Taggage Baggage

Nicole tagged me FOREVER ago. I'll try to think up new answers this time.

5 Things people don't usually know about you:

1. I love playing any sport but I hate watching them. Even my favorites like volleyball and skiing. The only sports I do like watching are gymnastics, dance or ice skating. Not sure why that is.

2. This one if for you, Julia. I am a phonophobic. What is this??? It is a fear of the telephone. Well, not of the actual phone, but of talking on it and especially answering it or making calls on it. This is why I have a stack of phone numbers of Moms and kids we've met at parks, swimming lessons and preschool that are stashed away in the kitchen drawer. It's not that I don't want to hang out with these people, I just have a fear of picking up the phone to call them. But when these moms force their phone numbers written on little scraps of paper upon me, I start feeling a little nervous and agitated. So, I put them with all the others that have been accumulated. So, to all of you out-of-towners, now you know why I don't call you. And also why I love blogging so much.

3. I have some kind of muffin allergy. This one is very strange and I am never able to explain it in a way that actually describes what is really going on. Confusing, sorry. Here's some history. I remember specifically the first time it happened. I was in junior high. I had eaten a muffin at church and I started to feel a bit strange. Suddenly, strange thoughts entered my head and the organs in my stomach felt like they were all expanding and rising. It was almost like memories were placed in my head that were not mine. Like I was having an out-of-body experience mixed with hallucination. To this day, I cannot eat a muffin without having this weird and uncomfortable sensation come upon me. It's too bad for me that I really like the taste of muffins.

4. Most people have a fear of heights, small spaces or airplanes. I have fears such as the telephone and getting in car accidents. I am terrified of getting in a car accident which makes me a paranoid driver when I'm driving, and a backseat driver when I'm not. I pity my poor husband. The last at-fault accident I got in was 8 years ago (and my last ticket as well). It (along with all other accidents I've been in) was so traumatic that it still serves as the source of fear to make me paranoid today. You know the metal part between the front and rear door on the outside? Well, it got so smashed that it did this to me:

Remember this roomies? I was taken to the hospital in the ambulance because they thought I had broken my hip. Funny thing is, that when I got in this car wreck, I was actually on my way to check out a new car. Ha ha. Oh, and Mica and I also found out one of the few ways to get Brooke out of the house without make-up. Just a simple call from the paramedics to come down to the hospital will do the trick. Thanks to phobialist.com, I now know that I have dystychiphobia (a fear of accidents) as well as phonophobia. So there it is.

5. Excluding grocery shopping, I pretty much return half of what I buy. This is especially true for clothes. Marlo, remember when we used to wear clothes with tags on just for this reason? Lucky for me, the Target I go to will take almost anything back. Opened, used, whatever. It's the only Target I've ever been to that isn't anal about returning things. Like milk, Jordan.

Bird clues

While we were packing for our camping trip a few weeks ago, we left the front door open for a half and hour or so while we were packing the car.

When we got home from our trip, we found this:

Hmmm... a bit puzzling. It looks a lot like bird poo, doesn't it? So, I thought, that since the table is only a few feet away from the birdfeeder in our backyard that somehow the poo had mysteriously splattered it's way onto our dining table through the window screen while the window was open. Yeah, far fetched. Even for me:)

Then I found this. More unidentifiable white stuff on the bunk bed upstairs. Now I knew that there had unquestionably been a bird in the house. After pondering it for a while, I figured that it must have come in while we were out packing the car and flown out before we shut the door to leave.

That's what I thought.

Later I was doing a little spring cleaning. I was cleaning around upstairs, putting clothes away and picking up toys. I saw a little stuffed animal on the floor of the closet and bent down to pick it up. But, suddenly I realized that we didn't have any stuffed animals that small. Or that color. So I backed up, turned the light on...

And found this.

The poor, unfortunate culprit of the white stuff. In a closet with the door almost completely closed. How did he get in? How could he not get out? I think I'd die too if I couldn't get out of a dark closet for two days.

The lawyer goes to the library

Some background: My mom and I have a nickname for Destroy. We call him the lawyer. He is an impressive bargainer and manipulator and he has some serious stamina when it comes to talking his way into something that he wants. Or trying to prolong bedtime for example. He also has amazing charisma and persuasion. It also helps that he is a 4-year-old with a wide vocabulary and the ability to pull out the puppy eyes when needed. Unfortunately, this doesn't work with his mother who has long since discovered these "gifts" and will not give in.

