Fingerprint Friday - May 6, 2011

Fingerprint Friday was started by Beki over at The Rusted Chain - be sure to visit her blog and check out the other bloggers who participate each week - you're bound to see something that will make you smile!

I have so many things to be thankful for today - some little, some big, some huge.

I am thankful for the 3 city police officers that came to my house in the middle of the night last night to set my mind at ease, without making me feel like an idiot (more on that later).

I am thankful for every new day and the adventures that it brings (even if it means getting up really early.

I am thankful for old ratty ball caps and sunglasses to shield me from the sun (and to cover a bad case of bedhead).

My kids are definitely the biggest blessing that I have - regardless of how many times I try to sell them on facebook or twitter.

Today is also the anniversary of a huge milestone in my life, one that changed my life forever. I have so many thoughts on that one that I'm goig to be dedicating a post to that later tonight, when I can truly focus. So keep your eye out for that one!

But for now, it's time to do some cleaning, some laundry, and some dishes, and then the boys and I are going to go play in the dirt all day!

Caffeine Overload

This was one of those days where there just wasn't enough caffeine on the planet to keep me moving. After virtually mainlining it all day, I am now so hyper that I can't see or think straight, let alone type coherently. So because I can't think of anything really profound to say, let me just recap my day.

I got up almost an hour late this morning but luckily the kids were semi-cooperative and got moving fairly quickly so I was still able to whip up a batch of pancakes for them for breakfast. Did I have time to eat before we left? Nope. So how did I eat?

Yep. Pancakes and Red Bull to go, please. And yes, those were the clothes that I slept in. Deal with it.

Had to fill up the (still un-named) van today. Daniel and I ran a few errands and stopped at the gas station. That hurt.

And that was after the $0.20 per gallon discount. Oy.

Another example of how my kids can sleep anywhere. He took about a 4 hour nap like this today.

This evening, we got to go to a Policy Council meeting for Head Start. Yeah, I drew the short straw on that one and was coerced into volunteering for Policy Council by Alex's teacher. OK, fine, call it my civic duty or whatever. They told me it would take about an hour. WRONG! Try 3 hours. At least the kids were kept amused in another room the whole time.

Oh, and guess who the new secretary is for Policy Council. Yep. You guessed it. Now I *have* to go to the meetings and act all official-like. Uh huh. Sure. Someone's going to regret that nomination...

When we finally got out of the meeting - at 8:30pm - we stopped at Sonic to get some drinks. Of course, I got my Route-44-Vanilla-Diet-Coke-Extra-Vanilla-Very-Very-Easy-On-The-Ice-Please. As soon as we pulled out and started driving, I promptly dumped enough of it on my lap so that it ran down between my legs and soaked me. Yep. Got to drive the next 30 miles with ice cold soda in my crotch. That was fabulous.

Got home, immediately stripped out of my wet pants and put on a pair of sweats (aaaaaaahhhhhh sweats!) and started chasing kids into bed so that I could get stuff done.

I did learn a very important lesson tonight though:

What do you get when you cross 2 bloggers, a Virginia redneck, a Canadian-turned-Tennessean, a spider, a light saber, excessive amounts of caffeine, and facial scrub?

A facebook status that generates close to 50 comments within 45 minutes and causes soda to shoot out of one person's nose.

Man, I hope I can sleep at some point tonight.

Battle of the Lawn

Since my neighbors decided to mow their grass the other day, my yard was looking a bit....overgrown. I've been putting it off but I finally decided to do it today. Now, don't get me wrong - I love to mow. But, with the lack of rain lately and the high winds that we're experiencing again, by the time I was finished I had dirt in places in and on my body that would boggle anyone's mind.

Having to mow over huge dirt patches didn't help...

There were tons of branches to be picked up and bundled to go out with the trash next week before I could even think about mowing the jungle out back...

But once it was done, it looked much better....

And it was worth it to look out the kitchen window later and see this....

