Author Archives: Heather

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About Heather

I adore my family, writing, books, cats, lazy mornings in bed, and chocolate. I'll never say no to breakfast for dinner, long talks with friends and lazy summer days at the pool with family. My life is often crazy, always awesome and one I'm so happy to be living! My side hustle is editing and proofing work. Find out more at https://heathercaryn.com/
Dec30

Well, That was Awesome!

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And it was. It, of course, being Christmas!  All the shopping, wrapping, stress, anticipation and craziness was more than worth it for all the fun we’ve had in the past 8 days.

To recap, we have:

> Celebrated Christmas 7 times since last Saturday: 1) the Hub’s Dad’s side of the family, 2) the Hub’s Mom’s side of the family, 3) my immediate family (parents, siblings, etc), 4) my Dad’s side of the family, 5) just the 4 of us, 6) Christmas night hodgepodge at my aunt and uncle’s and 7) my Mom’s side of the family. And we still have one more celebration to go!

ChristmasTree_2012

> Taken over 300 new pictures.

> Celebrated my brother’s engagement!

> Gone through 3 rolls of wrapping paper and 3 rolls of tape.

> Unwrapped all those hard-wrapped presents in under 20 minutes each time we’ve exchanged gifts.

Bean_Xmas2012

> Eaten more food in one week then I have in months- and enjoyed every bite of it.

> Spent 2+ hours sledding.

Sledding_122412

> Driven well over 400 miles doing round trips to various family members homes.

reflection

> Gone on one date night, had one breakfast with friends from high school and had one girl’s night out with my sister and mom.

> Watched Scorch put together 7 lego sets and meltdown approximately 100 times when said lego sets fall apart when moving them around.

> Had a billion lightsaber fights since we are now the proud owners of 7 lightsabers (you can never have too many, you know).

> Watched 4 movies with the Hubs- only one of which I’d recommend (Trouble with the Curve).

> Enjoyed each and every day of this vacation as both the Hubs and I have been off since the 24th!

All in all? This has been one amazing holiday!

 

 

Dec20

The Season of Craziness

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Ah, Christmas. The time of love and joy and celebration. A time for family and togetherness and appreciation.

Yup, it is all that. But in my house, it’s also the time of crazy anticipation, last minute mall runs, kids hopped up on sugar and the inevitable freakout over Christmas cards not sent. It’s also the time for wrapping. I *loathe* wrapping. I also really, really stink at it.

See, I suck.

Is it wrong to want your kids to be older simply because then you can put their presents in gift bags? If so, forget I mentioned it.

All that said, I love this time of year. I love the Christmas carols and the fact that we have 4 Christmas celebrations over 4 days starting on Saturday. I love that we get to spend precious time with each side of our families and that I only have to cook for 1 of these parties. I love giving gifts I know people will love even if the wrap job is less then stellar. I love seeing how excited my kids get over each and every thing we do- from looking at the lights around town, to seeing Santa, to picking out gifts for each other. It’s fun- they’re fun- and I’m bound and determined to soak up every minute of it.

From here on out, life is going to get crazy as our celebrations go into full swing.  So I wanted to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!  May Santa bring all your families much love, companionship and joy this holiday season!

Dec17

Jokes from a 6 Year Old

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What do you say to a hurt polar bear?Are you all white?

Why did Santa eat a snail?
Because he doesn’t like fast food.

What did the tissue start to dance?Because it had a little boggie in it!

~*~*~*~*~*~

We opted not to tell the kids anything about what happened in CT before school. There was a police officer posted at every school in our county (state?) this morning, but the sight of a police car in front of the school wasn’t anything new to the kids as one is frequently there to stop speeders.  The kids came home happy as can be and neither one has mentioned anything.  I’m OK with that.

So now we turn towards the mundane. Keeping the kids sane before Christmas. Wrapping the endless gifts. Finishing the last minute shopping.  Trying to remember to move the stinking Elf each night (we’ve had two fails in the past week). And I’m OK with that too. My kids need normalcy and routine, and so do I.

 

 

 

Dec16

Talking about Trauma

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20 kids.

All weekend long, I couldn’t stop thinking about those 20 kids and 6 adults.  A whole classroom of 1st graders- gone. Scorch is in 1st grade.

It’s like a loop in my head that I can’t turn off- the feelings of shock and anger and sorrow and thankfulness for all that I have.  So I’ve said a lot of prayers and hugged my kids (and my friends kids) a heck of a lot tighter this weekend.  We’ve also donated, knowing it’ll never be enough, but hoping that somehow it’ll help.