A couple of weeks ago Destroy accidentally broke a library DVD. I reamed him about it because he knows that kids aren't supposed to touch the DVDs in our house (which is why we have a TV cabinet with a lock). I told him that they were going to charge us a lot for the broken DVD because they always jack up the prices at the library.

A few days later we took the books and the broken DVD back to the library. Interested to see what would happen, I told Destroy that he needed to give the DVD to the librarian and explain what had happened. He enthusiastically ran inside (he wasn't remorseful about the situation) and went up to the circulation desk as Search and I trailed behind him.

He pulls out the puppy eyes and charisma before he says, "Hi. I accidentally broke Kipper the other day when I was taking it out of the case. I'm really sorry and I feel really bad (lie). I'll try to be more careful next time."

The librarian looks down at him and takes the DVD. She asks me for my library card. After she pulls up my account she says,

"Well, he seemed really sorry about it and he said he would be more careful next time. I'm just going to check it in as damaged materials so you won't have to pay for it". By this time Destroy had run off so he didn't hear her. I was glad for this because I don't want him thinking he can talk his way out of every situation. But of course I was very happy that we didn't have to pay the jacked up fee.

Then again yesterday: We were at McDonalds with some friends. I got the kids some fries to share and they had chowed most them when Destroy spilled three or four of them on the floor. Moments later after Destroy had run off to play, I see a McDonald's worker approach him and give him a WHOLE NEW ORDER OF FRIES. When he brought them over to the table I asked him how the heck he got those. He told me that he simply told the McDonald's worker that he spilled his (three) french fries on the floor and that he needed more. And that was that.

Is it simply the age?
Is he already developing characteristics necessary for a law degree a few decades too early?

Either way, I'm kind of into this if it gets us free stuff.

That is, as long as he is oblivious to any contrary outcomes. Which can't be hidden from him forever. This must come to an end... there are no lawyers allowed in this family (no offense Jamieson).

The Host

Read it. Loved it. Now it's your turn (unless you already have!)

I'm so excited... and I just can't hide it!

Well, that's true enough about this post because it's about my new swimsuit! Not even a really modest swimsuit can hide it all.

I'm not much of a Land's End clothing fan... I guess that means I'm not a true mom yet :), but they have some really cute swimsuits! So what you do is abuse the wonderful world of credit. You buy hundreds of dollars of cute suits from Landsend.com on your credit card. Then you try them all on at home once they are sent to you. When you've finally found one that you love, you return all the rest to your nearest Sears store before your billing cycle ends. Here's the one I finally settled on (but it was really hard!):The navy and white dot because they were all out of red :( Maybe it will go on clearance!
And a white swim mini. And I'm sure it will look JUST this good on me. Ok, after some serious running and a gallon of tan in a can. Maybe some calf implants too.

A Blissful Busy Boy Birthday

Ahhh... I feel the days of no birthday parties quickly coming to an end. Sometime in the next few years my children will start requesting and then stomping their little feet to have birthday parties at Chuck-E-Cheese, Bouncer Town or insisting that their entire third grade class come to a Spiderman party at our house. So, for now, while they don't know any better and don't have TV to help them to know better, we will enjoy living in this blissfully ignorant state of the no-birthday-party land. I fully plan to take advantage of the time when family birthday parties and homemade birthday cakes are gladly accepted and welcomed.

For the little guy who just turned 3, we let him make the decisions on his birthday.

We went to the Children's Museum:

We checked out the new Superhero exhibit which was pretty awesome. Here we have a very muscley Superman and a Batman meets Captain America. We weren't the only ones who thought that was funny. I only posted this picture for the girl in the background. Why can't I get my kids to post like that? The other really cool thing they had at this exhibit was a real Bat Mobile. There have been four BatMobiles made and one of them is at the museum right now. Each BatMobile cost 250,000 each! We played with dinosaurs...We dug for fossils...
We made it home in time for a nap and the highly anticipated orange T-Rex cake. Sadly, it's more yellow than orange because I ran out of food coloring (orange is Search's beloved color). After the boys ate the only part of their cake they liked, the frosting, the little dinosaurs were there to "help" finish the rest. Those dang dinosaurs jabbed their tails and snouts into the cake spreading it all over the plate, table and the floor. Clean up was sooooo much fun!
Search got some GeoTrax for his birthday which is exceeded all expectations in toy-usage. It has met all requirements for a high toy rating by the number of time-outs for hitting, the number of times the trains have been taken away for yelling at each other. All because the boys both love this new toy and haven't figured out how to share it yet. He got this present from his grandparents and great-grandparents (GeoTrax are a bit spendy). Thanks!