Sarah, my 11 year old, was out there with her colored pencils and sketch pad, working on a drawing of the neighbor's irises. Seeing her sitting there in the grass, totally focused on her project, just took my breath away.

They grow up so fast.

Did I really just say that?

As any parent has experienced, we often hear things coming out of our own mouths that make us stop and say, "did I really just say that?" As more than one of these came out of my mouth today, I stopped and started writing them down. Before long, I had an entire page filled – both sides.

Some of these are "those lines" that my parents said – the very ones that I swore would never come out of my mouth. I believe that every parent has said some of them at some point. See how many you recognize…

~ "I don't care if you didn't make the mess – you're going to help clean it up!"
~ "How do you expect me to pack your lunch if you left your lunchbox at school?"
~ "If I step on that _____ one more time, it's going in the trash!"

~ "Get your finger out of your nose."
~ "Get your finger out of your brother's nose."
~ "Yes, you have to use soap when you get a bath."
~ "Who farted?" (usually said in the van)
~ "Who pooped?"
~ "The more you bug me about it, the longer the answer is going to be 'no'."
~ "You'll eat what I cook and you'll like it."
~ "Don't make me beat you in public." (usually said within earshot of a judgmental bystander just for my own personal amusement)
~ "Why is there a worm stuck to the ceiling?"
~ "Stop spitting. Now."
~ "Let's get out of this house before someone kills someone else. Now."
~ "Can't I just pee in peace? Just once?"
~ "Why is there a golf ball in my bed?"
~ "You don't want me to clean up this mess, do you? I didn't think so."
~ "No, you can not have cookies for supper."
~ Kid: "Mom, how does ______________ ?" Me: "Magic."
~ "Because I said so."
~ "Excuse me? What did you just say?" (usually said after I hear something that sounds obnoxious)
~ "If you aren't ready to walk out the door in 30 seconds, I'm leaving without you."
~ Kid: "Mom, I want ______." Me: "Oh yeah? Well, I want a million dollars."
~ "Use your words. I don't understand whine."
~ "Pee or poop?"
~ "Stop licking your brother."
~ "Get out of the refrigerator."
~ "Your laundry isn't going to put itself away."
~ "Stop poking your sister with a stick."
~ "Don't make me stop this van!!!"
~ "Is there a reason why you're being so loud?"
~ "I suggest you stop doing that right now."
~ "Are you bleeding? Are you dead? Then stop interrupting me while I'm on the phone."

Sound familiar to anyone? Thought so....

Goofy Tuesday

With all of the drama that's been going on in the world lately, I feel the need to just keep it lighthearted today. I don't want to get into any debates about politics or the end of the world or anything like that. I just feel like being goofy.

With that being said, here are a few random thoughts and pictures....

The boy in the bubble...aka Daniel in the playground at McDonald's

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RANDOM RANT FOR THE DAY: Grocery shopping with kids should be considered an Olympic sport. There are many skills involved that childless shoppers can never really understand. Herding the children across the parking lot without any casualties is the first one - this one also involves NOT yanking a random shoulder out of a socket in the attempt to avoid a sprint into the path of some cell-phone-talking, cigarette-smoking, sunglass-wearing, parking-space-searching driver.

Don't even get me started on the carts. Those double carts, whether they be car-shaped or not, are both a blessing and a curse. Being able to firmly restrain 2-3 kids in a cart is wonderful. Having 2-3 kids restrained in a small area leads to fist fights. And hair pulling. And scratching. And occasionally even licking. Then there's the physical demands of navigating said cart through the aisles without running over innocent bystanders or end displays of crystal dinnerware. Yikes.

