enjoy it at times but it takes a lot of self talk to take notice and appreciate all the little things. But tonight I am exhausted so I just wanted them to go to sleep. It has been a really busy weekend. Ron works most weekends and typically when he is working me and the kids just stay home. It is just so much easier that way. I think that the most stress inducing thing for me is the whole production of getting the kids out of the house. The kids are now 4 1/2, 2 1/2, and 1. To get us all out of the house with every one clean and dressed and have everything with us takes me a couple of hours. I just hate it. I have to need to get out pretty badly for me to attempt this feat. And usually by the time I accomplish this I am in a mood. Last weekend I did the whole production to go to the gym. I hate going to the gym but am feeling guilty about not going so I talked myself into it. As usual it took forever to get ready. Justus squirmed and cried for most of the 40 minute drive there. The girls slept for the last 10 minutes. I pulled into the parking lot, woke 3 kids up, got 3 kids out of their car seats, got all our stuff and locked up the car. As we are walking towards the door I look down at Rori to find that she has had an accident despite the fact that I had her pee right before we left. 4 letter words raged through my head. Not angry with her but supremely irritated with the situation. I of course did not have a change of clothes with us. SO back into the car, buckle up times 4 and another round of crying and irritation for another 40 minute drive home. All the way home I was vowing to never leave the house alone with 3 kids again! Despite that, this weekend we left the house 2 days in a row. Well, 3 if you count the sleepover. On Saturday we went to a birthday party. I have been pretty lucky to have avoided any of these large parties until now. When the invite came in the mail, the girls saw it. Me, never one to be able to come up with a fib quickly told them about the party. Well then the excitement started and the count down was on. I so badly wanted them to misbehave so I could say “we’re not going to the party because of xyz.” They must have sensed it. They didn’t do anything that would have warranted that kind of punishment. So we went. It took all morning to get ready. Not only did I have to get all 4 of us ready and fed twice before we left, I needed to do some laundry and get dinner in the crock pot so there was something ready for when we got home and then lastly I had to make cupcakes and frost them so that the kids would have something to eat that was gluten free when everyone else was having birthday cake. I was pooped before we ever even left the house. As it turned out I was really glad we went. All 3 kids had a great time. Considering none of them had every been around that many kids before, they socialized really well. (Which is more than I can say for myself. I just don’t do well in large groups of people that I don’t know. I can’t come up with anything to say if my life depended on it. I am a social retard.) Unfortunately now, my girls are ruined. Now they know what a real birthday party is. Despite having had 7 birthdays for our kids we had managed to have them think that a couple presents, a cake and a song is a birthday party. And they were happy with that. I guess I should be happy to have gone through 7 birthdays with that little effort. Come this September I suspect that they will be asking for the giant Dora jumping inflatable thing, arts and crafts, a million kids and their families, munchies etc etc etc. Thanks Nicole! I owe you one!!

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