The Hubs and I haven’t had the news on this weekend around the kids. It’s been strictly CDs and DVDs all weekend long, so the kids have no idea what’s happened. The shooting was alluded to a few times in Church today, but that went right over the kid’s heads. Which is how is should be- 4 year olds and 6 year olds should never have to give a thought to the evils of the world. Except, sometimes, no matter how you try to protect them, evils intrudes.

Our school system has been wonderful, sending out emails on Friday and again today discussing their emergency planning and how the school plans to address the shooting in CT.  The school the kids attend is PreK- 6th grade and we have been told that the teachers will not be bringing up the subject in class.  But what if one the kids does?

So the Hubs and I have been debating all night if we tell the kids about what happened. I am, by my nature, an open book and have been known a time or two to over share and give my kids way more info then they need.  I’ve always felt that I’d rather my kids hear things from me then anywhere else, even if what they are hearing is scary or sad.  The Hubs, on the other hand, sees the bad on a daily basis at his job and does whatever he can to shield the kids from the ills of the world.  Add in Scorch’s anxiety and I honestly have no idea if we should talk to them about this or not.

I’ve been scouring the internet and taking informal polls on Facebook and there is no one, right answer. There are a ton of wonderful, wonderful resources on how to talk to your kids about the CT shooting- but not one that says that yes, you should tell them or no, you shouldn’t.  The kids are asleep now, so clearly the time for talking tonight is past. I think we’re going to wait to see what questions they come home with tomorrow. Is it too much to hope for that they don’t get wind of this at all and they can keep their innocence for a little while longer?

Dec13

Code Red! Code Red!

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So tonight started out like any other night. In fact, tonight was better then a lot of other nights. We went to the library and I hit the motherload of books. And not only did I find books I can’t wait to read, I even found a new Mo Willems book for the kids. If that doesn’t make for an awesome night, I don’t know what does.

Books

Then we went to swim class where the kids had a freaking ball and we came home so we could all relax at home and life was good.  That is, until Scorch got out of bed to ask me a question.  That is when life went south. Quickly.

“Mom, June told me something today. She told me that there is no Santa Claus. Or Tooth Fairy. She said it’s really our parents giving us toys or money.”

Are. You. Freaking. Kidding. Me?!?!  He’s 6 years old- I figured we had at least 2 more years before we had to deal with this!  So I did what any other parent would do- I plead poverty and squeamishness then I plain old lied.

“Bud- do you think we have the money to buy you all those toys ourselves? And your teeth? I wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole. Do you remember how grossed out I was after you lost your tooth? Do you really think I’d get up in the middle of the night just so I could go fish your tooth out from  under your pillow and touch it?! Are you kidding me?”

He considered that for a while and agreed that I was, in fact, completely disgusted by teeth. But he still wasn’t too sure about the whole Santa thing. So I pulled out the big guns.

“Alright, if there is no Santa, where does Buddy the Elf go at night? He’s not here any of the times I get up to use the bathroom- he must be at the North Pole.”

Thankfully that seemed to have stumped him for the time being- evidently I’m a very convincing actress at 6 am when I pretend not to know where Buddy is hiding.

*sigh* I think (hope/pray) we dodged the bullet this time around.  The Hubs and I synched up when he got home, so we have our stories straight. Let’s just hope we still have more power over Scorch then his friends.

Dec12

Chalk

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I’m tired and cranky tonight- even my festive PJ bottoms aren’t doing much to raise my spirits. I feel like Little Lama in Lama, Lama, Holiday Drama- there is simply too much going on right now and not enough time to do it all.   So to counteract all the blech, here’s what makes me happy right now:

> The kids and I read a wonderful book tonight called Chalk. There are no words in this book, just gorgeous illustrations and a wonderful story about the power of imagination. Scorch was not pleased when we started it, but by the end, he asked to read it again.  Love it.

> I got a compliment today that makes me hope that my crazy workout schedule is paying off.

> I know what I’m buying everyone for Christmas- now I just need to actually purchase said gifts.

> I love, love, love opening the mailbox and getting all the Christmas cards. Love them.

Ok, that’s all I can think of. Let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.