After surviving the grocery store itself, there is the challenge of getting it all home, unloaded, and put away. Yesterday's grocery run was more of a nightmare than usual. I was hungry, the kids were tired, I had a serious caffeine deficit happening - it was the perfect storm. After we got home and put all the bags in the kitchen, I found a frozen pizza and nuked it for me to eat while I put stuff away. I have a chest freezer in the laundry room off of the kitchen where I keep most of my frozen stuff. There's a curtain over the doorway between the rooms, and by the time I got to the frozen stuff I was so cranky that I just opened the curtain, opened the freezer lid, and started chucking stuff from the kitchen into the freezer. Literally.

Anything frozen was flying through the air at that point. Frozen chicken breasts, bags of pizza snack thingees for the kids, fruit for smoothies - you name it, it was airborne. When I was done, I slammed the lid down, pulled the curtain over the doorway, and called it good. I'll organize it later.

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RANDOM THOUGHT: I still love the days when I can go to the mailbox, pull out the contents, and throw it all into the recycling bin on the way back into the house. But I'd still rather see a big fat check from the IRS, should they ever decide to send it to me.

Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis

Since I survived the half-marathon yesterday, I have to prepare for my next walk...

I am doing another walk this coming Saturday, for a totally different purpose. My great-nephew, Corban, is an absolutely darling 3 1/2 year old little boy. He loves to play and to do the typical little boy stuff. When my niece brings him to visit, my kids have a field day playing with him. In so many ways he is just a typical little boy. But there is one major difference. Corban has cystic fibrosis, a horrible genetic disease that drastically affects his life and the lives of those around him.

On May 7, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is holding their annual Great Strides Walk for CF. The walk is designed to raise awareness and money for research into this devastating disease. The walk is held all over the country in the hopes that money raised will be used to find a cure.

My kids and I have participated in this walk twice - we missed it one year because I was out of town for a wedding, but I plan to continue participating in it every year until a cure is found. Luckily, this is not a competitive walk - it is a leisurely stroll around the Sedgwick County Park on a Saturday morning, which is exactly what I will need after walking 13.1 miles a few days earlier.

Please, if you are able, help us out. Go to www.cff.org and click on the Great Strides link - see if there is a walk in your city in which you can participate. Look me up on there (let me make it easy... CLICK HERE) and make a donation. I don't remember the exact figure, but I believe that 90% of all money raised goes directly to research. This is a fantastic cause, and with everyone's help, hopefully we can eventually make "CF" stand for "Cure Found"!!

3:12:32

I did it. I really, really did it.

I finished a half-marathon. My very first one.

It was incredible. The weather was cool, overcast, and a bit windy. There were somewhere around 1200-1300 runners. I started in the very back of the pack, because, well, I'm not stupid. I didn't want to get trampled first thing. Let the speed demons get ahead first.

I started off walking, and caught up with a group of 4 walkers - two husband/wife combos. I started chatting with one of the wives and found out that they were walking in memory of her neice, who passed away one year ago tomorrow. They had on matching shirts with "In Memory of Emily" on the back. It was beautiful.

Then I went a bit faster, and stayed by myself for several miles. I saw areas of Wichita that I didn't know existed. I want to go back with my camera and get some pictures at some point.

Then around Mile 9 I started walking/jogging with another girl who was about my age. We chatted and paced each other for quite a while. As we chatted, things started to fall into place - turns out that we knew each other! Way back when, when I was doing case managment, she was one of the providers that I spoke to on the phone all the time. We had just never met face-to-face before. Talk about a small world!

She encouraged me to go faster because she was starting to lose some steam, so around Mile 12 I started really pushing myself. I felt so good because at that point I knew that it would have to take something catastrophic to keep me from finishing.

I wasn't prepared for the wave of emotions that hit me as soon as I crossed the finish line.

I'll admit that I cried. Yep, like a big ol' baby.... but only for a few seconds before I pulled myself together. And in among the feelings of happiness and being proud of myself, I will also admit that there was a little bit of a "Take THAT!!!" directed at all of the doubters - all of the people in my life who have ever called me fat, or lazy, or who have flat-out said that I couldn't do it. Guess what? I did it. But I didn't do it for them - I did it for me.

And it feels really freakin' good.