Category Archives: Life in General

Mar4

Dribs & Drabs

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Oh man, the week back from vacation was just brutal! The laundry, the exhaustion and the unpacking alone was enough to do me in, but you add in a 4 year old who cried every morning that she didn’t want to go to school and the start of daily 5:30 am workouts and by Friday night was D.O.N.E. Like “laying on the couch ready to cry because I’m so tired at 9 pm” done.

There were a few bright spots this past week though, like-

> How Scorch wanted to do nothing on Saturday but read his book- to the point where he brought a flash light with him Saturday night so he could read in the dark on the way home in the car (a boy after my own heart!)

> The Bean trying to convince me that her teachers told her that she and Scorch were not allowed back in school anymore. When I asked her why not, she told me they were too awesome to go to school. (thank goodness being awesome is not punishable).

> Having kids old enough to not only go out and play in the snow, but able to dress themselves appropriately without any help. What do they need me for anymore?!

> Seeing favorite family members and old friends on one of my favorite days of the year (that would be Parade Day in my hometown- the day we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day). The celebration is much,  much different with kids, but still a great day regardless. Added bonus? Watching my kids be amazed at the bagpipes!

> Editing pictures from our trip to FL and finding some gems that make me happy every time I look at them

This week hasn’t started out so great either since Scorch got sick at 5 am this morning, but that means it can only go up from here, right?!

Jan29

Whirlwind

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The past 6 days have been a whirlwind- I have:

> Flown to VA and back again all within 48 hours. Was super psyched to be in warmer weather- and was very disappointed by Mother Nature:

Snow fall in VA

> Cursed VA driver, DOT and generally the whole state’s population for inability to deal with an inch of snow. This Yankee was not impressed.

> Sat in hours of highly productive meetings (no- really!) inside of the bowel of a huge building. Didn’t see natural lights for 9 hours straight on Thursday.
> Hosted my beloved mother-in-law for the weekend so we could attend a wedding. Having her here was wonderful, but I did a lot of scrambling between when I got home Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to make everything ready.  The scrambling was well worth it though so the Hubs and I could…

> …attended the aforementioned wedding. We took the kiddos to the ceremony (a traditional Catholic mass) so they could see a wedding first hand before they are in their first wedding next fall.  Neither kid was terribly impressed with anything outside the fashion because, as Bean said, it’s like every day boring church except with kissing (ewwww!). Left my kids with my mother-in-law and….

> ….had an amazing time at the reception- such an amazing time my calves still hurt 3 days later.  We danced, we ate, we drank and we used the photo booth. We did all those things a lot. Like, more then this 34 year old has done in a long time. Too. Much. Fun.

 

> Got to sleep it off until 9 am and then get up and be a functioning parent Sunday morning!  I actually felt much better then I had any right too- which was good, because the Hub woke up with a horrible sinus infection!  Had the pleasure of spending 2 hours a local bowling alley that afternoon for a 6 year old’s birthday party. Thank goodness 4,  5 and 6 year olds can’t hit the pins too hard, so the noise level was tolerable.

> Went to bed very early on Sunday only to be woken up at 2 am with Scorch telling me his throat hurt.  Was up and at the walk-in at 7 am Monday morning to find out he has strep. *sigh* Poor kid. Thankfully I had already planned on taking the day off (the kid’s didn’t have school), so the kids and I had one of the laziest days ever at home. It was a much needed end to a very, very long 6 days.

And that, ladies and gents, is why I’ll be in bed by 9 pm every night this week. I’m not made for all this excitement!

Jan22

Busy Life & a Joke

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Well hello blog. It’s been what, 6 days since I last posted? Wish I could tell you I was doing something awesome, but really- not so much. I mean, sure, we did spend one day at an indoor water park and that was great! And we built some shelves for storing more things (read: legos) around the house.  I made an awesome turkey in the crockpot and helped my parents clean out their freezer (before they moved south for the winter) by letting them feed my whole family one night. Got a hair cut. Took Scorch to his first allergy shot appointment.  Tried valiantly to fight off a cold before having to go out of town tomorrow for work (and lost).   Complained loudly, and with pictures, about the arctic temps in NY.

Gorgeous day. Too bad it’s only 8 degrees out!

So, basically just a normal week in the Heat household.  Who the heck wants to hear about that?   So to spare you the boredom, I’ll just share a joke that Scorch told me last night:

Obi-Wan and Luke went out to eat at a local Chinese restaurant.  While Obi-Wan was a master at using the chop sticks, Luke kept dropping his food and making a mess. Finally, exasperated with his padawan’s mess, Obi-Wan said “Use the fork, Luke.”

Seriously, I love 6 year olds!

Jan8

Some Days

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Some days I have the patience for this mommy thing. And some days I don’t.

Some days I’m fully in the moment and can enjoy the little side trips my kids take on the way to the car.  Some days I want to scream “Seriously!? Car- now!” only with more profanity.

Some days I find my kids rambling stories adorable and charming. Some days I want to tell them to Just Stop Talking for 10 minutes so I can finish my book.

Some days I beg for hugs and kisses and can’t get enough contact with my kids. Some days I just don’t want to be touched again. By anyone.

Some days I make fabulous meals and we eat dinner like a family and talk about the good and bad things that happened in our day. Some days I make breakfast for dinner and turn on Phineas and Ferb.

Some days I have a handle on our crazy schedules- activities 5 nights a week? No problem. Some days I feel like I’m going to lose my freaking mind.

Some days my house is completely picked up, my meals are made from scratch and the laundry is done.  Some days….oh forget it. There has never been a day like in my house- even before kids.

I love my life. I love my family. But today is just one of those days- you guess which kind!

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

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!