Happy Birthday Little Man

Search is three today! OK, well, tomorrow really, but it's 11:19 pm. I knew I wouldn't have time to post tomorrow so I figured I would do it now! Tomorrow is Search's day to do whatever he wants. So we are first going to a primary activity (that one's not his choice), then to the Children's museum, then swimming. Somewhere in there he'll get his long awaited orange T-Rex cake. Not only has he been given free reign for tomorrow's activities, but he also gets to eat whatever he wants for meals. Tomorrow's breakfast forecast looks like hot dogs with a chance of chicken. We'll see how the rest of the day goes!

BIRTHDAY 5/17/05:

How's that for hair???

FIRST BIRTHDAY:

SECOND BIRTHDAY:

Stay posted for more pictures!

It's Over: Part 2

Part 2A: the Great Wolf Lodge

Our second mini-trip took place in Ohio (only two hours away! It's so weird out here where you can drive two hours in any direction and end up in another state. So different than out west where you spend all day in the car just to get to Nevada. Yuck). We spent one night at the Great Wolf Lodge which was sandwiched between a day spent at the lodge's awesome indoor water park and a day at the King's Island amusement park.

The kids area with little water slides. Surprisingly we didn't spend much time in there. The kids were off to bigger and better things.
The big yellow thing is a huge cyclone. You ride on a tube and it spits you out into the cyclone, then after you sail around it a couple of times, it drops you out of a hole in the bottom. Search wanted to do it again, Destroy was not so enthusiastic, especially after going down backwards :)
These were the kids favorite slides. The were bigger than the kiddie slides but not so big that they couldn't go down by themselves. Aaron and I finally resorted to standing at the bottom and watching them go up the stairs and down the slides by themselves. Over and over and over. They say kids love repetition... well I can second that. This and the fact that I've seen Finding Nemo 96 times.

Happy campers... or lodgers.

The three boys in the wave pool.

A wolf's howl would signal the start of the waves in the wave pool. Here's Destroy mimicking the sound (Do you notice the burn on his chin? That's from going down a pole at the park while camping :). The boys couldn't get enough of the bears, wolves, etc that were all over the lodge.

Happy sliders.

This was their favorite place to play (until the lifeguard yelled at them). They were pretending to be goggle-clad hairless bears in a cave.This is the "hot tub" but it was really only like 80 degrees. It was my favorite place :) Nice peace sign(s), Destroy. Are you from China?

Part 2B: KING'S ISLAND:

The Backyardigans swing. Destroy sat under his favorite Backyardigan, Pablo. The kids LOVE the Backyardigans.The Scooby Doo ride... basically like the Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters at Disneyland, just without Zerg. But, unlike the Buzz Lightyear ride, I was actually really good at this one (you shoot the bad guys and get points)! Nancy, you would be proud.

A little boy's dream. Driving a car. All by himself. Well, not with his mom or dad. And actually, he isn't driving at all. The car is driving him. Well, the smiles were glued on anyway.Bumper cars. Wow, and they didn't even cry when they bumped into each other! Any other time they would have....My SON picked the purple one. I told myself that it was OK because he went through a pink-IKEA-cereal-bowl-only phase too and overcame it. This too shall pass.But Search picked Blue so Aaron can relax a little. It was a great day to go to King's Island because the kids were able to walk onto most rides. I can't say the same for the rest of the park though. Aaron waited FOREVER to ride "Firehawk", the newest ride. It's a ride where you are strapped down on your back, upside down, so you can't see where you are going. It was pretty intense, OK, insane. Thanks to the paret-swap card I was able to walk right up to the front of the line after Aaron did the work of the two hour wait. See? Sometime it pays off to have kids!

A flying bus. Whee.

The most progress made on this trip was that we actually got Destroy to ride on a roller coaster! The kid doesn't even like tire swings but he finally rode a roller coaster and LOVED it! And the kids became regulars on it. The workers knew them by name and they just kept going on ride after ride. Until it started to rain. Then we left. Sorry the pictures are blurry but I had to show "happy faces" and "roller coaster" all in one picture.The kids don't even know who this is. Come to think of it, I don't either. But she was big, and she was bright and it made them feel like they were in a cartoon when they stood next to her. So we stopped for a gander... and a picture. A cute family picture! It would have been cuter had I been wearing some make-up and Search didn't have the red marks of a face plant left over from the night before as we were leaving the water park. But we are all looking at the camera! At the same time! And no one is blinking! Or picking their nose, or scratching, or screaming, or fighting, or...