Dec6

Man vs. Tree, Christmas Style

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Last weekend it was time to get our Christmas tree.  Heck, if it was up to Hubs, we’d have our tree in Oct. But since we get a live tree, that just isn’t feasible (thank goodness!).  We didn’t have time to make our annual pilgrimage to the local tree farm- you know that place in the middle of no where you drive to, spend 2 hours walking around and end up selecting the first tree you saw at the bottom of the hill? Yeah- that didn’t fit into our schedule this year, so we went to the picturesque lot right in the Burger King parking lot.

We were looking for a specific type of tree (Concolor Fir) and this lot only had 4 of them. None of them looked that impressive to me- they all looked a little short and not terribly full, but we had to get a tree that day and we didn’t have the time to drive all over God’s green earth to look at another lot. So we picked a tree.

As the Hubs was walking it over to the car, I noticed that the tree towered over him. Given that the Hubs is over 6 feet tall, it started to occur to me that perhaps the tree was larger then I gave it credit for.  The very nice guy who ran the lot offered to trim the trunk for us- so  he, and his awesome chain saw, made quick work out of lopping at least 8 inches off the bottom.  Perfect. On to the car it went and we took our tree home.

The next day it was time to put the tree up.  It became apparent very quickly that all that trimming we did wasn’t nearly enough. Yes, those are branches bending over b/c they have hit my 9 foot high ceiling.

2012_CHristmasTree

Never mind- that’s not anything that another quick trim can’t fix. On to decorating we go! This is the first year ever that both kids were super psyched to help us decorated AND were actually helpful.  Having kids is finally paying off!

005

Things were going swimmingly until it was time to put the star on the tree. After we had the kids fight it out cage-match style to figure out who got this honor, it was time for Beaner to put  it on (she’s small, but she’s strong*).  That is, until she completely freaked out over being that high up on the Hub’s shoulders and flat out refused to try to put it up.  We gave Scorch a shot and he maned up and got the star on there.  Only there was a small problem:

2012_CHristmasTree_Star

Yup..when we gave our tree its haircut, we didn’t take into account the height of the star.  The words that came out of the Hubs mouth when trimming our tree for the 3rd time were neither family friendly or in the holiday spirit.  But we did it!

I give you the Griswold Family Christmas Tree:

2012_Christmas_Tree

Now, let’s all say a quick prayer that 1) no woodland creatures emerge from it and 2) my cats don’t knock it over. Amen.

 

 

*Name that movie.

Dec4

Dream the Impossible Dream

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Last summer, my kids went to to summer camp at their school. They had a *fantastic* summer experience- in part because they got to spend a lot of time with the older kids.  The Bean latched on to George, a boy in 3rd grade. George couldn’t have been nicer to her- talking to her, playing with her and putting up with all the annoying things 4 year olds can do.  All summer long we heard about George- what he did, what he said and (most importantly) how the Bean was going to marry him when she got older. No doubt about it, he was the guy for her.

As the school year got under way, we started to hear less about George and I didn’t give it a second thought. Then this morning happened.

Scorch: “Bean- look at this!”

Bean: “Don’t bother me! I’m dreaming about George with my eyes open.”

I guess some dreams never die.

Dec3

The Best Laid Plans

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Every year, I spend a day Christmas shopping with one of my dearest friends. We drop the kids off at school, meet up at 8:15 in the morning, hit up a bunch of stores, have a great lunch, then shop some more.  This year, planning this trip was a bit more complicated since she had her 3rd child 9 weeks ago. We wanted to go while she was still on  maternity leave, but we had to find a day for her sitter to take the baby, we had to plan for her pumping and we had to be back by 3:30 to pick up her kids from school.  Not ideal, but with our mad crazy planning skills we picked a day and were ready to roll.

That is, until the Bean woke up that morning, walked in on me brushing my teeth in the bathroom at 5:15 in the morning and threw up on my bare feet. Nothing in that sentence is exaggerated.

Clearly I’m maturing as a mother because I didn’t scream (didn’t want to wake up Scorch), nor did I vomit in retaliation on her head (temping though).  Instead I calmly got the Bean and myself cleaned up (all the while cursing the fates in my head) and then proceeded to hold back her hair and otherwise clean her up for the next 14 hours straight.  So my wonderful day of girl time and shopping was replaced by spending the day watching Dora and doing 7 load of laundry.

Thankfully the Bean woke up on Saturday like nothing happened. She was royally pissed that I wouldn’t make her hot chocolate and proceeded to terrorize us all all damn day to make up for being sick on Friday. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she consulted my calendar before getting sick, the little stinker!